Ready-to-drink coffee to create a new market and enter an era of high prices?! Development trend of ready-to-drink Coffee

According to Euromonitor International, China's ready-to-drink coffee market share is expected to reach 14.9 billion yuan in 2021, and the global ready-to-drink coffee market will grow faster than bottled water and soft drinks in 2022, indicating that China's ready-to-drink coffee era is coming.

Although the per capita coffee consumption in China is much lower than that in foreign consumer markets, the Chinese coffee market is constantly expanding. The main consumption of coffee in China is mainly the post-80s and 90s, while the older generation prefers tea. With the accelerated pace of life in China, frequent overtime has become the norm, and refreshing instant drinks such as coffee meet the needs of this audience.

Generally, the domestic coffee market is mainly divided into three areas, namely instant coffee, instant coffee and freshly ground coffee. The taste of instant coffee is not good, while the development of freshly ground coffee is relatively late in China, and the number of people who go to coffee shops is still relatively small. in general, the price of coffee in boutique coffee shops is higher, and it takes a long time to make and wait. And boutique coffee shops take a higher-end route, coupled with the impact of the epidemic, store consumption is restricted, more in the form of packaging or out-of-sale. And instant coffee is easy to carry, there is no tedious process of making coffee, it can be taken away after checkout, and the taste is very close to freshly ground coffee, so the consumer market of instant coffee is also expanding.

Due to the continuous improvement of consumers' flavor of coffee, instant coffee has been unable to meet people's consumer needs, and the emergence of higher quality instant coffee is in line with the needs of current consumers. Because the development time of coffee shops is relatively short, the market for freshly ground coffee is relatively small in the consumer group, and hanging-ear coffee is also very popular in the market, although it is not as troublesome as freshly ground coffee and saves tedious links such as grinding. But hanging-ear coffee is more suitable for brewing in your spare time. And convenient drinking coffee on the road, do not have to worry about hot mouth and spill, can better meet the needs of consumers.

According to Ipsos Ipsos's 2020 ready-to-drink Coffee Innovation Trends report, compared with 2019, the penetration index of ready-to-drink coffee in 2020 was 143,138 of which was milky coffee with a latte or mocha flavor. Ready-to-drink black coffee increased significantly, the growth index was 207.

In addition, from Ipsos Ipsos to new ready-to-drink coffee products in recent years, changes in consumer demand, and from the perspective of e-commerce big data, consumers pay more and more attention to the origin and technology of black coffee, accounting for 31%. From this, it can be seen that consumers have higher and higher requirements for coffee, but also bring higher requirements to the relevant enterprises.

One of the major characteristics of instant coffee is the convenience of instant coffee, which is in line with the current consumption trend of young consumers, showing a very rapid growth rate in the coffee market. Starbucks and Nestl é have entered the field of ready-to-drink coffee. Even Nongfu Springs, which specializes in mineral water, has entered the field of ready-to-drink coffee, launching charcoal carbonated coffee in 2019, a new line of RTD coffee in October, followed by charcoal hanging ear coffee.

Of course, Nestle Coffee, as a Chinese instant coffee giant, certainly should not lag behind. Nestl é aims at the higher-end coffee market, introducing high-end instant coffee and improving the taste of instant coffee.

In addition to coffee companies such as Nestl é and Starbucks, dairy companies also want a piece of the pie. In July 2019, Yili launched St. Reese, a coffee drink, and in September of the same year, Mengniu's brand, Daily fresh words, also launched a cold coffee latte. According to Mintel, the global retail market for ready-to-drink coffee grew at an average annual compound growth rate of about 15.5% from 2018 to 2023, and sales will increase to 460 million litres by 2023, making it one of the fastest growing fast consumer goods. Therefore, ready-to-drink coffee is gradually forming a higher-end coffee market. Enough to prove the popularity of the ready-to-drink coffee market.

According to a survey conducted by Chinanews.com, instant coffee has a higher positioning than instant coffee both in taste and in the consumer market, and it is more popular in the coffee market. Many consumers are still willing to buy instant coffee. According to the person in charge of Nestl é, "the category of ready-to-drink coffee is growing rapidly, and convenience plays an important role in it. Most consumers who drink coffee are young people." They pursue a high-quality and fashionable life, like to innovate and try new things, but are not willing to wait and make homemade coffee, so instant coffee is becoming one of the important development trends in the Chinese market. Nestl é will also pay attention to more ready-to-drink types in the future. "

Domestic ready-to-drink coffee is no longer like the flavor of instant coffee, but to a higher-end market, both taste and packaging are more exquisite, but it will also bring the problem of rising price. The price of some ready-to-drink coffee has been upgraded from 4-6 yuan to 10-15 yuan, while Starbucks' glass bottle series of ready-to-drink coffee costs about 22 yuan. This confirms that the ready-to-drink coffee route has changed from the civilian route to the high-end route, and it also shows that the ready-to-drink coffee has entered the era of high price.

Photo Source: Internet