Founder Reveals Seesaw Daily Order 1000 Cups: How do boutique cafes break through by marketization?

Seesaw is an outlier in the boutique coffee market:

It opens stores into shopping malls, and its area of nearly 200 square meters breaks the tradition of boutique shops.

It sells a cup of fine coffee from a trade price of more than 50 yuan to 25 yuan.

Without extra meals, a store can sell 1000 cups of boutique coffee a day-far more than the average Starbucks store.

In the depressed boutique coffee market, Seesaw achieved a commercial breakthrough, relying on good profits to replicate itself and expand rapidly.

Jia sir has an exclusive interview with Zong Xin Kuang, founder of Seesaw, to see its "secret book of breakthroughs".

Author | CA sir, posted in Shanghai

Source | Carmen (KamenClub)

First, it can sell 1000 cups a day, beating Starbucks in volume.

Huaihai Road, the "Universe Shopping Mall", brings together the most fashionable, accented and tasteful shops in Shanghai. MUJI, the famous frigid grocery store, opened here two weeks ago, the world's largest flagship store.

Its neighbor Seesaw Coffee, which has just opened here, occupies nearly 200 square meters of storefronts.

"the store made money on its first day, selling nearly 1000 cups of coffee that day."

With exquisite facade, open space, excellent design sense and good profitability, Zong Xinkang, founder of Seesaw, is very satisfied with the new store.

He told sir that without extra meals, the store currently sells more than 1000 cups of boutique coffee a day, with a daily turnover of nearly 30,000 bucks-far exceeding the performance of the average Starbucks store.

Minority, light luxury boutique coffee, in the volume of the "volume king" Starbucks, Zong Xin Kuang the first to do.

Five years ago, Zong Xinkuang was still working for DELL in the United States. When he learned about "boutique coffee" by chance, he smelled business opportunities from it.

On April 15, 2012, the first Seesaw Coffee he founded with his wife Sally opened on Yuyuan Road.

Due to the early entry into the boutique coffee market and the opening of stores in areas where foreigners gather, Seesaw is quickly recognized by consumers and peers in the industry by relying on the quality and concept of "boutique coffee".

Up to now, Seesaw has five chain stores in Shanghai in the past three and a half years, and two are on Huaihai Road where every inch of land is golden.

"if the foundation is more stable, we will go out." Zong Xinkuang plans to open Seesaw to 50 stores in the next 3 years, and Beijing, which has a more mature customer base, is the next main battlefield.

Coffee is no different from Coke.

A noble birth, a harsh score, a dazzling price. As the third wave of coffee, boutique coffee brings its own aura of pride from birth.

But Seesaw is an outlier.

It pulls the price of boutique coffee from the industry price of more than 50 yuan to the people-friendly price of 25 RMB35. Zong Xin Kuang admitted that this is a reference to Starbucks' pricing.

He made no secret of his admiration for the brand, saying that "the Starbucks model is the best" and that some of Seesaw's partners came from Starbucks-although the latter's products were ridiculed by the industry as "sugar water".

"at first we even sold it for 18 yuan, and we never compared with our peers." In Zong Xin Kuang's view, consumers can accept that cafes can also make a profit is a reasonable price. "it's too high and it doesn't make sense. After all, it's just a cup of coffee."

"We are like Starbucks, making money by walking volume. There are still not enough coffee drinkers in the market, so we choose to start with the price. Although each cup earns less, but with a large volume, it can also make a good profit. "

Like Starbucks, Zong Xin, amid skepticism in the industry, opened boutique cafes to busy shopping malls and broke the usual practice of opening boutique coffee shops-K11 and Huaihai Zhong Road, both with an area of nearly 200 square meters.

"in the past, we thought that the smell of wine was not afraid of the depth of the alley. We opened three stores in the community, but they were soon shut down because of the location problem. At the current stage of the market, customer base is a problem. People in the community go to work during the day and go home at night, so business is not good. "

So, why can't boutique coffee put down its tone and go into the shopping mall with dense passenger flow, so that more people can drink it?

"Coffee is a drink. Boutique coffee is just a good drink. To me, there is no difference between coffee and cola. What I have to do is to make more people drink a good cup of coffee. "

Zong Xinkang said that Seesaw will also try to open a shop in the community when the opportunity is ripe. "Coffee will eventually go to life, after all."

Third, must not be swayed by technology and feelings

These market-oriented style of play not only stirred up the nerves of peers, and even led to differences within the team. Some partners chose to leave collectively because they thought Seesaw was a bit "too commercial".

This did not change the mind of Zong Xin. "the hardest thing to insist on is not that others don't understand you, but that you don't understand yourself."

Zong Xinkang said that many people start a cafe, often starting with their love and feelings for coffee.

They either try their best to brand the cafe and project their own tone and aesthetics, or indulge in coffee technology and equipment. But at the same time, they are often ignorant in business, banging their heads in the face of the market. This has become a phenomenal existence in the coffee industry.

"after all, opening a coffee shop is a business, or you have to consider it from a commercial point of view, and you must first of all have the attitude of an operator. You can't be too egotistical and live in your imagination when opening a restaurant. It's not that you don't want to have feelings, but you can't let it start a business. This is very simple at the business level, but it is a pity that too many people just can't do it. "

Before switching to coffee, Zong Xin Kuang hardly drank coffee and knew nothing about coffee technology. But that didn't stop him from turning Seesaw into a leader in the industry.

"I am actually a bit of an idealistic person, but in business I will refrain from putting my personal brand on Seesaw."

Zong Xinkang said that often some "rich and free" friends told him that they wanted to open a cafe. "I would say, if it's not to make it a profitable business, don't start it."

4. The devil is all in the details

It is said that the designer of seesaw carefully weighed the weight at both ends when making LOGO, and if you hang it up, it will balance like a seesaw.

Zong Xinguang is obsessed with detailed design. Because it can not only convey the open and shared atmosphere of Seesaw to customers, but also "design" consumer behavior in operation.

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"when you start the design, you should think about what kind of customers will come in when the store is in this location. What kind of needs are they trying to solve here? What is the route of customers from coming in to spending to leaving? In fact, these can be designed in the early stage. "

Zong Xinkuang said, for example, like this new store on Central Huaihai Road, where the store is opened in a shopping mall, the flow of people must be very large.

Psychologically, the more people there are, the higher the mental capacity to bear space. So, generally speaking, the slightly crowded seats in this store are OK.

A row of high stools in front of the bar is for customers who like to communicate with baristas, because Seesaw encourages sharing

In the position of the floor-to-ceiling windows facing the street, there is a relatively independent space for customers who enjoy enjoying the scenery and in a daze in the cafe.

The slightly harder seats near the side of the mall are only for customers who walk in with fatigue to take a nap to improve the overturning rate.

"these guidance to consumers must be taken into account in the design. Some independent cafes usually arrange their seats according to their owners' feelings, but that's not the case. The devil is in the details.

Source: Ka Men