Editor's note: This article is from WeChat public number "retail bosses within the reference" (ID: lslb168), author: Yang Yafei.
Core guide:
1. How did the idea of picking up tea cabinets come about? What's special about the Hi-Tea GO store?
2. How many Xi Cha GO stores are there? Compared to the beginning of the year, what kind of growth trend does the small program users show?
3. If other concept store types do the ultimate experience, GO stores do the ultimate convenience.
As a tea lover, you must not be unfamiliar with such a picture: not a large bar, more than ten uniformly dressed young store staff, busy but clear division of labor, playing the order, extracting tea, playing milk froth, cleaning utensils ...... accompanied by the sound of rumbling machines, and finally, under your expectant eyes, to deliver a cup of summer to help calm your agitated mind! The drink that will help calm your mind in the summer is finally delivered under your gaze of anticipation.
-This is an everyday scenario for most milk tea stores, especially when traffic peaks and the sensory impact is heightened. But what if all this no longer becomes necessary? All you're dealing with is a cabinet. Tea and take tea completely separated, and the only thing you need to do, is to take the tea code to the store to take tea cabinet, like in the neighborhood downstairs courier cabinet to pick up express delivery, take away your piece, and even their own packing.
Can you accept this tea-buying scenario? Hi-Tea really did.
A few days ago, they put a "tea cabinet" storage device, moved to the Shenzhen Skyworth Semiconductor GO store. After the user orders online, when the tea is finished, the clerk will put it into the cabinet, and then notify the tea. Tea told Retail Boss Insider that a total of 40 cabinets were set up to pick up tea, which is based on the estimated flow of people. This is also the first Xicha store to support the "tea pickup cabinet," providing a fully unmanned tea shopping experience.
Hei Cha GO store pick up tea cabinet, image from Hei Cha official microblogging screenshot
"Killing" the queue goes one step further, as Hi-Tea app users are on the rise
GO store, full name "HEYTEA GO" store, is a kind of convenience store type launched by Xi tea last year. This type of store does not have a cashier, users through the "HEYTEA GO" small program self-service ordering. The first "HEYTEA GO" store opened on June 19, 2018, in Shenzhen Xunmei Technology Plaza. The "HEYTEA GO" app has a wide range of functions, including dine-in ordering, reservation ordering and takeaway services.
Example of Xi-cha GO app interface and pickup notification
Over the past year, Xi Cha's national stores have been expanding rapidly, and the size of GO stores has continued to rise. Retail Boss Insider learned from Xi-Tea that as of August 18 this year, there were 268 Xi-Tea stores nationwide, of which there were 45 GO stores, accounting for about 17% of the total number of stores.
The reason why Xi tea launched GO stores is to solve the once criticized problem of long queues in stores. There are many factors affecting this, the number of stores, the speed of cups, scalping ......, in addition to being large-scale (in fact, Xi-Tea is indeed in a period of rapid expansion), booking through the WeChat mini-programs is also a good way to improve the buying experience is visible to the naked eye.
"With this small program, consumers can easily order, through this small program there is no need to queue" Xi tea CTO Chen Jilin on was raised by a friend a question that made him feel crushed, "he said, 'not queuing for the Xi tea is still a Xi tea '?" .
If there was ever any doubt about this question, looking at it again now, the answer couldn't be clearer - no queues or Hi-Tea, of course.
There is a set of user data to provide support. At the beginning of this year, hi tea disclosure of a set of business data shows that in the case of zero promotion, less than a year, hi tea GO users reached 6 million, and user repurchase willingness is strong, hi tea GO user monthly repurchase rate of more than 36%, based on the WeChat small program "to buy tea" habit is gradually developed.
Now more than half a year has passed, retail bosses insider learned that the number of GO users of Xi tea has now exceeded 1400W, doubling the growth. Small program orders accounted for more than 40%, while at the beginning of this year, the number was 35%, and at that time, the statistics given by Xi-tea showed that it saved more than 150 minutes of ordering time for each store every day.
The tea pickup cabinet is an extension of the GO store's experience in meeting the user's self-service tea pickup experience. "The initial intention of the tea pickup cabinet is to optimize the pickup experience, increase consumer convenience, and alleviate the pressure of the store out of the cup." Xicha told Retail Boss Insider that the reason why it was placed in Skyworth Semiconductor GO store was mainly based on two considerations: 1, GO store has cultivated the habit of consumers ordering food with small programs, and the acceptance of the new intelligent hardware is higher; 2, the Skyworth GO store business circle is dominated by the white-collar group.
It is worth mentioning that this store is located in the Skyworth Semiconductor Design Building downstairs, is a white-collar office building science and technology parks, supporting the more complete commercial, the building's ground floor business district there is a food court, every lunch and dinner time, the flow of traffic is dense.
Browse the public review found that the taste of tea cabinet consumer response is good. Mass Dianping netizen "Cocozilla 2013" said after the card, from the order to pick up the goods do not need to have any contact with the clerk. Netizen "V Wei En don't eat again to save some money" said, "insulation cabinet to resist the problem of temperature loss of drinks, to dispel the worries of the working class to place an order earlier to feel the impact of the mouth."
However, the tea cabinet is still in the initial launch stage, the tea is not for hot and cold drinks, the pick-up cabinet compartment for the corresponding difference in design. For the next launch plan for the pick-up cabinet, Xi Cha said that the next step will be gradually promoted, and further iteration of the software and hardware.
Behind the Changes at GO Stores: Experience and Convenience Clearly Separate
Joy Tea has launched a series of store formats, including the GO store, the Black Gold store, the DP (Daydream Project) store, the Hot Wheat store, the PINK themed store, and the LAB Lab store, which incorporates more regional elements. However, compared with other store types, the GO store is more special in that convenience is the first thing to consider, as for the conceptual space design, leave it to other store types to express.
The presence of pick-up containers in Hi-Tea stores comes as no surprise. If other concept store types do the ultimate experience, GO stores do the ultimate convenience.
Nie Yunchen, founder of Hei Tea, previously said in an interview with the interface that the HEYTEA GO store was not made just to be an order-placing mini-program, "it's just that we think order-placing is the best entry point." The logic behind it is the hope that the whole of the HeYTEA online.
In fact, before this, there have been some signs can be corroborated: "Retail Boss Insider" observation found that when Xi tea initially on-line Xi tea GO small program, store manual order and small program online self-service order, the two are in the same tea pickup area. And then in some stores, the tea area will be divided into two, online, store orders in two separate queues for tea.
There is a need to do so. Store single is to the store instant order, and then transferred to the pick-up area queuing tea, online orders occur in the small program, the user and the store clerk does not interact, usually to the store that is taken. If the two overlap in a piece, for those anxious waiting in line for tea users, easy to produce a "queue" illusion.
Separating the tea pickup area and taking each one can sidestep this bad experience. And the appearance of the pick-up cabinet releases a signal lies in the fact that Xi Cha tries to clarify the boundaries between convenience and experience. Of course, convenience is also a kind of experience, but the two represent two very different consumer scenarios.
Scene positioning clearer benefits are obvious, despite its functional limitations, but can better serve the "take it and go" of the group of users. Because for the pragmatic them, pick up tea in the store is just a necessary part of the completion of a single purchase process, similar to the takeaway order, rather than relying on the enrichment of the store scene to stimulate consumption needs.
In the past or now, due to the market franchise-based, low concentration, for the vast majority of tea stores, shopping districts, street store traffic is the lifeblood of the traffic conversion business. Ready-made tea drinks to meet the needs of instant consumption, so many tea drink stores will be in the door design, BGM, and even strange and bizarre performances to attract customers.
Another part of the group may be more niche, but due to the high repurchase rate, the potential of this market segment is still not to be underestimated, for them, has established a certain brand awareness, can accept delayed gratification of consumption, and the direction of the purchase of tea is more clear, for the efficiency of the importance of the store to take pictures of the "punch card" to be much stronger.
In other words, it shows that this category of users has built up a relatively strong brand awareness, which is a relatively valuable presence in today's flurry of ready-made tea drink markets.
And discovering and fulfilling this type of consumer preference is the basic homework the Hi-Tea guys need to do. As Dennis Pence, a retailer in North Idaho, USA, puts it, "We never think we're smarter than our customers or that we can guess what they want; we look to them for inspiration."
For Hi-Tea, outside of product innovation, a significant portion of the inspiration comes from online.
