一份398元、新荣记入局 板前咖啡火了？

This article introduces counter coffee, a niche coffee category that has recently gained popularity among consumers in China's first- and second-tier cities, covering its operational model, current store landscape, and potential challenges for industry growth.

1. Counter coffee originates from the counter dining model of Japanese cuisine. Baristas complete the entire process—from weighing beans, grinding, to brewing—in full view of customers, while sharing knowledge about bean origins and flavor profiles, centered on delivering an immersive experience. Most players in the segment operate by appointment only and sell coffee via set packages.

2. Prominent counter coffee brands have already emerged in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Kunming. Their set packages are priced between 68 RMB and 398 RMB, and draw large numbers of consumers seeking novelty experiences and social media content for check-ins.

3. It is worth noting that most of these experience-focused coffee concepts currently rely on novelty to attract customers. Consumers rarely return after their first try-out and social media post, and multiple previously viral novelty coffee concepts have already shut down quickly. Whether counter coffee can achieve sustainable long-term growth remains to be seen.

This article outlines the current development status of the emerging counter coffee segment and the development pattern of viral novelty coffee concepts, offering valuable insights for coffee brands looking to enter new market tracks.

1. On the consumer trend side: Today's consumers are willing to pay for ritual, professional service and novel experiences. The stagnating specialty coffee segment can differentiate itself by moving away from price competition and doubling down on experiential offerings, and the rise of counter coffee has already validated market demand for this direction.

2. On product development and marketing: Brands can develop signature offerings by incorporating local ingredients and pursue a niche experiential route. For example, counter coffee brands in Kunming have earned positive reviews for custom drinks made with local Yunnan ingredients. The combination of an appointment-only system and niche positioning also allows brands to gain traction quickly via social media sharing.

3. Risk warning: Repeat business is the core of the food and beverage industry. Relying solely on novelty and novelty-driven marketing cannot sustain long-term operations. Multiple previously high-profile premium and novelty viral coffee brands saw quick declines and closed within a year of opening. Brands must address the repeat customer challenge early to achieve long-term growth.

This article breaks down the characteristics of the emerging counter coffee model and the key lessons from viral coffee concepts for coffee store operators, highlighting market opportunities and operational risks.

1. Opportunity: The current specialty coffee segment is locked in fierce price competition. Counter coffee differentiates itself through experience, avoids price wars, and meets consumer demand for ritual and professional service, leaving room for a distinct niche market. Small and medium-sized coffee sellers can enter this niche specialty segment to explore new growth paths.

2. Risk warning: Counter coffee is an experience-focused consumption category that naturally has low purchase frequency. Most current brands rely solely on novelty to draw check-in visitors, and consumers rarely return after their first visit and social media post. Multiple previously viral premium and novelty coffee concepts closed shortly after opening, so sellers should be wary of the viral traffic trap.

3. Key takeaway: The fully transparent operation and professional explanation of the counter model effectively boost consumer trust. This approach can be adapted for regular store operations to improve customer retention.

This article outlines the market changes, business opportunities and development insights brought by the emerging counter coffee segment for coffee processing producers and related supply chain manufacturers.

1. Product demand: Counter coffee focuses on specialty beans and signature custom drinks, driving clear growth in demand for high-quality specialty coffee beans. More brands are also developing coffee products incorporating local specialty ingredients, creating new incremental demand for specialty coffee raw materials and supporting ingredient production.

2. Business opportunity: Counter coffee is expanding rapidly across first- and second-tier cities, with large numbers of new brands opening stores. This creates new sales opportunities for coffee production equipment and custom store fixtures, such as siphon pots and purpose-built counters.

3. Development insight: Consumers are increasingly prioritizing differentiation and experience today. Factories can align their product development with the differentiation needs of downstream brands, pursue a premium, customized route to fit the growth trend of experience-focused consumption, and expand new market channels.

This article outlines new development trends and core client pain points in China's coffee segment for coffee-related industry service providers, offering guidance for adjusting business strategies.

1. Industry development trend: China's coffee industry has gradually shifted from early-stage competition on price and scale to competition on differentiation and experience. Niche sub-segments continue to emerge, and the popularity of experience-focused categories like counter coffee shows that the market still has large unmet niche demand and room for industry growth.

2. Core client pain points: Emerging viral coffee brands generally struggle with low repeat purchase rates, and cannot sustain long-term operations relying solely on social media traffic. These brands also generally need support for differentiated product development and niche store scenario design.

3. Business direction guidance: Service providers can develop targeted offerings for emerging niche coffee brands, including differentiated product development, store scenario design, and private domain repeat customer operations, to help brands solve the core problem of relying on traffic rather than repeat purchases, and capture the dividends of segment growth.

This article outlines the development of the emerging counter coffee category for coffee-related food and beverage platforms and investment promotion platforms, providing reference for platform merchant recruitment and operations.

1. Merchant recruitment direction: Consumer demand for novel experience-focused coffee categories is strong today, and niche viral brands like counter coffee have already gained substantial social media traction. Platforms can proactively onboard these signature brands to diversify their merchant mix and attract more young users to the platform.

2. Operational adaptation: Counter coffee brands generally operate on an appointment-only basis and focus on niche premium experiences, with different operational needs than mass-market coffee stores. Platforms can develop tailored operational tools for appointment-only, niche specialty stores to better fit the operational needs of these brands.

3. Risk mitigation: These experience-focused viral brands generally have low repeat purchase rates and short brand lifecycles. Platforms should evaluate the long-term operational viability of brands during recruitment and resource allocation, to avoid negative impacts on platform reputation and user experience from rapid store closures.

This article presents new trends and emerging issues in the development of the specialty coffee segment for coffee industry researchers, offering high research reference value.

1. New industry trends: China's specialty coffee segment has shifted from product price competition to competition based on experiential value. Counter coffee cross-adapts the counter dining model from Japanese cuisine to the coffee industry, forging a differentiated path that prioritizes experience over price competition—a new exploration for the specialty coffee segment. In addition, established high-end restaurant brand Xin Rong Ji has already entered the coffee segment, reflecting a new trend of traditional food and beverage brands crossing over into coffee.

2. Emerging issues: These experience-focused, novelty-driven viral coffee brands generally rely on social media traffic and achieve short-term growth through consumers' novelty-seeking psychology, but inherently struggle with low repeat purchase rates and low consumption frequency. Balancing viral hype and long-term repeat business is the core challenge these emerging models need to solve.

3. Business model research: Counter coffee is fundamentally different from counter-served staples like clay pot rice or noodles. Cross-sector replication of the same model leads to very different development logic, providing a new real-world case for research on cross-sector business model replication.