新茶饮扎堆卖冰激凌 是好生意还是噱头？

This article overviews the current industry trend of major Chinese tea beverage brands collectively entering the ice cream market this year, and organizes key takeaways to help general readers understand the latest industry changes.

1. There are three main strategies brands use to enter the space: launching ice cream product lines at existing stores, incubating standalone ice cream outlets, and acquiring operating rights from established ice cream brands. Nearly all leading new-style tea beverage brands have joined this round of expansion.

2. The core driver of this collective entry is that the new-style tea beverage industry has run out of room for innovation, with industry growth projected to slow from 19.3% in 2023 to 6.45% in 2025. In contrast, the ice cream market still offers solid growth room, with its total size expected to exceed 220 billion yuan by 2026.

3. The strategy benefits from 70% to 80% overlapping raw material needs and overlapping target customer bases with tea beverage businesses, keeping costs controllable and delivering gross margins as high as 65%. However, it also carries risks including blurred brand positioning and damage to the core tea business from quality issues, and whether it will become a sustainable long-term business remains unproven.

This article summarizes the industry trend of new-style tea beverage brands collectively entering the ice cream track, offering high reference value for tea brands looking to expand into new categories and unlock new growth.

1. Industry trend: The new-style tea beverage industry has hit a growth ceiling with narrowing innovation space, while the ice cream market still retains ample growth room and is set to exceed 220 billion yuan in size by 2026, making it a viable direction for tea brands to break through growth bottlenecks.

2. Operational advantages: 70%-80% of raw materials overlap between tea beverages and ice cream, and both target 18-35 year-old experience-focused young consumers. Brands can reuse existing supply chain, store and cold chain resources to keep costs controllable, and fresh-made ice cream delivers gross margins above 65%. It can lift average order value by 15%-25% and fill in unmet consumer demand in scenarios such as afternoon tea.

3. Risk note: Brands should stay alert to the risk of blurring their original brand positioning, and avoid damaging the core tea business from issues such as inflated pricing and inconsistent quality. Small-scale market testing before full rollout is recommended.

This article analyzes the opportunities and risks of new-style tea beverage brands entering the ice cream track, providing clear operational reference for tea sellers of all sizes.

1. Opportunities: The ice cream market is still in a growth phase with abundant market space. It has high overlap with tea businesses in terms of customer base and resources, allowing sharing of raw materials, stores and cold chain to cut marginal costs. Ice cream also delivers far higher gross margins than standard tea products, bringing incremental revenue, filling idle capacity during off-peak hours, boosting core tea beverage sales and lifting overall average order value by 15%-25%.

2. Strategy reference: The industry has developed three proven entry models: adding ice cream lines at existing stores, incubating standalone ice cream outlets, and acquiring and operating mature ice cream brands. Sellers of different sizes can choose the model that fits their scale and resources.

3. Risk note: The overall success rate of this cross-category expansion remains unproven across the industry. Sellers should guard against blurred brand positioning from the new category and avoid quality issues that hurt their core business, and should not blindly follow the trend with large-scale rollouts.

This article outlines the latest demand shifts in the downstream new-style tea beverage industry, pointing to clear business opportunities and development insights for ice cream and tea-related suppliers.

1. incremental demand: This year has seen new-style tea brands collectively enter the ice cream track, with just 6 brands launching 31 new ice products. Overall market demand for ice cream has grown sharply, especially for high-end gelato, bringing new order opportunities for upstream factories.

2. Product development direction: 70% to 80% of raw materials overlap between tea beverages and ice cream, and many tea brands reuse their existing tea bases and fresh fruits to make ice cream. Factories can develop standardized ice cream products tailored to the needs of tea brands to help them cut costs, which will make it easier to secure cooperation opportunities.

3. Development insights: Downstream tea brands are currently unlocking new growth by expanding into new categories. Factories should proactively follow downstream demand shifts, invest in R&D and production capacity for fresh-made ice cream, capture the growth dividend from this trend, and open up new revenue growth points.

This article analyzes the latest industry trend of new-style tea beverage brands entering the ice cream track, organizes core customer pain points, and provides clear development reference for relevant service providers.

1. Industry trend: As growth in the new-style tea beverage industry slows, a large number of brands are entering the ice cream category to seek new growth. The overall ice cream market is set to exceed 220 billion yuan, and substantial demand for ice cream-related services will be released in the future, creating broad market space.

2. Core customer pain points: Most small and medium-sized tea brands lack mature capabilities in ice cream R&D, supply chain management and cold chain operation. They want to enter the new category but lack supporting infrastructure, creating a clear service gap.

3. Solution direction: Service providers can leverage the overlapping raw material needs of tea and ice cream to develop integrated ice cream raw material supply solutions tailored for tea brands, paired with targeted cold chain operation services. They can also offer differentiated operation and marketing support for different entry models, to capture the growth opportunities brought by this industry shift.

This article summarizes the latest industry dynamic of new-style tea beverage brands crossing into the ice cream track, offering high reference value for platforms to track industry trends and optimize merchant recruitment and operations.

1. New merchant recruitment opportunities: A large number of new-style tea brands are expanding into ice cream, with some incubating standalone outlets or acquiring existing brands for expansion, and high-end ice cream brands are also growing rapidly. For example, Yeren Sheng (Mr. Wild Man) has posted a compound annual growth rate of over 200% in the past three years. This brings substantial new recruitment demand for platforms, creating new growth points for merchant acquisition.

2. Operational adjustment direction: The combination of tea and ice cream covers more consumer scenarios such as afternoon tea and casual leisure. Platforms can launch targeted traffic support and marketing campaigns tailored to these scenarios to match new consumer demand and boost platform transaction volume.

3. Risk mitigation: The long-term profitability of this track has not been verified industry-wide, and it carries risks including blurred brand positioning and inconsistent product quality. Platforms should not blindly allocate large amounts of resources to the trend; instead, they can observe market retention first before adjusting relevant strategies.

This article presents the latest industrial dynamic of the new-style tea beverage industry expanding into the ice cream track, organizes new characteristics and emerging issues of the industry's development, and offers high reference value for industrial research.

1. New industrial dynamic: After years of raw material innovation and co-branding marketing, the new-style tea beverage industry has gradually seen its innovation space narrow, with industry growth slowing from 19.3% in 2023 to a projected 6.45% in 2025. The entire industry is shifting into the ice cream track to seek new growth, and three mainstream expansion models have taken shape: launching products at existing stores, incubating standalone outlets, and acquiring mature brands.

2. Business model innovation: This expansion is an extension of existing tea beverage business models, allowing reuse of original supply chain, store and customer resources, keeping cost structures controllable, delivering higher gross margins, filling gaps in original consumption scenarios, and lifting per-store revenue potential. It is an innovative attempt amid intensifying industry competition.

3. New questions for future research: It remains unclear whether this direction will deliver sustained growth for the industry, and it carries risks of blurred brand positioning and damage to the core business. Further continuous tracking and research is needed to understand the future industrial evolution and market outcome.