Getting a coffee first thing in the morning has become a ritual for many. It is quite evident since the revenue of the coffee market in India is expected to reach over $600 million by 2028.
With the increasing demand of coffee, one can witness various coffee shops emerging in multiple nooks and corners. Now the question is, how to increase coffee shop sales to thrive in the market?
In this article, we’ll go through some of the strategies you can utilize to increase coffee shop sales.
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ToggleFactors Affecting Coffee Shop Sales
Before we move on to strategies, there are four major factors that you should be aware of to increase your coffee shop sales:
- Location and Accessibility
- Target Audience
- Customer Experience
- Operational Cost
No matter what strategies you’ll implement, it’ll be unfruitful if you have a problem with any of these four. Let’s discuss this in detail.
1. Location and Accessibility
People often choose convenience when deciding where to grab their daily caffeine fix.
So, the location of your coffee shop should be convenient and accessible for your customers including those who use public transportation.
Parking availability, proximity to Points of Interests (POIs), complementary brands and much more play key roles in attracting foot traffic.
We’ll discuss how to narrow down such ideal locations for your coffee shop in a minute.
Strategies to Improve Accessibility
If you do have your coffee shop at the right place, you would then want to make sure that your shop is visible and accessible to everyone. Offering ample parking or being close to public transportation also helps in increasing coffee shop sales.
Place clear signage in the right place to guide your customers to your coffee shop. You can also include any discounts or specialty of the day in the signage to make it more appealing.
2. Target Audience
Every coffee shop and restaurant has its ideal target customers – families, university students, working professionals, etc.
You should first decide on which customer you should focus more on. Monitor who walks in your store the most and speak with your staff members to get an idea.
Once you decide on your ideal target group, you can then refine your marketing strategies and offerings accordingly.
3. Customer Experience
The overall ambiance of your coffee shop and the quality of customer service will directly impact your ability to increase coffee shop sales.
Make your coffee shop appealing to your target audience better. For instance, if your target is the office hustlers, ensure you have less waiting time to get your coffee, to let them grab it quickly and go to the office.
Similarly, offering free Wifi and a quiet ambiance will appeal more to working professionals. So, access your ideal customer’s preference and provide an excellent experience accordingly.
4. Operational Costs
Cutting down expenses impacts your revenue significantly. Assess how well you are managing your operational expenses such as rent, utilities, and staff wages.
Try to cut down costs in areas where you could save some bucks while maintaining the same quality of the coffee and the experience that you provide.
For example, monitoring expenses regularly helps identify areas where you can cut costs. Energy-efficient equipment can reduce utility bills. Bulk purchasing can lower supply costs.
You need to assess these things over time to cut down unnecessary costs that directly impact your bottom line.
These 4 factors go hand in hand. If you are dealing with problems with any of these factors, try to rectify those first to establish a strong foundation to increase coffee shop sales.
How to Increase Coffee Shop Sales: 11 Actionable Strategies
To increase coffee shop sales, we should aim to
- Increase average spend per transaction,
- Pull in more customers,
- Increase the frequency of visits.
These can be achieved by implementing these strategies:
1. Finding the Right Location for Your Store
Choosing the right location can make or break your coffee shop business. Look for areas with high foot traffic near Points of Interest (POIs) like, offices, schools, or shopping districts.
A location with competitor brands is a good indicator of an ideal location. But here’s the catch: the location should also have adequate demand with your target group to generate revenue.
Also, a location with complimentary businesses that have a similar Target Group as your business can help increase your coffee shop sales.
Our location AI platform helps you find such locations based on foot traffic, competitor analysis, and risk analysis like store closure, cannibalization, etc.
It also helps you predict store revenue before you even open a shop.
If you already established a store, sign up for free to analyze your site and where you could be lacking.
2. Optimize your Site for Local Searches
Your coffee shop needs to be visible online. Local searches help customers find you quickly. Create a Google My Business Profile (GMB) to boost your online visibility.
Update your store opening timings, location details, menu, photos of your coffee shop, etc, to let your customers get a glimpse of your shop. This should entice your customers to visit your shop.
Encourage happy customers to leave reviews once they had an amazing coffee. This would help you build credibility and brand image over time. Moreover, positive reviews improve search rankings as well.
3. Partner with Local Businesses
Partnering with local businesses is the best way to increase your coffee shop sales once you defined your target group.
If your target is office employees and the like, you can come up with promotional campaigns accordingly, such as providing discount coupons to the employees in nearby offices. Such offers would encourage them to come in for the first time and once you awe them with your coffee and customer service, they can become your regular customers.
Similarly, if you’re targeting college students, you can partner with colleges and universities on the day of admission or any cultural events to offer similar discounts.
The same works for schools as well. Parents visit schools twice a day to drop off and pick up their children. They might as well enjoy a coffee break on the way.
4. Engage more on Social Media
Social media can be a great way to keep your audience engaged. Create content that resonates well with your target group and is shareable with others.
Remember to create content depending on your target audience to decide on the tone you will be communicating.
Post your menu, your products, and any private events you will host. This will help you increase brand awareness, reach a wider range of audiences, and increase sales.
4. Run Hyper-local ads
Once you build a foundation on your digital presence, you can then confidently begin running ads on both online and offline marketing channels.
Digital Ads
Digital ads being quantifiable is one of the major reasons to go for it.
There are a lot of ways you can run a campaign – Meta ads, Google ads, Email, etc. Choose the channel your target audience uses the most. You can then measure your ads and make tweaks accordingly.
Target these ads for specific catchments where your TG is present, rather than for cities or pincodes. With GeoIQ’s advanced location intelligence solutions, you can identify the exact catchments where your target audience is present.
Offline Ads
Be it OOH or a signage, create an eye-catching image with a very short description of your coffee shop. Also, direct customers to your shop’s location easily by clear directions in your ads.
Both digital and offline ads work best if you run hyperlocal ads and can increase coffee shop sales to a greater extent.
To run hyper-local ads, you should target customers precisely on a street level using geofencing marketing.
Our location AI platform can help you figure out where you should be running these ads. In fact, our location data helped a major jewelry brand to witness a 30% rise in conversion rate and a 45% increase in Click Through Rate (CTR)!
5. Host Private Events
Letting the local community know you have a superior coffee shop can boost brand awareness and sales. One of the best ways to reach the right eye is through hosting private events.
Host any private events like birthday parties, anniversaries, Christmas parties, corporate events, etc, to reach wider audiences easily.
You could offer some discount for such events to make it appealing. People will be taking photos and posting them on social media, so make your shop visually appealing.
6. Make your Coffee Shop a Destination
Starbucks is the unofficial meeting spot for many businesses. Starbucks positioned itself as a destination for this.
Similarly, try to make your coffee shop a destination. Provide a quiet, soothing ambiance if your target is working professionals. Provide a fun environment, and have some games and music if your target is university students to increase coffee shop sales.
Coffee shops like Twisty Tails and Pet People Cafe defined themselves as pet-friendly cafes since they encourage customers to bring pets into their stores.
In short, see who are your ideal customers and provide them with a better environment accordingly.
7. Partner with Delivery Services
Customers appreciate the convenience of having coffee delivered. So, partnering with delivery services expands reach beyond the physical location of your coffee shop.
Collaborate with popular food delivery platforms like Swiggy and Zomato to capitalize on this opportunity.
Also, customers value speed and efficiency when grabbing their favorite brew. If most of your sales are takeaway ones, make sure you offer efficient takeaway processes to enhance customer satisfaction and increase sales at a coffee shop.
8. Offer Loyalty Programs
Loyal customers are the backbone of any coffee shop and retaining them boosts sales and builds a strong community.
Regulars spend more and often bring friends and a loyalty program rewards these customers and encourages repeat visits.
Keep the loyalty programs fairly simple and easy to understand. Clear communication ensures customers know how to earn rewards.
Offer discounts if the purchase exceeds a certain threshold, on special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, and so on. You can go one step further and offer exclusive events for loyal members to create a sense of belonging.
9. Offer Non-Dairy, Vegan, and Gluten-Free Options
Make sure you keep your menu open for a wider range of diets as it can attract a wider range of customers.
Offer Non-Dairy, Vegan, and Gluten-Free Options in your menu. Have clear labels on your products to show differentiations between them.
Customers appreciate thoughtful choices, so make sure to mention these in your marketing efforts as these offerings can increase visits and coffee sales over time.
10. Collect Customer Feedback
Customer feedback holds the key to understanding how to improve coffee shop sales.
Encourage your customers to leave reviews or fill out surveys and use social media platforms to gather customer insights.
Analyze this feedback to spot trends or areas needing improvement. This should help you identify what customers enjoy and what needs fixing to increase sales.
11. Sell At-home Coffee Products
Selling at-home coffee products can expand your offerings and increase coffee shop sales.
Consider selling items like bags of your specialty coffee, brewing equipment, or branded merchandise. Providing high-quality products encourages customers to recreate their favorite coffee shop experience at home.
You can sell these both in-store and online through your own website or any other e-commerce store like Flipkart or Amazon.
This strategy not only improves coffee shop sales but also keeps your brand top-of-mind for customers.
Additional Tips to Improve Coffee Shop Sales
Creating a Brand Identity
Brand consistency builds trust with your customers. Your logo, color scheme, and messaging should align across all platforms.
Consistent branding makes your coffee shop recognizable and memorable. This would help especially if you’re considering selling at-home coffee products.
Creating a Unique Value Proposition
Consider selling yourself with what makes your coffee brand different from hundreds of others. Maybe it’s the locally sourced beans or the cozy atmosphere that your shop has.
A strong value proposition attracts new customers and keeps regulars coming back for more.
Staying Updated with Market Trends
Stay ahead in the coffee business by keeping an eye on industry trends. New brewing techniques or popular flavors can pop up anytime and you should be ready to implement and capitalize on them.
Also, customer preferences change according to various factors including their lifestyle, industry trends, and so on.
Staying on top of trends could help you adapt to changing preferences along with collecting and implementing customer feedback.
Conclusion
We have gone through key strategies to increase coffee shop sales. Implement these strategies based on your location and target audience and see which one brings the most ROI.
Once you find one, you can then make tweaks and budget for marketing accordingly.
If you’re looking to utilize location data for marketing or expand your store with a new location, our location AI platform can be the best tool!
Reach out to us to know more!