Recently, "Luckin 99 yuan a cup of activity shrinkage" topic continues to ferment on social **, causing heated discussions among netizens. What is the situation of the Jinan store? What else has changed in Luckin Coffee? In the past few days, a reporter from Qilu Evening News visited a number of Luckin Coffee stores in Jinan and found that Luckin Coffee was "9The "9 yuan for a drink" coupon activity is no longer applicable to the whole site, and only 10 designated drinks can participate in the event. In addition, there are also cases where the same product is priced differently in different stores.
“9.9 yuan a cup" activity shrunk greatly
Only ten selected products are available
9.9 yuan of Luckin has become less, why don't my favorite toffee hazelnut thick milk latte participate in the activity? ”。On the morning of February 26, Li Xiaoqing just arrived at the unit to order a cup of Luckin coffee to refresh herself, but found that she had a commonly drunk 99 yuan coffee can only be purchased at the original price. "It's gone just after the New Year, and it's gone, and it used to be applicable to all venues, but now there are a few left. Li Xiaoqing's colleague Ms. Liu, as a loyal user of Luckin Coffee, was helpless after discovering that the Luckin Coffee coupons had been greatly reduced, and the cost performance was greatly discounted.
The reporter opened the Luckin Coffee ordering applet and found, "9The "9 yuan for a drink" coupon campaign is still ongoing, but the activity rules explain that the coupon is applicable to "some designated drinks". After successfully claiming a 9After the 9 yuan coupon, the coupon details page displays, "99 yuan for a drink" coupon is applicable to 10 products, including Orange C American. Compared with the previous fact that basically all coffee can be used, the discount can be described as a big discount. Moreover, there are almost no new popular products in the designated preferential drinks.
In terms of the steps to receive coupons, the Luckin Coffee app is also different from the past. Previously, after "Select Store", the system would automatically pop up "99 yuan" coupon, but now it is hidden in the secondary menu bar.
Not only that, some careful netizens found that perhaps in order to prevent consumers from using it "smoothly", a "trick" was also set up on the Luckin Coffee app - in the "Classic Menu" and "Weekly 99" menu is displayed under two **. In other words, if the consumer does not find out the secret, even if he receives the coupon, if he continues to buy a raw coconut latte under the customary interface, he still needs 16$5.
Subsequently, the reporter asked for a speech on "99 yuan" coupon activity shrinkage problem, call Luckin Coffee's official customer service**. Weekly '9The '9 yuan drink a cup' coupon campaign has started on February 5, and stores across the country have been updated and adjusted within a certain range, and only some drinks can be used. Luckin customer service staff explained, 99. During the ongoing development of the activity, the scope of the activity, the activity stores, and the applicable drinks may be adjusted to a certain extent depending on the development of the activity, please refer to the display of the APP applet** for details. At the same time, the company will also allow users to enjoy cost-effective coffee through coupons, activities, etc.
When the reporter asked, "99 yuan" coupon activity is about to end, customer service said, has not received any deadline notice.
According to a rough estimate, there are about 50 drinks in Luckin stores, and the original price of many products fluctuates around 21 yuan, and after superimposed discounts, ** fluctuates around 13 yuan. If 9The narrower scope of the $9 discount means that consumers will spend more money to buy a cup of Luckin coffee.
Same product
Different stores**
The reporter inquired about "99 yuan" coupon activity randomly switched between two Luckin Coffee stores located in Shimao Plaza, Jinan City, but unexpectedly found that the pricing and selling price of the same product in the two stores were inconsistent. Taking "meteorite latte" as an example, the price of the fourth-floor store in the east block of Jinan Shimao Plaza is 29 yuan and the price is 17 yuan, while the price of the first-floor store in the east block of Shimao Plaza is 32 yuan, the price is 19 yuan, and the actual payment ** also has 1$17 difference.
The reporter searched a number of Luckin Coffee stores within a kilometer near Shimao Plaza, and the pricing, selling price and actual transaction of "Meteorite Latte" were consistent with the fourth-floor store in the East Block of Jinan Shimao Plaza.
I am usually used to placing orders around the area, and once I went out to do errands and changed stores, the same coffee was cheaper by 3 yuan, and the two stores were about 500 meters apart. Ms. Chen also found that the Geisha latte she often drinks was inconsistent in different stores. So, she shared her findings on social platforms, and many netizens commented that they had encountered the same situation, and the price difference was mostly 2-3 yuan. In this regard, some netizens left a message to answer that it will be 3 yuan more expensive to open near the shopping center, and the store with competing products next to it will be cheaper.
The reporter called the official customer service of Luckin Coffee as a consumer to inquire about the reasons why different stores of the same product appeared**. "Luckin implements an economic management model for the operation of stores, and will consider factors such as store rent, operating costs and logistics as a whole when pricing, and conduct comprehensive pricing according to the situation of each store. The staff of Luckin Coffee responded that in order to allow consumers to buy more discounted coffee, most stores have not adopted the policy of formulating **. For the same drink in different stores** different situations have brought consumers a bad experience, they will further improve the store pricing policy in the future.
Declining profits
Or the main reason for the "flameout" ** war
To recap, Luckin's "9The "9 yuan" event is to snipe Cudi and go online decisively.
Luckin 9The 9 yuan coffee campaign first started in April last year, when some netizens found that if there was a newly opened Cudi Coffee (hereinafter referred to as "Cudi") store nearby, they would receive 9The 9 yuan coffee coupon was ridiculed by consumers as the beginning of the "business war" between Luckin and Cudi.
On June 5, 2023, Guo Jinyi, Chairman and CEO of Luckin Coffee, announced that "Luckin Coffee will open every 9The 9 yuan coupon activity allows Chinese coffee to enter 99 yuan high-quality coffee era", and claimed that this campaign will last for at least 2 years.
But in less than a year, Luckin, which once vowed to invite the whole of China to drink coffee, has now quietly "shrunk" and artificially divided stores, resulting in different prices for the same product, and it seems that it no longer advertises its products as "affordable".
The reason for this is that the decline in profits may be an important reason why Luckin chose to "put out the fire" in the first battle.
It can also be seen from Luckin's financial report that the "* war" is a double-edged sword, which makes Luckin store traffic and operating income reach a new high, but it also affects profit margins. The fourth-quarter financial report shows that Luckin has dropped from 15 yuan in Q2 to 13 yuan. The decrease in single cup **, coupled with the diversion of stores, has led to a significant decline in the sales growth rate of many Luckin stores.
On the other hand, in Luckin's 2023 annual financial report, the same-store sales growth rate of Luckin's self-operated stores from Q1 to Q4 was respectively. 5%, of which Q4 fell by nearly 15% year-on-year in Q1, which is obviously unfavorable for Luckin.
And Luckin quietly reduced "9The marketing investment of the "9 yuan" activity may be to grasp the profits more firmly before the bigger battle comes.
Luckin has taken the lead in the whole chain, service system, customer stickiness and in the process of competition, and has a certain right to speak. Zhu Danpeng, an analyst of China's food industry, believes that as the largest brand in the number of coffee stores in China, Luckin Coffee has continued to release the brand effect and scale effect dividends, and Luckin Coffee 99. The adjustment of preferential activities belongs to the normal business behavior of the enterprise and is the strategy adopted by the enterprise at different stages.
In Luckin recently because of "9After 9 activities shrunk", Guo Jinyi, chairman and CEO of Luckin Coffee, also said that in the future, he will adhere to the current development strategy and pricing strategy, "and continue to expand market share while giving back to customers".
*: Qilu One Point.