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T he logo of Luckin Coffee is a white silhouette experience has improved largely in the past few years. More

of deer against the dark blue background. Dark
people shop online for almost everything they need in
blue is the major visual element of the brand,
shown in a range of places, from its cups to the daily life. In some major cities of China, third wave coffee
shops also join the game: setting up presence on major food
walls of stores. Chinese people call it “Internet Blue” coffee, delivery platform. Meanwhile, coffee startups are establish-
as they like to nickname every product that is popular ing independent e-commerce platforms, with the most
online with its most obvious visual element. This nicknam- notable of them, Coffee Box.
ing among consumers is loved by Chinese businesses as it Coffee Box started with providing delivery service
means their products create a “phenomenon” and it’s good. from coffee stores to your door. People can order and
Luckin Coffee, China’s newly established coffee chain pay on its account on WeChat, China’s most popular
brand, is designed for and from the country’s Internet messaging App. Coffee Box will pick up coffees from
boom, and has gone further than that. It taps into the stores and send it to customers. Later, they started brew-
e-commerce with the good old mobile application, but it is ing its own coffee. With users gathered from previous
also opening physical stores, many, many of them. The orders, Coffee Box soon captured a large market of online
company said it will open a total of 500 coffee shops around coffee delivery sector. It has just received an investment
China by May 2018. On the consumer side, people get to of some 25 million USD.
know this brand and finally fall in love with it not only for Luckin wants to have both online and offline pres-
its adorable deer on the cup, but also for two movie celeb- ence, or in other words, to have the two complement
rities the brand hired for promotion. each other. Qian pointed out that Luckin aims to provide
a new online retail experience for customers, where
Riding the Internet Wave people can get coffee in stores, or buy it in an App and
receive it in 15 to 20 minutes if their locations are with-
The founder of Luckin, Qian Zhiya, used to be the in the 2km distance from any of its stores. Cooperating
Chief Operating Officer of UCAR, China’s leading online with SF Express, the Chinese delivery service provider
car providing service. Online business in China is never an known for being quick and accountable, Luckin will have
easy job. As one of the founding members of UCAR, Qian, the delivery person pick up coffee in the nearest store.
a passionate female entrepreneur, had been the key force “It will speed up the delivery and make sure each cup of
of operation for the company’s digital and physical products coffee is fresh and hot,” said Qian.
for more than a decade; with numerous working nights in “Internet mindset” is a very big idea among Chinese
the past, Qian probably knows the best how important a entrepreneurs. If you are building a retail business, your
cup of coffee can be. During Luckin’s media conference she Chinese friends will kindly tell you to try the e-commerce,
said: “Sometimes I drank three to five cups of coffee a day. or social media promotion, or anything backboned by the
There must be more people like me, but we just don’t have technology. UCAR, where Qian used to work, brings the
many options when we want the caffeine boost.” “Internet mindset” to the auto industry. Its main products
In recent years, China started doing some options for include a range of Apps offering services related to cars.
a quick and convenient caffeine fix. Driven by the ever-ad- Now Qian and her team are changing the coffee industry.
vancing digital payment technology, the online shopping Watch out, App-less Starbucks.

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