With a minimum monthly payment of 2,000 yen, you can enjoy a cup of American coffee every day at the store, which is cheaper than 7-Eleven.

Author: Dai Yu

Many office workers usually drink a cup of coffee to refresh themselves when they enter the office. A coffee shop in Tokyo, Japan saw this business opportunity and decided to let customers "pay once and drink as much coffee as they want for a month"!

Such "food subscription" services have also become popular in the catering industry. This article will take you to see how these Japanese companies use "subscription" to overturn the unchanging charging model.

Innovation: With a minimum monthly payment of 2,000 yen, you can enjoy a cup of American coffee every day at the store, which is cheaper than 7-11!

4 key points of this article: 1. Use "all-you-can-drink coffee" to attract customers to buy other products in the store. 2. Use mobile phone to "subscribe" to ramen, and you can enjoy a feast every day with just one electronic meal coupon. 3. Healthy juice can also rely on "subscription" to market itself. 4. Let customers "all-you-can-drink beer" to bring in stable income.

1. Use the "all you can drink coffee" offer to attract customers to buy other products in the store

Coffee Mafia, located in Nishi-Shinjuku, Tokyo, has launched a "subscription" service to attract customers to shop more often. Customers only need to pay 2,000 yen (about 100 yuan) per month to drink a medium-sized American coffee every time they visit the store. If a customer visits the store three times a day, he can drink three cups of coffee without any restrictions.

Customers who need more coffee can choose a monthly payment plan of 3,000 yen (about 180 yuan). Every time they visit the store, they can get a large cup of Americano.

If you want to save money but need to drink a lot of coffee, you can choose the 2,000 yen plan, then be more diligent and go to "Coffee Mafia" more often every day.

(Photo taken from Coffee Mafia Facebook)

For those customers who don’t like American coffee, "Coffee Mafia" has also thoughtfully launched the ultimate plan with a monthly payment of 6,500 yen (about RMB 350), allowing customers to upgrade American coffee to latte, special blend, or even "Bulletproof Coffee" (it is said that drinking a cup of this in the morning, without eating breakfast, can provide enough calories and can also help lose weight).

After launching the "Subscription" plan, "Coffee Mafia" found that customers visit the store 20 times a month on average. Because of the frequent meetings, the store staff are able to build deeper relationships with customers, such as chatting with customers while waiting.

Although too many customers visiting the store will reduce their profits, the "loyalty" of "Coffee Mafia" customers can be used for "cross-selling", which also increases the sales of other products in the store. For example, when customers come to the store to "get" coffee, they will also order their light meals.

Last summer, Coffee Mafia launched a 100 yen draft beer plan in response to the hot weather, allowing "subscription" members to buy a glass of cool draft beer for 100 yen. This not only made members feel that it was a good deal, but also increased their sales.

2. Subscribe to ramen with your phone and enjoy a feast with just one electronic meal coupon every day

After the bubble economy burst in the 1990s, Japan experienced the "lost 30 years", during which many Japanese office workers developed good habits of thriftiness. Therefore, the cost-effective "subscription" service launched by "Coffee Mafia" is welcomed by many people in Japan.

"Coffee Mafia" solves the problem of office workers' daily need for coffee, but the bigger problem is that office workers have to find a way to solve the three meals a day.

Therefore, a Japanese ramen restaurant chain "Yaro Ramen" with 16 branches in Tokyo launched a ramen "subscription" plan called "Yaro Ramen Life a Day" in November 2017. Customers only need to pay 8,600 yen (about 500 yuan) per month to enjoy a bowl of hot ramen in the store every day. If you visit the store 5 times a week, the average bowl of ramen is 430 yen (about 25 yuan).

(Image source: FoodRevamp)

Furthermore, customers can choose their favorite flavor from three types of ramen (tonkotsu yarou ramen, original price 780 yen, yarou dry noodles, original price 830 yen, and miso yarou ramen, original price 880 yen), so that customers will not get bored of eating the same ramen every day.

To facilitate customers, they have also launched a dedicated app, so that customers can get a new electronic meal coupon every day in the app after "subscribing". When customers consume, they only need to enter the branch number in the meal coupon and then show it to the store staff for review. This can also avoid the problem of customers forgetting to bring physical meal coupons or losing meal coupons.

(Image source: FoodRevamp)

When Yaro Ramen first launched this service, many people were skeptical. Although ramen is a national delicacy in Japan, they couldn't imagine that anyone would be willing to eat ramen every day.

Unexpectedly, the service received a warm response, not only attracting office workers, but also allowing many poor students to enjoy delicious ramen every day at the most cost-effective price. These students became the store's living signs, constantly telling other students about this "good deal", greatly increasing the popularity of "Ye Lang Ramen" among students.

The manager of "Yaro Ramen" also said that the store had been facing the problem of customer loss before. Since the launch of the "subscription" plan, 80% of old customers have returned, and the number of weekly visits has also increased.

3. Healthy juice can also rely on "subscriptions" to promote itself

With high CP value coffee and ramen, office workers also need to take into account balanced nutrition every day, especially various vitamins.

Shonan Smoothie & Juice, a fresh juice shop in Kanagawa, Japan, has also launched a "subscription" juice plan to supplement nutrition for customers. Customers only need to pay 3,800 yen (about 200 yuan) per month to enjoy a cup of "special juice of the day" in the store every day.

(Photo: Shonan Smoothie & Juice)

If customers feel that the "special juice of the day" is too "luxurious", they can also choose a glass of "basic juice". In order to prevent customers from feeling "losing a lot", "Shonan Smoothie & Juice" will also refund 200 yen to customers who drink "basic juice".

Unlike Coffee Mafia and Yalang Ramen, Shonan Smoothie & Juice's "subscription" plan is limited to 50 people per month. Therefore, this plan is more like a marketing tactic. The limit of 50 people per month will make customers feel more precious, so they will want to get the opportunity to "subscribe".

In addition, this "subscription" plan also ensures that customers who have already purchased will not patronize competitors, and at the same time, it also strengthens customer stickiness. In the long run, it will be able to gain more advantages in the competition.

4. Allowing customers to drink beer as much as they want can bring in stable income

After a busy day, Japanese office workers like to go to bars for a drink. As a result, the "subscription" service for bars has also begun to rise.

An izakaya in Tokyo called "Yuyu" allows customers to pay 3,000 yen (about 200 yuan) per month (the same price as a large cup of black coffee, cheaper than juice) to have "all-you-can-drink beer" every day!

For customers who don’t want to drink beer alone, “Youyou” also offers “Chu Hai” (a drink made from distilled liquor and juice or sparkling water) or other alcoholic beverages for customers to choose from.

(Photo courtesy of Sora News 24)

Since customers feel that "the more often you come, the more cost-effective it is", after launching the "subscription" service, the number of "Youyou" customers has steadily increased.

In order to attract more customers, "Youyou" has also launched "subscription" plans of different lengths. If a customer wants to "subscribe" for 6 months at a time, he only needs to pay 13,000 yen (about 650 yuan), which is 5,000 yen cheaper than monthly renewal.

It seems that the solution launched by "Youyou" is not very profitable. However, the person in charge of "Youyou" believes that "subscription" solves the biggest challenge facing the catering industry, which is the unstable number of customers, which leads to cash flow problems.

Although the profit of "subscription" is not very high, it provides a stable income, and it is prepaid. This income allows the store to not worry too much about cash flow.

(Photo courtesy of Sora News 24)

Caption: "Youyou" "Subscription Coupons" of different durations

In addition to the stores mentioned above, there are many food "subscription" services in Japan. For example, a steak house in Roppongi allows customers to pay 70,000 yen (about 4,000 yuan) a month and enjoy 450 grams of steak every day.

After looking at so many stores, have you thought of any popular food that is suitable for "subscription"? Crayfish, fried chicken, and even buffets seem to be able to use this business model. Perhaps you can share this idea with your favorite stores, and look forward to seeing similar solutions appear around us soon.