The charm of running a local bakery or coffee shop is that you are free to use your ideas. Maybe your brand is weird and local, full of retro flavor. Or it is more refined and soft in jazz trio and happy hour. No matter what scenario you create, we like to see our customers positioning themselves as community gathering places—or roasters that provide them with coffee.
However, despite these hyperlocal charms, we are still part of the huge global coffee industry. And, as a coffee business owner, you must constantly weigh how to balance the factors that make your local coffee brand stand out and when to fit the larger coffee trend.
In our current COVID world, we see some trends and new choices in coffee sales are converging, and we think it is very important to discuss how small specialty roasters and cafes can potentially benefit-especially when you may be struggling to make ends meet.
What do these trends show? Thanks in part to our more at-home lifestyle and the ubiquitous temptation of convenience, these trends are pointing to the continued rise of K-Cup culture.
Here are four reasons to consider why it might be worthwhile to add the K-Cup series:
1. Online coffee sales show continued growth The coffee does not go anywhere. People drink coffee more than ever, and more and more people are ordering coffee online. According to data from Hinge Global Research, only on Amazon.com, online coffee sales in the United States this year are expected to reach 1.08 billion U.S. dollars.
2. K-CUP coffee sales have exploded Of the estimated $1.08 billion in sales, would you like to guess how much of it is attributable to the sales of a single cup of coffee (K-Cup, pod, capsule)? Would you believe 50%?
Well, it's actually higher, and the estimated annual revenue for the single-serve coffee option is as high as 86%! Considering that a single cup of coffee only entered the household consumer market 16 years ago thanks to Keurig, this is shocking.
3. K-CUPS is no longer what it used to be What caused such high sales? Well, we know they are very convenient, and consumers are willing to pay for this convenience.
Now, local independent specialty coffee roasting companies are joining the K-Cup game more than ever-either packaging a single cup of coffee under their own brand, or labeling other brands with their own brands. K-Cup coffee will have a huge market demand, and empty coffee K cups will also be more popular.
