As a modern fast food drink, the most popular time for milk tea is in 217, and topics such as "long queues in front of stores", "scalper purchasing", "opening of new stores" and "listing of new products" are constantly rushing to hot search.
after the fire broke out, it would naturally lead to indifference. Xicha was later deeply involved in public opinion and was publicly attacked on the Internet, but it was gradually forgotten over time.
how did this post-9s young man stand out among many milk tea brands?
Nie Yunchen was born in Jiangxi in 1991, and later his parents moved to live in Guangdong. Although he doesn't study well, his character is very gentle, and his parents are open-minded and never force him to be excellent in his studies.
So Nie Yunchen's youth lived a relatively free life. After the college entrance examination, he went to Guangdong Vocational College of Science and Technology for junior college because his grades were not satisfactory.
Most people are in a state of relative confusion in their teens, and Nie Yunchen is no exception. When choosing a major, he was disappointed for a long time and didn't know what he would do in the future. Finally, after communicating with his parents, he chose the major of administration.
The knowledge I have learned in the past three years is of little use, like a muddy water mixed with flour rummaging around in my mind, and I can barely understand the business foundation, but I can't grasp the main point.
After graduation, he wandered around the society with the army of fresh graduates for a period of time, but he always couldn't find a satisfactory and suitable job. When he was confused and at a loss, he considered starting a business.
At that time, smart phones were just starting. Nie Yunchen realized that smart phones would be the main electronic products in the future, so he opened a mobile phone shop. He not only sells the latest smart phones, but also helps people repair them.
It's just that there are many storefronts, and with little fame, business has always been flat, and the money earned in the next month is almost not enough for storefront fees.
With his meager business knowledge, Nie Yunchen tried to brush computers or install software for people free of charge, so as to increase the flow of people in the store.
This method has indeed attracted many customers for him, but all of them are for free business, and the income of his store has not changed much.
Later, he bought some mobile phone cases, headphones and other small commodities in the mobile phone shop, which were not expensive. Customers came in to repair their mobile phones, and they would buy them when they had nothing to see.
slowly, the business of the small shop is gradually on the right track. With the increase in the number of mobile phone repairs, Nie Yunchen's technology has become more and more exquisite, and many repeat customers will bring him new customers.
Only later, with the development of the network, online shopping became a trend, which attracted a large number of consumers and seriously affected the operation of offline stores.
Nie Yunchen's shop has also been affected, and customers are becoming scarce, and it is about to close. He began to consider changing careers, but there were so many industries that it was difficult to choose.
Young people in their early twenties have been thinking hard for a long time and decided to go out for an inspection.
He walked out of his remote alley, crossed all the streets, and came to the most prosperous business center. The streets were crowded with people and passers-by were in a hurry. He stood in the same place and thought for a moment, and lifted his feet from the street to the end of the street.
Nie Yunchen went door to door, and saw clothing stores, snack bars, jewelry stores, beauty shops, and beverage stores ..... These businesses had different businesses, so it was impossible to judge what was most suitable.
However, he inadvertently observed that many young people not only carry the purchased goods in their hands, but also hold a drink in their hands, and talk with their companions while walking. Do they bow their heads and have a drink?
So he turned his eyes to the tea shop intentionally or unintentionally, thinking about the feasibility of transforming the beverage industry. First of all, the impact of online shopping on the beverage industry is not too great, and the customer base is relatively stable.
Secondly, the facade of beverage shops is generally small, and the initial investment will not be too much, so the risk is relatively small. The only thing that bothers me is the location of the store. It must not be opened in a place with little traffic like a mobile phone store.
After determining the direction, Nie Yunchen closed his mobile phone shop and invested 2, yuan saved for two years in the milk tea industry.
He found that most milk tea on the market today is blended with powder, which tastes sweet and greasy. Although the profit is huge, the products have no characteristics, so it is difficult to stand on the market for a long time.
There are also Hong Kong-style milk teas with strong flavor. Although the taste has improved, the varieties are relatively single and there is no innovation, so it is difficult to meet the pursuit of young people.
If he wants to make a unique milk tea that is liked by people of all ages, then the raw materials should be changed, and fresh milk should be used to make the real milk tea.
On May 12th, 212, Nie Yunchen opened his first milk tea shop, ROYALTEA, in Jiuzhong Street, Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province.
On the eve of opening the store, he deliberately spent several months studying the proportion of milk tea seasoning, drinking no less than 2 cups of milk tea every day and recording the taste of different proportions.
on the opening day, the sales volume of milk tea was not bad because of its uniqueness and the activity of half price for the second cup. However, after the promotion, the business of the store declined rapidly, and only three cups were sold a day at the worst.
The location of the store is carefully studied. Although the interior decoration is ordinary, it will not affect the passenger flow. The taste of milk tea has been safely introduced after thousands of attempts. Nie Yunchen can't figure out what went wrong.
He logs on social platforms and searches for his own brand, hoping to see other people's comments on imperial tea online. He pays special attention to bad reviews, obtains useful information from them and makes adjustments according to other people's opinions.
With limited suggestions, he did research through the Internet to collect young people's views and preferences on milk tea.
In order to enrich the taste of milk tea and reduce the single sweetness, Nie Yunchen added fruity and salty cheese to the drink, which not only changed the appearance of milk tea, but also made it more flavorful.
After the introduction of the new cheese milk tea, it was immediately remarkable. Although the price is slightly more expensive than ordinary milk tea, the taste is really quite different, and consumers are willing to pay for the taste.
moreover, the main consumer group of milk tea in the market is women, who enjoy multiple visual enjoyment, regardless of the taste first, and will choose to buy it just because they like the face value.
In addition, the taste is refreshing, and there is not much psychological burden for drinking, so there are more and more customers, and there is even a queue in front of the store. Nie Yunchen's store is also back to life.
at the beginning of his business, he told his employees, "This is the experimental field, where a brand was born." The employee thought it was a little funny, just thinking that he was talking big. Never thought, in a few years, Nie Yunchen opened a number of branches.
By the second half of 215, Huangcha had opened more than 5 stores in Guangdong. Only in recent years, Nie Yunchen's application for the trademark right of imperial tea has not been approved, which indirectly led some shanzhai to borrow their brands for sales.
it's been four years since nie yunchen founded imperial tea, and Guangdong is also a minor celebrity. he made a follow-up development and made a big brand, and decided to give up "imperial tea" and change it to "HEYTEA".
this move is like self-destruction and starting all over again, but he insists on changing it after careful consideration.
although there is no essential difference between imperial tea and hi tea, the former is the start of his business, which is of great significance, while the latter is the achievement that he has begun to take shape, which gives him the determination to forge ahead.
first of all, the packaging should reflect the brand and impress people, so print the brand logo on the cup and make a thick cup body to enhance the texture.
Location is more important. He first opens a store in the commercial center of a city, and if the sales volume reaches the expected standard, he will consider opening branches in other local areas.
In June 216, Xicha received the first round investment of 1 million yuan from He Boquan, the founder of Robust.
Since then, Xicha has begun to expand nationwide and win more markets step by step. In January, 217, the first theme store of Xicha was unveiled in Vientiane City, Shenzhen, with a wide space of 1 square meters.
Nie Yunchen followed up all the way to create his own leisure place. The storefront design is mainly black gold, which mainly shows youthful fashion and coolness. I hope it can not only give people the enjoyment of taste, but also bring visual relaxation to customers.
in February of the same year, Xicha entered the Shanghai market, thus completely opening its popularity. Once the super-high-value "Zhizhi Berry" appeared, it attracted hundreds of people to buy it.
There is no end in sight in the long queue. Outside the store, there are all young people waiting in line to play with their mobile phones. After being photographed and posted on the Internet, they immediately boarded the hot search.
The long queue not only did not scare away the onlookers, but also triggered a larger queuing phenomenon. There was even a business of scalpers queuing to buy on their behalf. A cup of twenty or thirty milk tea was directly fired to a price of hundreds of yuan.
For netizens who don't have a tea-loving store in the city, it's like watching a fantastic picture. I can't imagine what magic tea-loving has that can create such a scene.
At the same time, it is said that even if you drive to the local area, you will never spend so much time waiting in line. Some netizens also expressed their curiosity about hi-tea and hoped that the headquarters would open more branches as soon as possible.
Xi Chaze, with the fermentation of hot discussion among netizens, continued to get on the hot search, and was directly defined as "online celebrity" product.
There are endless queues for punching in, and the longest one can wait for seven hours. The first time you buy milk tea, you don't insert it into a straw to taste it, but take photos from multiple angles and post it online.
With the introduction of new products "Zhizhi Mangmang" and "Zhizhi Taotao", the popularity of hi-tea has only increased, with an average of nearly 4, cups sold every day, which can be said to be the same in the milk tea session.
when the heat rises to a certain extent, the voice of doubt will follow, and customers will be impatient with the long queue, so the product experience will be greatly reduced, and bad reviews will continue for a time.
Some people released the so-called "online celebrity" products, all of which were fried by scalpers. The queuing of hi-tea was just a means of hunger marketing, and the people at the door were all paid.
The topic of "Hiring people to queue up in Xicha" once again boarded the hot search, among which there were many disputes. On June 7 of the same year, Xicha officials responded in WeChat official account and questioned: "Why is an undecided event spread as a fact on a large scale?"
In any case, tea-loving fame has been gained, and whether intentionally or unintentionally, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages for them. However, Nie Yunchen was unhappy with his brand with the label "online celebrity".
He thinks: "online celebrity is derogatory, and I don't like to hear such comments." He hopes that hi-tea can be liked as a daily drink, instead of being tried as a product with timeliness, easy to catch fire and easy to forget.
It's not his intention to queue up in stores. Nie Yunchen said that he would make it more convenient to order orders in the future to avoid customers waiting in line for a long time.
he tried to buy online in a store in Guangzhou, but the effect was not satisfactory due to the concentration of orders, so he temporarily gave up the plan.
However, with the heat dissipating, the phenomenon of queuing in stores gradually disappeared, and the purchase process returned to normal.
In the following year, through cooperation with Meituan, the take-away service was opened, and after 4 million yuan invested by Longzhu, a fund under Meituan Review, the B round of financing was completed.
in the same year, the first overseas store in Singapore opened, marking the official entry of Xicha into overseas markets. At the same time, hi-tea is full of firepower, mainly in large shopping malls in major provinces and cities, covering 22 cities in China.
Tea lovers have appeared in Beijing, Chongqing, Wuhan, Xi 'an and Zhengzhou, but many cities have failed to open stores.
Some self-employed small bosses, seeing the brand effect of Xicha, searched online for joining channels, but finally found out that the joining brand introduced by the intermediary was not Xicha.
In fact, Nie Yunchen has never considered becoming a franchise store, and all the stores of Xicha in China are direct stores. He believes that once his brand joins, it is far from the original intention of starting a business.
However, the company always receives many news of being cheated, so they specially use symbols on their WeChat official account to indicate that they like tea and don't join.
However, the number of people who receive the news is limited after all, and some scammers are very skillful, using poor information and some half-truths photos to fool many business people.
Xicha can't help the swindlers, so it has to work hard on the website. Now, at the top of the online search for "Hi Tea Joining", the seven characters "The official has not yet opened to join" appear.
although we don't join in, the weight of hi-tea in the market can't be underestimated. In July 219, Xicha completed a round of financing by Tencent and Sequoia Capital, and its brand valuation reached 9 billion.
During the epidemic in 22, they also donated 1 million yuan to the China Red Cross to help fight the epidemic.
In the same year, Xicha once again completed a round of financing jointly invested by Gaochun Capital and Ketu Capital, and its valuation has exceeded 16 billion yuan. This year, Xicha also landed in the 5th store in Shanghai.
at the same time, the variety of products is also increasing, and tea bags, desserts, bread and so on are also sold in stores, which have won a lot of praise and attracted more passengers.
With the rapid development of the brand, Nie Yunchen's net worth has naturally risen. In November 22, he was 29 years old, and he was listed on Hurun's Self-made Rich List in 22 for RMB 4.5 billion, and became the only post-9s generation.
In 221, Xicha completed a round of financing of US$ 5 million, which directly broke the financing record of China tea industry, making the valuation of Xicha reach 6 billion yuan, far exceeding other domestic tea brands.
hi-tea is actually not an old brand in China's new tea industry, and it's even more popular in the past two years that the Honey Snow Ice City has entered the market.