At about 8:00 a.m. on April 18, most of the products of Luckin Coffee on the Hungry Mo takeaway platform sold for only 6 yuan a cup, and more netizens posted screenshots bought for 1 cent, and many consumers placed a large number of orders for low prices.
At 9:00 a.m., Luckin issued an apology statement saying that the low-priced order was a price error caused by the Ele.me background price configuration problem, and the "abnormal order" had been cancelled and the Ele.me store had been temporarily closed.
Red Star Capital Bureau noted that Luckin's practice of "canceling bug orders" has not been recognized by consumers, and even some netizens believe that Luckin's practice is malicious marketing.
Photo by a reporter from the Red Star Capital Bureau
Luckin out of the bug, coffee 6 yuan a cup?
Takeaway orders soared, and many orders were cancelled by stores
For the low-priced coffee problem, at 9:41, Luckin issued an apology letter on the official Weibo, saying: Due to the problem of the backstage price configuration of Ele.me, the price of luckin coconut cloud packages has been wrong in a short period of time, and the store has been squeezed by a large number of abnormal orders. In order to operate normally, we have now urgently cancelled the abnormal orders of the Ele.me platform, and the Ele.me store is temporarily closed, and we will consider user compensation and notify you separately.
Subsequently, a supplementary statement was added: After verification, this was caused by the allocation of internal operation personnel of Luckin. It's causing trouble for Hungry mo and everyone, and we're already dealing with follow-up issues.
Red Star Capital interviewed a staff member of a Luckin store who said the price problem lasted about an hour. This morning's takeaway orders were significantly more than usual. "At that time, we couldn't do it, and we wondered how the explosion order exploded so fiercely." The staff member revealed that the store made some orders, but also canceled some orders, "returned the money."
Red Star Capital Bureau also contacted a netizen who claimed to be a Luckin consumer, "Twelve Painting Students". "Twelve painters" said that this morning he ordered Luckin's coffee as usual before the meeting, after ordering until the end of the meeting did not receive the goods, click to open the takeaway platform to know, Luckin "directly returned the order, and there is no text message, I said how so long has not arrived, I clicked on a look, found that the suspension of business." ”
From the comments on Weibo, it is not difficult to see that there are many consumers who have similar experiences with the "Twelve Painters", and even some consumers say that they have encountered false delivery, "the order has not been received, but it shows that it has been delivered".
For Luckin's unilateral cancellation of orders and the closure of stores, many netizens are extremely dissatisfied: "Some stores can deliver the payment, some do not tell the direct cancellation of the order, even at least have to make a phone call to inform, you have a BUG allows you to change, but not such a change." "This wave I'm going to turn black..."
Netizens questioned:
Low-priced coffee is "fake bug, real marketing"
Luckin's "low-price bug" incident has also attracted questions from malicious marketing.
Some netizens believe: "Luckin Coffee first deliberately attracted heat at a low price, and then issued an apology letter to increase the topic, and then closed the store urgently when everyone wanted to buy, causing hunger, which was marketed properly." ”
Netizens' doubts are not unfounded, luckin's apology letter pointed out that the product with the wrong price is the "coconut cloud package", and the coconut cloud latte is the new product that Luckin has just launched.
Coconut Cloud Latte is a joint drink between Luckin and Coconut Tree, and the joint branding itself belongs to the marketing activity. Red Star Capital bureau observed that although there are many elements belonging to coconut trees in advertising and stickers, when Ruixing stores make coconut cloud lattes, the base contains coconut milk of other brands in addition to coconut brand coconut water, and the proportion of other brands used is greater than that of coconut trees. Baristas at a number of Luckin stores told Red Star Capital bureau that the "coconut cloud" on the top floor of the coconut cloud latte is not made of coconut brand coconut juice.
Before going online, Luckin also published a number of Microblogs for marketing. Not only deliberately creating suspense by playing mosaics on the product, but also warming up by interacting with netizens.
From the perspective of sales volume, Luckin's marketing effect on coconut cloud lattes is remarkable.
According to luckin's official information, the coconut cloud latte was launched on April 11 this year, and as of April 17, 2022, the sales volume of the coconut cloud latte exceeded 4.95 million cups, with a total sales volume of more than 81 million.
Luckin's 2021 sales champion "Raw Coconut Latte" was officially promoted on April 12, 2021, and as of May 31, 2021, the raw coconut series has sold 420,000 cups. As of April 6, 2022, the sales of raw coconut lattes exceeded 100 million.
From this point of view, the monthly sales of coconut cloud lattes have far exceeded that of raw coconut lattes.
Photo by a reporter from the Red Star Capital Bureau
In fact, Luckin has always been a "big marketing household", known for marketing: stepping on the opportunity to invite popular celebrities to endorse, new users to free orders, issuing ultra-low discount coupons to drain, establishing a community to improve repurchase... Luckin's financial report shows that the company's marketing expenses in 2021 are 337 million.
The joint partner of Luckin, Coconut Tree Group, also has a lot of controversy in terms of marketing. (For details, please poke: the cost of breaking the law is low, and the recruitment advertisement of Coconut Tree Group has not changed!) Expert: Marketing concept business ideas are too old)
On the afternoon of April 18, Red Star Capital Bureau interviewed Luckin on the details of the incident and marketing questions, and the relevant person in charge said that everything was subject to the official statement of Weibo.
Lawyer: "Automatic cancellation of order" is a breach of contract
Although Luckin said that the low-priced coffee is caused by bugs, according to the Qianjiang Evening News, the package sold by Luckin Coffee on the takeaway platform is an offer, and after the consumer pays the price, the commitment is reached, and the contract between the two parties has taken effect.
Li Shasha, a lawyer at Dacheng (Chengdu) Law Firm in Beijing, told Red Star Capital that Luckin's "self-cancellation of the order" was already a breach of contract.
Li Shasha said: "When Luckin first came out, it often engaged in 2.8% off activities, the unit price was almost 5 yuan, and now it often engages in 9.9 yuan activities, so consumers have reason to believe that a 6 yuan cup is a real activity." If Luckin is a background operation error, it should inform the consumer in advance and cancel after obtaining consent, otherwise it constitutes a breach of contract. The breach of contract of sale is liable for breach of contract, the refund is necessary, and compensation should be compensated if there are other losses. ”
However, for the protection of consumers' rights, Li Shasha admitted that consumers can complain to the Consumer Association, but the liability for breach of contract is not easy to define, because the compensation for breach of contract is calculated according to the loss, if the consumer does not have actual losses, the liquidated damages are basically difficult to get support.
According to Henan Satellite TV Elephant News, Fu Jian, a lawyer at Henan Yulong Law Firm, believes that Luckin Coffee's practice essentially violates the civil code and other laws and regulations, and is a breach of contract. Consumers can negotiate that Luckin Coffee will continue to fulfill the order, or they can complain to consumer association 12315, or claim that Luckin Coffee bears the liability for breach of contract.
Wanton exploitation of consumer recognition
Luckin may be unbearable
In the past, Luckin experienced financial fraud and delisting storms, which was a fatal blow to the brand. But Luckin survived, and its net income in 2021 reached 7.965 billion yuan, an increase of 97.5% year-on-year, almost doubling. By the end of 2021, the total number of Luckin coffee stores has reached 6024, surpassing Starbucks China's 5557.
Luckin's "resurrection from the dead" is inseparable from consumers' recognition of Luckin. Red Star Capital Bureau noted that in 2021, luckin direct store revenue of 6.193 billion yuan, an increase of 78.3% over the same period last year, for the reasons for the growth of direct store sales, Luckin chairman and CEO Guo Jinyi said that "the number of trading customers increased, the sales of goods increased and the average selling price increased". Luckin's average monthly customer transactions in 2021 (including customers in partner stores and customers who only pay with free coupons) are also increasing significantly, from 9.712 million in 2020 to 16.229 million.
A week ago, Luckin announced that it had "officially concluded the bankruptcy protection proceedings as a debtor," which Guo said was "a new beginning for Luckin Coffee." But a week later, there were low-price bugs, self-cancellation of orders, and other actions that were unacceptable to consumers.
In 2021, Luckin is still in a state of loss, and there are still many challenges to be dealt with in the future: the slowdown in joining, the price has reached the ceiling, and the competition on the coffee track is fierce. This means that after experiencing a crisis of trust in the capital market, Luckin may not be able to lose the trust of consumers again. Similar to today's events, Luckin may not be able to withstand too many times.
Red Star News reporter Yu Yao intern reporter Zhang Luxi
Edited by Tao Yueyang
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