Want to boost your coffee shop sales? Try upselling. Encouraging customers to add extra options to their orders can be a powerful tool for your business, but only if you’re strategic. Upselling is most effective when you target the right audience with relevant and appealing offers.
To best upsell in a coffee shop, know the importance and purpose of upselling first, sell your brand of packaged coffee beans, sell merch like mugs or clothing with your logo, charge for an extra shot of caffeine or syrup, offer breakfast and dessert, and sell beer and wine.
Why is Upselling Used
Upselling increases average ticket size, the number of customers and customer loyalty, satisfaction, and lifetime value.
Upselling also helps you increase your profit margins by encouraging customers to spend more money on products that are higher in value. A good upsell should be relevant, appealing, and easy to execute. As a coffee shop owner, you have the opportunity to offer additional items that complement your product or service at a higher price point.
More coffee sold means more money for your business. In coffee shops, upselling is often a way to increase average ticket size to generate more revenue per table. If you sell brewed coffee for $2 per cup and you can upsell each customer on an espresso shot, it may be worth offering that option as customers will pay $3 or $3.50. In this case, you have made an extra dollar or two from each table without changing anything else about your actual transaction process!
Sell Packaged Coffee Beans
Packaged coffee beans are among the best items to sell as an upsell. Every coffee shop sells pre-packaged beans, and most people don’t buy them. If you’re not in a position to roast your beans for sale, this is a great way to fill that gap in your offerings.
Packaged coffee beans are a great value! A bag of fresh roasted whole bean coffee will cost between $8 and $20, depending on how much you buy at once and which type of roast it is. This price point will attract customers who would like to get more than just one cup of coffee at your shop—and they’ll be willing to pay more than if they were buying individual cups since they’ll get several cups’ worth in each package.
In addition, many people prefer brewed whole bean coffees over an instant machine or Keurig pod brewer. They can customize their brews according to taste preferences (notably strength) without having any leftover waste from unused pods like those used for K-cups or ground bags from grocery stores.
In addition to whole bean coffee, you can also sell ground coffee or K-cups. These are both items that customers will buy individually rather than in bulk packages from you. Be sure to price these accordingly so that they’re affordable for your customers and profitable.
How to Start a Coffee Shop in Canada
Sell Merch with your Logo
You don’t need to sell merchandise for your coffee shop to be profitable. However, if you decide to sell merchandise, you can use it to generate more revenue and grow your customer base by selling things like shirts with your brand’s logo on them. This makes it easier for people who are already fans of yours to promote their love of your business and share it with others—which means more sales!
Sell branded business merchandise. The most famous example of this is perhaps the Starbucks mermaid logo, which has become synonymous with the brand. If you have a recognizable logo or design on your cups, hats, mugs, and other merchandise, that’s more reason to sell it!
Your customers will more likely remember you when they see your products elsewhere in their hometown or city. Plus, if they don’t keep any of your merchandise for themselves (a common occurrence), they’ll be able to remember who gave them such a nice gift by telling their friends about it.
Make sure that people know who made this product when they’re ready to buy again. An easy way to encourage repeat business is by offering discounts when someone spends over $50 or so on merch during one visit—then giving them a coupon code for 10% off everything else until next time! This encourages people who aren’t ready yet but might come back soon enough anyway.
You can also sell local art. If you have local artists who want to sell their art, consider including them in your store. This can be anything from a mural painted on the wall to some paintings for sale that people can take home with them. It might not make money directly, but it does help build up your brand and reputation as someone who supports local talent.
Costs Involved With Opening A Coffee Shop
Charge Extra for Extra Shot
A great way to upsell is to charge extra for an extra shot of caffeine or syrup. This can be done in various ways, but the most common is when a customer asks for an extra shot in their drink, and they are charged more than what the standard drink costs.
Another way this can be done is by charging a higher price for the standard drink and ensuring that all ingredients are fresh and high-quality. When customers see that you have invested money into your product, they will be more likely to spend more on it.
Another way you could do this would be by offering customers free samples of your best drinks. They can know how good your products taste before buying them at full price.
Offer Breakfast and Desserts
You can offer a variety of breakfast items, including eggs and bacon, with toast or biscuits. You can also have cakes, cookies, and pastries for dessert. Coffee goes very well with these items, so you should offer that, along with milk, cream, and sugar, available to customers who want their coffee sweetened up just the way they like it.
Offer special deals on food items during different times of the day. For example, if you know that people typically eat breakfast around 7 AM, don’t usually think about lunch until around 11 AM or so, so they’ll stop by around 2 PM and offer half-off breakfast items between those times! This will encourage people looking for an early breakfast or late lunch to come back later in the day instead of going somewhere else where they’ll have to pay full price—saving money on overhead costs while increasing sales volume overall!
Best Hours to Operate Your Coffee Shop
Offer Beer and Wine
Beer and wine can be a great way to upsell your customers. While coffee is the most popular drink in coffee shops, beer and wine are also quite popular. Many people who go to coffee shops prefer beer or wine over coffee because it’s a more relaxed atmosphere for them to enjoy their drink. Beer and wine also have higher profit margins than coffee does. If you offer these items on your menu, you will make more money per sale than if you were only serving simple cups of coffee.
It’s important that when offering up the option of beer or wine with your customer’s order, make sure it’s not too expensive; otherwise, they may think twice about ordering something else off your regular menu. However, most beer and wine drinkers know they are usually worth the price.
The best time to serve these drinks is in the evening but selling them during the day is okay too
. However, if you offer beer and wine, it’s important to ensure that you have an alcohol license. If you don’t have an alcohol license, you should probably get one asap to maximize your earning potential.
You should now better understand how to upsell in your coffee shop. While there are many ways to do this, the most important thing is to keep in mind that you are not trying to sell more items but rather increase the value of your customer’s experience. You want them returning because they love what you offer and not because they need something else for it to feel like a good value for money spent on their purchase.
The Average Busiest Hour For A Coffee Shop
Frequently Asked Questions
Try running a promotion and building customer loyalty. Focus on getting referrals and great reviews to attract customers to your coffee shop. It’s also a great idea to build an online presence on social media.
To make your coffee shop unique, include outdoor seating, offer artists the opportunity to paint a mural inside or outside your coffee shop, and provide music. If your coffee shop has a theme, let that shine through in your décor, artwork, and menu items.
You can make coffee taste good by using filtered water and ensuring it’s at the right temperature. Use free whole coffee beans and use the right amount to get the best taste. Everything needs to be measured correctly to have good tasting coffee.
To learn more on how to start your own coffee shop checkout my startup documents here
Please note: This blog post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult a legal expert to address your specific needs.
Hi! I’m Shawn Chun
My adventure in coffee began when I first launched my first coffee shop back in the early 2000s. I had to figure out so many things on my own and to make it worse within 2 years of opening two large corporate coffee chains moved in just blocks away from me!
As I saw smaller and even some larger coffee shops in the neighborhood slowly lose customers to these giant coffee chains and slowly close up shop, I knew that I had to start getting creative…or go out of business.
I (like you may be) knew the coffee industry well. I could make the best latte art around and the foam on my caps was the fluffiest you have ever seen. I even had the best state-of-the-art 2 group digital Nuova Simonelli machine money could buy. But I knew that these things alone would not be enough to lure customers away from the name brand established coffee shops.
Eventually, through lots of trial and error as well as perseverance and creativity I did find a way to not only survive but also thrive in the coffee/espresso industry even while those corporate coffee chains stayed put. During those years I learned to adapt and always faced new challenges. It was not always easy, however, in the end, I was the sole survivor independent coffee shop within a 10-mile radius of my location. Just two corporate coffee chains and I were left after that year. All told the corporate coffee chains took down over 15 small independent coffee shops and kiosks and I was the last one standing and thriving.
Along the years I meet others with the same passion for coffee and I quickly learned that it is not only “how good a barista is” that makes a coffee shop successful, but the business side of coffee as well.
Hence why I started this website you are on now. To provide the tools and resources for up and coming coffee shop owners to gain that vital insight and knowledge on how to start a coffee shop successfully.
Stick around, browse through my helpful blog and resources and enjoy your stay! With lots of LATTE LOVE!
Shawn
