Overlap of interests

On why city walks have generated great business for beverage brands, industry experts said the target consumers of city walks and beverages mostly overlap.

Data from Xiaohongshu showed that the most active group of city walkers are those aged between 24 and 28, who are also the main target consumers of tea and coffee makers.

"The consumption scenario of city walks and beverages matches perfectly. Wandering in the city, and taking a cup of coffee or lemon tea while resting, is the most typical scenario of city walks. Furthermore, young people are fond of looking for stylish, well-decorated beverage stores to spend their weekends. Now, with the popularity of city walks, many of them choose a coffee shop/teahouse as their city walk destination," Kamen Club said in the report.

According to the survey by Xiaohongshu, the top cities with the highest number of city walkers are Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shenzhen in Guangdong province, Wuhan, Nanjing, Suzhou in Jiangsu province, Chengdu and Xi'an, showing why an increased number of beverage makers there are keeping their businesses up with the new trend.

A blogger in Nanjing visited over 300 coffee shops in the city, and drew up six "coffee walk" routes, by which consumers may walk across the city, drop by stylish coffee shops, buy a cup of coffee, take photos, and enjoy the atmosphere.

Livin Guangzhou, a local lifestyle media outlet, joined hands with 14 featured coffee shops in Liwan district in Guangzhou and launched a coffee walk map of the district.

The marketing event aroused attention both online and offline, and boosted the businesses of the coffee shops.

By August, posts related to "coffee maps" on Xiaohongshu surpassed 110,000.

The craze and consumer traffic brought on by city walks revealed to beverage merchants how they could grasp new business opportunities and potentially grow over the long term.

"City walk is just a temporary social topic. For beverage makers, the thing is to take advantage of the trendy topic to constantly reach out to consumers with the brands' distinct content, and form a unique competitiveness," Su of LINLEE said.

"With fun marketing events, enterprises can leave a deeper impression on consumers. Furthermore, we need to make efforts to constantly create diversified marketing events in the future to build up a brand image and resonate more strongly with consumers," she said.

Lu Buyun, a business strategy expert in Guangzhou, said young consumers are now turning into a major consumption powerhouse.

"Taking advantage of the latest trend, brands should establish closer links with consumers, learn about their needs and product feedback, and constantly optimize their products and services to realize sustainable development," Lu said.

With the approaching autumn leading to cooler weather and beautiful scenery, conditions are even more suitable for city walks. Coffee and tea brands may consider taking advantage of the popularity of "the first drink in autumn" and city walks to tap further business growth, industry experts said.