This is part of a larger review of the best coffee shop websites for inspiration.
It's hard to ignore the trend of online coffee subscription box services. The model appears to be rapidly growing and offers compelling advantages to consumers and coffee shop owners alike.
Consumers, who generally intend to drink coffee routinely, get an easy way of sustaining their supply with a steady stream of coffee delivered monthly.
Online coffee shops in turn get a more reliable source of cashflow and are better able to offer discounts through the ordering of larger quantities.
This page will cover and highlight some of the more compelling examples of coffee websites that offer subscription models. These websites serve as incredibly useful examples of businesses that are executing this model nearly flawlessly.
Atlas Coffee Club
Yes, we mentioned Atlas Coffee Club already in our round up of some of the more insipirational coffee websites in 2020, but it's hard to avoid not mentioning them in connection to coffee subscription models.
They've done a great job of mastering the art of this type of business.
For instance, their website quickly makes it very clear that they offer more than "just" coffee.
As they explain each box will come with tasting notes, brewing tips, and a postcard corresponding to the coffee's place of origin.
Even more impressively, consider how much thought and effort they put in into outlining how well their coffee product/service works for gifts:
The imagery is carefully selected and the value proposition of there being a "new adventure in every cup" is explicitly called out and exertly illustrated.
Their website is a great illustration of how and why the product is sold based on how it is "packaged". There's a clearly stated value proposition that is targeted to a very specific type of customer segment (those looking for coffee gift giving opportunities).
Roasted Bean Box
Roasted Bean Box calls itself the "World's First Data-driven Coffee Subscription".
Essentially they provide online tools and dashboards that allow customers to give and track feedback related to the coffees they sample. The "customer dashboard" evolves over time until it reflects a progressively mature flavour profile.
The "rating system" lets customers "grade" the coffee they receive as “perfect”, “great”, “good” or “dislike”. Once they have tried enough coffee the system can start to be used to populate recommendations based on their tasts, so the risk is mitigated or removed for those who want to be adventurous in trying new coffee but still want to make sure they will like the product they get.
This is example offers less in the way of interest website design ideas but the underlying idea is cool and shows how the combination of online and subscription based coffee services can open the door to meaningful ways of differenting the produce and the business.
Driftaway Coffee Club
Driftaway Coffee are included simply because they are doing some very cool things in the world of subscription based coffee.
They offer a cool subscription "process" whereby the customer starts with an exploratory package / selection based on four different coffee flavour profiles.
The customer can then rate each of the types of coffees and in turn gets personalized recommendations based on their ratings and preferences.
Another great idea they had was to offer virtual tasting events, inclusing some led by World Brewer's Champions who can help you better understand the nuances of your coffee while you go through the tasting.
The idea is basically to offer not just coffee, but the opportunity to become a coffee connoisseur.
This is a fanastic way to turn the usual disadvantage of selling coffee online - that consumers can't necessarily try the coffee before they buy larger quantities - on its head.
The website leans into the challenge and offers a great process to have customers refine their preferences and goes even further to offer "Coffee education" as a service.
Coffee subscription websites are rapidly proliferating and definitely scratch a an itch current coffee consumers have. Having said that, the underlying theme consistent across all the websites that do a good job of offering this service is that they have developed some way to help people make educated decisions about the coffee they will subscribe to AND they continue to do so long after the first few sales.