Luckin Coffee is a new leading retail coffee company. Pioneering a digital retail model, Luckin Coffee aims to bring coffee to customers with high quality, high affordability and high convenience. Since its founding, Luckin has reshaped how people buy coffee—pairing an app-first ordering experience with a dense network of stores, so that a cup of coffee is always just a few taps and a short walk away without waiting in line.
As Luckin expanded into the Singapore market, it brought the same ambition with it: not only to sell coffee, but to build lasting relationships with local customers. And in retail, especially in the FMCG industry like coffee, the way a brand stays in touch with customers makes all the difference.
Meeting Local Customers Where They Already Are
Abundant research is a must for a brand to enter a new market. Before launching its marketing in Singapore, Luckin Coffee made a deliberate choice about how to reach local customers. Luckin Coffee realized that consumers in Singapore used to communicate on WhatsApp rather than SMS and email for daily interactions, and they expected brand messages to be more like friend chats.
This insight shaped Luckin’s overall outreach strategies. For a coffee business, the customer contact logic is straightforward: keep touchpoints frequent and smooth, and keep customers coming back. That’s what WhatsApp can offer. WhatsApp provides a channel where customers actually open and read messages at a cost far lower than traditional SMS or phone outreach. Also, with over 3.3 billion monthly active users, WhatsApp ensures a wide coverage of customers.
To put this approach into action at scale, Luckin Coffee partnered with Sobot, who provided the comprehensive WhatsApp solution for Luckin’s customer contact.
Build Trust First with a Verified WhatsApp Business Account
To run marketing on WhatsApp properly, a brand needs more than a personal number. An officially authorized business account is more likely to win customers’ trust. As an authorized WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP) certified by Meta, Sobot helped Luckin Coffee register a WhatsApp Business Account (WABA), making it eligible to send broadcast messages safely and run automated promotional campaigns at scale.
Just as important is the green tick that comes with official account certification. When customers see a verified Luckin Coffee account rather than an unknown number, they are far more likely to trust the message, open it, redeem the coupon inside, and head to a store. For a brand still building recognition in a new market, that verified identity turns a cold message into a credible invitation.
Reach the Right Customers with Layered Marketing Campaigns
Not every customer needs the same message. With Sobot’s WhatsApp Business API and omnichannel customer service system, Luckin Coffee could label and segment its audience and tailor campaigns to where each customer was in their journey:
- Re-engage active customers. For customers who order regularly, Luckin sends timely discount coupons to keep them active and encourage repeat purchases, enhancing customers’ brand loyalty and driving its revenue.
- Win back dormant customers. For customers who haven’t bought coffee for some time, Luckin runs periodic win-back campaigns, sending offers designed to bring them back into stores and lift their lifetime value (LTV) rather than letting them lapse.
- Close the loop with satisfaction surveys. After customers receive a coupon and complete a purchase in store, Luckin follows up through WhatsApp to survey customer satisfaction (CSAT). As customers are comfortable replying on WhatsApp, the response rates are always ideal, giving Luckin real feedback to keep improving its service and experience.
By importing and labeling existing customer data, Luckin could direct each of these campaigns to the right group of customers, making every message more relevant and every campaign more effective.
Drive Online Messages into Offline Sales
What makes this story a true retail win is the link between the online messages and the physical stores. Luckin Coffee’s goal was never just a high open rate—it was to convert digital engagement into real foot traffic and in-store consumption.
The flow is simple and powerful: a verified WhatsApp message lands in the customer’s chat, the customer opens it, redeems the coupon, and visits a nearby Luckin store to enjoy their coffee. Each broadcast becomes a measurable nudge toward an offline purchase, and each visit feeds back into the cycle—more data, better targeting, stronger loyalty.
This online-to-offline connection is exactly what high-frequency retail brands need: a low-cost, high-reach channel that doesn’t just generate clicks, but brings customers through the door again and again.
With Sobot’s WhatsApp solution, Luckin Coffee has achieved an 84% WhatsApp message open rate, a 20% increase in marketing ROI, and 97% CSAT.
Going Global with Confidence
Luckin Coffee’s experience in Singapore offers a clear playbook for retail and F&B brands expanding into new markets: understand how local customers prefer to communicate, build a trusted presence on that channel, and use it to turn everyday marketing into repeat in-store visits.
If your brand is taking its retail business globally and wants to reach customers where they actually are, Sobot can help. As an authorized WhatsApp BSP officially certified by Meta, Sobot supports you with a verified WhatsApp Business Account, scalable campaigns, and a full suite of customer contact products—from live chat and chatbot to ticketing and voice. Contact us for a free trial and start building stronger customer relationships in every market.
