All you need is a little imagination to stand out from your competitors and gain the largest share of the market. Therefore, creativity is the word!
Here are six ideas to make your coffee shop really innovative:
Pottery Café
You go to a pottery café to paint. After ordering their cappuccino, customers are invited to pick a cup or a small ceramic or chalk statue and, paint brush in hand, let their creativity flow. Pottery cafés usually dedicate one day a week to ceramics and offer standard coffee shop service during the rest of the week. Once everything has been set, from the drying to the price of the small statues, the café will become the place to be for all ages.
Art Gallery
It would be great if your coffee shop could attract not only coffee but also art lovers. Dreaming is not enough: to turn a coffee shop into a meeting point for artists and intellectuals you need a special concept. Many coffee shops display works of art: not only paintings but also wooden sculptures, chalk masks, wrought-iron frames or hand-made jewellery.
Play Area
In Northern Europe, coffee shops with a play area have become popular. Perhaps because they have more children? In Italy, there are so few that the opening of a new one triggers word of mouth between families with children. For those looking for a softer solution, a bookcase containing fairy tales, sheets of paper, crayons and some board games would be enough. Parents will certainly remember it!
Voucher
Loyalty discounts never go out of fashion. If, for every coffee purchased you give the tenth one free, you will most certainly attract a group of habitués to your coffee shop. Vouchers have the immediate effect of increasing sales and are a great starting point to trigger word of mouth. Sandwiches can be sold at half-price after a specific time and who buys ice-cream may be entitled to a free ball after the third one.
Customisable Interior Walls
Are you looking for innovative ideas to decorate an empty wall? If the wall is made of exposed bricks, you could sell the bricks virtually and give the proceeds to charity. The buyer of the brick may colour it or write an inscription. If the wall is plastered, part of it could become a large blackboard for customers to write their thoughts.
Pet Café
Wouldn’t it be nice to share your space with a pet even in a café? You could set up a cat café and share the sofa with a sleepy cat or even an aquarium café with tropical fish in plain view. Even a café in a city farm can be inviting and is an unusual way to spend an afternoon.