Serve your existing customers this holiday season, and they’ll bring you new ones.
Welcome to Operator Notes, a weekly newsletter written by coffee operators, consultants, creators, and practitioners who spot trends and share insight on what to do about them.
This week’s edition is written by Garrett Oden, publisher at Fresh Cup.
✉️ Operator Notes: practical advice from people working in coffee.
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Holiday Discount Shoppers Leave When the Discounts Do
Black Friday, November 27 this year, kicks off what coffee business operators tend to describe as their busiest time of the year: holiday gifting season.
In my experience, it’s rarely the smartest idea to try to attract new customers in this period. If they come because of steep discounts, they are likely to leave when the discounts expire. I’d never tell you to avoid positive cash flow altogether, but revenue from discount-seekers is fleeting.
What I often suggest to brands I’ve worked with is focusing on serving your existing customers. They already know and love you, they want to give gifts that feel thoughtful and personal, they have people they are eager to use their gifting budget for, and chances are they want to use their cash to support you. If you can help them give great gifts (and maybe get a little something for themselves in the process), they’ll become more endeared to your brand and use your offerings to bring others into your orbit.
There are many examples of cafes and roasters doing this well:
- In-person deals: Kneads and Wants Bakery has a handful of Small Business Saturday deals planned this year, including a coffee lover’s gift bundle of beans and home-brewing accessories; a gift card bonus of Buy $50, Get $10; and a discount on three bags of coffee.
- Sitewide discounts: Partners Coffee, Onyx Coffee Lab, Madcap Coffee, and many others had sitewide discounts between Black Friday and Cyber Monday last year.
- Feel-good offers: Nossa Familia in Portland donated $1,220 from 2025 holiday sales of its Festa blend. The Roasterie in Kansas City similarly donated 10% of Giving Tuesday’s sales to Big Brothers Big Sisters.
- Subscription incentives: YES PLZ gave new customers 20% off their first bag and took 20% off the cost of prepaid gift subscriptions.
If you can offer gift options that are well-tailored to your established customer base, you can earn that gifting budget.
Make Giving and Receiving a Lovely Experience
Your job this holiday season is to capture the gifting budget your customers already have. Do that well, and the new customers follow. When someone hands a friend a bag of your coffee or a gift card to your shop, they’re passing along a personal recommendation stronger than any ad you could run. Optimize for that moment of generosity. You’ll earn both new customers and the affinity of existing ones.
Make giving your gifts the easy choice. Bags of coffee and cafe gift cards are already top-of-mind gifts among your customers, but there are countless places to buy them. Small incentives like gift card vouchers or “buy two gifts, get one for you” offers make it easy for your customers to choose you over other brands on their shortlist.
Embrace the bundle. Some of the highest-selling holiday offers I’ve seen are bundles of products. For example, a brewing kit that includes a bag of coffee, a french press, and a hand grinder—an easy gift for anyone starting to take coffee seriously. I’ve also seen ingredient bundles with beans, house-made syrups, and local goodies (chocolates, biscotti, cookies) sell well. The curated bundle makes the gift feel thoughtful, which makes it easier for you to sell.
Have a retention strategy for the new customers. The people receiving gifts will enter into your ecosystem for a brief time by visiting your cafe or looking up your roastery’s website. They’ll have an experience that will determine whether or not they return, and you want to be ready. If you are a cafe, train your staff to spot and welcome new visitors in the new year and help them feel comfortable. If you are a roaster, include materials in your gifting options that introduce your brand and values, and give recipients a reason to order again.
Go Deeper
Your Merch Needs a Strategy, and the Black Tee Is Not It
Merch is one of the easiest things to gift, so give it more thought than a default black tee.
The Magic and Skill of Building a Holiday Blend
Three roasters on building a holiday blend worth giving.
The Coffee Membership Is the New Subscription
If a Cyber Monday subscription is the thing you’re selling, here’s how roasters are making members stick around once the initial discount expires.
How Four Coffee Brands Are Turning Valentine’s Day Into a High-Sales Holiday
The preorder, bundle and limited-quantity playbook from these cafes works just as well in November.
Photo courtesy of Logan Weaver on Unsplash.
