Luckin's Approach To Launching A Staggering 119 New Drinks In A Year – CoffeeTalk

Luckin Coffee has launched 119 new drinks in the span of just a year, including the Cheese Latte, a milk-based coffee blending milk and cheese, with a launch-day sales of 1.31 million cups and a first-week sales of 6.59 million cups. The success of Luckin’s Cheese Latte can be attributed to several factors, including the novelty of cheese in coffee, a well-optimised supply chain, accessible pricing, algorithm-driven marketing, and a formidable R&D engine.

Luckin Coffee’s R&D system is data- and process-driven, with decisions on what to launch next based on customer behavior, market signals, and structured internal testing. This system outweighs human judgment, and the R&D processes are rigorous, repeatable, and followed to the dot. The Cheese Latte was developed as a hero product, receiving top-level attention and resources, with leadership closely involved from the start. It underwent 17 rounds of internal testing over 7 months, including a soft launch in four cities alongside competing concepts, a tactic referred to as “horse racing.”

Luckin Coffee’s R&D process is more like a tech company than a traditional F&B brand, with structured workflows, internal benchmarks, and system-wide coordination. This allows the company to launch more than 119 new SKUs in 2024 alone, about 10 every month.

Luckin Coffee has already expanded into Singapore and Malaysia, where it launched “Big Cheese Latte” in Singapore. However, the original Cheese Latte has yet to make its debut in the U.S. Luckin’s data team is likely watching this closely, as it could land this autumn, just like it did in China, leveraging similar weather patterns and seasonal moods.

Luckin Coffee’s success in launching so many new drinks in a year is largely due to its data- and process-driven approach. The Cheese Latte, for example, sold 1.31 million cups on its launch day, making it one of Luckin’s most successful product debuts.

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