According to the 2025 China Urban Coffee Development Report, China’s coffee industry reached RMB 313.3 billion in 2024, up 18.1% year on year, and is expected to hit RMB 369.3 billion by 2025.
The huge consumer potential has intensified competition. While freshly brewed coffee is embroiled in an aggressive “9.9 RMB” price war, retail coffee—sold in pre-packaged formats for home or office use (including beans, grounds, drip bags, and capsules)—has also entered a fiercely competitive phase.
Beyond price-cutting, “low-carbon” is emerging as the new value anchor, helping brands upgrade their responsible image while increasingly becoming a green “entry ticket” for global retail channels—allowing retail coffee brands to gain favor with both end consumers (C-end) and retail buyers (B-end).
Challenges and Shifts: The rise of green preferences among c-end consumers
China’s coffee market consists of three key segments: freshly brewed coffee, RTD coffee, and retail coffee. Unlike the bustling and highly visible freshly brewed coffee shops, retail coffee—usually “parked” on shelves—struggles to actively communicate with consumers.
To break this barrier, retail coffee brands have relied on creative marketing strategies to capture consumer attention: IP collaborations, Free branded merchandise, “Ultra-instant” or cold-brew tech concepts , Concentrate + milk combo packs, etc.
However, as marketing becomes homogenized and the 9.9 RMB price war further erodes market share, finding new differentiators and building product competitiveness has become essential.
How can retail coffee carry deeper meaning and resonate with consumers? Low-carbon attributes are becoming the new anchor.
Consumer preference for green products is steadily rising. A PwC survey found:
50% of Mainland Chinese respondents are willing to buy more sustainable or climate-friendly products
Mainland consumers place higher importance on whether a brand meets sustainability standards—now a key factor in brand communication.
As younger generations grow into core consumers, their trust increasingly depends on verifiable, factual green benefits (e.g., lower carbon footprints, recyclable packaging). Transparent, accurate carbon footprint data has become central to building low-carbon credibility.
For retail coffee brands, authoritative low-carbon certification, backed by robust carbon data, is becoming a far more effective communication tool than IP tie-ins or trendy technical concepts.
B-End Retail Giants Drive Low-Carbon Supply Chains: Supplier Decarbonization Becomes a New Norm
If green preference from C-end consumers is the “pull force,” then procurement requirements from B-end retailers are the much stronger “push force.”
Around the world, retail giants such as Amazon, Walmart, Costco, and Alibaba have made “low-carbon” an unquestionable procurement priority, aligned with their long-term supply chain decarbonization strategies.
Amazon launched The Climate Pledge in 2019 to accelerate climate action across its supply chain.
Walmart aims to become a “regenerative company,” expanding the reach of its Gigaton Project with suppliers.
This focus stems from a structural reality: the vast majority of retail giants’ emissions come not from store operations but from their extensive supply chains—including purchased goods, transportation, and product use.
These indirect emissions are categorized as Scope 3. As shown below, Scope 3 accounts for more than three-quarters of total emissions across major retailers, with Walmart and Costco exceeding 98%.
Products supplied by manufacturers—such as retail coffee—fall under Scope 3 Category 1: Purchased Goods and Services, which often represent the largest portion of emissions. For Costco, Category 1 and Category 4 together make up 54% of Scope 3.
To calculate and track Scope 3 emissions, retailers must rely on accurate product-level carbon data from suppliers.
Thus, compared with competitors lacking green attributes, retail coffee products with verified carbon footprint data and brands equipped with solid carbon management systems are far more likely to be selected by sustainability-driven retailers.
For suppliers, low-carbon certification has shifted from a “bonus” to a prerequisite for entering global supply chains.
Breaking Through with Low-Carbon Value: How Nespresso Responds to Dual Pressures with Carbon Data Management
Facing green demands from both C-end and B-end, Nespresso—the leader in the retail coffee segment—has adopted multiple low-carbon strategies to build distinctive brand competitiveness.
Nespresso has set clear emission-reduction goals validated by SBTi:
Net zero by 2050
50.4% reduction in Scope 1 & 2 emissions by 2030
75% reduction in Scope 3 emissions by 2030 (base year: 2018)
Data provides the foundation.Nespresso developed a corporate-level Carbon Accounting Tool (CAT) to identify emission sources, monitor progress, and refine decarbonization planning based on precise data.
Nespresso leverages aluminum capsules to communicate two core values:
Functional value: Aluminum protects sensitive coffee grounds from air, light, and moisture while enduring high pressure during extraction, preserving freshness and flavor.
Low-carbon value: Single-use packaging often faces ESG scrutiny, but aluminum—infinitely recyclable without losing material properties—turns potential ESG risks into circular-economy advantages. Nespresso uses “recycling rate” as a performance indicator.
Through global recycling programs, Nespresso expects a 35% global capsule recycling rate in 2024, with many markets exceeding 50%.
Supported by solid carbon data, Nespresso meets both retail and consumer expectations, builds loyalty, and strengthens its global competitiveness.
Conclusion
In the battle for retail coffee, price wars have hit their limits. A new competition—centered on carbon data—is emerging.
Nespresso’s case shows that forward-looking decarbonization planning and robust carbon management can transform supply chain pressure into a real competitive edge.
For retail coffee brands, proactively conducting lifecycle carbon footprint assessments, obtaining authoritative certifications, and building internal digital carbon management systems have become critical pathways to achieving a green breakthrough in global food supply chains.
References:
[1]PwC’s Voice of the Consumer Survey 2024 China report, https://www.pwccn.com/en/retail-and-consumer/voice-of-consumers-china-report-oct2024.pdf
[2]Amazon, Walmart, Costco, Alibaba, Nespresso public information
[3]Carbon Newture. Global retail giants such as Amazon, Walmart, Costco, and Alibaba have put forward these carbon reduction requirements, https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Z17wzdfMYkwRS9LGEAkEUw