The term “Black Gold” traditionally is associated with crude oil. But there is another contender for this title – coffee.

Coffee ranks among the world’s top traded commodities, much like oil, with a staggering 2.5 billion cups consumed each day. In the U.S., around 60% of the population enjoys a daily cup, and Starbucks alone operates nearly 40,000 locations across the globe—almost 18,000 of which are in North America.

The coffee industry is highly competitive, with hundreds of operators vying for market share. Within this space, the coffee shop franchising sector is especially thriving, as at least 44% of coffee drinkers purchase takeaway coffee from franchise cafés several times a week.

Alongside major players, which, after Starbucks with its $27.5 billion in sales, include Dunkin’s, Dutch Bros Coffee, and Tim Hortons, there are many regional coffee chains, like Caribou and Scooter’s. But what makes the coffee industry so exciting is the proliferation of small chains, including multiple startups. At a recently held Franchise Expo in Atlanta, GA, we met with at least three such companies: Elliano’s, Ramblin’ Joe’s, and Biggby. And guess what – all of them are serving excellent coffee!

This diversity of offering certainly provides the consumer with many choices. Which of the new players will be a market leader tomorrow? It’s hard to tell. But we can offer one helpful suggestion: to increase market share, it certainly helps to KYC, which stands for Know Your Customer. If you know who they are, you can figure out what they want, and give it to them.

It sounds easy on paper, but in real life, it’s quite a lot of work, involving thorough analysis of traffic patterns, travel times, points of origin, and a myriad of demographic parameters…

It takes a fully staffed analytics department to deal with data of this complexity.

It costs a lot.

Or so it was, until Ticon came up with an easy, affordable solution to this important but challenging task. Ticon’s site analysis can be ordered online in a matter of minutes, and received in a matter of days. No need to enter into lengthy agreements or pay hefty user fees. You only pay for what you need, when you need it.

The door to Knowing Your Customer, at any place across America, is now open to you.

And we’ll have a large Americano to go, please!