China is seeing an increasing number of cafes with interior decorations featuring eye-catching themes. The so-called themed cafes became a perk in terms of building an all-round experience for the customers, inspired by their favorite characters or animals.

Themed cafes are a new way of reaching targeted audiences. A coffeehouse in Shanghai with paintings and decoration inspired by famous Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh draws a lot of consumers. The company combines art and coffee bringing a unique experience to the consumers. The general manager, Li Xuan, said that they have spent most of the money upgrading the decoration and the menu.

"Our costs can be mainly divided into three categories. First, coffee, desserts and derivative products. Second is the decoration, and the third goes to coffee and dessert classes we put on once a week. Compared to regular coffee houses that pay more attention to the coffee itself, though, we think the visual environment we create matters more for our consumers," he said. 

Meanwhile, animals are becoming the cafe's cute stars. A Shiba Inu themed café is a winner. For around 100 yuan, you can get more than one-hour bonding session with the puppies, and then pay for your drinks and desserts on top of that. Yang Zeyu is the owner of Shiba Mansion Café, he said that the shop provides value-added services by offering merchandise products like puppy-shaped pillows and phone cases to help keep the coffee prices down.

"Since we are a Shiba-themed cafe, we invest a lot in puppy care as well as in rent and decoration. We do upgrade our menus, for example, the weather is getting cold, so we cut down on the mousses and introduce more hot drinks," Yang added.

He Ling, founder of Feiyue Investment Corporation, said theme cafes are obviously selling a lot more than just coffee. He said individually themed-cafes invest more in their IP, but not in coffee. "Coffee offering is just an additional service," she said.

Coffee chains like Starbucks and Luckin now have their own themed shops as well. Ms. He said the big-name theme shops rely on their coffee offerings as the backbone of their income like Luckin's NASA themed shops which aim at market hype to drive coffee sales. While the individually themed cafes lure consumers with the decoration, He said they are exploring a totally different kind of coffee market.

(CGTN's Yu Wen contributed to this story.)