If you can't be bread, become cake. About conducting food e-commerce

This year, it will be 4 years since I started being responsible for e-commerce (and a little later marketing) at the speciality HAIB coffee shop in Warsaw. So I think this is a good opportunity to briefly talk about what it looks like to launch a premium brand for e-commerce (and beyond!) in practice. 

However, before I get serious and start sharing my thoughts on current activities, I'll add one more brief explanation. Unlike most of my fellow smokers, I did not go the typical coffee industry path "from the front line in gastro to the back", but moved myself horizontally, as it were, from e - commerce to marketing activities in another industry. It would seem completely different, because it was a sale of chic, expensive clothes. Although the specifics of the products varied significantly, it was such a natural transition for me that I switched the monetization of one hobby to another. Perhaps naively, I also moved some habits in this case, which will be key in this text.

Such an unconventional approach in practice often manifested itself even in very surprising actions, but in the end – today I can already speak about this with full responsibility-it usually brought extremely good results!

Of course, I can see huge differences between selling products for high three-and low four-digit amounts in zlotys, and coffee, one bag of which rarely exceeds one hundred zlotys, but I believe that there are correct rules, regardless of what we actually trade. Especially when we are moving in the premium segment, we offer products that are somewhat exclusive or focus on them primarily for conscious enthusiasts, which concerns me and probably many of you every day.

By the word of introduction

For the purposes of my research, I am happy to put the thesis that e-commerce in the food industry is one of the most rewarding. Its correctness will be determined, as usual, by the question of whether we are skilfully using the wide range of opportunities that this type of e-commerce provides, trying to take advantage of its advantages and circumvent its disadvantages. Yes, it sounds corny – like many similar tips - but if you look closely, you will find that in practice, many online store managers simply do not do this, based on rigid old-fashioned beliefs.

To present this in the best possible way, I will tell you a little bit about how I have acted (and continue to act) so far, making decisions about products and the development of our store. To make it easier, I'll try to put this in the form of easy-to-understand, easy-to-read tips. Are you ready? Let's get started!

And just to be clear-when I advise you, I assume that you already have and want to sell a product that protects its quality and is fairly valued in relation to it – for me, this is mousse, without which I do not predict your long-term success. 😉

Take advantage of the obvious advantage of the FMCG sector

This is FMCG – fast moving consumer goods, fast-acting products. Food-food, an essential product. Understand that you are selling things that people need, and they will invariably (at least in some simplification) need them. Your customers will order them at the right moment (read "last minute"), and use them relatively quickly... and repeat. Let's assume that your product will meet one of their basic needs, and if it meets the expectations placed on it, they will most likely choose it again-whether it's every day or from a holiday, if we're just talking about relatively expensive things. You don't need to constantly face the problem of how to help the customer rationalize the purchase in advance, how to sow the need for purchase in them – you can assume that they already have it, and you just need to show up at the right moment, give them a solution and use it to meet this need accordingly.

However, please note that this client will be impatient, and this is not only a plus. Maybe the decision will be made faster, but in the end, impatience comes down to the fact that his attitude will tell you that he is just ordering something that he really needs and wants to get it as soon as possible. Even though he doesn't usually pay much (within a single transaction), he expects haste and the best possible customer service. Delivery must be efficient, order and delivery status information is up-to-date, and the product is delivered in properly protected packaging. If you can meet these requirements and, by the way, take care of something extra, "something extra" that will make ordering a seemingly ordinary thing, such as a pack of coffee or cans of peanut butter, a great experience for him-congratulations, you won!

Take care of a good experience

Even though customer service is actually at the end of the chain, I think that's where you need to start in order to make a good first impression. In addition,even when you have already won the heart of your new client, you must take care to maintain it, while maintaining a high level. Keep in mind that our industry typically has high customer retention, both because you just need to come back after a purchase (because inventory is running out) and because the customer is loyal to the brand (when they buy something often, they don't have enough time to think about it each choice). This is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it is very pleasant that the customer you once purchased is very likely to return to you, and on the other, they will catch any deviation from the norm, especially if the quality of the product or service deteriorates between one and the other purchase. You can't leave the guard-be prepared all the time and make sure that every customer encounter with your brand (and your store) is just as good!

I'm not going to throw you data about how an x% increase in retention will lead to a y% increase in profit – there are studies of various agencies and search results for "customer retention" in Google for this purpose. I want to emphasize that I know from experience, how important is the loyal customer base? - not only in the context of returning your favorite products, but also testing new products and collecting valuable, honest reviews from the market. Don't think of each purchase as a separate event – approach it on the basis of building long-term relationships that will be mutually beneficial.

And, one more thing - if you think that, despite the fact that you work in the food industry, in your case this is impossible, because, for example, you sell products very expensive compared to competitors, work in a very specific niche, or just have an unresolved problem with customer retention, I have there is also a solution for you. I will describe them with a somewhat absurd metaphor( this is my specialty): if you can't be my husband, be a loverIf you can't be a healthy diet, be cheat mealemIf you can't be with bread, be cake. What does it mean? If you are not a safe, everyday choice, turn it into an advantage and become one (with a pricing strategy, product strategy, communication strategy...) something a little forbidden, a sinful pleasure, a rebound from reality. Something that you really want to have, even when this choice contradicts logic and common sense.

Think carefully about your offer

And so we smoothly move on to "third" and "fourth", which merge together a little: yes, despite their appearance, food processing products can also be desirable products. Yes, when buying them, you can be guided by huge emotions and impulsively make a choice. And no, this is done not only at the last level of the decision ("I'm sad, the queue is long, I'll throw this bar in the basket"), but also at the level of choosing the brand or store itself. You should take this into account when working in your ecommerce business. I can add for myself that such products, such movements, with proper communication, generate the most traffic and, ultimately, transactions.

First, turning to aspirations – keep in mind that the products that are your best sellers don't necessarily have to be the products that you should pay the most attention to and invest in marketing them. I would venture to say that in our industry, many people do not pay attention to this, downplay this issue, explaining to themselves that "in the end, it's just coffee/butter/bar/etc.", and when positioning themselves, they are guided only by competition in this segment, and not by their own offer. This is a mistake!

Again, I'll use a metaphor to illustrate this: when people choose a Mercedes A, they don't buy it because it's the best car in itself, but because they have a certain brand image in their head. This one, in turn, is built with the most expensive, fastest, and most luxurious models – the ones they can't afford, but want so badly that they're more likely to choose a cheaper replacement that's within their reach.

Simply put: it's the same in the food industry. Even if we can't afford the flagship product of a given brand, we will be happy to buy a cheaper version of it, believing that because they are able to do something so good, even in cheaper productions, the quality aspect will also be improved. We observe a simple dependence in HAIB - when we focus on these most expensive, most unique and, by the way, most frequently changing coffees, they seem to” pull " coffee cheaper, more everyday, more accessible for the average customer. Ultimately, only together do these products form a complete offering that is not only diversified in terms of the richness of the client portfolio, but is also communicatively consistent, offering multiple responses to a single need.

As for emotions and impulses, in turn-as I have already said, since this phenomenon is well known in the food industry, it is mainly discussed in the context of the appropriate placement of products in physical stores (which are already classic shelves at cash registers) or suggestions to add a small product to the basket at the last minute (this is the case with in online stores). However, I would like to emphasize that you can – and even should-use this emotional game not only to increase the shopping basket, but also to ensure that the customer comes to shop at all. No matter what type of product you're selling, you can take advantage of a penchant for collecting ("Oh, I've already tried a few options, but this isn't there yet"), a desire to feel exclusive ("limited edition, I might not understand!") or a penchant for experimentation ("interesting taste, I'll take it for a change"). Keep in mind that adding such new products, even in short bursts, also entails selling the main products that form the basis of the offer.

Find an idea for yourself

To conclude with a good piece of advice, I would like to touch on another issue that I myself pay a lot of attention to: don't limit yourself to communication and how you present your products (including your store) to focus only on the standard of nutrition! Of course, mouth-watering, sensory-stimulating, food photos/videos / texts are important, but if you devote yourself only to them, then... there will probably be someone who will still do it better, attracting a larger budget, better specialists and accumulated experience. If, on the other hand, you come up with a different strategy, you find your idea, it will be harder for others to beat you.

When I came to the coffee shop directly from the industry of, as I affectionately say, beautiful and expensive clothing, I was used to the fact that communication should be based on good photos, characteristic people and a demonstration of the product in its natural environment-in general, widely understood lifestyle. It was hard for me to switch to industry-typical lifeless compositions – that's why... I hardly did that. These were once less and once more informed decisions that gradually led to the fact that KHYB drifted more and more towards being a brand lifestyleby selling just a food item, instead of being a typical brand food.

It turned out that this can be done without too many problems, and a lot of experience or thinking about what you like and what you think is good to follow can be transferred from one industry to another. It's enough that instead of falling into the trap of thinking "what should I do when running a food ecommerce business", think about what you'd like to do in general-and give it a try. I don't guarantee that it will work, but the probability of it happening is greater than you think!

To summarize…

Turning to the summary - because I see that I'm starting to delve too deeply into philosophical and brand-wide issues-I would like to emphasize that it is not by chance that we have come to think about marketing. I believe that it is impossible to deal with an online store-whether it is an owner or an ecommerce manager-without sitting in marketing*. This is the absolute foundation for understanding customer needs and planning their activities.

Without a good strategy-from this product to a communicative and "hard" e-commerce strategy-it is difficult to succeed!

Yes, you can spend a lot of your time thinking about the next UX improvements, looking at your site's heatmap, analyzing traffic, doing SEO research, and deciphering subsequent implementation changes-but if you focus only on this, without paying attention to more fundamental, more core business issues, you will only optimize the existing situation, without creating conditions for true growth. Without a product, without quality, even the best platform itself will not generate sales.

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* Unless we are talking about large stores of global giants, where this boundary of competence between areas is very clearly delineated – but I assume that if you are reading this, you are rather building or expanding e-commerce on a much smaller scale.