Entrepreneurship

Launching the MacroFuel Food Online Store

This blog post is a bit overdue, but I wanted to take some time to talk about my experience building the MacroFuel Food Online Store.

MacroFuel Food Store Launch Goals

We launched the first version of the store in early February 2016.  This first iteration had 2 focuses:

  1. Giving access to our Kickstarter backers to re-order MacroFuel.

  2. Expanding our customer base in a controlled manner by requiring referrals for our new customers.

This proved wildly successful!  We not only sold out of our inventory in under a month, but we also discovered who our most passionate customers are so that we knew who to reach out to for continued feedback on the product.  The overwhelming interest gave us the data we needed to restock our supply, and retool the store for a broader launch.

MacroFuel Food Online Store v1 Entrance Page

MacroFuel Food Online Store v1 Catalog

Learnings and Improvements

The second version of the store launched less than 2 months after the initial launch (at the end of March).  We restocked our inventory, and I retooled the store to allow anyone to purchase MacroFuel without a referral in order to scale the business.  We also expanded the referral program to allow new customers to receive a discount on their first purchase, and referring customers to receive discounts as their friends use their referral code.  We are working to emphasize referrals in our shopping experience in order to take advantage of word-of-mouth marketing.

The revamped store also focuses on highlighting the discount rates available when purchasing in bulk.  This new offering has proven extremely effective, with over 50% orders placed including two or more bags, and over 30% of orders placed including four or more bags.  This data shows that our customers appreciate the bulk discounts, and that many customers want MacroFuel on hand at all times as a staple of their diet.

MacroFuel Food Online Store v2 Desktop

MacroFuel Food Online Store v2 Mobile

What’s next

I will continue to iterate on the store to improve the shopping experience.  It is currently optimized for Desktop, Tablet and Mobile shopping, but there are definitely some further improvements that I can make for the mobile shopping experience in terms of adjusting the checkout process to be better suited for mobile.

Moreover, with the introduction of bots, so we are aiming to make future versions of the store accessible via Facebook Messenger and Slack.

Additionally, we want to introduce subscriptions for MacroFuel.  This opens up the opportunity for deeper discounts for our repeat customers, and ensuring that our most loyal customers always have a full stock of MacroFuel at home!

Stay tuned for more updates regarding MacroFuel - Fuel your life.

Buy MacroFuel now at the Online Store or on eBay.  Learn more about MacroFuel on our website.

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