Weekly Update July 18th

4 Retail Customer Retention Strategies

July 18, 2022

Hey , 

Happy Monday! If you're like me you're starting the day with a delicious cup of coffee or tea. I've been really enjoying

, which has a smooth flavor, bright color, and feels like morning.  

Today I want to talk about how we measure success in retail (or lack thereof). E-commerce brands are great at tracking sophisticated business metrics like Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC), Lifetime Value (LTV), Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). But retail seems to be a mysterious black box free for all. 

I'd suggest we learn from e-commerce customer journeys and start to apply the same logic to retail execution. Let's start with customer retention in retail.

PS. If you were forwarded this newsletter, please 

. 

   Retail Customer Retention Strategies

You should build a retail retention strategy in the same way that you build an e-commerce retention strategy. While harder to track, it’s important to implement strategies to retain customers. Think of each individual store as having new customers for potential trial, customers who have purchased once, and repeat customers who purchase multiple times. Below are four retention strategies and how to implement them.

Quarterly Promotions - 

Many retailers require you to offer a quarterly discount of 15-20% to drive new customer trial and encourage repurchases. At first glance, this can feel like a retailer taking money out of your pocket, but think about it as a customer acquisition and retention strategy. On the retention side, the sales tag can help your product stand out from the shelf and incentivize previous customers to purchase again, or purchase in bulk. 

Demos - 

Sampling customers in store is a great way to increase trial, but you should leveage samping to build first party customer data. How? Offer a $1 rebate on purchase when a customer signs up for your e-mail list. Customer sends you a photo of their receipt and you venmo them the rebate. Tag customers in your CRM based on the store they purchased at. Send after event automation e-mails educating consumers about your brand. If sales are slowing at a retailer, you can e-mail those specific customers to drive velocity with an offer.

Customer Requests - 

Do you know what stores your e-commerce customers shop at? Most people still prefer to do the bulk of their food and beverage sales in store. So are you available where they shop? Ask your digital customers where they shop using a tool like WeStock and use customer requests to open up those retailers. 

Coupons / Rebates - 

You can leverage your customer shopping behavior data from the two tactics above to then offer targeted coupons or rebate offers to drive your digital customers in store. Why might you do that? You can drive velocity at certain retail partners and leverage that data to expand in more stores. Customers may purchase your products more frequently if they don’t have to pay high shipping costs or minimum order quantities online. 

Let me know what you think about this thinking by sending me an email.

Jordan Buckner

Foodbevy

MANAGE PROMOTIONS AND DEMOS

Getting your products onto the grocery shelf is a huge accomplishment. But once you’re there, then what? Achieving this major milestone only leads to a much bigger, steeper, and potentially deadly chasm to cross.

Selling successfully off of retail shelves takes careful, strategic management of precious limited resources - time, money, and people. And that’s where one of our newest Foodbevy partners, 

, comes in.

How Promomash Can Help:

  • Trade & Deduction Management Plan and optimize Trade Promotions, Key Accounts and Independent Channels, and streamline settlements and deductions.

  • Field & Event Marketing Management Plan, staff, execute, and analyze in-house and agency-led field marketing: in-store demos, events, online activations, influencer programs and more.

  • Field Sales & Broker Management Stay connected with your field rep and broker teams, get visibility into store visit details, and gain actionable performance insights.

  • Brand Ambassador Recruiting & Training Find the right ambassador talent to represent your brand, and train them online to tell your story and sell your products consistently.

Exclusive for Foodbevy Members!

Get a 

FREE 30-minute CPG Retail Promotion assessment and consultation

 focused on YOUR company and brand’s retail promotion scenario. Visit 

 to learn more.

TAKE BLOG WRITING OFF YOUR PLATE

I know that blog writing will definitely help my SEO, but I can never find the time to do it. That's why I was really excited to work with Mariah, who specializes in creating compelling content for food businesses. I partnered with her to write blog posts for Good Food Brands and couldn't be happier. 

Check out our latest post here:

Mariah offers blog packages, blog management, and individual blog posts. Each blog post is SEO-friendly, with stock photography. 

You can also take a look at her portfolio here:

.

If you’re ready to take blogging seriously but need some help with content, don’t hesitate to reach out. Sign up here and receive 20% off your first monthly package (four 1000-word blog posts).

WIN A $20,000 GRANT FROM EMERGING BRANDS ALLIANCE

can help CPG companies scale their operations by providing funds for manufacturing and packaging-related expenses. The grants program is supported by the Emerging Brands Alliance, a year-round resource for the emerging brands community launching Fall of 2022 at 

.

Grants can be used to enable a variety of projects and resources, such as prototype creation, market research, legal and consultant services, creation of pitch materials for investors, exhibiting fees, custom packaging for e-commerce and much more.

A total of three $20,000 grants will be awarded, one each in the following categories:

  • certified minority or women-owned company

  • self-manufacturing company

  • any eligible company

The grant application, review and award timeline is as follows:

June 15 – September 15, 2022       Applications accepted

September 15 –25, 2022                 Applications reviewed

September 25, 2022                        Finalists notified

October 23, 2022                             Grants awarded at the Emerging Brands Summit

HOW I INCREASED BY D2C AOV

I'm constantly trying new apps and software and found one that increased my conversion rate by 15% and AOV 40% (from $35 to $50). The app is called VEEPER. 

How does it work?

  1. Install the app for free.

  2. Veeper nudges shoppers to add items to the cart by enticing them with a variable discount.

  3. Veeper auto-applies the optimum discount and one-time use personalized promo code at checkout.

I reached out to the founder and he's offering everyone in the Foodbevy community 1 month fee-free (normally they take 2.5% of each transaction that uses the discount).It's worth testing on your site. You can see Veeper running on my Good Food Brands site here

20% OFF CPG VIDEO SHOOT

If you're looking to shoot video content for your brand, look no further than our friends at The Creative Haven. They're experts in shooting videos for CPG products that make your products look delicious and effectively tell your brand story. 

Best of all they're offering the Foodbevy community 20% off your first video shoot. Just request an intro below.

Check out their work here: https://thecreativehaven.com/food-and-beverage-portfolio

NEW PODCAST EPISODE: 48. 5 Ways to Utilize Smart Sampling Programs

Are you leveraging smart sampling to gain customer trial? Smart sampling is utilizing a virtual platform to identify target customers and individually send samples to them for feedback. Join me as I talk with Mathieu Gamache, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at Zero dB on how he leverages Sampler's  smart sampling program to: 

  • Get 1000s of new customer product trial

  • Create a target customer profile based on demographics

  • Tweak product flavors and taste based on reports

  • Leverage sampling data in retailer pitches

  • Drive trial when launching new distribution

Learn more about working with Sampler Here: sampler.io

DISCOUNTS

- Mindful Goods 

is an awesome Amazon expert that can quickly get you started or optimize your pages for strong ROI. 

 use code FOODBEVY.

- Maverick Lab 

allows you to create individually personalized videos (with a customer's name) welcoming them to your community. Foodbevy members save 40%. Reply to this e-mail for an introduction.

- Chop 

is a

that allows you to drive in-store trial, collect customer shopping data, and build customer profiles to further drive your business. Foodbevy members save 20% off. E-mail me for the discount.

- Stripe 

is now providing $20,000 in fee-free processing for new and EXISTING customers.

The Accountrepreneur 

is your go-to outsourced CPA and CFO firm for the food and beverage industry. Receive

- Airtable

 can store information in a spreadsheet that's visually appealing and easy-to-use, but it's also powerful enough to act as a database that businesses can use for customer-relationship management (CRM), task management, project planning, and tracking inventory. 

With your help we're building an amazing community of Food and Bev entrepreneurs helping each other!

Jordan

Reply

or to participate.