About Barista Underground
Barista Underground is a wholesale retailer of alternative milks, syrups and sauces, wellness additives, and snacks, marketing towards the “coffee shop” world. As an e-commerce business in a crowded marketplace, it was important to them that they establish their company as a “go-to” resource. They wanted to maintain their minimalist and relaxed vibes, while effectively marketing their products to consumers.
As a whole, Barista Underground was aiming to create a collaborative community within their B2B space where coffee shop and cafe owners can come together for all their needs.
Goals
- Optimize the website for easy navigation
- Create engaging newsletters & content to boost sales
- Establish themselves in a competitive e-commerce market
- Improve social media presence by curating a community of coffee-loving customers
Our Impact:
- Increased revenue over the course of six months by 358%
- Increased monthly revenue from their starting average by 1589.5%
- After one year, increased revenue by an average of 189.56%
Website Design
The Goal
The main priority for Barista Underground was to optimize the website for easy navigation. With hundreds of products within many different categories, it was important to organize the website within categories and pages that made sense in addition to allowing quick load times.
Barista’s website had a variety of categories but they were not well organized. Navigating to a product became a bit of a chore. Additionally, their design plain and lacked differentiation; the page did not stand out, which is especially important in such a competitive market. The business did not have any consistent branding across its platforms to help them stand out. Page drops were high, leaving the conversion rate low.
The Strategy
Seller’s Choice first organized their website with a cleaner, sleeker style, highlighting each category with clear product specifications. Previously, their categories lacked consistency across the board. Seller’s Choice also decided to revamp its branding to set themselves apart. Often in the coffee products supply industry, warmer colors are used, but due to the nature of Barista’s business (they don’t actually sell coffee itself), we decided to take in another direction to complement the colors used by others.
The Results
After the website overhaul, conversions went up and page drops decreased, meaning that users could more easily find the items they were searching for without the clutter involved in the site’s original design. When considering the paths someone took on the page, the initial landing pages were more easily navigated, and the search bar made more prominent to streamline searches.
The website fonts and colors were changed to better reflect the company’s branding, creating a cohesive look for customers to see. Clearer categories were also implemented to aid in the customer’s ability to navigate on the site.
Google Ads Campaigns
The Goal
As with most PPC Campaigns, the goal was to boost traffic to the site and secure more conversions to boost sales. Prior to Seller’s Choice, Barista wasn’t running any effective Google ads to improve traffic and sales on the site.
The Strategy
Seller’s Choice set up a number of ads to boost traffic (and improve conversions). First, ads for specific products were tested and the best-performing ones were isolated and used to increase purchases.
The SEM team also set up Smart Shopping ads and prospecting ads to help drive traffic to the page. They specifically targeted people who had searched for adjacent topics to drive more relevant users to the site.
In regard to Bing, the Seller’s Choice team decided to specifically focus ads on the search results pages for people directly searching for “barista.
The SEM team also used AdRoll for retargeting campaigns for those who either added a product to their cart and did not complete the transaction as well as people who visited the site and did not add anything to their cart.
The Results
After the adjustments, the PPC campaign strategy produced positive (and income boosting) results. Barista can now actively seek those interested in their brand and only market to individuals who are within their target audience.
Over the course of the first 6 months, we were able to increase the monthly average of revenue by 2990.1% with minimal ad spend. From there, we tailored our ad spend to hit more targeted audiences, narrowing our focus more keenly into specialized groups of users; we increased revenue an average of 189.6% over the course of the next fiscal year.
Newsletters & Content Appeal
The Goal
Previously, Barista newsletters were rarely sent, leaving customers with little updates on sales, product releases, and other news. The goal was to create specialized content that would use effective and efficient strategies for engaging users.
The Strategy
Seller’s Choice set up a number of ads to boost traffic (and improve conversions). First, ads for specific products were tested and the best-performing ones were isolated and used to increase purchases.
The first move was to create an “image” for their newsletters that reflected the updates to their website. Concise and consistent branding was implemented throughout, offering clear CTAs and information for customers to absorb.
Seller’s Choice also prioritized sending emails with meaningful content so customers knew that each piece of virtual mail would provide them with helpful information or discount codes.
Our design team paired with the content department to produce catchy copy and engaging visuals to pull customers in, all while informing their purchases.
In addition, we used A/B testing to find the best way to improve open and click-through rates and used the tested and proved strategies to create meaningful and effective work.
The Results
Using the data, the Seller’s Choice team was able to create campaigns that contribute to an average of 15.35% of total quarterly revenue, with about 2 campaigns running each month. We were also able to achieve open rates above the industry standard. The open rate for Barista Underground over the last year averaged at 27.4%, with each quarter progressively seeing improved numbers.
Social Media & Ads
The Goal
In approaching the social ads for Barista Underground, we aimed to engage potential customers, both at top-of-funnel and through retargeting to bolster brand awareness and conversions further down the line.
The Strategy
In order to create successful ads, the social team created ads catered to audiences to first drive traffic to the site, then retargeted those users to increase conversions.
Prior to Seller’s Choice, Barista Underground wasn’t running social ads, so there was much improvement to be had. The initial approach involved first, creating the appropriate audience groups, then narrowing the focus to those users farther down the line to convert them into customers.
The Results
For top-of-funnel ads, the social team was able to increase engagement by 189% over the course of merely 3 months. Using this information, the social team retargeted those who engaged in attempts to convert.
We were able to create ads with an ROI of 21.46%. Overall, we were able to create ads that contributed to an average of 16.95% of quarterly revenue. For spend on social platforms, Barista Underground was able to achieve an ACoS of 4% over the last 6 months of utilizing Facebook ads.
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