How to Sell Juice Online via eCommerce

This is a guest post by Shizu Okusa, founder and CEO of Wellthy & Co., a boutique of wellness brands JRINK (liquid convenience), and Apothékary (the farmacy of the future).

Be sure to watch her speech from from JuiceCon 2018 on the same topic and more.

Discuss on the Goodnature Juicing Facebook Group.

Why Sell Juice Online

If you’re currently selling juice in your own stores, or in others in the case of HPP brands, it’s absolutely critical to be thinking about online as a new sales channel. With almost every industry getting “Amazon’d”, why should customers come to your store or order from you directly? It’s about brand, customer retention and a seamless omni-channel experience.

Now when we talk about online, we’re not talking sales via DoorDash or UberEATS but rather your own direct-to-consumer (“DTC”) channels. With DTC, companies are able to speak, engage, and commerce directly with their customers meaning margins are higher, lifetime values (“LTV”) are longer, and most importantly as entrepreneurs you have control. Not only is DoorDash, etc. expensive in terms of commissions but they are an intermediary between you and your end customer.

Thinking about building your own DTC channel?  Here are some things to consider:

1.  Your team should be omni-channel. 

Make sure your managers and retail staff are set up for success with the right technology, tools and answers for basic customer service questions. At the store level you’re familiar with everything going on in the store but with online, it’s a completely separate business. Being transparent about orders placed, ETA of drivers, etc will be critical for businesses looking to offer customers a full omni-channel experience.

2.  Don’t try to do everything yourself.

It’s tempting to want to save costs and do everything yourself but in this case, think about the value of your time and comparative advantage of hiring or outsourcing the following: the last mile delivery (ie the actual delivery of orders from your kitchen to the customer house), developing the website, ads for paid acquisition, producing the juice. Thanks to Google and rich communities like the one Goodnature has created, ask for help! It’ll save you time and money to lean on others, especially in white space opportunities of selling juice digitally.

3. Familiarize yourself with the basics of a marketing funnel.  

When you have a brick & mortar shop, you might not have to think about a marketing funnel but in the case of bricks & clicks, you will. How are you doing lead generation? What are you doing to spread brand awareness? Where are you getting customer emails?  What content are you sharing that customers want to do read and will engage with? A few questions to think about.

4. Invest in your supply chain. 

Nothing is worse than pulling online orders from your store and having nothing left on the shelves for those coming into the shop. Forecasting PARS, taking inventory, knowing what to produce while minimizing spoilage, automating dispatch, etc are all integral parts of omni-channel operations.

For those looking to offer online delivery in a more meaningful way, feel free to reach out to me at [email protected] and stay tuned for the debut of an omni-channel app coming soon!

Note: This How to Write a Juice Business Plan PDF is a step-by-step guide to helping you write a business plan for your juice business. Download it for free!