Online, membership-based, organic food retailer, Thrive Market, pivoted its marketing strategy after an influx of orders when consumers began quarantining during the pandemic, said Kerrie Lopez, head of merchandising marketing for the retailer that has nearly one million members.
“The craziest part of my marketing career was trying to drive shoppers not to shop vs. to actually shop, in order to get a handle on capacity,” Lopez said during The Digital Food and Beverage virtual event, last week. “In March, we shut off all of our marketing, including emails and shopper messaging on our site. This period turned out to be a blessing in disguise since we reimagined our strategy. Now we're focused on getting the right message to the right shopper at the right time.”
Thrive is leveraging the rich data that it collects from shoppers about their food preferences, lifestyle, and who they are shopping for, when they sign up for membership. The information is used to curate an assortment of healthy and sustainable products.
"We create a customized store that makes placing the first order quick and easy," said Lopez. The items are priced below what it would cost at a typical grocery store. Every paid Thrive membership results in a free membership for a low-income family, student, teacher, veteran, or first responder.
"We're really unwilling to grow at all costs," explained Lopez, "we want to attract the right shopper, the wellness champion, the informed shopper who is seeking a healthier lifestyle for their family."
Thrive interacts with shoppers via text, mobile app, and through a proactive chat tool that functions as a virtual store associate if someone has a question while shopping the store. WIth its new focus, the retailer is zeroing in on long-term engagement and the percentage of shoppers who’ve shopped in the last 30 days, vs. just daily revenue metrics, Lopez said.
“We’re able to lean more into our brand messages and highlight causes we’re interested in,” she said.
A recent example was its Toilet Paper Letter marketing outreach which coincided with when toilet paper became available again, said Lopez. "As many people learned in March, toilet paper was a panic buy item and at Thrive we sold six months of inventory in three days so it was absolutely insane. Our most popular SKU is from a private brand supplier and it takes time to get that back in stock. In May, we emailed our members to educate them on paper product suppliers so that they understand that our paper is made from recycled bamboo and the benefits of that as opposed to conventional paper products."
The email had a 30 percent open rate and lead to the same amount of revenue that a big promotion would bring, Lopez explained. "We didn't want people to panic and mass buy all over again but with our message we leaned into the brand and the brand mission," she said.
Related: Industry Voices: The Pandemic's Impact; Broth, Soup Sales Soar at Retail.
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