Growing business. Not that long ago, getting a food product to market was all but impossible for a small company. The big brands control distribution and selfspace. Today things are different. Madeline hayden, the founder of nondairy creamer net pod, shows us how she uses sites like twitter, facebook, and amazon to change the rules. It started when Madeline Hayden of seattle, washington, put together this simple mixture of almond milk and coconut, along with a few scoops of this and a dash of that. She blended them together here in her own kitchen. She did this because shes lactose intolerant and didnt like any of the nondairy creamers available in the stores. I wanted something rich and creamy, something that wasnt loaded up with sugar and basically created what i was hoping to buy. She worked out a recipe that was exactly to her taste. She used it in her coffee and also for baking. Then my friends started borrowing it. Then i realized, you know, its not just me thats looking for some
naturally nutty nondairy creamer. put it on kick starter and asked people to invest their money only if they thought it was something they would buy. the $30,000 will go towards converting my kitchen formula into a commercial formulation. what i specifically said is if you actually think that you would use nut pods, then by all means, i d love to have your support. in just one month, she raised $32,000 from 500 people. and that, she says, was her answer. it really told me that people wanted to have this. with their production in place, along with information about future customers thanks to kick starter, madeline was ready for launch, and the place she went was amazon. for us to be able to go on amazon have pretty much nationwide distribution overnight, it really allowed me to have a direct way to consumers so they could learn about who we were, what we were trying to do, and what our products were. oh, boy.
like beginner s luck, madeline is quick with a correction. i m not a spring chicken. i m in my 40s. it has allowed me to take my experiences as a consumer, as working in different industries and be able to, you know, perfect them and learn about them and apply them in my own company. if you are also thinking about growing your e-commerce sales on amazon but doern t kno where to start or are already doing it but not doing it well, our next guest has valuable advice for you. tracy wallace is editor in chief at big commerce, a leading e-commerce platform for fast-growing businesses. previously she covered online selling for mashable and elle.com. good to see you. good to be here. thanks for having me. amazon can really make your business. i know a lot of people who do a lot of sales on amazon. so let s just go through what you need to do to make it work. and the first thing you say is be unique.
also important are the user reviews. peter says consumers often start their research by reading them. they re looking at the reviews. they want to know, you know, is this a good product, is it a bad product, what are people saying about it, what are the things that i need to know. even if they don t buy on amazon, they go there because they want their peer review. 62% of all shopping searches start on amazon. while amazon doesn t permit sellers to ask their customers to write reviews, peter says that madeline s interactions with customers on other social media has helped generate community enthusiasm, which then stimulates reviews. when brands do that, the customers are going to be more inclined to want to speak out about that, write a review, share their great experiences. so far, it s working. thanks to their rapid growth on amazon, madeline is developing new products and has become stocking nut pods in local brick and mortar grocery stores as well. part of our succes
growing business. not that long ago, getting a food product to market was all but impossible for a small company. the big brands control distribution and self-space. today things are different. madeline hayden, the founder of nondairy creamer net pod, shows us how she uses sites like twitter, facebook, and amazon to change the rules. it started when madeline hayden of seattle, washington, put together this simple mixture of almond milk and coconut, along with a few scoops of this and a dash of that. she blended them together here in her own kitchen. she did this because she s lactose intolerant and didn t like any of the nondairy creamers available in the stores. i wanted something rich and creamy, something that wasn t loaded up with sugar and basically created what i was hoping to buy. she worked out a recipe that was exactly to her taste. she used it in her coffee and also for baking. then my friends started