How JOI Leveraged Carro to Build a Lifestyle Marketplace & Increase Lifetime Value

The Challenge

JOI was looking for new innovative ways to increase the lifetime value of each of its customers (CLV). They wanted to introduce new products that would inspire customers to pair and use their core line of plant-based milk products in more creative ways.

Enter Carro Brand Partnerships

JOI saw their customers enjoying and posting their plant-based milk alongside other high-quality brands such as Joolie’s Date Syrups. They realized that they could leverage Carro’s brand network to create an innovative marketplace of these products that were perfectly in line with their own ethics and standards without any of the inventory commitments typically required by a traditional wholesale relationship.

The Results

Using Carro, JOI was able to successfully launch their marketplace, “Friends of JOI”. Not only has the marketplace successfully introduced its customers to new products, but they have also seen an impressive 11% increase in AOV for carts with Carro products and has delivered 6% increase in total sales revenue.

Creating a Lifestyle Marketplace

JOI has done things differently since day one. After all, they were born from the shared goal of creating high-quality, delicious, and environment-conscious plant-based milk that’s far superior to the stuff you’re used to finding at the local supermarket, without all the time and energy of traditional homemade plant milk.

With Carro’s Brand Partnerships, JOI was able to formulate a collection of high quality products to offer their customers. Instead of having to spend valuable time and money sourcing and developing wholesale relationships that may or may not work out, they were able to easily build out a marketplace of exceptional products with just a few clicks. (All while not spending a cent on new inventory)

What’s particularly special about JOI, is how well they know their customers -and in turn how well they know exactly what their customers want to purchase alongside their own products. They illustrate the idea that no matter what you sell, there are brands and products already out there that will synergize with you and enhance your store. It’s simply a matter of finding them.

Instead of aimlessly adding products to see what works, JOI went the extra mile and polished their partner brands into “Friends of JOI”, -a refined collection of complementary partner products that embodies the lifestyle of their customers.

How They Pulled it Off

JOI’s success with their Carro partners was made possible because they executed the idea of “selling the products your customers already want” perfectly. In fact, their very first partnership in Carro was made with Joolies Date Syrup after JOI noticed their own customers using the two products together.

JOI was then able to leverage their strong social presence to discover and reach out to numerous brands they wanted to work with, and build out their marketplace in Carro. Not only did they successfully build out a refined marketplace of high-quality products while completely circumventing the cost and stress of traditional wholesaling, they were able to do it with recognizable brands that their customers were eager to buy from.

That way, customers who were already familiar with JOI’s partner brands were ready to buy from names they trusted. Meanwhile, customers who hadn’t heard of their partner brands yet were intrigued about trying a new product that JOI was now offering.

This marketplace idea allowed each brand involved to sell more, together. Customers were able to recognize and trust at least one brand in the mix, so they knew and trusted that they were getting a quality product. And by letting these other brands (Blendjet, Tenzo, Pulp Chips, etc) be prominently featured on their own site, JOI was able to create strong social proof through name recognition for their audiene.

27

total products added

12

total brands added

Notable Brands

Blendjet, Pulp Chips, 22 Days, Joolies, Tenzo

The Results

“Friends of JOI” was (and continues to be) a huge success. Since their first sale with Joolies Dates, JOI’s Carro sales have accounted for up to 6% of their monthly revenue!

With more than 27 different products sold across 12 brands, JOI’s marketplace wasn’t only a success for them; but for each brand involved.

The Flip Side: Customer Acquisition for All!

One of the coolest parts about building out a marketplace is the level of symbiosis that occurs between the brands involved. JOI and their partners share every customer that purchases from “Friends of JOI”, so that they can each re-market and retarget campaigns to said purchasers and generate even more customer lifetime value.

All of these brands already had existing marketing strategies in place to direct potential customers to their own websites. But also selling their products on JOI’s website allowed them to acquire new customers while completely avoiding the additional cost. No one had to put a penny more toward advertising, but every time a customer was acquired through this JOI’s marketplace, everybody benefited.

Why is This So Important?

It’s important to recognize the value of the “marketplace”. You may not be able to find a product up to your standards in the wild, and most brands surely can’t afford to spend their time experimenting with new product conceptualization. BUT, any brand can utilize avenues like social media to discover notable brands they want to work with. By simply doing this, JOI was able to vastly expand its store and brand awareness. (As did each of their partners)

- JOI was able to increase its GMV. They lowered their CAC, or customer acquisition cost, by working with partner brands.

- They kept their marketing budget the same but were still able to feed the top of their remarketing and sales funnels.

-All the brands involved are able to retarget and re-market to these customers to increase their value!

You can replicate these results by transforming your own store into a well-thought-out marketplace. Work with other brands in your industry (or beyond) to create an irresistible lineup and bring your customer’s favorite products together in one place. Then get paid for it! Simple as that. By working with Carro, you increase the value of each unit sold, while simultaneously increasing your Average Order Value and Gross Revenue!

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