Attention & loyalty
The food is not safe, concentrates, collabs and composting!
Hi! It’s calendar week 44: Walmart data says it’s week 40 because their fiscal year starts in February. If you’re new to Walmart don’t let that trip you up in your planning. Download your 2025-26 planning calendar here.
But hopefully most of you are not at Walmart. So let’s talk D2C.
Can we reach consumers differently?
Consumers have tracking fatigue. They want to get in and out as fast as they can from your site. They’ll unsubscribe from your newsletters unless you’re educating them on something they care about (I’ve written about the merits of long form content here), but if that’s not you, may I suggest building loyalty with experiences. Modern Retail wrote a great piece on how rewards tied to competitions and VIP invitations build community and drive AOV. The idea is:
Get people to know your brand in the real world, not just on their phones
Like in print?: J Crew brought their print catalogue back, and Amazon has a print catalogue for holiday toys. Maybe CPG should be thinking about print.
That said, I don’t think we’re going to get away from social media influencers anytime soon: more than half of GenZers say they want to be influencers (do they know it’s hard, and you don’t make a living wage?) As a startup, managing micro or nano influencers can get overwhelming … like just tracking in Shopify. I would like someone to try this app and get back to me: Influencer Gift Form is an app that simplifies the whole process, and it’s good for affiliates, employee gifts, and buyer samples.
New in e-commerce is: fake reviews are officially illegal. The federal rule banning fake online reviews is now in effect, and Amazon doubled down on the news with a lawsuit against this bad actor.
The new Human Foods Program at the FDA cannot come fast enough.
McDonald’s E. coli outbreak was not the beef, it was the onions. Nevertheless, Michael Pollan told us on Food Inc., “if you take feed lot cattle off of their corn diet, give them grass for 5 days, they will shed 80% of the E. coli in their gut”. This seems reasonable since cattle evolved grazing on grass. However, studies have contradictory conclusions on the incidence of E. coli on grain vs grass feed cattle. I find it interesting that the top reasons people seek grass fed beef are health, environmental, and animal welfare… not food safety, and at a time when fresh meat sales are up as consumers seek more animal protein.
Earlier this month, BrucePac recalled nearly 12 million pounds of meat and poultry due to possible listeria contamination.
Last week private-label company TreeHouse recalled frozen toaster waffles, Belgian waffles and pancake products
Startups doing things
Voyage Foods will have the capacity to make 10,000 metric tons of cocoa-free chocolate, along with nut-free-spreads and bean-free coffee in their new Ohio plant. If you missed it, here’s my interview with Voyage CEO Adam Maxwell on The Future of Agriculture podcast.
Olipop going shelf stable is a big deal. The brand can now be stocked with traditional soda, will have reduced shipping costs, and consumers can pantry load. WooHoo!
Getting more concentrated: Not Normal coffee paste is 20X concentrated and comes in a tube. Is this a good idea or is it like Pocket Flan?
We’ve decided Kloo is the best tasting coffee concentrate. It’s also the most expensive with very fancy packaging. What do I do with these? I can’t bring myself to putting them in the waste/recycle bin.
Thinking about getting this compost machine. Expensive! If any of you have one or similar, I’d like your review.
All my best,
Jennifer