Gourmet Garden- D2C app to order Fruits and Vegies
You are what you eat. But most produce is grown and ripened using a ton of chemicals, using harmful waters, toxins and heavy metals into the produce. Organically grown produce is an alternative but trust on organic claim is low due to prevalent malpractices. It is difficult to purchase natures’ basic offering- safe fruits and vegetables.
Gourmet Garden grows Naturoponic and organic fruits and veggies in specially engineered greenhouses. The produce is 100% free of chemicals and pesticide free. With a wide assortment of produce, spices, breads and cheese, Gourmet Garden guarantee food safety.
Further, Gourmet Garden delivers the orders to its customer door steps within 24 hours- ensuring freshest, juiciest and crunchiest produce one can get no where else. Over 1 lakh families experience
the Gourmet Garden difference by placing orders through the app.
Selection criteria- Gourmet garden is a series A funded startup ($8.3 mil funded) with over 100K+ app
downloads, 75%+ repeat customers, functional in 4 cities and is operational for over 4 years. These facts assure that there is a strong PMF for Gourmet garden.
Serving as a one stop shop for every family's fresh produce needs, Gourmet Garden offers the following value to its users-
Type of User | Natural Frequency Bucket | Frequency/ bucket |
Casual | Quarterly | 2 times |
Core | Monthly | 2 times |
Power | Weekly | 2 times |
1) Gourmet Garden Wallet- Lets you top up on the app's wallet that can help in quick checkouts, reducing the hassle of needing to do payments every time there is a purchase. Further, an avenue to earn reward points and referral bonus.
Natural Frequency-
Type of User | Natural Frequency Bucket | Frequency/ bucket |
Casual | Yearly | 1 time |
Core | Quarterly | 1 time |
Power | Monthly | 1 time |
2) Packaging recycling- Lets the customer return the high quality packaging that comes with the produce so that it can be reused/recycled.
Natural Frequency-
Type of User | Natural Frequency Bucket | Frequency/ bucket |
Casual | Quarterly | 1 time |
Core | Monthly | 1 time |
Power | Weekly | 1 time |
Engagement Framework | Key Tracking Metric | Priority | Rationale |
Frequency | No. of orders of produce that are placed on the app and fulfilled. | Primary |
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Breadth | No of SKUs ordered and spread across the different categories on the app | Secondary |
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Depth | Average order value and monthly spend on the platform | Tertiary |
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Based on the Engagement framework, Frequency is the highest priority for Gourmet Garden followed by Breadth and Depth respectively.
As the core value proposition of Gourmet Garden is to offer door delivery of fresh produce, an active user is defined as someone who has placed an order on the app, received the produce delivery and did not place any returns of the produce.
Natural Frequency for an active user: As the purchase of grocery is a regular process, given that the purchases should happen once a week or at-least once every 15 days, we can define the natural frequency of an active user to be once in every fortnight.
Other good to track metrics to better understand active users can be -
ICP-1 | ICP-2 | ICP- 3 | ICP-4 | ICP-5 | |
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ICP Name | Supermom Shreya | Healthy-bee Harini | Caring Husband- Charan | Fearless Father- Faran | Graceful Grandma- Gayatri |
Short description | New age mom with 2 children under the age of 10 | A working young professional who is concious of what she eats | A newly married husband that purchases F&V for his household | A father of two teens who is working and buying groceries on his way | A grandmother who lives with her husband and has occasional guests |
Age | 35-45 | 25-30 | 30-35 | 48-60 | 60-80 |
Gender | Female | Female | Male | Male | Female |
Occupation | Salaried/Self Employed/ Home maker | Salaried/ Self Employed | Salaried/ Self Employed | Self Employed/ Salaried | Retired |
Income Levels (house) | >1.5L /mo | >1L/mo | >2L/mo | >75L/mo | >30K/mo |
Relationship Status | Married with Kids | Single | Married | Married with kids | Married with Kids/ Grandkids |
Lives with | Husband, Kids, Parents/ In-laws | Parents / roommates | Partner | Wife and kids | Husband |
Housing Types | Gated communities/ Villas/ housing societies | Gated communities/ Societies/ Long stays | Gated communities/ affluent areas | Residential colonies/ Societies | Retirement colonies/ Villas/ Societies |
Urban/Rural | Tier-1 | Tier-1 | Tier-1 | Tier-1 | Tier-1 |
Where do they spend time? |
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Who cooks? | cook/Self | cook/ seldom self | cook/ partner | partner | self |
Pain points |
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Current Solution |
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How often do they buy? | 6-8 times a month | 4 times a month | 3 times a month | 4 times a month | 3-5 times a month |
Value Time or Money? | Money | Time | Time | Money | Money |
What do they care about most? | Quality | Freshness | Convenience | Value for money | Ease of purchase |
Other apps they use |
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Type of User | Casual | Core | Power |
Frequency | Once a month | Once a fortnight | Once a week |
Categories ordered | Vegetables | Vegetables and Fruits | Vegetables, Fruits and at-least one of the other categories |
Wallet use | Never | Once a month | Twice a month |
Returns rate | <20% | <10% | <5% |
AOV | RS 300 | RS 400 | RS 500 |
Average time on platform before churn | 12 months | 15 months | 18 months |
Monthly Revenue | Rs 300 | Rs 800 | Rs 2000 |
LTV (frequency/month * AOV * retention) | 1 * 300 * 12 = Rs 3600 | 2 * 400 * 15 = Rs 12000 | 4 * 500 * 18 = Rs 36000 |
User Behavior | Individual user who cooks exotic meals and orders just those from the platform | A high earning individual who is conscious of his/her health and uses app for ordering produce regularly | A family head who prioritizes health of the family members and purchases across categories from the platform for the whole family. |
Top competitors | Local supermarket, big-basket | Quick commerce and big-basket | Plukk, gourmet garden and high end supermarkets. |
Types of Users | Recency | Frequency | Monetary |
Champion | Last week | Weekly | High |
Loyalists | 7-30 days | Weekly | High |
Cannot Loose | 30-60 days | Weekly | High |
Potential Loyalists | Last week | Biweekly | High |
Needs Attention | 7-30 days | Biweekly | Medium |
At Risk | 30-60days | Biweekly | Low |
New customers | Last week | Monthly | Medium |
Promising | 7-30 | Monthly | Medium |
Hibernation | 30-60 | Monthly | Low |
Engagement Framework | Key Tracking Metrics | Selected? | Rationale |
Frequency | Orders placed and delivered in a month using the app | Yes | To be a power user of the platform, one has to order produce every week and hence driving the frequency is the highest priority |
Breadth | No of SKUs ordered and no of categoreis | Partially yes | To keep the user loyal and reliant, he/she should order all their needs on the app and hence the higher SKU and purchase across categories is a good metric to promote. |
Depth | Average order value and monthly spend on the platform | No | AOV and monthly spend will be the wrong metric to chase as the user could be a single person ordering lower quantities but ordering everything he/she needs from the app. |
Frequency of purchase seems to be the best metric to promote followed by the metric of breadth i.e. SKU count. This ensures that the customers orders everything from the platform and also the platform to suggest the most idle recommendations to the customer based on his purchasing habits. Further, purchasing more often and across categories can be incentivized through free deliveries and wallet reward points.
Based on the above framework, we are using following parameters
User Segment | Power Frequency | Core Frequency | Core Breadth | Core Breadth |
ICP match | ICP-1 Supermom Shreya | ICP 2 - Healthy bee Harini | ICP 3- Caring Husband- Charan | ICP 5- Graceful Grandma- Gayatri |
Major Pain Points |
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Gourmet Garden's solution (Value prop to user) |
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Goal | Increase the no of SKU's purchased on platform to 30/ month | Increase SKU's to 30/ month and orders to 4/month | Increase the orders to 4/month | Increase orders to 4/month |
Pitch | You are our valued customer ordering everyweek. Thankyou. We would like to show our gratitude by sending you XXX (products/SKU not ordered) at a 30% discounted price with your next order | Hey, we want you to eat fresh and thats why, when you order from us every week, you get a cashback of Rs 50 per order. We would also like to show our gratitude by sending you XXX (products/SKU not ordered) at a 30% discounted price with your next order | hello, we want you to eat fresh and thats why, when you order from us every week, you get a cashback of Rs 50 per order. And whats best- preselect your items and we deliver the same to you every week. | Greetings! we want you to eat fresh and thats why, when you order from us every week, you get a cashback of Rs 50 per order. If you dont like what you get, the returns are easy and you get back all your cash in 3 days. |
Channel | WhatsApp, push notifications, and YT ads | WhatsApp, push notifications and IG ads | WhatsApp, push notifications and IG ads | SMS, WhatsApp and Facebook ads |
Offer | XX item at 30% off | XX item at 30% off and Rs 50 per order cashback | XX item at 30% off and Rs 50 per order cashback | Rs 50 per order cashback |
Why this campaign | Users in this segment use multiple avenues to buy produce. Cross selling enables them to buy all the things on the platform itself. | Users in this segmet are stocking once in 15 days so more frequency will help them buy more on the platform. | Users in this segment buy once in 15 days and also are not buying across categories. Need to push both frequency and Breadth | To increase depth of engagement, these campaigns will provide bundled discounts which will prompt the user to buy more items to get higher cumulative discount. This will work because to chase the offer, user will spend more time on the app leading to higher order value. |
Frequency | Bi-Weekly | Twice / week | Bi-Weekly on Weekday | Weekly on Weekends |
Timing | 7 - 10 pm | 6 - 11 PM | 6 - 11 PM | 3 PM - 11 PM |
Success Metrics |
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Other metrics to track |
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Campaign | Complete your kitchen | Order from one place- always |
Target Segment | ICP 1 & 2 | ICP 3 & 4 |
Goal | Increase basket variety for the users to include more variety of produce and purchase across other categories. | Increase the frequency of purchase such that they rely on Gourmet garden for all their weekly groceries |
Pitch/Content | "Compliment your vegetables with chemical free with a wide variety of (fruits/cheese/oils/pulses) " | "Ordering with us weekly so you can save plenty" |
Channel | Whatsapp, Push notification & In-app | SMS, Whatsapp & Push notification |
Offer | Discount on complimentary products for the first time (upto 30% off) till habit is formed. | Streaks of weekly purchasing that gets a cashback into the wallet. (Rs 100,50 alternating for every week) |
Frequency/ Touchpoint | Twice a week- Wednesday 11am and Saturday 10am (usual buying time for the customer of this ICP) | Thrice a week- Wednesday 10am, Friday 3pm and Sunday 8am (usual buying time for the customer of this ICP) |
Success Metrics | Increasing the average SKU count per order and across time. Increased purchasing category count | Increased frequency of purchase to weekly Increased NPS score from customers |
Check Metrics | NPS Scores, reorder frequency of same items | Customer complaints resolutions, SKU across categories. |
Gourmet garden claims to have a strong retention rates with 70% of its orders coming from existing customers ( https://yourstory.com/2021/07/food-vegetable-startup-gourmet-garden-raises-fund-beyond-nextventures )
Being an E-commerce company, lets assume that the conversion ratio for Gourmet garden is 80% and of those, 70% keep purchasing, we can assume that every cohort has a 56% (~50% = 0.8 x 0.7) loyal repeating customers from the onboarded customers.
Cohort | Retention % |
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| Year |
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| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
2019 | 100% | 60% | 50% | 45% | 40% |
2020 |
| 100% | 60% | 50% | 45% |
2021 |
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| 100% | 60% | 50% |
2022 |
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| 100% | 60% |
2023 |
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| 100% |
A graph of retention as a function of time
The Power and core users drive the best retention for Gourmet garden
Gourmet garden customers rely on coupon codes to make purchases as they are regular and go on an average to 20%. Communicating the coupon codes is driving sales for all ICPs-
Though the core value proposition and primary use case is driving retention, these additional features are increasing the retention rates at gourmet garden-
Reason | Category | User Insights |
Better pricing on alternate platforms | Voluntary | Competitor is perceived to have a better price offering |
Better serviceable time | Voluntary | Quick commerce companies offer 10 minute deliveries while gourmet garden still takes 3 - 24 hours to deliver food. |
Delivery charges | Voluntary | The delivery charges on Gourmet Garden are high and with no subscription model. Other platforms charge 0 delivery fee. |
Poor experience | Voluntary | Once in a while, customers do experience bad produce being delivered (either damaged or spoiled) casing them to move to other platforms. Further, experience with delivery partners also is leading to churn when the delivery partner is either rude or not on time. |
Support issues | Voluntary | Customers do churn when they experience bad support responses and had their issues remained unresolved for extended amount of time. |
Opening of physical stores | Voluntary | Newer stores being opened in the neighborhood causes customers to choose to commute to the store as they get a better look and feel of the produce before purchase. |
UI and app usage issues | Voluntary | The android version of the app is particularly buggy and is crashing multiple times- especially post purchase where confirmation is not displayed on screen. These sort of UI issues are causing churn. |
Lack of variety | Voluntary | E-commerce and Quick commerce platforms are offering even FMCG products on their platform but GG only offers produce and thus customers are churning due to a lack of the complete basket. |
Discounting strategy | Voluntary | The produce are always higher than the market prices and only when a 20% discount is availed, the price matches the regular prices prevailing in the market or competitors app. Such strategy is taxing for users and can cause churn. |
Shifting cities | Involuntary | With being operational in only 5 cities, and with a limited assortment out of bangalore, if people are shifting cities, they are churning from the platform. |
Loss of income | Involuntary | With the produce being on the high end, if the earnings go low and as a consequence the affordability, the customer can churn. |
Below is the list of campaigns for voluntary churn customers
Campaign | Campaign 1 | Campaign 2 | Campaign 3 | Campaign 4 | Campaign 5 |
Context | Users who moved to competitor app for better pricing | Customers who moved to competitors for better service | Customers who had support issues and are ordering less frequently | Users having experienced issues with APP UX | Customers who left for Lack of variety |
Target Segment | Churned | Churned | At-risk | At-risk | Churned |
Goal | Regain customers back to gourmet garden | Explain the new 3 h delivery | Increase trust in system for people with bad experience and get it back to original order frequency | Better the UX experience and remove the bugs | Communicate that the variety on the app is increasing |
Offer | Rs 250 off on next order followed up by Rs 150 and Rs 100 | Order now and get within 3 hours for free for next 5 orders | A free box of exotic fruits in next order | An option to get personalized bills to e-mail | x% off on newer portfolio introductions |
Content/Pitch | Hey, its been a while since we saw you. We miss you and hence we offer this coupon code worth Rs 250, Rs 150 and Rs 100 on your next 3 orders. | We have improved our delivery systems to service you in 3 hours. To celebrate, we are offering you your next 5 orders for free delivery with no minimum order value. | We are sorry that you experienced " ABC issues". As an apology, we like to offer a complimentary box of kiwi's along with your next order. We assure you continued quality service. | Good news, now you can view your bills seamlessly while checkouts! We like to offer a one time coupon code of Rs 300 to be used next order so you can see this in action.! | Hi, its been a while since you ordered from us. We have improved in the meanwhile and have started offering oils, cheeses and much more on our platform. Order from these new categories and get "20%" extra off on these new offerings. |
Channel | Whatsapp and push notification | In app message, in app popup | In app message, | Whatsapp, Email, IG | |
Frequency | Twice a week for a month | Once a week for a 30 days | Within 3 days of complaint registery | Immediately after bug is fixed, once in 15 days for 2 months | Once a week for 2 months |
Timing | Thursday & Saturday evenings at 3pm | Wednesdays 3pm | Evening 7pm | Wednesdays 3pm | Saturdays 10am |
Success Metrics | Increased retention rates and health of the retention curve. | Increased order rates- especially in the funnel on the delivery fee page | Customer placing order and going back to previous order frequency | Customers using the wallet more often and also downloading the invoices | Cross platform purchases of customers and increased SKU count per order |
Reason | If users are lost, a coupon code could entice them to place the order back. | If users are choosing alternative apps for delivery fee, fee offs can help gain back these customers. | If a customer registers a complaint, a good gesture assures that the customer is valued by the company. | Signaling to the customers who had issues in seeing bills that the UI is better and hence one can use the app again. | If customers churned for a lack of variety, offering a discount on the new offerings can help them come back to our platform and order |
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