Introduction
Kruut, a thriving superfood brand specializing in traditional herbal extracts, has established itself as a leader in the natural wellness space. With a presence in over 6,900 markets, Kruut is dedicated to its mission of bringing “the power of nature back into your everyday life” through recipes based on millennia-old knowledge and local superfoods such as goutweed, nettle, and other powerful herbs.
At the heart of Kruut’s offering is their specialty product: Oxymel. This traditional herbal extract, handcrafted from organic ingredients, delivers plant power in a convenient form that customers simply mix with water to enjoy. Each product embodies their commitment to herbal self-care that is refreshingly tasty, powerful, and invigorating.
When looking to enhance customer experience while increasing average order value, Kruut needed a solution that aligned with their natural, premium positioning. After evaluating multiple promotional approaches, they selected AOV Free Gift for its ability to offer value-aligned incentives that would resonate with their health-conscious audience while driving meaningful business results.
Challenges
Despite strong market presence, Kruut faced several challenges in their e-commerce operations:
- Price Sensitivity in Premium Category: As a premium superfood brand, Kruut’s products commanded higher price points than conventional alternatives, creating purchase hesitation for new customers and limiting order sizes.
- Education Gap: Many potential customers were unfamiliar with traditional herbal extracts like Oxymel, requiring additional incentives to try these products for the first time.
- Competitive Market Pressure: The wellness and superfood space had become increasingly crowded, with numerous brands competing for the same health-conscious consumers.
- Shipping Cost Concerns: Customer feedback indicated that shipping costs were a significant friction point, often leading to cart abandonment when the perceived value didn’t justify the additional expense.
- Limited Product Trial: New customers were hesitant to invest in full-sized products without experiencing the benefits first, limiting new customer acquisition and category expansion.
Solution Implementation
Kruut implemented a thoughtfully designed strategy using AOV Free Gift’s capabilities:
- Tiered Value Proposition: Kruut created a two-tier incentive structure with their “Wild herbs easy & delicious” campaign, offering free shipping on orders over €45 and a free herbal tincture on orders over €60.
- Strategic Gift Selection: The free tincture gift was carefully chosen to serve as both a product introduction and a complementary addition to their core offerings, allowing customers to experience the benefits of herbal extracts in a low-risk format.
- Clear Communication: The offer was prominently displayed throughout the customer journey with messaging that emphasized both the practical value (free shipping) and the experiential value (free tincture) using the engaging emoji “💝” to highlight the gift aspect.
- Cart Value Visibility: Throughout the shopping experience, customers could see how close they were to reaching each threshold, creating a psychological incentive to add more products to their cart.
- Mobile-Optimized Experience: Recognizing the growing proportion of mobile shoppers, Kruut ensured the gift thresholds and progress indicators were clearly visible and enticing on smaller screens.
Results
The implementation of AOV Free Gift’s capabilities delivered remarkable results for Kruut:
- Dramatic Order Increase: The gift-with-cart-amount campaign generated an impressive qualified orders, representing a substantial increase in conversion rate.
- Significant AOV Growth: Average order value witnessed an improvement that substantially boosted revenue per transaction.
- Reduced Cart Abandonment: The free shipping threshold at €45 effectively reduced cart abandonment rates, keeping customers engaged through the checkout process.
- Product Discovery: The free tincture offer introduced customers to new products in Kruut’s range, with follow-up data showing that many customers purchased these products in subsequent orders.
Key Takeaways
Kruut’s successful implementation revealed several valuable insights for superfood and wellness brands:
- Value-Aligned Gifting Resonates: By offering gifts (the tincture) that aligned perfectly with their brand mission and customer interests, Kruut created a promotion that felt authentic rather than transactional.
- Dual-Threshold Strategy Maximizes Effectiveness: The two-tier approach (free shipping at €45, free product at €60) created multiple decision points that effectively moved customers up the value ladder.
- Education Through Experience: The gifting strategy solved part of the education gap by getting products into customers’ hands, allowing them to experience the benefits firsthand.
- Shipping Thresholds Remove Key Friction: Addressing the shipping cost concern directly through a threshold offer eliminated a major conversion barrier.
- Natural Products Benefit from Trial Opportunities: For wellness brands, allowing customers to try products through strategic gifting builds confidence in efficacy and increases likelihood of future purchases.
Kruut’s transformation from facing conversion challenges to achieving a 41.45% increase in average order value demonstrates the profound impact of thoughtfully designed incentive strategies in the wellness space. By understanding their customers’ core concerns—shipping costs, product unfamiliarity, and price sensitivity—Kruut created a solution that didn’t just drive sales, but enhanced the entire customer experience.
The success of their dual-threshold approach offers a blueprint for premium wellness brands navigating similar challenges. Rather than competing solely on price in an increasingly crowded market, Kruut chose to compete on value and experience. Their strategy of using free shipping to remove friction and free products to encourage discovery created a win-win scenario that increased customer satisfaction while dramatically boosting revenue.
Perhaps most importantly, Kruut’s case study illustrates how the right promotional strategy can solve multiple business challenges simultaneously. By addressing shipping concerns, facilitating product education, and creating opportunities for customers to experience their brand’s benefits firsthand, they transformed potential obstacles into growth drivers.
For wellness brands looking to increase their average order value while staying true to their mission, Kruut’s approach demonstrates that success lies not in discounting products, but in creating authentic value that resonates with health-conscious consumers. The result is not just higher order values, but stronger customer relationships built on genuine appreciation for both the products and the shopping experience.
