With these tools, Foodist has become the leading food discovery platform.

1. Pam and Steffi sell snacks by subscription
2. USP: Products not found in the supermarket
3. Sales drivers: coconut, cinnamon, and vanilla
4. A 'data brain' for personalised marketing
5. 'The About You for foodies'
6. These tools are used by Foodist

Special foods in a subscription box and in the online shop - with this business, Foodist has grown to a current turnover of 30 million euros per year, according to CEO Alexander Djordjevic. In a conversation with OMR, Alexander explained the business model and revealed which tools and software Foodist cannot do without in everyday business.

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'Our mission is: 'Creating the most inspiring Online Shopping Platform for Food in Europe'', says Alexander Djordjevic of Foodist. The roots of this venture go back to 2012: Djordjevic and Ole Schaumberg met at the Hamburg School of Business Administration (HSBA) and wanted to start a company together: 'We wanted to start with an e-commerce model. Because we didn't have any money to pre-finance goods for a normal online shop, we started with subscription food boxes and were cashflow positive from day one.'

Pam and Steffi sell snacks by subscription

In the years that followed, Foodist and its founders went through three crowdfunding rounds on Companisto and – in 2014 – an appearance on the TV founder show 'Die Höhle der Löwen'. In 2016, the outdoor advertising company Ströer took over the start-up; a year later, Ole Schaumberg left Foodist. In April 2019, Ströer sold Foodist on to Metacrew. The latter offers subscription boxes - mainly in the beauty sector – and wants to expand its subscription commerce portfolio with Foodist. Foodist co-founder Alexander Djordjevic stayed on board even after the takeover.

Foodist now offers various subscription boxes under its own brand, but also in cooperation with companies and, above all, with influencers like Pamela Reif and Stefanie Giesinger. To manage the complex portfolio, the company uses a self-developed software. 'We have boxes with different subscription rhythms, terms, and prices', says Djordjevic. In addition, customers should also have the option of suspending their subscriptions. 'The off-the-shelf tools were simply not flexible enough for this'. Foodist is now also using the tool for an external customer, the Lindt Chocolate Club. 'Next year we want to offer our subscription management software on the open market.'

USP: Products not found in the supermarket

Today, Foodist not only sells food in various boxes by subscription, but also runs an online shop. In it, 'foodies' (people who have a particular interest in food and groceries) can buy organic veggie mince made from pea protein, a flower-salt mix with wild garlic, olive leaf pasta, but also snacks such as roasted cocoa beans with chilli - long-lasting, more unusual foods. 'Inspiration is super important for us. With us, people discover products that Rewe or Edeka do not have', says Alexander Djordjevic.

The first thought behind the online shop was to enable subscribers to reorder products they know from the subscription boxes, explains the co-founder. As a shop system, Foodist uses Commercetools, 'because it offers us the highest level of flexibility', as Djordjevic says. 'There are models that we do not run under the Foodist brand, such as the Lindt Chocolate Club. We then just have to change the frontend.'

Sales drivers: coconut, cinnamon, and vanilla

The range of the online shop now comprises 3,000 different products – and contributes the largest share of the company's annual turnover: 'We make 20 million euros from the individual sale of products, eight million from subscription boxes, and two million euros from retail media', says Djordjevic. Retail media includes advertising services that Foodist sells to food brands - for example, banners or placements in the newsletter.

30 percent of the online shop turnover comes from own brands, as Djordjevic explains. 'We develop our own brands based on data. The repurchase rate is the most important factor, but we also look at social engagement and reviews.' The Foodist team, for example, saw in their own figures that all products that contain either coconut or vanilla and cinnamon sell well. 'That's how we came up with the idea of launching corresponding peanut butter varieties under our own brand', explains the CEO.

A 'data brain' for personalised marketing

Foodist also relies on the motto 'Data Leads Opinion' in marketing. 'We've been using Cross Engage as a Customer Data Platform for almost three years to deliver as personalised advertising as possible', says Djordjevic. For this, the company has developed target group personas; the advertising is therefore not on an individual level. 'Crossengage acts as the 'brain' that takes over segmentation and personalisation.'

Another important tool in Foodist's marketing is Storyclash. 'We use Storyclash to identify suitable influencers for us and to check whether their content suits us. But we also use it to manage our cooperations', says the Foodist co-founder. For example, Storyclash automatically stores stories in which the company was tagged. 'Then the marketing manager doesn't have to take screenshots on weekends.'

'The About You for foodies'

Influencer marketing is now a crucial lever for Foodist. The company always tries to enter into long-term cooperations, for which there are various expansion stages. 'We first test how conversion-strong an influencer is. Those who generate good values get their own page in our shop and become an official 'Foodist Idol'', says Djordjevic. If you prick up your ears at the term 'Idol', you're not mistaken: a similar method was applied a few years ago by the fashion shop About You - a comparison that Djordjevic is not at all uncomfortable with.

The next level could then be subscription boxes like those with Pamela Reif and Stefanie Giesinger or initially their own advent calendar, like the one Foodist has just sold together with Sarah Harrison. The highest expansion stage is then 'Co-Creation' and an own brand. Again, according to the founder, Foodist operates very data-driven: 'Through our subscription boxes and advent calendars, we can very well test how products are received by customers. We ask for reviews for each product, but we also evaluate, for example, how long users stay in the shop on product detail pages.'

These tools are used by Foodist

Here is a list of all the tools used by Foodist: