Going Beyond the Storefront: Unlocking the Power of Omnichaneling - Nutr | EP. #106

Omnichaneling is becoming increasingly important for businesses to attract and retain customers. On this 106th episode of The E-Comm Show, Andrew Maff interviews Alicia Long from Nutr, a first-of-its-kind machine that makes plant-based milk from nuts and oats.

In this episode, Alicia will discuss the power of omnichannel, how to create a seamless omnichannel experience for customers, and how Nutr has transformed their business by going beyond the storefront. Don't miss this episode if you want to learn more about unlocking the power of omnichannel for your business!

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Have an e-commerce marketing question you'd like Andrew to cover in an upcoming episode? Email: hello@theecommshow.com

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Going Beyond the Storefront: Unlocking the Power of Omnichaneling - Nutr

SPEAKER

Andrew Maff and Alicia Long 

CONNECT WITH OUR HOST: AndrewMaff.com  |  Twitter: @AndrewMaff | LinkedIn: @AndrewMaff 

Alicia Long 

Alicia Long is a dynamic entrepreneur and the CEO and Co-Founder of Nutr, a lifestyle and wellness brand that is quickly disrupting the plant-based milk industry. Born in China and raised on the values of sustainability and a holistic approach to healthy living, Alicia brings a unique perspective to her work. After immigrating to the United States at the age of 18, Alicia honed her marketing skills at Ohio State University and built a successful career in tech startups, including Google and Amazon, where she excelled in technical recruiting.

However, her passion for creating a healthier future for her son and the world drove her to start her own business. Alicia was inspired by the memory of drinking homemade nut milks as a child in China and was determined to find a solution to the environmental impact of the dairy industry and the lack of healthy options in store-bought plant milks.

With her business acumen and marketing expertise, she teamed up with her husband, Dane, to create the Nutr Machine, a patent-pending technology that allows anyone to make fresh, nutritious and sustainable plant-based milks at the touch of a button. Alicia's unique blend of experience, passion, and vision make her the driving force behind the success of Nutr.

Transcript: 

Andrew Maff  01:03

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the ecomm show. As usual, I'm your host Andrew Maff. And today I am joined by the amazing Alicia Long of Nutr, Alicia, how're you doing? Ready for a good show.

Alicia Long  01:13

Good. Good. Thank you for having me, Andrew.

Andrew Maff  01:16

Yeah, not a problem. I appreciate you taking the time out. For those of you obviously, I know you're probably listening on a podcast. But for those of you who might be watching us on our YouTube channel, Alicia is currently at a trade show. So the backdrop is fantastic. How's the how's the trade show going for you so far?

Alicia Long  01:31

Good. There's about 1000 vendors. Behind me and QVC is here and Starbucks is here. Costco and just lots of traction. So sorry that we are getting a little bit busy.

Andrew Maff  01:48

Not a problem at all. It's always a good problem, right? Yeah. So obviously, I always like to the stereotypical thing. Start off with the basics. So why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background, obviously about nadur How you guys got started, and we'll take it from there. Okay.

Alicia Long  02:03

Yeah, sounds good. So, hi, everyone. My name is Alicia law. I'm the co founder and CEO of nutter. So nadur is a consumer tech company. So we focus on changing the way we milk. So basically, what we do provide is all in one solutions, not only just the hardware that makes the milk, so it's like a pitcher. But then you just put nuts and water in there. And after a couple of minutes, you make plant based milk. But also in addition to that we provide the solutions, ingredients as well, because we believe in 100% Whole Foods. So all of our ingredients are 100% Whole Foods non GMO, or vegan. So a lot of superfoods, vitamins and minerals to make your own plant based milk.

Andrew Maff  02:45

Nice. So how did you come up with this idea?

Alicia Long  02:49

Yeah, so I was actually there was at the beginning of pandemic and I was pregnant with my son at that time. And I turned vegan, what not vegan plant based plant based majority of the time vegan 88% of the time. But I turned to plant base, and then I dropped about 20 pounds just naturally. And then I was drinking a lot of plant based milk, like big name brands. And then I started to realize this a lot of sugar, because I had gestational diabetes during my pregnancy. So I had to literally watch everything that I eat all the sugar content. And then surprisingly, all these big name brands, and they have a lot of emulsifiers gone out of additives, sugar, and I was like I can't drink this. So I have to make my own. But then the process of making your own plant based milk is like really long and lengthy. You have to soak the nuts night before and you have to blend it and then take out the big giant Vitamix and then strain it through cheesecloth. And then if you don't use it all the five, six cups of milk and you just go to waste. So it is very time consuming. So that's reason why we created another my husband is a mechanical engineer. So for 16 years, just focused on product development. So we kind of just got to work, we found a manufacturer that was willing to work with us and then took about a year and a half to develop the machine. And we took the market in July of 2021. And then from the first year there was like five months and then we did $100,000 in sales. And we knew that was a product market fit. And then so basically we started to, you know, obviously our growth and we grow really, really quickly. And then, you know, basically last year we close you're at 6.7 million and so this year we're projected at double the sales. So I think a lot of consumers are just this is not only just the trend, but also I think the future of food is going all the way back to the ancient time, which is you know, often foods so people are really conscious about what they're eating and drinking so that is never going Go away. Since the pandemic, it really started to get people to think rethink food. So yeah, that's why you see so many like plant base and so many like, you know, vegan non GMO is because you just want it to be simple, right? Because it's your health and your family's health.

Andrew Maff  05:18

Yeah, I completely agree. And in fact, when I told my wife that you were gonna be on the show, she's like, Oh, my God, you gotta talk to ask her all the questions, because we're big coffee drinkers. She's like, a barista habit. But like, we've got all the different types of milks around. And if there's some kind of ingredient that I can't pronounce, she's like, Nope, don't buy it. We're not getting it. And so she's like, ask her about it, find out about it. I'm like, Okay, I'll let you know. So already a big fan. So very interesting concept. Obviously, there are, I guess, if I had to kind of put some similarities behind it behind other aspects, you can also kind of equate it to like almost as if like a SodaStream sort of aspect where you can make your own at home. So you do have that added benefit of you can control all the ingredients that you were to put into this kind of thing. So you typically, you've seen

Alicia Long  06:08

executives, actually on our board of advisor,

Andrew Maff  06:11

Oh, really? Yeah. So it's a very interesting market, because I do know that you one of the issues that you can kind of come across as taking up counter space. So there's a lot of education behind the market of why this is more beneficial. And how I imagine over a certain amount of time, there's probably a savings behind it, as opposed to buying the products in grocery stores and stuff. How are you kind of educating the market on that?

Alicia Long  06:37

Yeah, for sure. Saving is one of them, right? Because on average consumer, if you wanted to, for example, your wife, if she makes a decision on, you know, cleaner label products, like milk, for example, is very clean, just three ingredients. But that price tag is high. Right? Yeah. And because it's cleaner, you know, I think they should be cheaper. So, but for me is that, you know, if I was the average consumer, and I wanted to see, you know, it's healthier for me, and also saves me money. So and that that's a conscious decision, right? So for me, it's like we wanted to save money for consumer, so on average per cup of oat milk, and cost like 17 cents for customers to make in another machine. So you actually get the money back after like two to three months after the purchase. And then longer term, because they last four or five, six years, so you don't like our customers, they said, I don't ever go back to get the store bought plant based milk again, because it's just like overpriced water. Because it's 98% water, it's less than 2% nuts. And for us, and you know, you get 20% of the nut to nutrition, and then you know, less water and then it's creamier, the result is creamier. And also it's cleaner. So it's not only just saving money aspect, but also from a consumer, like I'm a consumer, I started because I'm a mom, and I'm busy all the time I don't I have one toddler on my on my one hand and then another hand on making something, I don't want to compromise my health by just trying to go like convenient, right. So that's why we create it, you know, it's a single servings a very small birth fleet machine, it takes very little kitchen counter. So you don't have to take out the Vitamix from your pantry and then finesse with all the 1000 pieces, and then have to you know, clean it all and then put it back all together. You can literally because our machine just like two pieces, just the lid and the bottom is like a picture. So basically, you plug it in, and mine is plugging it right next to my Nespresso all the time, and they just drop the nuts in water, and hence free. You just drop it in, you walk away after a couple minutes, five minutes and you get a whole glass of clean, nutritious plant based milk.

Andrew Maff  08:45

Wow, that's awesome. So I know from the business model, you know, very traditional DTC focused, are you planning on going in kind of a b2b direction? Obviously, this could have so many applications from just like a traditional coffee shop sort of thing. Is there a more like commercial size? Or like what's the plan of going in that direction?

Alicia Long  09:08

Yeah, definitely. So we are actually we just launched the family size. So we're talking to Costco and they reached out after our Shark Tank aired, and then interested in the family size. So we're discussing about exclusivity with them. But at the same time, I think there's a lot of consumers also wonder about you know, when they can get a bigger size because a lot of them they drink water of Columbia smoke so they actually save some a lot of money. So but in addition to Costco, so we are finalizing our Pio with Starbucks, so they're going to sell us across the reserve stores, including the one in Empire State Building, so very exciting. In that also, we're meeting with QVC tomorrow and as well as some other retailers we're live on Macy's dot com Bloomingdale's and wasted Oman. So atop so definitely the focus is retail on later this year as well as next year.

Andrew Maff  10:02

Nice. So you obviously brought it up. So I guess I'll go ahead and ask how was the whole Shark Tank thing? Obviously, that's, you know, sometimes I asked people that are like, I don't want to talk about it others, they're like, it was amazing. So I'm always really interested what you know, what made you want to sign up for it? What was the whole process? Like? How has it been post the show? Tell me all about it.

Alicia Long  10:23

Yeah. So we kind of got lucky. And shark tank production actually reached out to us just, you know, wanted us to audition. And we thought, hey, it's a great opportunity. And it was too intimidating, but we'd never been on TV before. But the whole experience, which is absolutely amazing, their producers, just so easy to work with. So it was a long process. But at the same time, we kind of gone through the whole full experience of Sony production, and then we're like, oh, celebrity here. But then, you know, really, for us being on Shark Tank is kind of like a milestone for us. Really just a validation of our brand. Hey, like we're being recognized. And then the experience was good. All the sharks were super nice. But it was a little intimidating when you have so many like cameras and lights. And, you know, we're just like, overwhelmed. But at the same time, I think we did well, we walked away without a deal on purpose, because they're sharks, and we wanted to protect our, you know, equity. And so we have other existing investors, but then after the show, we raised close to $2 million after the show.

Andrew Maff  11:32

Nice. And so once the show aired, and has it repaired? Since Yes, yes. So have you did you see an immediate jump, obviously, on the Airing Date? And then again, every time was repaired?

Alicia Long  11:45

Yeah. So we every time I think we nearly sold out after, after they aired again. But it was good problem to have. And then I think our customers are very patient and then, you know, just wanted to, like work with the work with us and then see Yeah, and Stockton did give us a huge lift in sales.

Andrew Maff  12:05

Nice. Obviously, there's always that huge lift. But as time goes on, you know, there'll be new episodes out that starts to fall off. So what's your approach? From a marketing perspective? What tends to be those top channels that you guys are catering to right now?

Alicia Long  12:18

Yeah, definitely. I think that's a Omni right now is omni channel stage. Right. So it's not only single channel, DTC, you know, during the pandemic was really hot, right. And then, but in the, the end of the day, DTC only makes up 15% of total sales in the United States. So I think the if you are trying to scale as a brand, and as a business, you definitely should think about retail still, because after the pandemic, a lot of brands start getting back into the brick and mortar, and where are the show, there's still a lot of, you know, retail buyers are buying for their stores. So I think purchasing power still is very strong in retail. So I think, you know, just figuring out distribution, DTC is really another one of the nice rev Ave, right? So it makes up the whole brand awareness. And then when people people choose consumers choose where they shop, and that's something that we cannot control we can control is to make it available on the shelves. So when they walk by past the shelf at Target, they're like, Oh, this is my sister's, you know, birthday, and I'm gonna grab it because I saw it online on Instagram or TikTok. So that's the type of Omni channels that we're trying to achieve. Not only just at DC, but also in the retail as well.

Andrew Maff  13:42

Gotcha. So the 15% that you're focused on the DC side, is that inclusive of any marketplaces? Are you available on a marketplaces obviously, like an Amazon or a Walmart or something like that?

Alicia Long  13:54

Yeah. Um, so our brand is definitely a little bit towards premium. So we are mostly available on Yeah, we are on Amazon. But also we're on like, macys.com, billing cinema.com And, and Starbucks as well. But I think, for marketplace, it's another channel, I think DTC, what I mentioned about DTC is actually the overall US sales. So for our channel right now, we're still doing about I say, there's about 70 80% is doing DTC, and then we're doing about 20% on Amazon, and we're expanding on Amazon. But at the same time, but one or two, you know, when you're in online space is very crowded, right in the Euro competing kind of with yourself between different channels. But you know, you also wanted to diversify. So what we're trying to do is diversify different income streams. So, for example, when we're online, we don't necessarily only push advertising on Facebook, we're only pushing for Google because the more complete editors that you have more brands are competing for eyeballs, the more expensive it gets. So and then you're just competing for it, you know, if you wanted to drive up the gross and then your RO s efficiency goes down CAC goes up, then you know, everyone knows, okay, we're not profitable on Facebook, and how can we drive up the growth, right. So that's what happens with a lot of brands that we study is that, you know, they will raise big money and venture capital money. And then because their CAC so high, and hoping that people will come back for a subscription, but at the same time, they also need to understand the more competitors that they have the CAC is continuing to drive up. And so then, you know, profitability becomes a really, really hard for DTC brands. So, if you have a brand and gotta think about, okay, how do I achieve profitability, no matter if you are trying to, you know, get the VC money, or raise a run of capital, or we're just trying to be, you know, remain profitability, profitable, right. And so single channel, it has to make sense in order for you to, you know, amplifying the growth. So, what happens with a lot of brands is that, you know, they'll just keep raising money, keep dumping money into Facebook, or Google advertising in performance space. And then kind of just forget about the organic side, I believe that grass is greener when you water it. So the more effort that you put in in the organic, and chances are, you will start seeing efficiency. So in an omni channel space, you just really have to take a look at what are the different channels that you know, are getting are contributing to overall revenue, right? We have the performance marketing, which is paid advertising, we also have the organic channels, which is tick tock marketing. And then so for tick tock is very different than tick tock two years ago. Why? Because they started to launch their emerging commerce with entertainment. So that's really the whole point of tick tock, they started to grab a lot of attention from Instagram, from YouTube, from Twitter, right? And then it grew to over a billion downloads within two years and is unheard of. So and then the reason why they are really building that platform, of course, they're trying to take market shares and then trying to profit, how do they do that through an entertainment channel, is through commerce. So they have launched it across eight other countries, including the UK, including China and South Asia, they have done it very successfully. The US is actually the next one. So basically, it's a big pie. So what we started to doing is to do tick tock live, and tick tock, you know, short videos. So not short videos is one form to check live is another form, it works a little bit different than Instagram and YouTube. So for example, if you have, you have a tick tock life that's going on, right, and then for Instagram Live, only your followers can see your life, but for tick tock is otherwise, because you not only your followers can see your life. And also other target audience can also go into their life. So before you know it, one person can actually generate millions of views, hundreds of 1000s people looking at your life at the same time. It's literally like QVC on TikTok, and it converts. And that becomes another income stream of ours. And it's starting to perform really well with very with efficiency.

Andrew Maff  18:29

And so were those live videos that you're doing on your own brand? Or is that something that you're leveraging, like influencers for something

Alicia Long  18:35

both. We're building a team of influencers, as well as brand ambassadors to be able to be able to be our advocates, tap into their own followers, but also for us, we also bring on creators and create on our own behalf and train a tick tock algorithm, how to go from the new account of steady account to celebrity influencer account, and then generate more followers. And so you can basically promote advertise to that for free, right, organic over and over again, without costing advertising dollars.

Andrew Maff  19:10

And so with all the marketing efforts that you're doing, obviously, you mentioned, you know, organic being heavy tick tock, they can convert directly on tick tock, but then you also have the paid ads, you were discussing, you know, any kind of SEO efforts that you guys are doing that kind of stuff, or your since only about 15% of businesses online right now and the rest obviously being through your retail outlets. Are you solely focused on marketing from a digital perspective? Or are you doing anything from a traditional standpoint, any kind of print or commercial or like, you know, audio, anything along those lines?

Alicia Long  19:41

We started to discuss that. I think this is a marketing roadmap, right? That you have to build out and it's not just single channel will perform so well and you double down the effort. It's a combination of performance marketing with organic with print, with you know, obviously retail To create the omni channel, so you have this brand awareness and you also have the bucket to capture your, your traffic. So I think just a lot of data analysis and then taking a look at your existing who's the one coming to your site, who's the one that converts actually checkout. So these are, you know, a lot of a data, deep dive and so I talk a lot about the tactics on my own course. So we documented the whole TikTok of marketing organic effort, so that we can share with more entrepreneurs who just starting out or maybe wanted to pivot from performance marketing to other organic channels. So in the I have a website it's called New e comm era.com. And I'll share with your audience after this perfect

Andrew Maff  20:50

beautiful Alicia really appreciate your time. I don't want to take up too much your time I know you're super busy over the trade show but I'd love to give the opportunity to let everyone know where they can find out more about you and of course more about another

21:04

Yeah, absolutely. So my handle is at official Alicia Long, says A L I C I A and also my my website it's called newecommerra.com And then I'll send you an email after our show and then we in on the our course which we train and develop entrepreneurs to have the mindset to monetize on TikTok not only just from a brand awareness aspect, but also increasing your engagement and efficiency so you'll be able to generate income and revenue profitably

Andrew Maff  21:44

beautiful Alicia really appreciate having you on the show. Everyone else who tuned in obviously thank you as well please make sure you do the usual rate review subscribe all that fun stuff on whichever podcast platform you prefer or head over to the calm show.com to check out all of our previous episodes. But as usual, appreciate you all joining us and I will see you next time.

Narrator  22:04

Thank you for tuning in to The E-Comm Show head over to theecommshow.com to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform or on the BlueTuskr YouTube channel. The E-Comm Show is brought to you by BlueTusker, a full service digital marketing company specifically for e-commerce sellers looking to accelerate their growth. Go to bluetuskr.com Now for more information. Make sure to tune in next week for another amazing episode of The E-Comm Show.