Stuggling Entrepreneur
Who is your intended customer? I can&#x27;t identify any demographic that I think would want to order from you.<p>You say &quot;coffee flavors&quot;. Peru is not a flavor. It&#x27;s an origin. This is going to turn off anyone that knows anything about coffee.<p>Your coffee flavor page states &quot;Learn about all our delicious coffee flavors:&quot; But there is nothing on that page that teaches you anything. There is no information. What&#x27;s a &quot;viennese roast&quot;, for example? (I know, you don&#x27;t need to explain). What towns in Peru did that coffee come from? Who&#x27;s the farmer? What&#x27;s the difference between various South American origin coffees? There is no information on this page.<p>The descriptions of the coffees all sound the same. One has a &quot;rich finish&quot;, the next has a &quot;rich flavors and a smooth finish&quot;, and the other a &quot;rich, smooth finish&quot;.<p>As a point of contrast, go to Sweet Marias and read their descriptions. I&#x27;m not saying you need to go to their level, but &quot;rich&quot; is not descriptive. At most its evocative. And it means nothing when all your choices say &quot;rich&quot;. Are their fruit notes? If so, which fruits? Are there cacao flavors? Is there sweetness, or funk? Are they wet or dry processed?<p>Next, go here: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.intelligentsiacoffee.com&#x2F;products&#x2F;coffee" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.intelligentsiacoffee.com&#x2F;products&#x2F;coffee</a>
That&#x27;s informative. There prices are in line with yours, but they are offering single origin, sourced coffee - you are buying coffee from one collective or even one farmer, and a specific harvest date. You know what friggin altitude the coffee was grown at. If you want your coffee ground, you get 14 grind choices.<p>It&#x27;s places like Sweet Maria&#x27;s and Intelligentsia that are doing good in the world. They form relationships with the farmers, they help educate them on what the market wants from coffee, they offer a dependable demand so that the farmer can trust that if they make an investment that the product will find a market, and they help raise support premium prices so the farmer can make a good wage and justify growing premium coffee (as opposed to pumping out mid grade, forgettable beans to be sold by Starbuck and the like). In contrast, I read your faq. You sell &quot;fair trade&quot; coffee. That&#x27;s a pretty meaningless term. Are you associated with Fair Trade USA (note the capital letters), the non profit that certifies transactions? Or what? Fair trade is pretty well considered a scam - for a farmer to get certification often costs more than the increased bean price yields him. Direct trade is far more beneficial to the farmer.<p>I just don&#x27;t get the impression (from the site) that you know anything about coffee. And you only have 3 choices. Why would I buy from you? I guess the causes? Of the $20 you want for 12 ounces of coffee (ouch), 2 goes to a cause. I click on animal cause. Nothing there but coming soon.<p>Why would I choose you over, say, blue bottle (I&#x27;m going to guess they are your roaster)? I can get that 12 oz bag for $14 from them, there are far more choices, I can get single origins instead of blends, I can get equipment, etc. You can cancel a subscription at any time with them. With you, tough luck, you&#x27;re paying for, and getting coffee for a year no matter what.<p>Your subscription choices are extremely limited. Who is into coffee enough to pay $26 dollars (with shipping) for 12oz of coffee, and then only drink 12oz in a month? That&#x27;s one week of coffee, maybe two, depending on the person.<p>I try to place an order, just to see all the info. Earlier, when I clicked on &#x27;animal causes&#x27; it just said coming soon. So, being a bastard, when you ask me to specify a cause I choose animal causes, because I wanted to see what error you pop up. Nope, you take it. Hmm. Are you just taking my money too, or are going to use that $2 &quot;at some point&quot;?  You tell me &quot;local nonprofits&quot;, but the animal link I clicked showed an elephant. It&#x27;s not adding up. I clicked around some more, it looks like you sent $50 to Muira Village. That ain&#x27;t local. The last progress report was in October! No way I&#x27;d ever send money to a website like this, the information is mostly nonexistent, and the info that does exist contradicts itself.<p>Anyway, there is nothing on your site to create a customer, so I&#x27;m not surprised your customer acquisitions costs are exorbitant. You must have to make the sale elsewhere, because you aren&#x27;t doing it on your site.<p>Are you into coffee? Do you enjoy coffee? Do you know coffee? What&#x27;s the game plan here? To me it seems like you are buying beans from somebody else, and don&#x27;t understand coffee terms or consumption patterns. If true, is this the right business for you? If you are knowledgeable and passionate about coffee, then please show it on your site.<p>Probably not a fun thing to read, but bottom line, why would a customer choose you over Intelligencia, Espresso Vivace, Counter Culture, Terroir, Klatch, etc? Because they are your competitors; there is no extra friction for me to click on their link instead of yours, and the prices are the same. Give me lower costs, give me more selections, give me a better education, give me better ordering choices, give me <i>something</i> to choose you over award winning, well known brands with strong roots in making the lives of coffee farmers better (trying to tie in the non-profit, help the world angle you have).