A "Gardyn" in Every Home -- an eCommerce Story of Success
Revolutionary indoor garden kit Gardyn uses to power their mission to put an Gardyn in every home. Featured on Forbes, Good Housekeeping, Time, Real Simple, Goop and many more. Gardyn chose for its scalability and customization. And they've used tools like Trustpilot, Affirm, Klaviyo as well as Amazon Pay to improve their sales and marketing for eCommerce.
Meet Gardyn
The Gardyn's founder and chief executive FX Rouxel began Gardyn in 2019, it was an easy, yet enthralling goal -- to help make a better world for all who was able to access cheap, convenient, all-natural food that was grown sustainably without a negative impact on the environment.
Utilizing the Gardyn indoor gardening method it is possible to grow the fruits, vegetables, herbs and even greens within just two square feet of space, with the same yield that would take more than a thousand square feet in a traditional outdoor garden!
A mobile app lets users have complete control over the device, and allows them to control their water and lighting schedule and put it in vacation mode, or even order more cubes of Y, which are seedlings of the plant.
The story of Gardyn
Gardyn was launched in the year 2019 , and they shipped their first prototype in February, at the same time they unveiled their brand new website .
When he moved to the U.S., Rouxel was disappointed that he was unable to locate fruits and veggies that were as delicious as the fresh, organic produce from his homeland of Provence, France. The search for the tastes of the childhood he grew up with that led him to develop the Gardyn system. Instead of looking for solutions at the beginning of the process, and helping farmers in generalFX was focused on the end consumer. Today, nearly anyone is able to cultivate their own food in a small space and with little effort.
This technology was developed in partnership together with McGill University in Canada, and is the first product of its kind specifically designed for indoor usage to allow up to 30 plants.
Launched at a time when COVID-19 renewed interest around the globe for family-owned, sustainable food supplies and home-based projects, the company flourished. It is headquartered within Bethesda, Maryland, Gardyn now employs a remote staff that includes more than 50 individuals.
Gardyn's engines are the reason for its success.
We spoke with Ava, who's in charge of their marketing and their website. She first encountered Gardyn when she was working for an agency for marketing they had hired. She was captivated by the mission and passion of Gardyn's leadership team.
"I just fell in love with the company." The woman said "They decided to integrate marketing into the company and I didn't want to quit. That's why I requested to remain and they offered me full-time employment."
Her passion is palpable -- coming across more like a founder than a Head of Website.
Making the Right Choice
Ava has been instrumental in choosing WordPress as their platform of choice. Ava isn't an expert in development, however she has some experience using WordPress.
"The main reason why we picked Shopify is that it worked nicely with WordPress and offered us the greatest flexibility. We didn't want to have another cookie-cutter Shopify store. Shopify would be more of an effort to personalize. It would certainly require a developer...and we don't have one.
However, since I do know a bit about WordPress however, not too much with , I was able to search for the best way to create our brand new website."
Their first site was built completely on their own, using Elementor without developers. It had everything they needed to start their venture including a product details page (PDP), membership functionality as well as a user-friendly check-out and shopping cart experience for their customers.
"There were, obviously there were some issues with growth," Ava says. Ava. "Just trying to plan for scalability. It was a matter of coding something in another way, then, 2 months later then we'd need to go back since I hadn't thought further in the future."
Luckily, gave Gardyn the freedom to grow quickly as the company soared in its popularity from one month to the next.
As the head of website, Ava keeps a close check on the performance of statistics. "I want to see that, if people land on the homepage, do they then go to PDP? After that, I like to see what is the PDP for the "add to basket" rate, and then clearly, to add it to cart. It is my goal to have everything flow smoothly throughout the process. Especially those key metrics -"PDP to conversion, cart to conversion, checkout to conversion." PDP to conversion from cart to conversion checkout and conversion."
A major way she's found ways to increase those numbers is via customer feedback.
Featuring reviews with Trustpilot
One of the biggest challenges she has as a marketer is educating customers about exactly what Gardyn is and what it is in comparison to other in-home food growing systems.
"It's saying to people that we've got the Tesla and if they've never driven or driven, what do they think it is that a Tesla is? That's why it's difficult- explaining how to explain it so they understand how it fits into their lives. It's not just another task or pastime that's about disappear. It's so simple and is always around."
One of the best ways to solve this issue, they discovered, is by using user-generated content (UGC), which is in the form of reviews. The Gardyn team saw the potential of reviews however, they needed a platform that can consolidate reviews into one place. The platform had to be genuine.
They began with a different system however, they quickly switched to Trustpilot and has significantly enhanced the value of the reviews.
"It creates a sense of trust when customers can go to the Trustpilot website and verify that the reviews and reviewers are genuine. And customers write detailed reviews that have five stars. We're not giving them any rewards, it's simply their desire to let us know how much they love Gardyn."
When it comes to getting review feedback Gardyn communicates via emails to customers who are actively engaged -- like longtime members. It also promotes a Facebook group, where members are working together and getting maximum benefit from the platform.
Trustpilot makes it easy to do more with the feedback they get.
"The Trustpilot experience on the backend of Trustpilot is so much easier for us to manage to view and manage, as well as be able to download particular reviews, and other such. It allows us to connect with the reviewers and try to collect photographs, or even get additional content for our blogs to add that human feel and connection.
It was particularly useful to create ads or review cards from within Trustpilot. I'm able download all the SVG files really easily. It's all set up to work to follow the highest standards of practice which is very helpful."
Including reviews on the site and in marketing has proven to be crucial.
"I recorded user experience feedback in which users walked through the site and then spoke to each other about their experience and thoughts. I would say eight out of ten said something like, 'Oh reviews! That's awesome. Additionally, we use testimonials within every email. On every footer, we include Trustpilot reviews -- each footer."
In real-life, the results speak for themselves.
If Gardyn includes reviews in their Facebook ads, their click-through rates double. Also, when they included reviews on their site, engagement went up and bounce rates dropped.
Using additional tools and integrations for greater success
Ava has already stated that the decision to choose the platform for their store was partly due to the swathe of nature of the platform. But how, specifically, do you manifest that?
Extensions.
"I'm self-taught and have learned to Google. I've learned how to study. There's no way to tell the extension's effectiveness until you try it out. This is why the 30-day policy for return is super helpful.
The best part is that WordPress is open source, and with on top of that you have a myriad of options to choose from. There are so many things to choose from, it's likely to be the thing you're looking for. There's always an extension to whatever I want to do.
She says that Trustpilot as well as Affirm are certain to have made an impact in the most positive way on their site's success.
"It was extremely simple to use . I don't know why we didn't use it earlier. Klaviyo quickly understands exactly what the funnel does. It has doubled the amount of contacts we capture from abandoned carts since Klaviyo is able to integrate abandoned carts and display the help of a pop-up. We have up to 50,000 subscribers currently."
Implementing express pay
The MyGardyn website launched express-pay options in November 2021 and instantly saw acceptance by users. A lot of adoption. Today more than 40% of transactions on desktops along with 60% mobile purchases use express payments. As a tally of every transaction, 30% pay with the credit card and 20% make payments through Affirm.
However, the most significant thing to note is that they saw an increase of 50% on mobile conversions compared to desktop during the same time period. This underscores the significance of using the express payment option including Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Amazon Pay.
"It's nice," Says Ava, "The express pay options have greatly raised our conversion rate and mobile sales. It's really low, as well."
"If you consider it, everybody has Amazon. It's thinking, 'Oh, I have it. I'm already signed in to the app.' It takes just two minutes. The abandonment rate is 17% in that case. This is really low."
In the direction of the future
Gardyn aims to bring everyone the opportunity to eat fresh food. A Gardyn in every home will, naturally, be the ultimate goal.
The company is currently developing a G3 Initiative, called Gardyn Grows for Good and is working in partnership in partnership with nonprofits and schools in order to provide food to deserts and affected communities. This project ultimately helps provide nutritious and affordable food for those living in poverty.
When asked about advice she'd offer to others, she won't hesitate.
"Don't be afraid to make large changes," says Ava. "A website is never done. It's never ending. It's constantly changing. Be aware of your instincts and be sure to follow the facts which I strongly recommend Trustpilot and I highly.
If you're selling something or engaging in hardcore marketing Do it with a purpose that helps improve the world and feels satisfied when you see people purchase it."
Finally, Ava also shared her most loved things that she grows in her Gardyn: "My favorite thing is known as Red Mustard. It's really a spicy lettuce and is like horseradish. It's delicious on sandwiches! Also, I've grown cherries and strawberries that tasted so sweet. I've never tasted anything as delicious."