In this week’s podcast we bring you another success story. How an eCommerce of natural products has become a European leader: the case of .
We interviewed its founder and CEO, Josep Casas, He tells us about his recruitment strategies, what it is like to enter the Chinese market, create your own products and the importance of having a domain in each country with local communication, generating loyalty. Don’t miss it and press play!
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Interview with Josep Casas (Naturitas)
8:14 Introduce us what Naturitas is
It is an eCommerce specialized in natural products. We go from natural health such as food supplements, food such as intolerances and bio products and natural cosmetics. We have many proven brands and we are transparent with opinions, We do not filter the reviews, so all customers can consult all the opinions about our products.
We have specialized ourselves and we are the category killer of this category: health and wellness. We are in the waves of trends, such as sustainable and natural products, in addition to the fact that we caught the wave of eCommerce, which was accentuated by Covid.
9:50 Have you considered making a .com to cover all countries?
We have a strategy of domains by country, since our category is very local, a naturopath in Spain prescribes different things than one from or Italy. We have a domain for each country and we shop locally with a local shopping experience as well.
We have a warehouse in Catalonia with all the stock together, which is good for us to deliver to the entire Iberian Peninsula in less than 24 hours and in 48 to Europe. We have the .com but I recommend that you have a domain in each country because each market is different: logistics, costs, check outs… The experience must be better and local, showing closeness to the consumer.
13:25 What countries are you in?
Portugal, which is logistically easier than most logistics players. France, which is very powerful in the naturopathy sector. And Italy, where supplementation is important. These are the closest and for which you first create a market.
Then we open in the UK, Ireland and the US, which was a challenge because it caught us 4 months after the Covid era. This makes our deliveries slower, if we take 7 days before, with the Covid there are fewer commercial flights but we notify customers at all times of how long it will take.
Lastly we opened everything that would be Benelux, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and now we are waiting to open Scandinavia.
20:00 How did Covid affect you?
We increased above the forecast, We noticed a break in prescription issues and therapeutic recommendations because consumers spent 4 months without being able to go to them.
Secondly, it is compensated with food, people began to buy and prevent, to enhance immunity and health. We are an eCommerce with many categories within a niche, which means that we always compensate. Now with the mask they put on less makeup but it is compensated because you have to buy masks.
Many companies have accelerated to digitize, we knew how to maintain the service and retain many people that after returning to the new normal they continue to buy in our online store.
22:00 What traffic do you work with?
We have over a million views. Every year some 30 million sessions in all countries, the conversion is around 4%, This figure depends on the country because there are some that buy more frequently and the conversion increases.
The source of attracting new customers is paid but the traffic is increasingly organic, because we have recurring customers.
28:00 In Spain do you have more conversion than in the rest of the countries?
Yes, it is also important to know that we play the longtail game, when you start selling products that have many eCommerce, it is very difficult to reach 4%.
People want to go to one place and buy everything instead of snacking in several stores and instead of going to a marketplace like Amazon where orders arrive in drops and on different days. We have such specific products that you will only find them in our store.
29:48 When did you start with your own brand?
A year and a half ago. We have great Big Data, With 5 years of experience selling, we know how to sell the product you like, with the packaging and the specific demand. We have products with more than 30 references, when we make our own, we take the best of those 30.
We created a club of testers with the best customers of Naturitas, about 1,500 people in Spain who test all the products we want to launch or introduce. This gives us a lot of feedback before investing. We have 350 products that include food, cosmetics and supplementation. Our idea is to have 2,000 in two years and 500 at the end of the year, that you can buy our brand without leaving behind the rest of the brands.
37:20 Do you use marketplaces?
yes, for discover things that escape us and tendencies. Sales are less than 5%, we take advantage of the data they give us, there are customers who do not leave the marketplace.
We work on Amazon and Taobao. Or, it’s like Ebay and we try to offer niche European brands. We just started but we believe it is a lever for growth. In China, influencer marketing is very powerful, You must invest 30% of your planning in . Also European brands are premium, we can raise prices.
You have to break a lot of stone to get to enter this market well. You have a reputation within the Taobao and you must go climbing. vWe are going to invest 3 years here to be able to achieve stability.
47:37 Do you use Magento as CMS?
Yes, from the beginning. We saw that our catalog was going to be very extensive and we opted for Magento. We are very happy,
When you have our billing and multi-domain volume, you need it to be more professional. We had to migrate from Magento.1 to .2, any migration is traumatic. We tried VTex to test other domains, but we stayed with Magento.
50:50 How is your recruitment strategy?
Sometimes he positions you things that you were not looking for, it is a long-term career and we know that 80% of searches are mobile, the top results are always paid, despite the fact that your brand positions well.
We do not work Social ads, because it is focused on the funnel and our clients already know what they want. We know that influencer marketing is here to stay, we invest in our product is very ethical, so we want them to transmit those values. We are testing.
55:00 Do you automate mail marketing?
We were among the first Nosto customers but we have left it because we have found our own solution to create personalized and segmented emails. We are that it works very well based on the shopping experience, like machine learning.
Wear looking for this solution for 7 years, this one just started, it has modules for PrestaShop and Shopify and now they are developing for Magento. It is from another century to have staff to prepare campaigns by segmentation, it must be automated to be scalable.
57:23 What are your next steps?
It is important to offer a premium offer to our customers, knowing what they like. End with 500 own-brand products and open markets throughout Europe with its own website and local language. In a couple of years we want toOpen a warehouse in the area to be able to deliver within 24 hours in competitive markets.
The third pillar that we want to build is a community around Naturitas, as it is a niche it is easier to create it. We want them to be involved in product design and formulation. We launched the club to test our products and give us feedback, we have 1,500 people, we send an average of 3/4 products and they receive one where they can leave their comments.
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