We recently performed a few minor website updates for a new client, Joseph Farms, one of the largest dairies and producers of cheese in the United States and a member of the Gallo Wine family of businesses.  We did some front-end/visual site modifications recently for them to serve as a stop-gap until they’re ready to rebuild their entire website.  With their immediate creative needs handled, I decided to look into the E-commerce piece of their site just for kicks.

For the record, Joseph Farms’ main source of revenue is in no way E-Commerce and 99.999% of their revenue comes from the distribution of cheese to huge retailers like Costco, mega grocery stores, etc. Realistically the E-commerce portion of their website is probably not their top priority because it provides such a small piece of the company’s current revenue. That said, at some point Joseph Farms decided to devote some initial dollars to the development of an E-Commerce website and I have a few suggestions to further optimize the existing infrastructure, resulting in higher conversion rates and more revenue. Sure, the Ecomm component of their business might someday generate just 2% of their total revenue, but that would still be good for perhaps a couple hundred grand, and it would likely be WAY more profitable than the cheese sold via traditional distribution channels. It’s almost like free money!

1.) A Stronger Call to Action: As is, the website is mainly a corporate collateral piece and a sales tool geared toward retailers. The Ecommerce call to action on the homepage blends in with the other “pods” near the footer, and provides little incentive to “Order Now”.  The only call to action on the homepage is near the bottom of the page and reads:

Buy Our
Cheese Online

We believe that every family deserves healthy and all-natural cheese at a price they can afford.

Although I agree with the sentiment, I think this could provide a much stronger offer to get people into their Cheese Store. How about “Order Now and Save 20%“? Taking matters a step further and thinking about recurring revenue, how about “Join Our Cheese of the Month Club and Get Fresh Artisan Cheeses Delivered to Your Door Every Month!” Lots of possibilities here.

2.) Prohibitive Shipping Charges – Once inside the cheese store, I’d see lots of yummy cheeses like Marbled Cheddar, Swiss, Gouda, Provolone and more (I’m sooooo ready for a grilled cheese sandwich right now, maybe on sourdough with a little Anaheim chile and sliced tomato…) So I add three one-pound blocks of cheese to my shopping cart and see that the sub-total is $21.00 before proceeding to checkout.  Shipping to my house in Santa Barbara will cost $16.88! And the only option is to ship this cheese via UPS 2nd Day Air. Shipping is nearly as much as the cheese itself and those $7 blocks of cheese just about doubled to $13 each! This is nearly twice what I was originally expecting to pay for the cheese and aside from high-end artisan selections, I’m fairly certain this price is cost-prohibitive for every day cheeses. The bottom line is that the combined price of the cheese and shipping needs to come down.

For Joseph Farms to successfully sell cheese online, they need to first figure out a way to A.) Get the price of their cheese down to a level that is comparable or less than their local grocery store and/or; B.) focus on premium cheese sales and/or; C.) find a way to drastically reduce their shipping costs. I’m sure the two-day shipping requirement is related to the perishable nature of cheese, and as I discovered about five minutes ago, Joseph Farms DOES ship their cheese in styrofoam containers containing ice/gel packs to keep them cool. That said, it seems that there’s got to be a way to keep the cheeses down to a reasonable temperature for a longer period of time, allowing for standard 3-5 day delivery and much more reasonable shipping costs.

There are several other incremental things that could be done to improve the useability of the Joseph Farms online Cheese Store and I hope I have the opportunity to collaborate with them on these issues because I REALLY like their cheese!

Learn more for yourself:  http://www.josephfarms.com/