Coltiva. Organic E-market
Coltiva was an organic food online market I co-founded, based on the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It focused on the engagement of local producers for its social and environmental advantages.
MOTIVATION.
While e-commerce of food products and the consumption of organic products was steadly growing, there was a limited offer of similar online services in the area. The existing ones were mostly producers selling their own products directly to consumers with a limited product offer. The ones that did provide a wider offer of products failed to provide a good user experience, either due to problems in payment options, delivery times or missing products information or certifications. Coltiva was created as an alternative aiming to address these issues by providing a smooth user experience from the selection to the reception of the products at home, with a focus on a strong communication centered around the local producers (with the social and environmental benefits this represented) and the quality of their products.
RESEARCH.
Through a market study of the competitors and online surveys shared on social media channels we identified the barriers preventing people from shopping organic products online as well as the strengths and pain-points of existing organic online shops (e.g. not being able to select specific vegetables, limited times for delivery). We focused on improving these points in our service. We learnt which aspects were the most valuable for our target users (e.g. connection with local producers, health benefits and nutritional info about the products) and we made these aspects a central part of our communication.
BLOG.
We created a blog that focused on the topics of interest for our target consumers around organic food. We involved specialists to produce articles for our blog section, which resulted in high quality content and higher visibility for our website.
SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS.
We provided high quality content ranging from information about the producers, video recipes of what dishes that could be prepared with their products and information about the benefits resulting from their consumption as a way to reach out potential customers. We achieved a high level of engagement and over 8k followers in the first 4 months through organic growth.
CLOSING.
Less than one year after our initial discussions on the project, the service was running and we had our first regular customers. Along the way we saw many of our initial ideas challenged by the experience, especially in relation to logistics (related to inventory, transportation, and storage of the products). This was a side project for the three co-founders, and we were at a time in which we had to decide if to dedicate full time on it to address the logistic requirements triggered by the growing demand or to collect our learnings and close it. At that time, we finally decided to close the service to focus on other career opportunities, but the passion for founding remained.