A Shopify Managed Marketplace That’s Open for 12 Hours A Week Nick Jefferson and Ella Cooper (episode 427)
Nick Jefferson and Ella Cooper are co-founders of Wylde Market. It is a Shopify store selling wild food that’s open for just 12 hours a week! Founded in Jan 2022 they now have 9 producers live on board, with 1,500 customers, and regularly sell out.
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What is Wylde Market?
Wylde Market is a managed marketplace that’s open only on Wednesdays and features wild food from select producers. Because of the logistics, they currently only sell to the UK, which co-founder Nick Jefferson says is already a sufficiently big market.
In reference to their operating hours, Nick shares that they’ve received good feedback from both their customers and producers. And for Ella and Nick, this focused schedule enables them to give the right amount of attention and time to other areas of the business, such as customer service.
Connecting with Wild Food Producers
Because Wylde Market is a managed marketplace, producers sell directly to consumers. However, Nick and Ella take care of a lot of the backend processes for their producers, so the latter can focus on their main work.
Two days of the week are dedicated to securing new producers and getting new items on the marketplace. Ella says these activities take a lot of time and effort because you have to meet with new producers several times before they become comfortable with you and get on board.
Initially, Wylde Market only had two fishermen they were working with. The number has since increased because the producers themselves tell their friends about the marketplace, which translates to trust-building.
Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Ella says what’s been critical for their business is word-of-mouth marketing, which applies to both their producers and customers.
Maintaining good relationships with its customers allows Wylde Market to grow because it’s the customers who tell their friends about the fresh produce they buy from the marketplace.
Nick also mentions that user-generated content has helped them on the marketing side because customers post photos of what they get from the market and share them with their friends. And for Nick, it’s being able to connect the stories of their producers and their customers that really gives meaning to what they do at Wylde Market.
The Importance of Great Customer Service
At Wylde Market, Fridays are customer service days for making sure that customers are happy with their purchases.
This is an essential part of their business because Ella says happy customers are the ones who tell their friends about Wylde. She adds that these customers are the best recruiters since their friends are similar to them and they have the same tastes and likes.
The Power of Scarcity
The biggest driver for Wylde Market’s decision to operate only 12 hours a week was operational considerations.
Their customers love the concentrated buying experience, and their producers, because of the nature of their work and business, also find the proposition attractive.
Scarcity marketing is at work here, Nick explains, but it was purely a logistical necessity when he and Ella decided on their operating hours.
eCommerce Book Top Tip
- Ikigai: Simple Secrets to a Long and Happy Life by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles
eCommerce Traffic Top Tip
- Nick says word of mouth is underrated but golden, especially for their business.
Tool Top Tip
- For Ella, nothing beats being together during long car journeys because that’s when she and Nick have their best strategy sessions.
Growth Top Tip
- Look after those first 100 customers well and provide great customer service, and those customers will get you your next 900 customers if you do things right.
Interview Links
- Check out Wylde Market
- For UK-based listeners, use coupon code MASTERPLAN to avail of discount of 20% until March 31st, 2023
- Thanks to Rob Edlin for the introduction to these awesome guests – Rob’s one of their fishermen, and also a Analytics and Digital Consultant at Niddocks
Related episodes
- How to Apply All Four Types of Scarcity Marketing with Mindy Weinstein (episode 422)
- The Cornish Fishmonger’s Rob Wing discusses selling fish online, and why customer service is essential (episode 077)
- Taste Tradition Direct’s Ian Smith discusses growing a new site to 50 orders per month in just 2 months (episode 034)
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