Youfoodz recipe for online sales

Internet Retailing

19th Jul 2016

Launched in late 2012, Youfoodz has delivered more than five million meals to customers around Australia and is changing the way people think about pre-prepared food.

“After experiencing sub-par meals and witnessing the industry standard at an all-time low, we decided to give it a crack because we believe Australia deserves better, fresher alternatives,” says Youfoodz GM Kane Sala.

Youfoodz customers are young working professionals who want to save time cooking by not cooking. From a wide range of professions, they fall mainly within the 20-40 years demographic and are 75 per cent female. The company has worked out that it saves the average person up to 15 hours a week – “That’s over a month or 760 hours a year!” Sala explains.

“They understand the time and effort that they put into meal prep and cooking every night of the week and would rather spend that time on other things,” says Sala. “They care about their health but are very passionate about quality of life above most things.”

Appealing to these demands is Youfoodz use of fresh, quality produce and ingredients with no added preservatives, as well as the availability of gluten-free, dairy-free and low-carb options. Another plus is the food lasts seven to nine days in the fridge.

Delicious, compelling images are created by a diverse in-house team of design, web, photography, marketing and film creatives. These are featured in highly effective campaigns that are advertised through multiple avenues from billboards, radio and TV to online search, social media and pre-roll videos. “We keep attracting customers by keeping our product and our marketing exciting and fun,” Sala explains.

Helping to maintain this customer interest, Youfoodz chefs introduce new meals every week and aim to fit into all lifestyles by offering meal plans covering healthy clean meals and sensible options as well as comfort food – which include ‘fat stripper’, ‘muscle gainer’, ‘paleo inspired’, detox and convenience options.

As well as free delivery and no lock-in contracts, also contributing to the marketing success is financial option zipPay, which enables customers to pay later with flexible instalments and no interest. Sala confirmed the payment offer has resulted in marked increased repeat purchase by customers and average spend is also up.

“Youfoodz as a whole has increased weekly revenue and marketing spend by over 200 per cent since we started with zipPay,” Sala concluded.