May 30 2009
Green Mountain Coffee News
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters does it again. According to this month’s Top 500 Guide from Internet Retailer, our favorite big market coffee roaster grew sales by 86.1% last year, making it the fastest growing web retailer in its niche, increasing dollar sales from $59.8 million to $111.3 million - in an economic downturn.
What’s Green Mountain’s secret? Aside from excellent coffee, the big secret seems to be a management arm that’s hitting all the right notes. They’re growing their Fair Trade and Organic lines just as the demand for Fair Trade and Certified Organic coffees is growing. They’ve linked their coffee with the most popular single-serve coffee machine on the market - the Keurig - to the point where the two are practically synonymous - and Keurig sales/marketing have really taken off. They’ve expanded operations in the U.S. market at a time when any company adding new US jobs is guaranteed great publicity for it. They offer their coffee in enough forms to make it “right” for everyone - whole bean, ground and K-cup. And did I mention that the coffee is great?
The biggest driver of online sales has been the growth of the Cafe Express Club, Green Mountain’s customer loyalty program. Cafe Express is Green Mountain’s subscription coffee club - and it’s about as flexible as you can get. You sign up for the club, order the coffee that you want in the amount that you want and set up an automatic shipment interval that can range from every two weeks to every six months. You’re not stuck with it, either. You can change your order or your shipment interval whenever you want with no penalty. By ordering through Cafe Express, you get $1 off each bag of coffee that you buy, $2 off each box of K-cups that you buy and 10% off any non-coffee items that you order. You also get a free gift when you sign up - your choice of a three bag coffee sampler or 2 free boxes of K-cups.
In other words, Green Mountain Coffee is on top of its market because it practices good old fashioned value in a new fashioned marketing venue.
