How Almond Cow used CashBack to increase their customer base

“Fondue brings an incredible upgrade to discounting strategies along with ease of integration. Plus, working with their top-tier team is a unique opportunity. It’s hard to imagine any company creating an even vaguely competitive solution to Fondue.” - Brett Goodson, CEO of Almond Cow

About

Almond Cow defined the plant-based milk maker category in the US beginning with a Kickstarter campaign in 2017 designed around the essential premise that simplifying the process of milk making enables user choice.

Opportunity

Fondue offers a more profitable approach to discounting

Almond Cow was on the hunt for a way to attract new buyers without sacrificing additional profit margin. 

When Brett discovered Fondue, it was the first time the CEO had heard of replacing coupons with CashBack. Looking back, he remembers initially hesitating about CashBack as a marketing incentive for two reasons: 

1. Maybe CashBack would be too tricky for Almond Cow’s team to implement
2. Maybe customers would meet CashBack with confusion

Even then, Brett decided Fondue’s CashBack was the opportunity Almond Cow needed in order to: 

• Generate more marketing list opt-ins and conversions at lower CAC
• Offer higher-value discounts while minimizing actual payouts

"Fondue's new concept for discounts was so appealing because I’d never seen the idea of true pricing sensitivity applied to customers. I was curious to see if it would work — and it definitely did." 

Solution

Fondue's onboarding process immediately assuaged Brett's concerns with CashBack by unlocking two massive benefits: 

Benefit #1: Fondue offers hands-on service from day one

Fondue’s onboarding process leaves nothing to chance. Our team helped Almond Cow through every step — from setup to testing to implementation. In Brett's words, "It was a very, very low lift for Almond Cow to test this new concept" 

That hands-on service extended past onboarding and continues to this day. For instance, Fondue partnered closely with Almond Cow's customer experience team to teach them to address common user questions about CashBack. Fast forward to today: Almond Cow’s consumers utilize Fondue seamlessly. 

"The Fondue team helped walk our customer service team through how the product works, what kind of customer questions would come up, and how to address them. These days, the implementation is pretty seamless." 

Benefit #2: CashBack maximizes discount offers & minimizes payouts

By replacing traditional coupon codes with CashBack, Fondue helps Almond Cow offer higher-value discounts while lowering payouts. Here’s how this new take on discounting works: 

1. Coupon codes can capture a new list signup or sale, but every upfront discount application eats into the profit margin of that purchase.
   
   
2. When Almond Cow offers CashBack, which is redeemed post-purchase, not every customer actually redeems the cash or credit.
   
   
3. As a result, Almond Cow can reinvest those savings into higher-value CashBack offers (i.e., $20 CashBack instead of a 10% coupon), which are even more likely to incentivize opt-ins and purchases. 

Plus, CashBack has incentivized new customers who were previously hesitant to try Almond Cow due to its higher price point. Using Fondue isn’t just financially beneficial for the brand. Almond Cow is now more accessible to more shoppers. 

Results

Fondue increases the scope of Almond Cow's customer base, driving more revenue

Since implementing CashBack with Fondue, Almond Cow can incentivize more marketing list signups and purchases — without discount payouts shrinking profit margins. Here’s a snapshot of the results so far: 

• 19% SMS list growth
• 15% email list growth
• 50% decrease in discount payouts
• 38% boost in welcome series revenue

Brett looks forward to leveraging the savings from Fondue to offer bigger bundle deals — or even offer CashBack on those purchases. He emphasizes that any founder in the ecommerce space should try Fondue sooner than later, especially if they intend to scale a higher-AOV product. 

“With Fondue, we likely reach customers we otherwise couldn’t due to our price point. This allows us to play to a larger range of shoppers. This discount strategy has seriously worked to our advantage in terms of boosting sales.”