Avocados From Mexico turns to shoppable recipes to get more customer data

“We’ve been working very hard in the past to try to get as much data as possible from our consumers,” he said. “We’ve been building a very robust CRM system to get them as close as we can to our brand. Every deep investment we can do will help us build this big database we are trying to develop.” Luque said more data will help the company understand the e-commerce preferences of consumers and enhance the customer experience.

From customers’ ZIP codes, Avocados From Mexico is able to receive location data and see exactly where its customers are shopping from. The company can also see how many people view recipes and then choose to order, and what kind of content drives them to that purchase. For example, users that consume content related to avocado nutrition on the site might be more likely to view or order from salad recipes. Avocados From Mexico can also determine the frequency and number of ingredients that are added to shopping carts, including non-Avocado From Mexico products.

With this behavior data, Avocados from Mexico uses machine learning to deliver personalized content to customers based on their previous interactions and behaviors. If a user is frequently viewing recipes with eggs in them, the software recognizes that and will start tailoring egg recipes for that user.

With shoppable recipes, another goal for Avocados From Mexico is to partner with companies that want their products to be featured in their recipes and together, share the marketing costs. Avocados From Mexico is announcing on Monday that it is partnering with salad-toppings company Fresh Gourmet and government-funded egg-production source the Incredible Egg on a Salad Hub website where specific salad-related avocado recipes live.

Companies like Campbell’s, General Mills, Mondelēz International and Perdue have all made recipes shoppable on select brand sites in the past year or so. In July, Mondelēz International made recipes on its Snackworks site shoppable, featuring products across its portfolio of brands including Oreo, Ritz and Chips Ahoy. The month before, Campbell Soup Co. made all 3,000 recipes on its Campbell’s Kitchen website shoppable. In 2017, General Mills added the capability to its Becky Crocker site, and Perdue did the same to its own site. Yuni Sameshima, CEO of Chicory, which powers the shoppable recipes for Avocados From Mexico, said the company is working with several other companies aiming to launch shoppable recipes on their sites this year.

Chicory will also distribute Avocados From Mexico native ads on publisher sites in Chicory’s network. Avocados From Mexico can determine a metric that is very close to ROI by comparing the cost of its ad campaign with the total value of the products moved to shopping carts, said the company.

But ROI, at least as far as sales are concerned, might be the least valuable KPI in this case. Delivery services like FreshDirect and Instacart continue to acquire more options as major retailers like Sam’s Club, Walmart and Kroger use them in their battle with Amazon. At the same time, Amazon itself is only growing its e-commerce grocery dominance. On Oct. 25, Amazon announced its delivery from Whole Foods program is now available in 63 cities.

“When consumers are looking to order groceries, they aren’t going to one brand’s website,” said one marketer who wished to remain anonymous because he works in the retail space. “There is simply more available through Amazon and Walmart. It’s just a desperate attempt to get customer data before everyone only buys from Amazon.”

But Avocados From Mexico sees Amazon as less of an enemy and more of a partner. The company is investing marketing spend on Amazon to help them increase sales of avocados on its platform as well. It views shoppable recipes as a service to its own customers, rather than a way to win some of the e-commerce pie.