The online selling platform is a relatively new way for businesses to sell their products in a rather inexpensive manner. This so-called e-commerce began in 1994 and has increased in popularity over the last 20 years. Nespresso has used this online platform to create personalised experiences for customers.
Nespresso’s goal with their strategy
Around 1999, Nespresso realized that this new strategy of selling their coffee capsules would greatly benefit them. For example, infrastructure costs and labour costs are removed, and the online platform allows customers to buy coffee 24/7. E-commerce was implemented to increase market demand (as you can now buy capsules every day at every time) and save on the above-mentioned costs. The goal of this strategy is to facilitate the customers purchase of coffee capsules by allowing them to order these capsules within the comfort of their own homes.
Is this strategy effective?
This strategy is very effective for Nespresso. This can be seen by comparing the amount of total reported sales from 2017, which were CHF 89.6 billion and those of end of 2018, which were CHF 91.4 billion. Furthermore, in just two years, Nespresso managed to create an increase of 15% sales outside of Europe. Amongst all these numbers, we can clearly see that the Nespresso brand is not slowing down, rather is it continuously growing.
Could it be improved?
Nespresso manages to make the online purchasing of coffee capsules consumer friendly by providing step by step guidance. To facilitate this process, Nespresso keeps track of your purchase history so you can save time on having to select each capsule. Furthermore, customers can select an option that allows for reoccurring orders to be dispatched. This means that consumers should never run out of coffee capsules.
This option is highly attractive for extremely busy people which might not have time to go through the purchasing process and might even forget to order coffee. The process of ordering capsules online has been thought through to every detail, however, to add to this experience, Nespresso could package the capsules in a more attractive manner. At the moment the capsules arrive in a standard brown box which is rather boring. Nespresso could instead package the capsules in a black box that is visually more appealing to contribute to their luxury image and make even the unpacking an experience.
How does their strategy compare?
Nespresso’s strategy stands out from others because there are one of the only companies that sells coffee capsules in a personalised way. This personalised way refers to the option of having reoccurring orders and keeping a history of previous orders. What mainly differentiates Nespresso from brand like L’Or is that you are spoilt for choice. For example, L’Or has 19 different kinds of coffee, whereas Nespresso has 30 different kind of capsules that can be classified into different groups such as: Limited edition, Master origin and Lungo. This choice is what makes Nespresso stand out from other brands.
Nespresso has mastered the art of personalised e-commerce. There is a reason why their slogan slogan is: Nespresso, what else?
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Nespresso Boutique Flon 