Unlocking the Magic: 10 Million Woo Subscription Boxes Shipped
Universal Yums is a subscription snack box offering delicious treats from around the world. Customers can select their own subscription or gift one to another, choosing from various durations and countries. Each box contains snacks from a single country, with a different country featured each month.
Founded in October of 2014, Universal Yums has reached over 100,000 active subscribers and anticipates further growth during the upcoming holiday season. They have sold over ten million boxes to date.
Originally interviewed in 2017 when they reached their first million in sales, Universal Yums’s CTO, Devin Price, recently discussed the company’s progress over the past ten years with Woo’s Artistic Director, Beau Lebens, and CMO, Tamara Niesen.
- Earns approximately $40M per year in revenue.
- Serves over 100,000 active subscribers, with seasonal holiday growth.
- Operates with a team of 50 between their office and warehouse.
- Have sold over ten million snack boxes.
- Run 10,000 renewals per hour on renewal day.
Managing such a large volume of snack boxes requires meticulous planning by Universal Yums. They follow a detailed planning process each year, setting big goals and breaking them down into quarterly targets. The complexity of their business requires careful management in areas such as sourcing, compliance, and shipping logistics.
To streamline their procurement process and warehouse operations, Universal Yums integrates with Fulfil.io, allowing for efficient order processing and management.
By offering unique snacks from different countries in each box, Universal Yums keeps their customers engaged and excited. Their custom checkout flow allows customers to choose the country of origin for their snacks, adding a personalized touch to the ordering process.
With a subscription-based business model, Universal Yums enjoys consistent monthly revenue and seasonal spikes, particularly during the holiday season. Customer retention is a key focus for the company, as acquiring new customers can be costly.
Always striving for improvement, Universal Yums is exploring new features such as transferable gift subscriptions and gift cards to enhance the customer experience.
Having shipped over ten million boxes and seeing up to 30 orders per minute during peak sales periods, Universal Yums continues to grow and adapt to meet the needs of their expanding customer base.
Automating processes and upgrading server resources have been key steps in managing the company’s growth and ensuring a seamless experience for customers.
During renewal days, Universal Yums processes 10,000 renewals per hour and sends up to 500,000 emails at a time. To ensure their website runs smoothly during this high volume of activity, Devin’s team reviews all queries and optimizes processes that pull customer data. They use transients to store temporary data and gather customer feedback through monthly surveys to improve customer engagement and satisfaction. The team also learns from churned customers to constantly upgrade the customer experience and reduce churn rates.
Universal Yums aims to provide the right box to the right people by incorporating customer feedback into future box decisions. The marketing team continuously refines their strategies to build new relationships and attract potential customers. Co-founder Eli Zauner initially built the website on WordPress in 2014 and as the business grew, they brought in an agency to improve and scale the website.
Devin, their first engineering hire, manages the tech end of the website and collaborates with the agency to enhance user experience. The engineering team focuses on managing data flow between WooCommerce and third-party integrations, utilizing a custom data layer to control information flow effectively. Unexpectedly, the WooCommerce team provided support when Universal Yums encountered issues, highlighting the collaborative relationship between the two teams.
Devin values the support from the Woo team and appreciates the ability to customize and improve the software for their specific needs. This collaboration between store owners and builders is something that Woo highly values, as they strive to ensure the platform can handle various use cases effectively.
Refining the Subscription Experience: A Look into Universal Yums’ Approach
Universal Yums is currently focused on enhancing their checkout process for high-scale subscriptions. They are working on tailoring the customer journey when selecting their box and subscription options. Leveraging WooCommerce allows them to A/B test different experiences to determine which drives higher conversion rates.
During an interview, Devin Price, CTO of Universal Yums, highlighted the benefits of using WooCommerce for their business:
“We’ve built a really huge business on WooCommerce. I know people ask, can you scale it? The answer is yes. Get some solid hosting. Then you can grow your business on Woo, and not have to pay a margin to another third party [platform] — and you own your whole tech stack.”
— Devin Price, CTO, Universal Yums
Devin emphasized the control and customization WooCommerce offers, allowing businesses to negotiate better rates with credit card providers and have full ownership of their tech stack. This level of autonomy enables businesses to create exceptional user experiences tailored to their needs.
FAQs:
1. Can WooCommerce handle high-scale subscriptions?
Yes, Universal Yums has successfully scaled their business on WooCommerce, showcasing its capability for high-volume subscriptions.
2. What are the benefits of A/B testing subscription experiences?
A/B testing helps determine which checkout process leads to higher conversion rates, allowing businesses to optimize their subscription flow for better results.
3. Why is owning the entire tech stack important for businesses?
Owning the tech stack gives businesses control over customization, scalability, and cost savings, making it a valuable asset for growth.
4. How can businesses negotiate better rates with credit card providers?
At scale, businesses can leverage their position to negotiate favorable rates with credit card providers, reducing transaction costs.
5. What makes WooCommerce a preferred platform for customization?
WooCommerce’s flexibility and customization options allow businesses to create unique and tailored experiences for their customers, driving satisfaction and retention.