My team worked with a Brooklyn-based startup that connects customers with independent farmers in CEO Michele's native Puglia (“PU-lia,” a region in Southern Italy) through food discovery boxes delivered to their door. He engaged us to propose a redesign of his website with the goal of customer retention.

We discovered that people who renew subscription boxes do so primarily because they feel a personal connection with the brand—— for example, one user looked forward to the educational pamphlet that came with his fly fishing box almost as much as he did the new lures themselves because he liked reading articles by other fishing enthusiasts.

Given the time and physical constraints —— we had 2 weeks to complete the project and communicated with Michele remotely for all of it as he was in Puglia for an olive harvest (just small business things!) —— we redesigned the home page and the “Meet the Farmers“ page to spotlight exactly how customers would be directly supporting these family-owned farms. We also included some recommendations on branding/content strategy to build customers’ connection with Especially Puglia throughout their journey.