{"id":102287,"date":"2022-12-01T09:59:04","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T17:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thegood.com\/?post_type=insights&p=102287"},"modified":"2025-05-21T09:38:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T16:38:16","slug":"laird-superfood","status":"publish","type":"insights","link":"https:\/\/thegood.com\/insights\/laird-superfood\/","title":{"rendered":"How Laird Superfood\u2019s Team Saw 17:1 ROI On Optimization Efforts with a \u201cStay Curious, Test To Learn\u201d Mindset<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At the heart of a successful ecommerce team is unending curiosity. There\u2019s a relentless pursuit to expose and resolve customer pain points over and over again. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exemplary ecommerce teams leave no stone unturned, making incremental changes based on data and methodical testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To see it in action, look no further than the ecommerce pros at Laird Superfood: Alisha Runckel, Vice President of Ecommerce and Growth, and Angela Williams, Ecommerce Manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alisha and Angela\u2019s \u201cstay curious and test to learn\u201d mindset has contributed to a best-in-class ecommerce site, a robust subscriber base, and the tripling of their conversion rate, subsequently resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in incremental revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We talked to them about the principles that led to their success and what it takes to go from having a few loyal fans to building a subscription empire with sold-out releases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laird Superfood: Plant-Powered & Delicious<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Laird Superfood<\/a> aims to provide great-tasting plant-based products that are high-quality, convenient, and available to all. Die-hard fans will know them for their original lineup of plant-based creamers, but in recent years they have expanded to offer premium coffee, baking mixes, and even snack foods with the acquisition of Picky Bars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company was founded on the idea that nourishing, plant-based foods can fuel you all day. It began when its founder, pro surfer Laird Hamilton, started adding plant-based foods to his morning coffee to increase his surfing performance. The result was a coffee blend with fantastic flavor and tons of energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, Laird and his friend Paul Hodge launched Laird Superfood. Today they still operate as if products are made for friends and family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company believes that the foods you eat should be good for you and the earth, and should enable you to perform at your highest level. They value integrity, authenticity, health, and performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A New Website & 3 Key Principles Laid The Foundation Of Laird Superfood\u2019s Success<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Today, Laird Superfood has a model website that every ecommerce company would love to emulate. But it wasn\u2019t always that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Alisha started at Laird Superfood, the company was small – just a handful of people on the corporate team. She joined to lead their marketing efforts and learned right away that their ecommerce website was full of disjointed code, and lacked the flexibility to test or change anything easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, Laird Superfood was a one-size-fits-all, \u201cbatch-and-blast\u201d brand. They didn\u2019t segment customers or investigate data cohorts. They had no way to personalize the experience for customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alisha quickly understood that the company needed a clean slate. Alongside a contract developer, Alisha relaunched a new theme and migrated several systems to new apps better suited to the company\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a new site came the capability to test, learn, and implement. This was essential, as Alisha was determined to lead the team using three key principles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Data-driven decision-making<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Testing everything<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Always listening to customers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Following those three principles at every step of their growth was foundational to their success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cThere are no silver bullets,\u201d she told us. \u201cEcommerce success is an accumulation of good decisions made over time\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One of the crucial good decisions Alisha made was hiring Angela. Snagged from the customer service team, Angela has a natural inclination toward solving problems for customers with the goal of endearing them to the brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    With a new set of tools at her disposal, Angela quickly learned the value of testing and became fundamental to the ecommerce team. \u201cThis team would be lost without Angela,\u201d Alisha told us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Laird Superfood was poised for success with a new site and a growing team. But as all clever ecommerce leaders know, those are just the first steps towards the ultimate goal of building a seamless customer experience that converts.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Fostering A Culture Of Experimentation On The Ecommerce Team<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Wary of ego plaguing her effort to scale Laird Superfood\u2019s ecommerce vertical the right<\/strong> way, Alisha focused on the antidote: making sure the whole team embodies a “question everything” mentality. This mindset drives them to use the data, challenge their assumptions, and stay curious about website users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cI think curiosity wins in this business,\u201d Alisha told us. \u201cIf you can stay curious and continue to ask questions, you’re going to be successful. Asking, \u2018Why are they doing that? Why is that happening?\u2019 every day is so important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Alisha knew that gut-based decisions are often based on inaccurate information. The only way to make smart, incremental changes is to base every decision on data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cWhen people follow their gut instincts, it can be successful to a point, but if you’re not testing it first, I think you’re going to be very surprised. So we’ve prioritized testing<\/a> for everything that we do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    After too many assumptions, you could end up building your website on a house of cards\u2014making decisions based on incorrect assumption after incorrect assumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    And without experimentation, if by chance you happen to be right, you don\u2019t know why<\/em> you\u2019re right. But the why<\/em> is critical to the learning process. You can\u2019t replicate an effect if you don\u2019t know why it happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cSometimes it’s better when you’re wrong because you learn something new and that forms other strings of hypotheses,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Take their navigation, for example. At first, they wanted to modernize the menu by consolidating everything under one Shop<\/em> button. Consolidating categories under \u201cShop\u201d would allow the team to make other important site destinations front and center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    After testing, however, they quickly learned that it wasn\u2019t the right approach for their brand. Their customers prefer to see those primary shopping categories broken out on the page. That was just one assumption they threw out thanks to testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In order to foster a culture of curiosity and experimentation in the team, Alisha and Angela place a high value on collaboration and asking questions. They\u2019re politely critical about everything, no matter how small or seemingly irrelevant. They shop online and explore their competitors throughout the week for inspiration, then share their ideas in a weekly brainstorming session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cNobody feels like they can’t ask questions,\u201d Alisha says. \u201cNobody feels like they don’t have a voice. As a manager and a leader, that is – by far – the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n