In conversation with
LACASCARA

LACASCARA is a Premium Aperitivo with the taste of cascara (coffee cherry pulp), grapefruit and raspberries — without artificial additives and free from pesticides. As an innovative Cascara Aperitivo startup, we combine responsible enjoyment with meaningful purpose. With our LACASCARA Aperitivo and LACASCARA Spritz products, we want to offer a meaningful, natural and high-quality alternative to products already available on the market.

For us, it's all about the cascara fruit — the red pulp of the coffee cherry that surrounds the coffee bean and that has remained unused up until now. By using cascara, we provide coffee farms with additional, urgently needed income and support coffee farmers in setting up and maintaining a sustainable business.

Produced in Germany, we combine traditional expertise with innovation, without using any artificial colours or flavourings. As a member company of the BSI (Bundesverband der Deutschen Spirituosen-Industrie und -Importeure — Federal Association of the German Spirits Industry and Importers), responsible alcohol consumption is important to us.

We presented LACASCARA on the VOX startup show "Die Höhle der Löwen" (The Lion’s Den) on 15 April 2024 and successfully brought on board expert Tillman Schulz as an investor. Since then, LACASCARA products have been in high demand on Amazon across Germany with sales in the thousands.

Amazon enables us to reach a wide range of potential customers and scale our business quickly. Good customer service and a high level of trust are key factors for us when selecting an online retailer to help us sell our products online. That's why Amazon is the ideal platform for offering our products. By bringing together a Brand Store, paid ads and A+ Content (Brand Story) alongside video creatives and high-quality photos, we can create an optimal brand experience. Amazon's user-friendliness and simple listing process make it easy for us to sell LACASCARA online quickly and efficiently.

Amazon is a trusted platform for many customers who prefer shopping there, which can lead to higher sales potential. Customers expect to have the option to order products online and have them delivered quickly, and this is especially true for our Premium Aperitivo client base. Amazon's credibility makes it possible for us to earn customer trust as a seller and grow our client base.

At the same time that the episode was broadcast on TV, we had a very successful product launch, exceeding all expectations. Within a few days, we had received several thousand orders and generated sales in the mid-six-figure range, with around 30% of these sales being on Amazon. LACASCARA has thus quickly established itself as one of the fastest-growing new spirit brands.

As a Premium Aperitivo startup, being able to showcase our brand with its USPs was key and we have therefore developed and implemented our own in-house usability strategy for our Amazon Brand Store.

Getting to know the variety of features offered by Amazon and building a professional Brand Store are a necessary learning curve and initially tie up internal resources. Once you've become familiar with the features, setup is easy — especially with support from Amazon staff.

We were able to successfully integrate our inventory management system using established solutions and implement automation (e.g. sending automated invoices).

Our Amazon launch was linked to the television broadcast, which automatically led to higher visibility and a high ranking due to the number of orders. Another important strategy for us has been to include relevant keywords in listings and simultaneously run Sponsored Product Ads and Sponsored Brand ads for selected keywords.

We have found that combining multiple marketing strategies has been effective for us at LACASCARA: Sponsored Product Ads and Sponsored Brand Ads encourage users to browse our products and Brand Store and

we have found Sponsored Brand video ads to be particularly impactful. Alongside our efforts on Amazon, we also advertise on social media and collaborate with influencers and content creators to increase brand awareness of LACASCARA Aperitivo and LACASCARA Spritz.

Not only do paid ads boost long-term brand recognition, they also drive sales in the shorter term by capturing the attention of new customers. We also see a direct increase in sales as a result of product discounts.

With LACASCARA, customers can experience the unique and unparalleled taste of cascara fruit, and while the quality of a product is of course key to its success, we have found that excellent customer support and fast shipping have also fuelled LACASCARA's excellent performance on Amazon.

We have a high repurchase rate, with buyers often choosing LACASCARA based on recommendations. Good customer feedback and very positive customer reviews inspires trust in LACASCARA from new customers

To effectively plan and coordinate offers on Amazon, we analyse data to identify the best selling periods for us; we therefore focus on the summer season as we know this is a very strong period for us, as well as seasonal shopping events (Beverage Week, Black Friday) and holidays (Christmas, Mother's Day),

and we plan offers across the whole year using an advertising calendar. We also maximise visibility and conversion rates by using high-quality images and detailed descriptions to optimise our products listings, leveraging Amazon advertising and combining coupons with discounts.

As a retailer, we offer time-limited discount promotions: LACASCARA Aperitivo can be bought by itself in individual bottles or in various bundles (e.g. as a bundle of three or as a special bundle known as the "Löwe" (lion) bundle together with two bottles of LACASCARA Spritz), with discounts also being available on the bundles. Customers can also regularly receive our products at a reduced rate by signing up for a monthly subscription.

We are working on other interesting products and bundles and can't wait to launch them to our customers.

Following the very successful launch in Germany, our first priority would be to take a closer look at the data to see how we could increase our sales within Germany first of all. We would then plan to take our first steps on the international market by expanding into other German-speaking countries in Europe. Then we would like to launch our products in other European countries.

We are very happy to have such a strong partner in Amazon, who keeps us up to date on relevant trends. By regularly communicating with the Amazon team, we receive constant updates and training on key platform innovations, while also gaining insights into trends in the spirits industry on Amazon.

A key factor is deciding whether you want to offer a variety of products as a retailer or whether you want to use Amazon as a manufacturer (brand). For manufacturers, a Brand Store and high-quality A+ content are extremely important,

whereas as a retailer, offering good prices and the best support possible (fast shipping, low return rate) are essential for gaining the best possible spot in the rankings. In both cases, budgeting for paid ads is important for increasing the visibility of your products.