In today’s podcast we have the pleasure of talking directly with an online store owner. We love bringing in the various eCommerce experts, but there is nothing better than hearing the story from the perspective of the shop owner. TJ Fittis is the general manager of the successful Camano Island Coffee Roasters. In this show you will hear the unique story behind their business and how they have made a success of an online subscription retail site. If you are thinking of or starting a subscription site, this is a must-listen-to show.

We chatted about:

* The story behind their ethical coffee

* When they took their product online

* If WooCommerce was their first choice

* Their challenges when working with the subscription model

* What unique challenges there are to selling coffee online

* How education and support has helped with both sales and customer retention

* TJ’s two top tips for running an online retail business

Thanks to your Sponsor, Bluehost

Transcript

You can also download a pdf of the full transcript here: WordPress eCommerce Podcast Episode 87 June 28 2017

Hey everyone and welcome back to the WP eCommerce Show. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. As you may know, we occasionally bring on online store owners to share their stories with us. It’s always great to hear from our experts in marketing, social,  shipping, and many other aspects of running your eCommerce site. But there’s also so much to learn from the folks out there who actually run these online stores. There’s nothing better than hearing it firsthand. Today, I’m delighted to introduce TJ Fittis, owner of Camano Island Coffee Roasters. Hi, TJ. Welcome to the show.

TJ Fittis: Hey, Bob. Thanks for having me.

Bob: You bet. As I kept thinking about this, I thought,  “Coffee, coffee. I’m going to get tempted to have a cup of coffee while we’re talking.”

TJ: I’ve got some here in front of me.

Bob: Oh, man. I can almost smell it. Can I smell it? Before we get into the the main stuff, I do have some questions I want to go through with you. But first, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your company?

Meet TJ Fittis, General Manager, Cameron Island Coffee Roasters

TJ: Sure. Yeah. I’ve been with the company for about six years now. I started in 2011 and became the marketing manager in 2012. Through a series of various growth hacker techniques, we ended up doubling our subscriber base. Our main product offering is our online coffee subscription program. We started that in 2012. Then we increased it by another 50% in 2013 with another project that I led called BuzzBox Coffee, which is a secondary coffee brand that we use on the East Coast.

What’s pertinent to our conversation today is, after that, we got to a point where our different growth hacking tactics were manually band-aided together. But there was nothing really codified in one system that supported it all. We realized, as we were growing, that it was like a house of cards that was going to fall. So we took a step back in 2014 and 2015 and developed a series of plugins that make up our proprietary coffee subscription system. I project managed that project as well. Fast forward to today and I am the general manager of the company, overseeing day-to- day operations and specifically, the project management of our eCommerce piece.

What inspired Camano Island Coffee Roasters to Go Online?

Bob: Cool. Now, you said you’ve been with them the last six years.