[Case Study] SweetieBox: Using Trust and Credibility to boost sales

Industry: Consumer Goods
Headquarters: Johannesburg, South Africa
Result: 19% increase in sales

The Company

Sweetie Box was born out of the idea of making people’s lives a little sweeter, one month at a time, through carefully curated subscription boxes filled with locally and internationally sourced sweet treats. 

Founded in 2016, founders Josh Blumberg and Michael Benjamin were inspired by the growing trend of subscription boxes overseas. Their mutual appreciation of all things sweet made their choice of product obvious. 

The business’s mission is to give their customers a taste adventure by curating an exciting unboxing experience every month, filled with imported sweets and local, artisanal delicacies.

The Challenge

Core to their values as a business (and also as individuals) is to always do the right thing. If an expectation has been set, they do whatever it takes to make sure the expectation is met – and exceeded. An example of this is that all SWeetieBox members get a free, surprise box on the one year anniversary of their subscription.

“Our challenge is to effectively communicate our values to our market”, says Josh, “We’d known about Hellopeter for years, but there was always a reservation given the negative connotations associated with the platform. But what we soon realised is that businesses that didn’t manage their reputation were the ones that suffered. The businesses that were active and engaged on Hellopeter were able to use the platform to drive positivity, brand advocacy and had a great online reputation.”

The Solution

To start with, SweetieBox asked their consumers for feedback in the form of online reviews, which they then posted on Hellopeter. After all, great businesses are built on happy customers, and they wanted to know what their customers were thinking. So far, the feedback they’ve received has all been positive.

Once they’d started collecting online reviews, they wanted to use this feedback as a way to bolster trust and credibility with potential shoppers. By showing customers that the business stays true to their values, they could help potential subscribers overcome any reservations about whether SweetieBox would deliver on their promise. 

To do this, they displayed their Hellopeter TrustIndex on the checkout page of their website. This gave consumers the opportunity to discover what previous customers thought of the business, thereby enabling them to make better, more informed choices when signing up to a subscription.

The Result

Since adding their Hellopeter TrustIndex on their website, the business has seen a 19% increase in sales. While there are various factors that have seen this figure drop (like the VAT and petrol hikes) there are also instances where there have been increases in sales (such as on payday). When viewed over a long period, however, this figure has averaged out at 19%, which is an impressive amount of new sales by adding such a simple visual.

Added to their stellar sales results is the fact that Sweetie Box can now use their customers’ reviews as a source of market and customer insights in order to further improve their business and as a result, their sales.

Reviews on Hellopeter have helped over one million consumers make better choices. Had an experience you’d like to tell us about? Leave us a review here.