New website launch, looking for feedback and advise

[javanize.me]

Hi,

I'm a bit stressed that I might be against forum rules. let me know if it is the case. :-D


I just launch our new website javanize.me and I'm looking for feedback about the layout and anything we could improve. The platform limit us a little bit on the ergonomy of the interface (single level menu ...).

Also, do you think the price of the product is too high for the market? (if this is the case, I will have to find other providers that will allow me to sell for cheaper while still doing a margin). (All price are in CAD currency about 1$ CAD = 0.75$ USD)

What is the usual margin people aim to do on a online store?

I'm looking for high quality / property green bean speciality micro lot from Indonesia *if that exist*.
*I still have your suggestion Ensoluna with croptocup and looking for more options*.

I'm also looking for providers for Hario and Baratza to resell these products. Any suggestion who to contact directly? I tried the normal channel but I wasn't very successful.

After 10 days, we haven't done a single sales. (We are active on Facebook, Twitter, Google Adword and facebook ads)

All help would be very welcome.



Thank you,

 

[javanize.me]

Seems like my post doesn't get much attention.

 

[Musicphan]

Feedback on site... a little plain jane. I think a background color or texture would help. Also - your logo should be consistent... are you JJ Royal or Javanize Me. Don't have a blog unless you are DEDICATED to doing constant updates. Pricing is so based on your local market and target market... I don't think anyone can really help you there much.

 

[ensoluna]

Hi,I'm also looking for providers for Hario and Baratza to resell these products. Any suggestion who to contact directly? I tried the normal channel but I wasn't very successful.
Thank you,

hi, this is Alex from Ensoluna.
for Hario, you might want to contact Jose Antonio Gonzalez . he is from Latin country but he works in Hario in Japan as int'l marketing person and I believe that he is also in charge of American continent sales & marketing. his email is [email protected]

He and I communicated for months.... when he was offering me Hario exclusivity for Guatemala. Which did not fall thru... at the end. but he might be the man for you.

 

[ensoluna]

Seems like my post doesn't get much attention.

hello again.
here is my comments on your website and specially about your coffee. It might get dirty and sticky, but I rather give you my honest opinion about your coffee web sales than sugar-coat it.

the biggest problem is CREDIBILITY of your website (as a company) and the INDONESIA coffee itself.

a. your coffee pricing is way over the on line market price.

b. you advertise your JJ Royal as SOC. SOC means from a single farm, not the region or IN ONE MOUNTAIN. there is no farm information, no photo, no story, specially nothing about their coffee process. that means, if someone knows about coffee, he will not trust your coffee.

c. https://www.javanize.me/collections/j-j-royal in this page, you put a internet stock photo of a coffee cherry branch. by looking at the leave and nods, the tree is typica or bourbon which probably is not from the region of the JJ royal mountain. Either do not put the fake photo or put some REAL PHOTOS of that region, farm, coffee trees..etc which the photos were taken by YOU. (also showing your face in the photo helps more..)

d. on each coffee sales page, you put some generic description of the coffee (which applies to so many different coffees) and very short "tasting note" which is cupping profile. honestly, no one will believe the contents in the website. because they are not real. YOU NEED TO SEND YOUR COFFEE TO SOME KNOWN CUPPING LAB, REVIEW...ETC to get them reviewed and put that credible articles/information with your coffee.

e. you are charging $15.75 for 200 g for ROBUSTA COFFEE from Indonesia. you put "Tasting note: Impressive, Malty Robusta behaving like an Arabica
if you know coffee, there is no such a robusta behaving like REAL ARABICA. (by the way, what is that exactly mean? it has Arabica cupping profile? bigger bean? more dense?.. what?) and $15.75 for 200gram? that is a really tough sell. Robusta is Robusta. Like Arabica is Arabica. I am a Korean man (yes, since I was born, ha ha ha) and even if I want to be Guatemala mayan indian or Blacks in Beliz, it ain't gona happen. Genetics. UNLESS I MARRY some other race and get mixed race baby. same for Robusta. if you hybrid this Robusta with other Arabica tree, then, that Robusta will take on some of the Arabica characters (like Catimor or Sarchmor)... . if what you are selling is that type of hybrid, you should mention it. However, still pricing is way too high. Because even those hybrids, Catimor, Sarchmor, they never been considered as Specialty coffee due to very inferior cupping profile. just like, if I married a Mayan lady, my half-half kids will never be accepted as either Korean or Mayan, even though they will have the characteristics of Asian & Mayan, but they will can not be 100% of that race. EXACTLY SAME FOR THE COFFEE.

e. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART.
Looking at your pricing, the coffees SHOULD BE / MUST BE ALL VERY SPECIALTY COFFEE. that means over 85 points (CoE standard which is a lot tougher than SCAA cupping standard) but you never mentioned about their cupping points or cupping chart, credible reviews by reputable companies which are very necessary.

Finally, for people who knows about SPECIALTY COFFEE, we (including me) know that there is HARDLY ANY SOC specialty coffee coming out of INDONESIA. they are mostly used for blends. Hardly no one sells them as SOC coffee with that high pricing. you can check intelligentsia, Verve, La Colombe, Bluebottle...etc. you WILL NOT FIND SOC specialty coffee from INDONESIA.

again, all comes down to CREDIBILITY OF YOUR WEB/COMPANY AND COFFEE THEMSELVES.

if you have any other questions, let me know.
thanks
Alex from Ensoluna S.A.

 

[ensoluna]

Seems like my post doesn't get much attention.

also, your second offering of AROMA BENDOENG...
again, i am going back to coffee problems.

1. no one sells aged Indo coffee as SOC. and with that high pricing because you can not make specialty coffee (chemex, clever..etc) with aged indo coffee, specially 5 years Robusta & 8 years of Arabica.
it just does not taste good UNLESS YOU ARE LOOKING FOR WOODY, NOT CLEAN, SYRUPY, HARD PUNGENCY FLAVOR. in my coffee years, never met anyone who likes these flavors in their Chemx.

2. Indo aged coffee is very similar to India monsooned Malabar. I must say only 1% or less of specialty coffee people likes this on its own. please just check other reputable on line big roaster companies. they sells SOC from Ethiopia, Kenya, Colombia, guatemala, Brazil... but hardly ever from Indonesia nor India.

3. you put 8 min video in your web. nice touch, but better not to put it. here are the reasons.
a. they are roasting the coffees completely wrong. if you even look at the roasted beans (4:51 min mark in video), you will see 30% of roasted beans are defective.
b. they proudly show the "aging warehouse". IT IS A WRONG WARE HOUSE TO DO IT.
Aging warehouse needs : perfect humidity, burlap bags on pallets, the coffee bags must be turned very frequently to avoid mildew (and I can not imagine how they (in video) can turn their bags in that situation and warehouse) and to avoid fungi & mildew (extremely important). it needs High ceiling with ventilation with right temp and air quality.

this is EXTREMELY DELICATE process to do it properly, but looking at the roaster, machine, location, warehouse, it is not the right place to age beens.

As example, Starbucks sells similar aged coffee / sumatra. (but as blend, not as SOC for specialty drinks). Intentionally, Starbucks bring the coffee beans to Singapore w/house from Indonesia to control the air flow, humidity, pallet, fungi...etc because most of the warehouse in Indonesia can not do it properly.

c. if you ask me, the Video is wrong video to promote the coffee.

sorry for bad comments, but I just wanted to give it to you honestly.

thanks

 

[javanize.me]

First of all, thank you very much for your feedback. This is exactly what I was looking for! I'm not looking into what I'm doing good but what I'm doing bad in order to improve. I also didn't know too much where to start when I asked for critics so having people pointing in some direction allow me to learn where to focus my attention.


Musicphan: I agree, the design of the website could be improved. As of now, this has been made on a tight budget but I would like to improve it once the business start kicking in. Also, as for the branding, I wasn't sure if I would create my own branding or just resell existing brand that specialise in Indonesian coffee. That could add up to the confusion about Javanize Me and J.J Royal by example.


Ensoluna: As usual, your critics are very insighful. To make a story short, When we first talked, I didn't know much about coffee and you pointed me to very good information that I studied attentively since then. At that time, my strategy was to believe and trust established coffee company in Indonesia like JJ Royal and Aroma Bandoeng which had good reputation on the local market. Reference from tripadvisor and so on.

The whole idea was probably a bad strategy and a mistake. Nonetheless, it allowed me to learn about exporting from Indonesia and importing in Canada. I might have to liquidate what I have in inventory and start over. Unfortunately, when I first realized that strategy might be flawed, It was already too far in the process to back out. Small fee to pay for the learning experience.


I trust you when you tell me that the whole Aroma process might be flawed in the end. As for J.J Royal, mostly all the material I used to build the product description is coming from their marketing material. If it is misrepresenting, then that could mean that J.J Royal might not be that good either.

As for the tree picture, if I'm not wrong, I believe that Indonesian Arabica are from botanical variety typica, am I wrong?



Overall, the only thing I did good was the Coffee Gears section with the choice of brand and products. Thank you for the reference for Hario, I will send an email right away after I finish writing this post.


Ensoluna, for having the coffee cup by SCAA experts, I believe it might be costly for a small startup like me. Do you think the green bean that crop to cup sell have been cup already and I could just use the cupping information they have?



Next strategy on coffee product:
Import Green Bean and have it roasted by a local skilled roaster and have a more detailed product description that reflect more of a specialty coffee. I might end up including coffee from other places than Indonesia.

 

[mantishugo]

There is one advice I would like to give you for your new coffee website. Just add some articles on coffee in your blog section. You can get much more attention of those who are coffee lovers and give more time in your website. Rest of the things are great. Keep it up and all the best for starting the website.

 

[ensoluna]

Ensoluna: As usual, your critics are very insighful. To make a story short, When we first talked, I didn't know much about coffee and you pointed me to very good information that I studied attentively since then. At that time, my strategy was to believe and trust established coffee company in Indonesia like JJ Royal and Aroma Bandoeng which had good reputation on the local market. Reference from tripadvisor and so on.
The whole idea was probably a bad strategy and a mistake. Nonetheless, it allowed me to learn about exporting from Indonesia and importing in Canada. I might have to liquidate what I have in inventory and start over. Unfortunately, when I first realized that strategy might be flawed, It was already too far in the process to back out. Small fee to pay for the learning experience.

### JJ and Aroma may be good companies (green bean exporting company), but as you said, it was a marketing mistake. for a start up small online company, selling Indonesia coffee like this was a mistake. ###


I trust you when you tell me that the whole Aroma process might be flawed in the end. As for J.J Royal, mostly all the material I used to build the product description is coming from their marketing material. If it is misrepresenting, then that could mean that J.J Royal might not be that good either.

### JJ and Aroma are probably exporters, so their web / contents are not as important as small online company like you. here is the reason. for every buyers, they always visit the company in Indonesia and cup their samples and decide whether to buy or not. they do not even look what the web says... it is all about the cup quality and where they are meant to be used.

But for you, it is opposite. Consumers must be rely on the information you provide in your web in order to make the decision to buy or not. that is where credibility comes in. you must be using very accurate information, real information, reviews, cupping notes, chart and whatever you can to convince your customers that your coffee is fresh, high quality, great service, good shipping rate...etc ####


As for the tree picture, if I'm not wrong, I believe that Indonesian Arabica are from botanical variety typica, am I wrong?

### As I said before, if you put this type of photos, you will lose credibility. the tree might be typica, but the photo is not real. it is not real photo that was from the farm, or you personally took. If I can see that, I am sure that customers will see that also ####

Ensoluna, for having the coffee cup by SCAA experts, I believe it might be costly for a small startup like me. Do you think the green bean that crop to cup sell have been cup already and I could just use the cupping information they have?

### I do not quite understand your question. you meant... if you buy the beans from "crop to cup", you want to use their cupping note/chart on that bean? to say frankly, I do not know. maybe you can, or maybe you can not. I guess you need to ask them. However, if you or other person is going to roast the bean, the cupping note/profile will be changed, Drastically depends on how you roast. So, unless you buy a roasted beans and use their cupping info, if you buy green and roast, you can not use the green bean info from that company ###

Import Green Bean and have it roasted by a local skilled roaster and have a more detailed product description that reflect more of a specialty coffee. I might end up including coffee from other places than Indonesia.

### again, you must think about the target consumer. research about your coffee and how much other reputable companies are selling at. what information they are putting in their own website (always to study some of the big guys that I mentioned before), never use cheap stock photo. Send out some of your freshly roasted coffee to some of the review magazines or even to some known cuppers to get their comment which can be used in your web.

Finally, you need to find a niche. you have to have some sort of solid advantage over the big companies.
as example :
a. Better and more extensive selection from a certain country.
b. free shipping.
c. Gift card.
d. membership advantage
e. incentive bonus program
f. if you can make some sort of partnership with famous Barista / Cupper / or even some famous farm/ coop and use them as marketing tool. it is like Nike, using Michael Jordan and Roger Federer for their own promotion and marketing.
perhaps you can align with some well known Barista / cupper or even other company to get your credibility UP.

g. Do something very unique and better than anyone else. as example, there is a farm, owned by American Joseph Brodsky. the farm name is "ninety plus coffee " in Panama. THEY ONLY PRODUCE GEISHA and all of them are 90 plus in cupping scores. something very special and interesting method of business. Your coffee / sales method / marketing tactics...etc need to be unique and different than others in order to get some attention.

h. Finally, all it comes down to the coffee you sell. IT GOT TO BE BETTER THAN WHAT CUSTOMER PAYS FOR. BETTER QUALITY FOR THE MONEY. Fresher than any other roasters...etc.

ALWAYS UNDER-PROMISE AND OVER-DELIVER !

Anyway, Good luck to you ####

 

[javanize.me]

There is one advice I would like to give you for your new coffee website. Just add some articles on coffee in your blog section. You can get much more attention of those who are coffee lovers and give more time in your website. Rest of the things are great. Keep it up and all the best for starting the website.

Thank you for your comment, I have a plan to write article and have 2 writters who are waiting to start. We are just developing the market analysis to define to who we want to write the article to and what should be the subject of our articles. Also, I have to build a calendar of article release and provide the writters with the technical details (number of word/sentences, subject, target people etc.) This is the reason why the blog is so far empty. I'm also interested in the concept that prima-coffee.com did on their website.

But I have to practice my barista skills before attempting to make good video.


For now, since they don't deliver in Canada, I'm using their material to promote them and to provide good informations and technics to my potential customers. Win Win temporary solution.

 

[javanize.me]

Alex,

I didn't know that the cup profile would change that much with the roasting. So that mean I couldn't use the cup profile of croptocup then. I will have to do some PR and develop some networking with known barista, magazine, and cupper to get some references and cup feedback. I believe this will take sometime to know the people and have them willing to spare their precious time with another startup. I think it is only fair to them that I exist for at least 1 year to show that I'm more than a few week fast burning startup before asking for their time.

So definitely, I'm planning to change the product section of the website in order to add more real pictures. Since I cannot go to Indonesia before end of year, I might just ask croptocup to use their last cupping trip material if they agree. This should give them some promo and will help me at the same time. If a competitor decide to use my source for their coffee beans, then croptocup will only be happier hehehe.



Some of my good competitor in Montreal, are 49th Parallel from British Colombia. One of the most well known coffee shop (Cafe Myriade; www.cafemyriade.com/) reputation to have one of the best coffee in Montreal use their roasted beans and sell it in the shop as well. I'm just a bit surprised that company is that high ranking as they cannot provide fresh beans 5000km away plus time on tablet! Their website doesn't provide any informations about the cupping and where the beans come from exactly. 49th Parallel

I believe I can aim to become better than them in a 6 months period and to try to get my product aside theirs in some influencial/reputable coffee shops of my local market area.

Answering your points:
a. Better and more extensive selection from a certain country.
- This was my first strategy with Indonesia, I need to focus more on green bean import and roasting. I think I can still focus on this strategy but also including other area to boost my credibility by having product that people know and trust already. If I know what they like, I must be trustable right?

b. free shipping.
- This is always a good thing to offer if the margin are good enough. Like we discussed, I should probably put in place a subscription system or specify date in the month when I ship the products to save on shipping cost. Density of population in Canada are spread on a big territory, making the shipping cost a bit more expensive than most place. For the local market, I aim to use Uber delivery system when it becomes available. Fast, cheap, direct delivery.

c. Gift card.
- I have put in place a referral (bring a friends get 20$ off your next order), bring X income and get X% permanent discount and so on. Mostly to aim at social network advertising. I'm also looking for a system for returning customer to save as they keep ordering from us.

d. membership advantage
- (Mix of point b and c)

e. incentive bonus program
- ( answer at c)

f. if you can make some sort of partnership with famous Barista / Cupper / or even some famous farm/ coop and use them as marketing tool. it is like Nike, using Michael Jordan and Roger Federer for their own promotion and marketing.
perhaps you can align with some well known Barista / cupper or even other company to get your credibility UP.

This is the hardest part, you need a strong PR in order to be able to achieve this type of goal. This is the most important part of a business, the networking and knowing the right people. For that I really thank you for sharing your contact with me and offering me your advise and assistance. Since I don't have anything of value to offer you at this point, this is really a noble gesture from you to offer your assistance and mentoring. And for that, I'm very grateful.



Regards,

 

[ensoluna]

I didn't know that the cup profile would change that much with the roasting. So that mean I couldn't use the cup profile of croptocup then.

### let me give you an example. let's say that you have the best cheese in the world. however, this cheese can turn into all different kind of flavors depends on a cook and how he prepares it. same for "rice", "flour"...etc. Same thing applies to "green coffee". A roaster is a cook with different sets of skills. he can cook lighter, darker, variation of temps to bring out different flavors.... every varietal of coffee beans have different density (Arabica bean is much harder than Robusta) and size (Arabica is much bigger than Robusta), so according to density, size, varietal..etc, A cook (roaster) can bring out different flavors depends on how he roasts. SO CUPPING PROFILE CHANGES ACCORDING TO THE OUTCOME OF THE ROAST ####


Some of my good competitor in Montreal, are 49th Parallel from British Colombia. One of the most well known coffee shop (Cafe Myriade; www.cafemyriade.com/) reputation to have one of the best coffee in Montreal use their roasted beans and sell it in the shop as well. I'm just a bit surprised that company is that high ranking as they cannot provide fresh beans 5000km away plus time on tablet! .

### this company is not so bad at all. below is coffee from cooperative, NOT SINGLE ORIGIN. it does not indicate a single farm info, but he has sufficient info about the coffee
Bolivia Irupana

below is Single origin and it says SINGLE ORIGIN. and if you look at the page, it has again sufficient info about the coffee, farm, location, process...etc
La Virgen

however, if i were them, I would put REAL PHOTOS of the farms / coops, as they travel the farms/coops and cup personally and buy the coffee ####

This is the hardest part, you need a strong PR in order to be able to achieve this type of goal. This is the most important part of a business, the networking and knowing the right people. For that I really thank you for sharing your contact with me and offering me your advise and assistance. Since I don't have anything of value to offer you at this point, this is really a noble gesture from you to offer your assistance and mentoring. And for that, I'm very grateful.

### You are very welcome. I am very glad that at least some of the members appreciate my input. and my information can really help people to avoid mistakes and do better in business, that will make me really happy to be here in this forum. however, I know that this kind of "communication" via forum is not really enough to get your business going and get everything ready. Just not enough information. Someday, if you have time, come on down to Guatemala and really experience the coffee origin country. That would be a tremendous experience for you. take care ####

 

[javanize.me]

### You are very welcome. I am very glad that at least some of the members appreciate my input. and my information can really help people to avoid mistakes and do better in business, that will make me really happy to be here in this forum. however, I know that this kind of "communication" via forum is not really enough to get your business going and get everything ready. Just not enough information. Someday, if you have time, come on down to Guatemala and really experience the coffee origin country. That would be a tremendous experience for you. take care ####

I'm taking note on everything you say, I'm actually transforming the product section to have a layout template to describe the coffee origin and characteristics. Slowly it is transforming.

I didn't notice what you saw on the 49th parallel website about the single origin description and the more general for not single origin. This is a good reference to start with at least for inspiration.

I also have to soon feed my writer with article to write about different location where coffee grows with some general knowledge to educate the customers at the same time.

As for going south to visit, this is definitely something I would enjoy doing as soon as possible. I just don't know when it would be feasible, my wife is currently 35 weeks pregnant of our second daughter and we moving to a new condo in June. I would like to have the chance to go sometime in the summer or fall, I will see how I can manage all these events altogether. It's more a matter to find the time with the family obligation and professional obligation. I'm also a senior IT consultant for the banking sector which keep me very busy too. Do you have any preference of when would be the best time to come by? That could be a starting point in planning a visit


Thanks for the invitation! I will do my best to honour it.

 

[ensoluna]

I'm taking note on everything you say, I'm actually transforming the product section to have a layout template to describe the coffee origin and characteristics. Slowly it is transforming. Do you have any preference of when would be the best time to come by? That could be a starting point in planning a visit

Thanks for the invitation! I will do my best to honour it.

Summer vacation might be nice. normally, I take my son (15 yrs old) to Guatemala for one month.
to learn Spanish, father & Son time, work out together everyday, learn about coffee business, basically to build his character.
so, we both stay there for one month. that could be a good time to come and visit.

 

[friedcoffee]

Website loads quickly even on low speed but few things to consider are:

- Logo Design
- Font Size
- Add some fancy looks
- In single item page, the other images of the product are not consistent in size....the thumbnail should look similar
- The site needs some more text to get the attention of Google Spiders

Do consider the above points and also don't neglect the pagespeed as search engine counts that thing. I am the founder of friedcoffee and have been blogging from 3-4 years. I have designed websites from scratch and attained them to good looking things without compromising the speed and it's really a worth thing to have.