Why do you think you should win the Premier’s People’s Choice Award?

We have built our business on the idea that we provide a conduit for connection. Coffee is a beautiful, delicious drink that many of us enjoy, but our success is really about providing incredible service and providing a space for people to feel seen, safe and valued. We have a very loyal following of BC coffee lovers and a very engaged and active Instagram following. We have hundreds of regulars in our Chilliwack cafe who rely on us daily (or nearly) for a delicious cup of coffee, but also that magical human connection that happens in our shop.

How have you optimized your e-commerce store to create a strong user experience for your community, (through content, education, reviews etc.) and what results have you achieved?

About a year ago we put a lot of effort towards growing our business through e-commerce. We took our website from a cafe-centric "come visit us" site to a full eCommerce shopping experience. We've leveraged our Google reviews, some awards we've one and a lineup of technologies to drive traffic to our website. SEO, useful content, interesting information and appealing visuals have all helped our online business grow. We've utilized Google Analytics, Search Console, some paid ads, email marketing and best-in-class customer service to grow traffic and retention. The result has been incredibly positive. In 2023, we saw a huge increase in online sales revenue compared to 2022. We recently launched phase two of our e-commerce plan with a brand-new website that is fully optimized for online shopping. It includes a blog with recipes, behind-the-scenes info and fun happenings. We infused as much fun and personality into our e-commerce store as we could to provide the same fun and joyful experience online that customers in our brick-and-mortar cafe enjoy. We also utilize our chatbot to provide real-time answers to customers questions. We regularly are chatting with people to help them figure out what coffee they might like. We find this human connection incredibly rewarding for both ourselves and our customers. It works well on mobile and desktop and is filled with enough information to help even the most novice coffee drinker to feel knowledgable and empowered to brew excellent coffee in their own home. We also host an annual virtual blind coffee tasting that operates through our website. Customers pre-order this product, branded as "Camp Smoking Gun," which contains 4 unique coffees with no information about them. Every week they try a new roast and we send them a weekly email revealing the roast. It includes videos of our founder and head roaster describing the coffee. We also host the information on a separate blog where participants can discuss their thoughts on the coffee. It was wildly successful last year and we are excited to do it again this summer.

Why do you deserve to win the E-Commerce Experience Award?

I think we deserve to win because we put a lot of effort into crafting an intentional and informative experience for users on our website. There are a lot of great coffee roasters in BC, but all of their websites are basically the same. Sure, ours may be similar in structure, but we infuse our personality and the human aspect of our business to create a unique online experience. We want our website to feel like a fun place to be, not just a place to buy coffee. We think we are hitting the mark and the feedback we have received from users has been incredibly positive. The numbers tell a similar story.