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The entrepreneur selling the benefits of the nut that's not a nut

Posted: Wed 3rd Mar 2021

When is a nut not a nut? When it's a tigernut!

Ayesha Grover discovered the health benefits of the ancient root vegetable while working in Nigeria. She used that knowledge to create strp'd, a company providing nut, gluten and dairy free flour and drinks.

From the beginning, she started selling the product on Amazon's online store and used the tips from a Bootcamp through the Amazon Small Business Accelerator to develop her selling strategy.

Ayesha shares her inspiring story.

The free Amazon Small Business Accelerator e-learning programme is advice from more than 30 business experts in 218 bitesize videos.

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How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Having experienced gut related issues throughout my life, I try to avoid dairy, gluten and refined sugars, whilst increasing prebiotics, probiotics and fibre. I discovered tigernuts whilst working in Nigeria and from then on I was addicted! Tigernuts have several benefits including boosting immunity and enhancing gut health.

Being a Leo, when I love something, I want to share it with everyone. I was surprised by the lack of awareness of tigernuts in the UK.

What start-up challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

The lack of awareness of tigernuts in the UK is both a challenge and an opportunity. It is great to be a first-mover and to be able to share this incredible discovery, but it involves really educating the market, something that is much easier when you have a large budget and can invest a lot in marketing or work with the best PR agencies. With a very small start-up budget, I try to do most things myself and work with freelancers rather than agencies for things that require additional expertise.

I have so many ideas for the business but working with manufacturers is a big challenge. Most of them require large minimum order quantities that are hard to justify until you have guaranteed orders from customers. Those customers are unlikely to give you a guaranteed order until you have the manufactured product - so it is a big chicken and egg situation.

What is your marketing strategy for engaging with customers and making sales?

I use Instagram and Facebook to build a community that I can regularly engage with. This involves posting content that I believe my target customer wants to see and gifting products to micro influencers to share on their own channels. Every couple of months I invest some budget in paid Facebook/Instagram adverts.

Other than that, I try and get creative with sampling, something that was so common in the pre-COVID world but is much harder when you are not physically seeing your customers. The most successful sampling campaign I have run has been on Sweatcoin [https://sweatco.in], a platform that allows you to earn coins based on the steps you walk and use those coins to redeem products including strp'd.

How has COVID-19 affected your business?

I had spent over a year developing a range of flavoured, ready-to-drink tigernut m*lks, which were due to launch in March 2020, right at the start of the pandemic.

Due to the change in consumer habits, I was forced to pivot during the first lockdown. Like 49% of the UK population, I first started baking during the first lockdown and was not satisfied with any of the flour alternatives on the market. This led me to try tigernut flour, which was game-changing and led to the launch of strp'd Tigernut Flour, a product that was much more relevant in the COVID landscape. I tend to believe that anything that does not work out the way you plan, happens for a reason and allows something even better to unfold. That was exactly the case here.

Tigernut flour is a gluten free, nut free, dairy free, sugar free flour alternative. It is naturally sweet in flavour so when baking with it you can halve the amount of sugar/sweetener that you would usually use. It's also high in fibre, in particular resistant starch, which enhances digestion and is good for your gut.

strp'd tigernut flour

Why did you decide to apply for the Amazon Bootcamp?

As an ex-Amazonian, I really understand and value the power of Amazon and so Amazon was always part of my distribution strategy when I was thinking about the business. When I read about the Bootcamp it was a no-brainer to apply.

What were the key benefits of the Amazon Bootcamp for your business?

Registering my brand through Brand Registry was one of the biggest tips I picked up through the Bootcamp. I own the trademark for the brand and would never have thought it would give me access to so many more tools on Seller Central including Brand Analytics, Search Term Reports and Brand Stores.

Aside from this, the part of the Bootcamp I enjoyed most was listening to other entrepreneurs and their experiences setting up as sellers on Amazon.

What actions did you take after taking part in the Bootcamp?

I enrolled for Brand Registry, used the Search Term Reports and created a Brand Store.

What is your strategy for making sales on Amazon?

Optimising my product detail page. Since there is little awareness of tigernut flour, I wanted to make sure that any customer who visited my product detail page would quickly understand what it is and what its benefits are. I used the product images and bullet points to highlight the key features and when I got access to A+ content and Brand Stores, I used this to provide more colour and show customers more of the brand.

I also ensured that the correct keywords were used through the product detail page so that the product was highly ranked for the relevant search terms.

As a Prime customer, I understand this benefit well and so from the beginning, I enrolled in Fulfilment by Amazon to offer free Prime delivery. This, as well as our competitive price point, allows strp'd to win the buy box the majority of the time, which has really helped with sales.

What are your top tips for business success based on your experience so far?

Learn from people and businesses that have done this before. Use the support of Enterprise Nation, Facebook groups relevant to your industry (The Food Hub is great for food start-ups) and entrepreneur communities such as Bread & Jam and Young Foodies.
Listen to customers. They are always right and should always guide your decision making.
Work on something you are passionate about because that's what keeps you motivated. I get the most satisfaction when I hear about how strp'd has improved the lives of my customers. When I learn about a customer who hasn't been able to eat a cookie in three years because she can't tolerate grains and can now enjoy them daily, this is incredibly rewarding.
Stay positive and remember that there will be challenges but I believe that anything that didn't work out the way I planned happened for a reason and to allow something even better to unfold.