MobiLoud Helped Gourmet Gift Baskets Launch a Premium Customer Connection with an App

Gourmet Gift Baskets, a family-owned business founded in 2002, decided to expand their digital presence by launching their first mobile app. 

As a gourmet food gifting company serving customers for every special occasion, they needed a solution that could deliver a premium app experience, in line with their brand’s attention to quality.

However, as a lean, family-owned business, they had to do so without extensive development resources or disrupting their existing operations. Read on to learn how MobiLoud emerged as the perfect solution.

Snapshot

Vertical: Gourmet food gifting

Platform: Custom

Business Impact:

• Launched app without bringing on new staff.
• Enhanced their customer center with tracking, order history, and reorder capabilities.
• Added a premium communication channel in push notifications.

"The decision to go with MobiLoud to launching it was a quick process. The capabilities that Mobiloud delivers on is second to none in the process that we went through to identify the potential partners in the space."
— Jason Bergeron, Vice President of Ecommerce

The Roadblock

The team identified a mobile app as a key business opportunity, which would help them get closer to their high-end customers.

Yet as a small team, Gourmet Gift Baskets lacked the development resources to build and maintain a native mobile app. 

"We're a small family-run business, entrepreneurial in spirit. We don't have a large staff and we certainly didn't have a staff that was dedicated to a mobile application."

They would need to hire at least one new staff member if they were to bring a project like this in-house. And the custom tech stack powering their site meant they couldn't rely on standard platform integrations that many app builders offered.

Why They Chose MobiLoud

MobiLoud stood out because of our simplicity.

We fit perfectly into their need for a lean, low-maintenance solution. They could continue to use their same development systems, using the same team, same tech stack, same templates, and publish to app and web simultaneously.

"It was really important for us because we didn't have that large, robust team. We had the ability to make normal updates for our responsive site, and those responsive templates would automatically update into the mobile app. The ease of connectivity there was flawless and very, very important to our decision."

Even better, the app wouldn’t just be a copy of their website.

With MobiLoud’s help, they implemented a new customer center, providing enhanced tracking and reordering through the app, which even involved custom screens for the app – all managed with their existing stack.

Launch & Results

Despite their site’s custom infrastructure, the build and launch was smooth, and they were able to go live fast.

Following the first version, Jason and his team worked with MobiLoud to ship an upgraded version that included their new and improved customer center.

"The onboarding process was smooth and easy. The connectivity was smooth and easy. You guys were pressing us, not the other way around. And that's always a sign of a very efficient, high-end process."

The team successfully launched their app and began seeing downloads right away through both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. 

Crucially, they were able to launch well ahead of the holiday season – a vital time of the year for their business.

Next Steps

Now the app is live, Jason plans to make push notifications a key part of their strategy.

He identified push as the core ROI driver of an app. The new channel offers them a much stronger connection with their best customers, with a personal nature that email and SMS can’t match.

“If you’ve earned the respect of the consumer enough to get their download to their phone, the push notification really hits home to that consumer.
A click from an email feels cheap. But when you get somebody to take the time to go to the app store, download the app, and put it on their phone, and then allow you to send push notifications to them, they are really a connected user.
If you're thinking about going into the app space, that brand loyalty and that brand recognition is the reason to do it.”

The Takeaway

For businesses with custom technology stacks and limited development resources, launching a mobile app while staying lean can seem impossible. 

But with a partner like MobiLoud, it’s easy. We build off your existing platform, keeping investment and overhead low, and ensuring that any web-first business can launch their own app.

“We made the choice to go with you guys because it gave us the performance that we wanted. At the same time, it gave us the convenience and the flexibility and ease to make updates as we do today.”

You get a clean, professional new channel that elevates your brand and builds stronger connections with your best customers, without the operational headaches.

If you're ready to launch your mobile app without the overhead of custom development, get a free preview of your app now. We'll show you how your site can become a high-performing mobile app in just a few weeks.