Food & BeverageRead the case
25M+
Cumulative revenue
American Uncle
We're not American Uncle's agency. We've been shareholders since day one. Here's what it means to build a brand for ten years with skin in the game.
Food & Beverage
Food e‑commerce: make repeat purchase your engine
If every new order costs too much, profit arrives when the second order becomes predictable.
€52
Client portfolio data 2023-2024
At this order size, repeat purchase isn't optional.
The sector's numbers
Four sector anchors always in view; the other metrics open with definition and range. This is where an audit starts.
Average order value
€522
typical
Repeat purchase rate
48%1
typical
Conversion rate
3.1%1
typical
Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
€223
typical
The first order covers costs. Profit starts here.
Other metrics
Sources
- 1. Shopify Commerce Trends 2024
- 2. Client portfolio data 2023-2024
- 3. Meta Ads Industry Benchmarks
- 4. Baymard Institute 2024
- 5. Industry standard
The range is the typical interval observed in the sector. Where you sit is what we measure in the audit.
Want these numbers on your store?
Request your diagnosisWhere food e‑commerce leaves you most exposed
Orders come in, but without repeat purchase you're buying the same customers back every month.
At a €22 CAC, every customer who doesn't reorder is a customer you buy back at full price.
Expiry dates, margin pressure, and logistics costs force promos long before the business has breathing room.
At an average margin of 38%, the defensive promo that clears the warehouse is a cost nobody puts in the budget.
AOV is often too low to support CAC, packaging, and shipping.
With cart abandonment at 62.4%, every started checkout leaves ~€32 of value on the table.
Demand surges in strong seasons and then drops off, leaving you with unstable inventory and cashflow.
Against retail, Amazon, and marketplaces, the risk is becoming just another price-based choice.
With sector lifetime value at €185, the game isn't the single receipt. It's how many times the customer comes back.
In food, the real jump doesn't come from the first order. It comes when the second one becomes predictable.
How we work on a food brand
Treats: buying the same customers back every month
More repeat purchase, less dependence on the first order
We build email and SMS flows, reminders, reorder logic, and return offers designed to turn consumable products into purchasing habits.
Treats: AOV too low for CAC, packaging, and shipping
Bundles, boxes, and thresholds that lift AOV
We work on packs, bundles, shipping thresholds, and cart composition to give margin, packaging, and logistics more room to breathe.
Treats: becoming just another price-based choice
Creative that explains both product and desire
We test hooks, angles, and content that combine taste, use case, gifting context, novelty, and social proof so the product doesn't stay a commodity.
Treats: seasonal surges and unstable cashflow
A commercial calendar that protects both cashflow and stock
We plan peaks, seasonality, expiry pressure, and launches so inventory rotates with more control, instead of forcing the brand to live off improvised promos.
How we read the account
- Contribution margin and break-even MER
- The guiding metric. We read platform ROAS, we don't steer by it.
- nCAC and margin, every week
- Weekly reading, monthly review. Numbers, not automated reports.
- Founders and seniors on the account
- Names in the contract, no handoff to juniors. Maximum 20 active e‑commerce brands.
- 30-day exit
- No exit penalties. The audit stays yours either way.
A fixed-price audit is the first step, always.
Investment and fit criteriaThe evidence
5 published cases in this industry
The questions that matter in your industry
If you're deciding whether it's worth a conversation, start here.
Do you have direct experience in food?
Yes. American Uncle, founded by EcomExtreme's founders, is among the published cases on this page: margins, repeat purchase, logistics, and seasonality seen from the side that runs the P&L, not from a slide.
When is a food brand ready to work with you?
Usually when it already has a product that sells, recognizable demand, and revenue between €100k and €10M. If each new order is still too expensive or repeat purchase is weak, that's exactly when the work tends to matter most.
How do you approach repeat purchase?
We start from consumption frequency, AOV, margin, and order rhythm. Then we build reminders, bundles, subscriptions, or refill logic based on how customers actually use the product, not by copying generic retention playbooks.
What do you look at to understand whether margin can really improve?
We look at AOV, CAC, repeat rate, shipping costs, cart composition, and promo weight. If the brand is generating orders but the P&L still feels fragile, we usually know where to look first.
We've already been burned by an agency. What's different with you?
That's why we don't start with a contract but with a fixed-price audit: contribution margin by category, break-even MER, tracking. Then you get a proposal naming the seniors who will run the account, or a written no. Thirty-day exit.
This report is about the sector. The next one is about your P&L.
We only accept brands where we're confident we can make a real impact.
Ad spend €10k+/month
You already invest in Meta or Google and want to stop budget waste and rising nCAC.
Revenue over €500k/year
Below this threshold a senior fee weighs too much on the P&L. Above it, there is margin worth protecting and scaling.
Validated product-market fit
You have a catalog and an offer the market already buys. We do not work with pre-PMF projects or product tests.
Cost of goods data available
Without COGS, contribution margin cannot be calculated, and without that nothing can be decided.
Fit assessment, before any proposal