We are going physical!

We get asked (a lot!) why we’re opening more and more Faithful to Nature physical stores, and now also a UCOOK physical location, given our strong online history. The main reason is simple: they're helping us achieve our purpose. Customers are loving our stores, and we are seeing strong sales on opening, and solid growth over time.

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‍We have had to learn a great deal about how to design stores, train new staff, replenish stock effectively, and much more. The biggest challenge has been finding ways to bring our core values to life in a store. For example, at the heart of Faithful to Nature is our Better Product Policy and the incredibly detailed review work our team does on every ingredient of every new product before we’re willing to list it. Telling that story offline is a journey we’re still on.

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Does this mean we’re moving away from online? Not at all. Our core strengths remain building fantastic customer experiences with the help of data, and this is still easier online. There’s plenty more digital innovation to come. But what we see is that online and offline support each other well: the richer data we collect online allow us to optimise both our range and how we interact with customers, in a way that would be impossible with a purely offline model.

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What about “cannibalisation?” Some customers simply prefer to shop in person. The ability to touch and experience products, and to talk to well-informed staff in person, makes us relevant to a whole new audience. But perhaps even more importantly, we see that for many customers, online and offline play complementary roles. When customers begin shopping in-store, they don’t reduce their online engagement. Instead, they discover new products and experiences.

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Our newly opened UCOOK store in Cavendish is even more experimental. UCOOK’s real strength is creating new and compelling dishes, week in and week out, that are healthy and delicious. We had already used this to create a fantastic frozen meal range, but it has been overshadowed by the mealkits that are UCOOK’s principle offering. Our store offers us a new opportunity to bring good food to market, via our “deli” and “grab and go” offerings. These offer a continuously changing menu of UCOOK-quality meals, already cooked and perfect for lunch, or to take home for dinner.

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We believe it’s clear that the future for effective brands isn't about choosing between online or offline. It’s about creating the richest, most sincere interactions, wherever the customer is. And this needs both physical and digital presence.