Company

With the tagline "Quality Coffee and Tea at the Best Prices," Coffee Bean Direct prides itself on serving people who have a passion for quality beverages. A dedicated gourmet coffee roaster, Coffee Bean Direct sells coffees and teas at wholesale prices, regardless of quantity or destination. The company operates from a roasting facility in central New Jersey where industry veterans roast and pack products immediately prior to shipment to help ensure freshness. Serving thousands of coffee shops and home consumers across the U.S., Coffee Bean Direct is among the fastest growing coffee companies on the web.

Approach

When Marketing Associate Floyd Wallace heard the buzz about Google Checkout, he was intrigued for several reasons. Checkout promised reduced credit card transaction fees, Google promotions, the Checkout icon on every Google AdWordsTM ad, and easier transactions for customers. Since the beginning, AdWords has been a big component of Coffee Bean Direct's advertising and marketing strategy; Checkout seemed like a natural complement.

"We are always excited to offer convenient choices for our customers," explains Wallace. "Sometimes gaining a new customer's trust can be the hardest part of doing business online. Google Checkout is a simple and effective solution to that problem."

Results

Wallace says it was easy to get started, and the Google team made integrating the Checkout system into the Coffee Bean Direct site "a breeze." He also took advantage of Google's $10 discount promotion and offered it to customers who use Google Checkout.

Once in place, Checkout rapidly exceeded his expectations. The first thing Wallace noticed was an increase in traffic to the site. "Adding the Google Checkout badge to our AdWords ads creates a must-click link for Google Checkout customers," he explains.

	"New customers are very important to a growing business like Coffee Bean Direct, and any promotions we do are only enhanced by Google Checkout."

Wallace adds that use of other integrated payment options declined right away. He says customers were often confused about how to complete their orders using other payment options, leading to dropped carts and incomplete sales. "Google Checkout is easy to understand, and even easier to use. It's quickly becoming our customers' preferred checkout method," says Wallace.

Overall, Wallace says Google Checkout has brought in more new customers than any other promotion or service offered in the past. "New customers are very important to a growing business like Coffee Bean Direct, and any promotions we do are only enhanced by Google Checkout," he says.

By combining Google Checkout with AdWords campaigns, Wallace says his company has saved thousands of dollars in transaction processing. Offering a wholesale price is not always an easy business model, but Wallace feels that Checkout helps the company attain its goals and pass the savings on to customers. "In a business where keeping costs down is essential, Google Checkout performs impeccably," he says.

Since starting with Google Checkout, business has grown 20 percent per month, the company is saving 50 percent on transaction processing costs, and repeat business is on the rise too: more than 60 percent of new customers who use Google Checkout purchase again within the same month. As Wallace notes, "Needless to say, we're thrilled with the results."