Another year has passed and a plethora of challenges have been overcome in 2023. New challenges arrived for 2024 and our game plan as well as our roadmap for this year will be shared with you next week. 2023 was the year in which we validated our business model and unit economics, and we were able to achieve proof of the viability of the ecosystem and business model we are trying to achieve. A profitable and sustainable SaaS platform business, without the need for an absolute monopoly within our industry. This foundation will help us innovate during 2024 towards an even more global and decentralized approach to online food-commerce and the implementation of BIST utility going forward. Keep an eye on our channels for the 2024-look-ahead and roadmap release coming in the next few days!
We have always been focussed on building a sustainable and adopted environment before introducing innovative and pioneering crypto technologies, as it would have diminished the reach our platform would have in these early stages. Separating us from a lot of projects in the crypto space that quickly crashed and burned when their token-offering funds ran out without a sustainable business model behind it. This focus resulted in over 60k MTU (Monthly tracked users) currently and a growing GTV on a week-by-week basis.
Let’s take a brief look at 2023:
Last year we took our platforms to the next level. Many improvements have been made and new features added. We have reported this extensively in our monthly blog.
We improved our sales process to accelerate the number of new merchants we welcome each month.
Also, we focused on some core business metrics and greatly improved those.
Some of the achievements we are particularly proud of:
Developing the platform
BIST Testnet (Beta portal)
Since the beginning of this year, we have been hosting the first live example flows of the first smart contracts (on the Mumbai testnet chain). These first test rounds were the successful start to taking them to production this year.
See live at:
POS device (Handheld Point of Sale device)
To better serve our customers, we have developed our own portable point of sale device. This device receives and prints orders on location. This ensures a better order flow and helps with persistence.
Consumer app rework & SSR refactor
We have redesigned the entire consumer app with new feedback on our UI(X) flows. From this, the marketplace, establishment page and checkout have been taken to a higher level and also made fully SSR and SEO proof.
AI Search algorithm
To provide better results to our consumers. We have implemented our own trained AI algorithm for the app search flow.
Menu builder rework
An important part of the merchant portal is the menu builder. This had basic functionalities and was enriched this year with new features such as:
- Product sets on time
- Options to duplicate and make inactive menus
- Products can be set inactive for time
- Menus to activate per distribution method
- Product search functionality improved including the drag & drop system
Giftcards & Vouchers system
Until now, a manual function was creating gift cards & vouchers. This was still a hand-driven process. And from this implementation onwards it has been moved to an automated flow. From now on it is possible to easily create vouchers and gift cards at platform and merchant level and to pay and administration completely autonomously.
Solidifying the team
We hired a new frontend developer. And one of our backend developers has grown to a full stack position. With these developments we have found the perfect balance in the development team.
Merchant referrals
To accelerate the autonomous onboarding of merchants via the onboarding wizard. We have developed a merchant referral system. Merchants receive points to spend at products in the merchant shop. For example to use for free subscriptions or temporarily no commission.
Integrations
We have also integrated various external systems with our Bistroo stack. These make it easier for merchants to integrate with Bistroo. This is a completely autonomous app system. So that the merchant can choose which one he wants to activate within the system.
For example:
* Cashdesk
* Stripe
* Exact online
* Pipedrive
Improving our sales process
Expedited growth results and in-house sales
We have successfully onboarded more than 200 new merchants and tripled our sales capacity compared to last year. This increase in capacity naturally results in more sales opportunities, setting the stage for onboarding even more merchants in the coming year.
Partner program piloted
Throughout the year, we initiated a trial of our partner program and successfully onboarded our initial partners, who are now actively introducing new merchants to our business.
Advanced prospecting
We have enhanced our prospecting methods, allowing us to identify our most promising customer group earlier in the sales process. This improvement helps us save time by focusing on more advantageous customers and minimizing time spent on less beneficial ones.
Merchant self-onboarding wizard
Perhaps the biggest milestone of this year, a step towards an international and decentralized Bistroo. From now on, merchants can onboard themselves completely and autonomously via this wizard. Part of the bistroo.com transition.
Expanded revenue streams
We have discovered and introduced various new sources of revenue, leading to a rise in revenue per merchant (RPM) while still enhancing merchant satisfaction.
Automatic invoicing and administration system
Since we are onboarding more and more merchants, it was important to automate our entire administration. This was one of the most important steps towards an autonomous SaaS flow.
Improving core business metrics
Cost per order reduction
We tested the structure of our ad accounts, we tested different ad platforms, we tested many, many creative formats. We automated new ad creation to create a 100% coverage of our merchants. All this lead to the average cost per order to more than halve on a yearly basis, going from €2,62 over 2022 to €1,15 in 2023.
Earning per order improvements
In tandem with the reduction of the cost per order, the earnings per order improved from €0,18 to €1,14, a whopping 533% increase.
Contribution margin
Contribution margin turned positive for the first time in Bistroo’s existence in august and has stayed positive ever since, rising to €0,62 in december.
Continuous experimentation
We conducted over 90 marketing experiments, learning where our added value lies, how we can advertise most effectively, how we can improve conversion rate and more.
SEO performance
SEO-traffic rose with 59% Year-on-year. Transactions also rose. We achieved this through consistent content production, diligent technical improvements and linkbuilding.
Emailmarketing
We enriched our customer data, set up new campaigns, rolled out personal recommendations to our consumer customers. Together with Organic Search traffic our emailmarketing enables us to grow without having to overspend on performance marketing, thus maintaining healthy unit economics.
Wanna read all the full blogs? We’ve got you covered. You can find them all at bistroo.medium.com.
Get your fill on everything Bistroo!
Bistroo is a peer-to-peer marketplace for food & beverages, powered by the BIST Token. Bistroo is a pioneer in the blockchain-based food industry, building protocols that empower the merchants in an ecosystem that also benefits the customers.
