The Bistroo Breakdown: Monthly Progress Report — March 2023
Every month, we publish a monthly update to our token holders and broader community. Welcome to the March 2023 edition. This month, we launched the Utility Testnet, our PoS devices, made some of our most successful ad campaigns yet and received an AI development grant.
General
The launch of our Utility Testnet last week marked a major milestone in the the development and adoption of BIST utility within the Bistroo Ecosystem. However, that’s not the only highlight of March. We’re also excited to share the enormous growth of our platform in our home region of the Netherlands. Here are some of the other general highlights of March:
- Order volume has grown 321% Year on Year compared to March 2022. Why are we choosing this month to report on growth? March 2022 is our first ‘covid-clean’ reference point for performance, as a lot of the data prior to March 2022 is highly skewed due to COVID lockdowns and their influences on the market.
- 536 new user accounts were created in March 2023. This represents a Year on Year increase of 441% in new user accounts.
- We received an AI grant of BrainPort Eindhoven for further research and development of algorithmics & deep learning within the Bistroo Ecosystem.
- Our merchant onboarding operations expanded to a new region in the Netherlands. We’re ramping up growth to include additional hubs in our home market.
- We adopted and validated the improved multi-service acquisition and onboarding process for merchants within this new region, with high success rates.
- This new approach is resulting in quicker turnaround times for onboarding merchants but also onboarding these merchants with a multi-service offering. In approximately 40% of cases, a new merchant client utilizes 2 or more of the services offered.
- 15 new merchants opened their online stores in March 2023. In the first quarter of 2023, 43 new merchants were onboarded.
- We outgrew our current offices! That’s why Bistroo is moving to a new office space that can house our current team and is equipped for further team expansion and more efficient operations in the near future.
Development
- We released our new Point of Sale Handheld device. This device is a step up from the printer we’re now currently use and makes it easier for merchants to view and manage their incoming orders on the go. We will be releasing pictures soon!
- The BIST Utility Testnet was a big release we have been working on for a while. This is the Beta environment for our community to test and feedback the first two smartcontracts.
- A consumer app checkout refactor.
- Regarding the AI grant we received, we kicked off our first research into implementations within the Bistroo Ecosystem. More information on that will follow soon.
- Multiple Merchant Portal (UI) improvements and bugfixes.
Marketing
In March, we launched our Eindhoven branding-campaign. For four weeks our posters were shown in 50 locations throughout the city. Additionally, we ran our video ads on the Google and Meta platforms. Our goal was to reintroduce ourselves and our new brand proposition to the public of Eindhoven. A thorough analysis has yet to be done, but the first signs show positive effects of the campaign.
Other highlights from this month:
- We set up a highly converting campaign type called Online Local Ads. This is a type of ad that lets us target food delivery & takeaway in a specific area.
- Redesigned the UI of our marketplace, merchant page and checkout.
- Initiated a new collaboration with a webshop for wines.
- Created animated videos for our Utility Testnet release.
- Surveyed our loyal and not-so loyal customers in order to find out how to increase our retention.
- Sent out a direct mail & email campaign to prospective merchants in Tilburg area. This was the first point of contact for the new region before our sales team moved in.
- Ran multiple experiments with the content we serve in our email campaigns in order to improve the open and click rates.
- Functionally specced the referral program.
- Created a Meta Ads campaign for the Almere area.
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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.
