Los Angeles-headquartered e-commerce business Thrive Market is setting the pace for online discounters in the organic and natural space.
The membership-based online retailer offers organic and non-GMO products at 25% – 50% off retail prices to its members. Or, as the company put it, “Whole Foods type products, at the prices you pay for conventional products”.
To enable such deep discounting Thrive Market sets an annual membership charge of $59.95 (or, $5/month). Deliveries are made to anywhere in the US and are free for orders over $49 – around 95% or current orders qualify. As part of its mission, for every paid Thrive Market membership, a free membership is donated to a family in need in the United States.
Thrive Market allows customers to shop by category – Food, Beauty, Health, Babies & Kids, Home and Pet – or by values – Gluten-free, Moms, Paleo, Raw, Staples and Vegan. There is also a 140-product strong Thrive Market range.
Founded in 2014 by Nick Green, Gunnar Lovelace, Kate Mulling, and Sasha Siddhartha, Thrive Market has since raised $141 million across three rounds of funding. Speaking with CBS news recently, Lovelace and Green said that Thrive was able to open up certified organic and non-GMO to new audiences because they “cut out the middle men, and buy direct from the brands”.
“Our market is mainstream, middle-class, middle-American families who are on a budget”
“Our market is mainstream, middle-class, middle-American families who are on a budget,” said Green. He added that Thrive’s customer base is 80% female, primarily young parents, and that the business achieves sales in excess of $10 million a month.
Explaining Thrive Market’s positioning and mission-led remit, Lovelace said that “coalition building” was more important to the business than celebrity endorsements. “Influence marketing has been central to what we do. Bloggers are authentic, they’re living the lifestyle themselves.”