Peekaboo scooped out their hidden data with Crisp

Part of our Customer Spotlight series, featuring brands on the Crisp platform and their growth stories.

Eat your veggies

The holidays might feel like a time when healthy eating goes out the window, but Peekaboo Organics knows you can always get your veggies in — even with dessert. It all started with founder Jessica Levison, a lawyer who opened a boutique scoop shop in Miami known for its delicious flavors and creative ingredients. When Jessica became a parent, she had to learn to satisfy a new type of customer: her kids. They were refusing to eat their veggies, but eager for ice cream at the end of the day (something Jessica found hard to oppose). So she decided to experiment with ice cream flavors that secretly included a full serving of vegetables, and Peekaboo Organics was born. Launching in 2019, Peekaboo’s delicious line of organic ice cream packed with hidden veggies is now available around the country at Whole Foods, Bristol Farms, Earth Fare, and other retailers. Peekaboo is also a certified B-Corp, committed to issues including sustainability, reducing child hunger, and empowering women in the workplace.

Watch Peekaboo’s customer story video!

Insights shouldn’t be hidden

Like many brands, Peekaboo found retail to be a learning experience, and regularly refined their recipe for success during rapid growth. Peekaboo first got their foot in the door at regional Whole Foods locations around Miami, but their distribution quickly expanded from there. “Retailers immediately recognized that consumers were eager for a better-for-you ice cream option,” Jessica explains. “Consumers were really driving toward snacks, indulgence, and desserts that brought them closer to balance.”  Things were on a clear growth trajectory…but then COVID hit.

Overnight, the pandemic changed grocery store sales performance and how customers were shopping in those stores. Peekaboo needed to adapt, and it served as an opportunity for the brand to focus their distribution channels to optimize both efficiency and velocity. “With COVID, it’s hard to be nationally distributed when the entire world is shut down — especially as a small brand. Focusing regionally is really important for small brands in particular,” she reflects.

Data was key to this effort, but it was nearly impossible to access. Without being able to afford big-ticket data services or hire whole teams dedicated to crunching numbers, Jessica and her supply chain manager did their best to collect and dissect data from various vendor portals to get signals. “Before Crisp, even thinking about data was overwhelming and infuriating,” Levison remembers. She wanted quick access to insights so she could focus her time on taking action instead of spending hours digging into data for insights herself. So when she heard about Crisp, she didn’t hesitate.

“Truly anyone can use Crisp. It’s easy for anyone who is not a data person to understand what’s going on in the business — and not just at a high level, but at a granular level that can drive action.”

Jessica Levison, Founder and CEO

A healthy dose of data

Jessica now has the data she needs at her fingertips, which drives the brand’s strategy and how she manages each department. Crisp is saving her Director of Supply Chain alone 2-3 hours per report, but Jessica also loves that anyone on her team can get into data. “Truly anyone can use Crisp,” Jessica emphasized. “It’s easy for anyone who is not a data person to understand what’s going on in the business — and not just at a high level, but at a granular level that can drive action.” When the team was thinking about prioritizing distribution, data from Crisp’s Velocity Dashboards was critical. “Data really helped us determine where we are strong, where we should be leaning in, and where we might want to scale back,” she explains. As the team found, focusing their distribution growth on areas where the product performs best was core to developing strong velocity numbers. 

The Peekaboo team also uses Crisp to inform marketing direction. Using the data, they target advertising and social media campaigns based on their points of distribution and retail partners. This makes marketing spend much more efficient and effective. It’s particularly easy with Crisp’s heat map feature, which helps Jessica and the team quickly find sales hotspots to focus on. They also look for areas that are performing slower where they may want to pivot their marketing strategy.

On the sales side, Jessica starts by viewing data at the high level to see if the trend lines are moving in the right direction. Then granularly, she can monitor re-orders and make sure buyers have product when they need it. For instance, if she sees that a shipment was sent a few weeks ago but the retailer hasn’t re-ordered, she can ask her broker to look into it and see if additional support is needed in the form of marketing materials or coupons. 

Sweet growth ahead

Jessica’s team will continue using data as a guide as they take on new opportunities. After appearing on Shark Tank late last year, they’ve seen sales grow across retail, DTC and e-commerce. They also recently released new flavors, including Unicorn and Cookie Dough, with hidden zucchini. We’ll have to wait and see what veggie Jessica will sneak in next!

To learn more about how data can help your brand’s growth story, contact us for a demo. For more inspiring stories from Crisp customers, subscribe to the blog.