TASTIK: Reimagining our everyday source of protein

After years of moving arsenic a task head successful the nationalist sector, Greta Budreikė spent the 2020 pandemic lockdown exploring caller ideas astatine home.

Somewhere successful that search, she came crossed the thought of farming insects for food. It wasn’t an evident way for personification pinch nary inheritance successful nutrient aliases agriculture, but she couldn’t extremity reasoning astir it. 

She recovered retired that cricket macromolecule was highly nutritious, environmentally sustainable, and still mostly untapped successful the user market, which looked for illustration a existent business opportunity. 

Her husband, Vaidas Budreika, was pinch her successful the journey, seeing the aforesaid opportunity and deciding to fig everything retired together. 

That was the first thought that made them build TASTIK – a Lithuanian marque that sells insect-based nutrient products, specified arsenic dried crickets, cricket flour, macromolecule pasta, and snack bars, designed to fresh people into mundane meals. 

The sanction itself reflects the company’s vision: to link divers flavors, products, and experiences into a azygous concept. She wants to present the thought that insect macromolecule isn’t thing to fear, but it’s an constituent that tin create enjoyable, acquainted flavors.

Convincing group to spot it that way, however, has been the company’s biggest challenge.

Building not only a caller brand, but besides a caller market

When Greta first came crossed the thought of eating crickets, she had the aforesaid guidance galore group still do today. “At first, it felt unusual, moreover a spot scary,” she recalls.

That individual travel became 1 of TASTIK’s biggest business lessons. Even her ain family was skeptical erstwhile she first shared the idea.

But her curiosity won. The much she researched, the much convinced she became that insect macromolecule wasn’t conscionable a novelty – it was nutritious, sustainable, and a genuine opportunity to rethink really we devour protein.

So she took the leap, pinch Vaidas alongside her – mounting up the insect workplace together and moving done proceedings and correction to get the products right.

At the aforesaid time, they’ve been good alert that building TASTIK meant doing 2 things astatine once: creating products group would bask and helping them overcome their hesitation.

“I want them to understand that this is existent food,” Greta says. “That insect macromolecule is nutritious, safe, and thing that tin go portion of mundane meals.”

Greta and Vaidas effort to displacement people’s cognition of insect macromolecule done in-person experience: tastings, events, and one-on-one conversations wherever hesitation turns into curiosity.

Their online beingness comes into play arsenic that spot starts to return hold, giving group an easy measurement to support buying erstwhile they’ve made up their mind – and for many, it’s a earthy adjacent measurement aft the in-person conversation, aliases a measurement to support making the lawsuit astatine their ain pace.

That penetration now shapes each portion of TASTIK’s online presence.

Starting small, increasing steadily

TASTIK’s first orders came done Facebook. Greta launched the merchandise connected the societal media transmission while the website was still successful progress.

Behind the scenes, she was moving pinch a developer she trusted to bring the tract to life – while she and her hubby handled overmuch of the website content. 

Around six months later, she launched the website, moreover though the photos weren’t precocious quality, the optimization wasn’t wherever it needed to be, and the transcript still needed work.

“I often felt not afloat satisfied pinch the result. It felt for illustration thing was ever missing,” she recalls. “But moreover pinch that feeling, I knew it was important to commencement and amended measurement by step.”

As the business grew, the website became a awesome connection transmission done which Greta and Vaidas could show the afloat communicative of edible insects. 

But aft immoderate time, Greta noticed that visitors spent much clip browsing the online shop than reference blog posts aliases recipes. She learned that merchandise pages were wherever she could reside customers’ hesitation arsenic they decided whether to effort thing unfamiliar.

With that insight, she focused connected making that first relationship approachable, simple, and intriguing capable to gain a first purchase. Scientific facts and sustainability claims are kept retired of the image to debar overwhelming customers.

“The astir rewarding portion is seeing group change,” she says. “At first, they’re unsure aliases moreover afraid. But aft trying it, they go curious. That infinitesimal erstwhile their sentiment shifts is the astir powerful for me.”

When maturation exposed the cracks

After the launch, astir 30-40% of TASTIK customers came done the website, while the remainder discovered the marque done societal media and in-person events. 

Unfortunately, the website couldn’t grip the traffic. Pages loaded slowly. The personification acquisition wasn’t great.

And that website capacity instability was expensive. “If the website loads slow aliases thing gets stuck, the customer whitethorn simply time off without buying,” Greta says. 

To reside these issues, Greta and Vaidas agreed to migrate TASTIK’s website to Hostinger’s managed hosting for WordPress.

The scheme includes built-in capacity optimization, for illustration server-side caching and a contented transportation web (CDN), designed to support pages loading accelerated and reliably, moreover arsenic postulation grows.

Since then, the method issues that had antecedently demanded changeless attraction person go rare. Pages loaded faster, and checkout became reliable. The website developer now spends little clip connected attraction than erstwhile the website was hosted pinch the erstwhile provider.

A website that became a maturation motor for TASTIK

The improved website capacity translated into measurable business growth. Today, astir 70% of TASTIK’s customers travel done the website, up from 30-40% successful the early days.

Average bid worth accrued by an estimated 30-50% arsenic customers could browse and complete purchases much easily, while the stock of returning customers grew from astir 10-20% to 20-30%.

TASTIK has besides expanded internationally, shipping to Latvia, Estonia, Germany, the UK, and Ireland, pinch astir overseas customers presently being Lithuanians surviving abroad. In their semipermanent plan, they purpose to turn that assemblage further.

To support that description , Greta shared that TASTIK’s website developer relies connected devices wrong the Hostinger ecosystem. 

One illustration is simply a master business email, which helps the marque coming itself consistently and build credibility erstwhile sending newsletters aliases promotional campaigns.

The website has evolved beyond an online shop into the cardinal hub for TASTIK’s products, marketing, and brand. “Without the website, maturation would beryllium overmuch slower and much limited,” she says.

The roadworthy up for TASTIK

Greta launched her business while everything wasn’t perfect. She’s gladsome she didn’t wait.

Asked for proposal she’d springiness different mini business owners, Greta shared thing that could conscionable arsenic easy use to her ain younger self: “Start simple, but commencement early. Don’t hold until everything is perfect. Your first website will astir apt not beryllium perfect, and that is normal.”

For Greta, TASTIK’s website is ne'er really finished. It grows pinch the business – shaped by really customers behave, what they request to know, and wherever the marque is headed next. 

The adjacent section for Greta and Vaidas pinch TASTIK is world growth, a wider merchandise range, and continuing the slow, dependable activity of making insect macromolecule consciousness for illustration a normal, mundane choice.

“My ngo is to make replacement macromolecule elemental and normal for mundane use. I want group to spot it not arsenic thing strange, but arsenic a existent nutrient option,” she says. 

One order, 1 funny customer astatine a time.