How Gardyn Sprouted 50% Mobile Growth with WooCommerce & Trustpilot

Introduction

When FX Rouxel relocated from Provence, France, to Maryland he noticed store greens lacked the taste of his childhood. He teamed with researchers at McGill University to build a hydroponic kit that fits two square feet yet yields up to 30 plants—lettuces, herbs, cherry tomatoes—controlled through a smartphone app. With the first prototype shipping in February 2020, Gardyn combined hardware, software, and membership in a single D2C launch just as global lockdowns spiked interest in home projects. Today, a remote staff of 50 supports the mission to put a Gardyn in every home.

The Challenge of Education and Scale

Introducing a new category of indoor gardening meant teaching potential customers how this kit compares to outdoor plots and window setups. Prospects needed clear visuals on yield, cost savings, and ease of use, without feeling like they were buying another gadget to abandon. Internally, the team lacked full-time developers for rapid site improvements. Early site builds in Elementor covered basics, but as volume and membership tiers rose, Ava had to plan for a solution that would grow alongside brand.

Building with Flexibility

Ava, Gardyn’s Head of Website, chose WooCommerce because it ties into WordPress and opens the door to a massive extension library. She used Elementor to spin up product displays, a quiz for plant bundles, and an easy cart that adapted on the fly. When it was time to sell sample kits with four plant seedlings in one SKU, the team installed Product Bundles—no custom code required. This plugin-based setup means they can test ideas or retire features in weeks rather than months.

Trust and Social Proof

Convincing someone to invest in an indoor garden is like selling a car they’ve never test driven. Gardyn shifted from a generic review system to Trustpilot and immediately benefited from verified user feedback. They feature five-star statements on footers, in product carousels, and in Facebook ads that now see double the click-through rates. The backend makes it simple to grab SVG review badges for email footers and ad graphics, letting the marketing team highlight real applause from gardeners who actually love the kit.

Extending the Checkout Experience

The next focus was payment options. Adding Affirm gave shoppers buy now, pay later plans that translated into 20% of orders choosing financing. In November 2021 they rolled out express pay via Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Amazon Pay. Within days 40% of desktop checkouts and a striking 60% of mobile orders used one-click pay, and abandonment sank as a result. They saw a 50% lift in mobile conversions compared to desktop, a clear sign that frictionless payment is a must it seems.

Email Automation for Abandoned Carts

Klaviyo was added in mid-2021 to tackle cart abandonment. The platform reads WooCommerce events out of the box so emails fire automatically when carts are left behind. A pop-up zone doubled the number of contacts captured, pushing the subscriber list past 50,000. Abandoned cart flows now account for three times the revenue of manual follow-ups. Every email footer still pulls live Trustpilot quotes to remind recipients they are part of a community of home growers.

Results

Between trust signals, flexible bundles, and a checkout that practically prints money, Gardyn saw major gains. Organic bounce rates dropped, on-site engagement increased by 35%, click-through in social ads doubled, and email flows recovered a quarter million dollars in lost carts. Express pay options powered a 50% increase in mobile conversions, and nearly one in five customers check out with Amazon Pay. All told, their WooCommerce site comfortably handles spikes from viral press with no developer on call.

Looking Ahead

Now Gardyn is working to expand into schools and mission-driven programs through their G3 Initiative. They plan to fork their codebase for nonprofit partners, adapting membership tiers and pricing to fit local budgets. Retail partnerships and pop-up demos are on the roadmap, but the core remains digital-first: gather user input, showcase authenticity with reviews, and keep checkout slick. As Ava says, the site is never done—it grows with every photo tag, new plant variety, and customer story that rolls in.