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The product recommendation website BeM was launched in 2020 in Brazil to explore the significant and untapped potential of the country’s online reviews market. Inspired by US models, BeM’s webpages featured expert-generated reviews of products in four categories: air fryers, headphones and earbuds, Bluetooth speakers, and irons. Its revenue model centered on participating in affiliate marketing programs: BeM’s website included links to various online merchants’ pages, and the group earned commissions when users made purchases through these links. After a year of operations, BeM had attracted 186,000 visitors to its webpages, but sales conversion remained a challenge. While over 80% of customers who read BeM’s reviews clicked on affiliate links, under 1% completed a purchase immediately or shortly after. The field-based case study features BeM’s executive director, Josiane Schunck, as she prepares to discuss the start-up’s future with its four cofounders. The key question the group needs to address is whether to keep growing the BeM website or move on to another venture, where they could apply the learnings from this experiment. Should they embrace Silicon Valley’s “fail fast, learn faster” mantra, or make adjustments and double down on the BeM bet? If they decide to continue growing the business, what could be the most effective strategies to enhance BeM’s financials, reducing costs and boosting revenue generation? Could partnerships with media groups, retailers, or manufacturers help BeM build alternative revenue sources, or would it be better to keep operating independently? And which product categories should BeM focus on next, not only to attract more users but also to improve its sales conversion rates? This case is appropriate for use in an MBA, executive education, or undergraduate course on entrepreneurship, marketing, innovation, digital disruption, or digital businesses.
(1) To appreciate the complexity of a key decision in start-up growth: whether to continue investing in optimizing the start-up’s key performance indicators in the hope of finding economic viability and product-market fit or to transition to another venture. This situation is frequently faced by entrepreneurs and entails considering both the current potential of a business and its future prospects. (2) To understand the concept of decoupling, examine how this phenomenon is driving digital disruption in various industries, and explore its potential to continue generating new customer-centric business models worldwide. (3) To analyze the strengths and weaknesses of affiliate fees–based business models, considering their value-creation potential for customers, cost structure, and financial results. (4) To discuss strategies to enhance the financial performance of a start-up, including by exploring new monetization alternatives. This involves evaluating the advantages and tradeoffs of these alternatives in terms of costs, revenue generation, customer value, and marketing potential (taking into account reputational risks and the opportunity to boost the platform’s visibility). (5) To delve into the dynamics of the online product review sector, examining this industry’s trends, competitive forces, challenges, and opportunities.