“Our target demographic is anyone who enjoys seeing a happy face,” summarised Jarrod Joshua, one of the 4 founders of make hay, sunshine!, a whole foods gift basket business.
make hay, sunshine! started out as a whole foods distributor and e-commerce platform until the founders later realised how big the market was, and the various sub-markets they could tap into.
A little over a month after their launch, they got some inquiries from their close contacts on creating gift sets with the fruits they were selling.
“We posted some pictures of those early sets on our social media and the requests came flooding in. Now, barely 5 months since that first set went out, we’ve pivoted our entire focus to be primarily on gifting,” Jarrod told Vulcan Post.
Keeping Flexible With Their Business
make hay, sunshine! doesn’t use a pre-order method for their customers to purchase their goods. This came as a surprise to me since doing pre-ordering is usually helpful to maintain freshness and reduce stock wastage.
However, Jarrod explained that they try to keep the variety of fruits in the gift basket flexible, and only include in-season fruits to maintain its freshness.
Which is why on their website, they make a note for every basket that the actual contents of their boxes may vary based on available fresh flowers, fruits and decorative items that are in-stock and in-season.
“A lot of fruits are not available all-year-round. Some might only be available for 4 months annually. Even then, the supply closer to the beginning or end of the harvest season might not be at its best quality.”
While they reject batches of fruits that do not meet their standards for quality, these fruits do not go waste. Instead, they go to grocery stores.
“We work very closely with our suppliers, particularly for the fresh fruit involved. This helps us get a better grasp on stocking levels as we receive daily resupply of necessary fruit, particularly the more perishable or sensitive ones,” Jarrod explained.
He added that this close working relationship they have also helps them cover for any shortage of fruit for orders on short notice as well.
Becoming More Than Just A Fruit Gift Basket
Shortly after launching their gift sets, the team at make hay, sunshine! also decided to include chocolate and body care products in their gift sets as well. This addition to their fruit basket actually helped increase their sales.
“We believe very strongly that there’s something for everyone, and that there’s no single item that’s for everyone either,” Jarrod shared.
On their website, you can find different themes of fruit baskets like health and wellness, pamper and self-care, etc.
If you select a health and wellness gift basket for example, the fruit box could come with kombucha, tea, organic chia seeds, and more, depending on the type you want.
Their fruit baskets also come in 3 different types of packaging, in a paper box, cardboard, or a wooden box/crate.
Having a variety of packaging and products in their boxes helps them appeal to customers of a range of income levels as well.
As of now, you can get their fruit baskets for as low as RM58 and as high as RM488. But they’re not stopping there, as Jarrod teased the launch of a “super premium” gift basket priced at 4-figures soon.
In a previous listicle we wrote, we compared the prices of 7 other online fruit basket services, make hay, sunshine! included, that do same-day delivery in Klang Valley.
Our colleague concluded that make hay, sunshine! would be her go-to online due to its price and customisability. Out of our list, it was one of the two that allows customers to customise their gift box.
The difference is that for make hay, sunshine!, you can customise the fruits and flowers you want in the box whereas for Eska, you can only customise add-on messages, greeting cards, and gift wrapping.
Working With Some Big Names
Besides individual gift baskets, make hay sunshine! also caters to corporate and bulk orders like staff appreciation gifts, event door gifts, and wedding gifts.
“Some notable names we’ve worked with include Swarovski and Paul Smith for their media gifting and product launches, respectively,” Jarrod shared with Vulcan Post.
He also shared that this would be a venture that their business will further explore, as it fits into their goals for make hay, sunshine! for the coming years.
Speaking of goals, I also asked when they would know if they’ve already “made it” in what they do, but Jarrod replied, “As a team, I don’t think ‘made it’ is part of our vocab. It’s in our character to continually strive for the next best thing and not rest on our laurels.”
“That being said, however, perhaps when I can respond to questions like these without a big delay such as in this instance, then we’ll know we’ve ‘made it’.”
- You can learn more about make hay, sunshine! here.
- You can read about other startups we’ve written about here.
Featured Image Credit: Jarrod Joshua, founder of make hay, sunshine!
