About Wandering Bear Coffee

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Founded in New York in 2014, Wandering Bear Coffee has built a loyal following around its organic cold brew coffee and ready-to-drink beverages. Today, the brand sells through a diversified mix of direct-to-consumer, retail, Amazon, and food service channels, with products available at retailers including Whole Foods, Target, and Costco.

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As retail distribution expanded, so did a familiar challenge for growing CPG brands: while DTC customers were easy to understand and market to, the vast majority of retail shoppers remained anonymous.

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Without a way to connect purchases back to individual consumers, Wandering Bear lacked visibility into who was buying its products, where they were shopping, and how to build lasting relationships beyond the shelf.

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The Challenge

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Every product sold through Whole Foods, Amazon, Target, and other retailers represented an unknown customer.

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This created several growth challenges:

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• Retail customers couldn't be added to the brand's email or SMS programs.
• Marketing performance across retail channels was difficult to measure.
• Product launches relied on broad retail promotions without meaningful first-party attribution.

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As the team prepared for larger retail launches, including a nationwide Whole Foods canned latte rollout, they needed a way to drive trial while collecting actionable customer data at the point of purchase.

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The Brij Solution

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Wandering Bear implemented Brij as the bridge between retail shelves and owned customer relationships.

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Using Brij's QR-powered experiences and receipt validation, the brand transformed packaging, digital campaigns, influencer promotions, and retail marketing into measurable acquisition channels.

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Driving Trial with Retail Rebates

The cornerstone of Wandering Bear's strategy became rebates. Specifically, the Free Can Rebate became the most popular. 

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Consumers purchased any participating canned latte at Whole Foods, scanned a Brij QR code, uploaded their receipt, and received a rebate after verification.

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Rather than limiting the experience to a single touchpoint, Wandering Bear distributed the campaign everywhere customers discovered the brand:

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• Meta and TikTok advertising
• Influencer campaigns with unique Brij links
• Website promotions
• Welcome and post-purchase email flows

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This omnichannel approach ensured every campaign ultimately drove consumers into retail while capturing first-party customer data.  

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"The rebates by retailer have been a really, really solid addition and will continue to be a big focus for us. We can now actually segment the shoppers where they're going. Brij has given us a completely new set of data." - Megan Whitman

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Capturing First-Party Data from Retail

By collecting SMS opt-ins, receipt data, retailer information, and purchased products, Wandering Bear converted previously anonymous shoppers into identifiable customers that could be activated through Shopify and Klaviyo.

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Receipt intelligence provided visibility into:

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• Which retailer generated the purchase
• Which specific store location was visited
• Which SKU was purchased
• Basket analysis
• Geographic buying trends

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This retail intelligence helps connect marketing performance with in-store activity in ways that weren't previously possible. Now, segmentation and personalization are much easier to achieve. 

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Building Confidence after Purchase

Beyond rebates, Wandering Bear also launched a Fresh Taste Guarantee powered by Brij.

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Customers who weren't satisfied with their purchase could submit feedback, upload proof of purchase, and request a replacement or refund.

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The experience gives the brand another opportunity to collect customer insights while reinforcing confidence in new product launches. 

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The Results

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Wandering Bear's rebate strategy quickly became one of the strongest-performing consumable programs on the Brij platform.

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Following the nationwide Whole Foods launch, the campaign generated momentum almost immediately.

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Fast Consumer Adoption

Within the first couple weeks, the program delivered:

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• 3,300 consumer opt-ins
• 31% scan-to-initiation rate
• First receipt submitted within three hours
• Participation across nearly 500 Whole Foods locations

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As the campaign scaled, engagement accelerated.

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The Whole Foods Free Can Rebate has now generated more than 151,000 scans and clicks, with an impressive 78% submission rate, demonstrating strong consumer intent after entering the experience.

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High-Performing Retail Engagement

By Q1 2026, Wandering Bear's experiences consistently achieved initiation rates above 15-20%, outperforming typical benchmarks for consumables campaigns.

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The team is running multiple rebates including:

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• Free Can rebates
• Buy One, Get One offers
• $2 back promotions
• Retailer-specific incentives

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This flexibility allowed Wandering Bear to tailor promotions for different retail partners while maintaining a consistent customer experience.

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What's Next

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As Wandering Bear continues expanding retail distribution, the company is building on its success with Brij.

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Future initiatives include:

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• Expanding retailer-specific rebate campaigns for new retail launches.
• Creating purchase-path experiences that segment customers based on where they shop.
• Exploring receipt data APIs for deeper business intelligence and analytics.
• Connecting Brij verified customer data back to ad platforms for improved ROAS and lower CAC

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For fast-growing CPG brands, retail distribution often creates distance between brands and consumers. Wandering Bear has taken the opposite approach, using Brij to transform every retail purchase into an opportunity to build customer relationships, measure performance, and create a stronger omnichannel growth engine.

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