In less than a decade, South Florida-based PureFormulas.com has become a leader in the professional-grade supplement world. Since 2007, the e-commerce company has been offering GMP-certified quality products, including dietary supplements, organic food, beauty products, sports nutrition supplements, and pet products.
“Our mission is to offer a secure, friendly and efficient shopping experience to online shoppers seeking the highest-grade dietary supplements, organic and gluten-free food products, sports nutrition and pet products,” says founder and CEO José Prendes.
For PureFormulas, taking care of customers goes above and beyond the sale of nutritional supplements, healthier sugar alternatives, protein powders, energy bars and organic products. Informing the public about how to best use those products and the benefits of a healthier lifestyle is important to PureFormulas. Along with its industry-recognized social media efforts, the company has recently added a blog to share trusted information and advice on healthy living. One of the blog’s contributors is in-house nutritionist Raisa Cavalcante, who writes about nutrition, fitness and overall wellness, including recipes, food challenges and tips for maintaining a healthier lifestyle.
Cavalcante’s passion for nutrition began as a young adult. She has a bachelor of science in dietetics from one of the top schools in her native Brazil and a master of science in dietetics and nutrition from FIU. During her time at FIU, she taught nutrition labs for the class Foundations of Nutrition Science for two years and worked as a wellness assistant at FIU’s Student Health Services. She also volunteered in the nutrition department of Baptist’s South Miami Hospital. Cavalcante will bring her expertise to our readers with a monthly column.
The Rise of PureFormulas
Born and raised in Cuba, Prendes moved to the U.S. in the 1990s to fulfill his American Dream. He ventured into e-commerce in 2001, when he founded VetAmerica.com, a successful digital retailer of pet supplies and medications. PureFormulas followed in 2007.
In just five years, Prendes turned the company into an award-winning leader in the professional-grade supplement world and one of the fastest growing web merchants in the U.S.
The business community in South Florida has recognized Prendes’ entrepreneurial success multiple times in recent years. In 2012 he was named CEO of the Year by the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, as well as Ultimate CEO by the South Florida Business Journal (SFBJ). He is a member of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and the Young Presidents Organization (YPO).
Early on, Prendes understood that he could not do it alone, and put together a team of talented and dedicated executives he calls his “dream team,” all from the South Florida region.
COO David Rodriguez joined PureFormulas in 2009, at the age of 27, as a warehouse assistant where he worked on shipping, receiving, and inventory control. At the time he was one of eight employees. With energy and superb work ethic, Rodriguez took the lead in transitioning to a larger facility, optimizing the warehouse layout for maximum efficiency and bringing in new technology and equipment to accommodate a growing catalogue of products, turning PureFormulas’ distribution center into a semi-automatic operation.
In 2014, the company redesigned (in-house) and launched a new and improved pureformulas.com. This effort was led by CIO William Perez, an 18-year veteran in the technology industry, with more than 14 years experience in the Internet operation space.
Since joining PureFormulas, Perez has directed the company’s technology strategy in two important areas: ensuring the functionality and user-friendliness of pureformulas.com for its customers and overseeing/optimizing the company’s overall IT operations, which includes a new partnership with NetSuite.
Customers First
As the company’s mission states, an outstanding customer experience is the number one priority at PureFormulas. “We are fanatical— in a good way! —about our customers,” says Chief Marketing Officer Daniel Moure. “We believe our continued success is a direct result of our customer-centric approach. Every improvement we make and every new product we roll out has to benefit, in one way or another, our consumers.”
As CMO, Moure has strengthened existing partnerships and developed new ones that have enhanced both the company’s customer base and bottom line. Most significant among these was developing the relationship that resulted in the migration to a more robust e-commerce platform via ATG/Oracle Commerce, which was implemented last fall.
Prior to joining PureFormulas in 2012, Moure spent a decade at Univision Communications Inc. as VP of Account Management and Interactive Strategies. Throughout his 20-year career, Moure has garnered countless awards, including Cannes Lions, Clio, Webby, and Fiap. Having served on some of the most recognized committees and boards in the industry, he currently sits on the CMO Council of the National Retail Federation.
PureFormulas constantly strives to better serve new and existing customers, and one of those ways has been to personalize each visitor’s experience further. By creating “personas” based on customers’ lists of favorite products, interests, gender and various other heuristics, PureFormulas can now predict consumers’ interests.
This customer-centric approach has already seen tangible results. PureFormulas has been recognized for outstanding customer service three years in a row, with the Bizrate Circle of Excellence Award. It has also climbed steadily in its rankings among top web merchants. For three consecutive years, Internet Retailer has included PureFormulas on its annual list of Top 500 online retailers. And with ongoing investments in talent and technology, and storefronts popping up soon in a neighborhood near you, the future looks healthy for PureFormulas.
For more information, visit https://www.pureformulas.com/
