Acid League Closes Online Store to Focus on International Retail Growth

Condiment and beverage brand Acid League will close its online store at the end of this month, pivoting to focus on the expansion of its international retail line.

In a statement posted on its website, the Toronto-based company said maintaining an online inventory of 17 different products – each SKU requiring its own rare and unique ingredients – while simultaneously expanding an international retail line of 28 other products became “totally unsustainable.”

According to co-founder and chief product officer Allan Mai, Acid League agonized over the decision for months, as the brand’s ecommerce site is “such a pure expression of who we are.” In the end, the brand’s decision was rooted in economics.

Acid League’s online products became too expensive to produce due to factors like inflation and updated iOS terms, Mai said, which compounded in such a way that was unsustainable. Though the brand’s director-to-consumer business was smaller than its retail side, the use of specialized ingredients made its management more complex.

“Ultimately, a business needs to scale at one point in order to have enough money to reinvest into the business and continue its mission,” Mai explained to Nosh in an email. “We were over-indexed on putting out so many products that it got in the way of us developing the distribution that would allow more people to access our offerings.”

Additionally, consumers expressed frustration over difficulty getting their hands on Acid League’s products, either because they were often sold out online or because retail assortment was inconsistent. To offset the closing of its online store, Mai said the company will expand its brick-and-mortar distribution throughout North America.

“Regrettably, we know that for some people right now the online store is the only place they can buy our products, and we are gutted [by] this reality, but our hope is that by focusing on getting into more retailers we’ll be able to show up where they grocery shop soon enough,” he said.

Launched in 2020, Acid League produces a portfolio of hot sauces, mayos, ketchup, BBQ sauces, salad dressings, cooking sauces, beverages and, most recently, time-saving shortcut sauces. In 2022, the Toronto-based brand closed a $6.2 funding round aimed at supporting expansion into new product categories and strengthening its manufacturing and marketing efforts. To date, the company has raised approximately $11.5 million, reporting revenues upwards of $10 million.

As for whether Acid League will rebirth its online store, hope may be on the horizon. According to Mai, the team initially considered simply raising prices on its existing site before quickly pivoting to envision what “DTC 2.0” will look like for the company. As for Acid League’s online-exclusive products, the brand hopes several community favorites will eventually make their way into retail.

Acid League isn’t the only DTC-born brand eliminating its online store in favor of sales in the physical realm. Last month, tahini brand Soom shut down its digital storefront as DTC accounted for just 5% of the brand’s revenue, yet 24% of its warehouse’s workload consisted of packing orders.

But Soom isn’t ditching omnichannel just yet; the products will remain available on Amazon, Thrive Market and Misfits Market.

Though Acid League plans to dive back into innovation eventually, its current focus is on retail, where supply chains are more predictable and the company can better keep up with consumer demand. Currently, the brand’s products are available at retailers such as Harmons, Sprouts and Whole Foods Market, among others.

“At the end of the day, we decided we had enough products to share, and although we’ll get back to developing new products, that we should focus in the immediate future on making our products as easy to grab [as possible] for more people,” said Mai.