.webp){kind=logo}
Case Study
Forager
Sustainable food culture starts with a well-built digital local supply chain. Forager provides a new approach to boost the market. Its mission is to expand consumer access to local food by building a growing digital community of farmers, grocers, vendors, producers, restaurants, schools, and other organizations to collaborate and cultivate the local food economy.
Food Sourcing
2016
Services
Business Strategy
Experience Design
Agile Development
Analytics & Insights
Technology Used
Angular JS
Ruby on Rails
Client feedback
“Forager is going to make waves. This company changes the way we source food, making locally grown options more readily available. The technology that Forager implements will transform a billion-dollar industry that affects every single one of us.”
Challenges
Out-of-date ways to source local food.
The Forager team had identified that the $14bn local food industry was ripe for expansion and came to FM with a significant challenge: help build a product that changes the way local food is sourced.
A need to introduce new technologies in the industry.
The industry was losing from old-fashioned business management, including face-to-face communication with suppliers, hand-written invoices, messages left on answering machines, and personally delivered orders.
Outdated and inefficient payment process.
An outdated and inefficient payment process and a poor link between consumer and supply made it costly and difficult for grocers, restaurants, and distributors to purchase food from local farmers.
Solutions
In-depth discovery stage.
Our engagement began with in-depth discovery. We interviewed and shadowed buyers for local grocery chains, farmers, and restaurant owners to understand their daily routines' challenges and pain points.
Increase in productivity.
We turned our back on the manual process to offer digital efficiencies and accuracy to help users on the Forager platform benefit from a significant increase in productivity.
Mutual and on-time collaboration.
FM and Forager teams co-located to maximize collaboration and iteratively released working software adhering to our release schedule.
Results
Hire usTimely procurement platform launch.
The end result is a procurement platform that significantly streamlined the purchasing process. We identified many opportunities to add a new user functionality and a billing mechanism.
Efficient expansion opportunities with the app.
The Forager beta had 15 buyers from grocery stores and co-ops, as well as 100+ producers from small farms to larger local food wholesalers. Moreover, it had expanded to Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York.
Increased functionality.
Forager offered functionality for real-time product availability updated by local producers, order & delivery management, EFT payments, in-app communications, and insights & analytics.
