MobiLoud Helped Provisions Co-op Wholesale Launch a Mobile App and Modernize Their Operations

Washington-based Orcas Food Co-op were seeing steady growth in their wholesale business, Provisions Co-op.

But their system was antiquated, and they went looking for solutions to modernize their business and provide a better user experience for their busy, mobile-centric customers.

Without a massive tech budget, or an app development team in-house, launching an app seemed like it would be a real challenge, until they found MobiLoud.

We talked to Orcas Food Co-op’s General Manager about their experience creating a mobile app, and how MobiLoud turned out to be the perfect solution to their problem.

About Provisions Co-op Wholesale

Provisions Co-op is the wholesale arm of the Orcas Food Co-op, based in Orcas Island in Washington State.

The Orcas Co-op’s goal is to support local food production and supply high-quality local and organic, non-GMO food and other household goods in the Orcas Island community, at the lowest feasible cost.

The Provisions Wholesale initiative is a key part of their growth plan, which supplies stock to numerous restaurants and other small businesses in the community.

“Honestly, I had no idea it was going to grow so much. But then by 2022, I started realizing that Provisions was going to be larger than our retail operation.”

Why They Needed an App

Provisions needed to get online. At first their ordering was a very basic, manual system, with no self-service or online element.

“We needed to streamline it more. It was very low tech. We didn't have catalogs online or anything, we would have people email us orders and things like that.”

They’d built an eCommerce site on Shopify, but they recognized that mobile was key, particularly with their customer base of restaurants and small businesses.

“The world's getting more mobile. It’s not optional. To be successful, and really offer a good service that's going to compete with other big suppliers, we need to have a mobile app.”

So they started looking for a way to do the same thing they’d done with Shopify, but for an app.

The Challenge

The biggest challenges for the Provisions Co-op team when it came to building an app were the means and expertise to do it.

They didn’t have an app development team in-house. With Shopify, they’d managed to build a decent web experience, which included extensive theme customizations and a lot of work optimizing and streamlining their checkout flow.

But for an app, they were at square one.

They also didn’t have mountains of money to throw at building an app, as a company focused more on advancement of their community than outrageous profit margins.

“We’re doing a lot of sales but our margins are really tiny. You know, we're not loaded, it’s not like we're a tech company and we have tons of capital.”

So they needed a way to launch an app that fit within their cost structure and didn’t require any app development expertise.

It was also important that it didn’t take a ton of effort to manage, as their business is focused on food supply, not building and managing complex software products.

The Solution

MobiLoud gave Provisions Co-op a way to convert their eCommerce site into a mobile app, with minimal effort, and the ability to manage their website and app from the same place.

MobiLoud’s approach meant they could manage the app themselves, without hiring new staff or contracting the job out to an expensive agency.

“It was a really good fit for us because we have a small team, and I do a lot of this stuff myself, like the development of the Shopify site, and some of my other team members, other managers have helped with some of the development of the Provisions site as well. So we do as much as we can in-house.”

It gave them the freedom and flexibility to make any changes they wanted to the app right away, through the same workflow they used to tweak and optimize their website.

“The mobile app is essentially a representation of what was on our website, which meant we can make changes within Shopify, we can change the theme, basically make any change we like.”

The cherry on top was the cost – they were able to launch an app for a minimal expense, one that wouldn’t require a huge bump in revenue to recoup their investment.

Results

Going with MobiLoud gave Provisions the ability to carry out their goal of launching a mobile app, while still being able to manage it in-house, with few changes to their workflow or team.

“It was really easy for us to get the app to look how we wanted it to look. I was able to just imagine it and then do it myself. That's the top thing that I really love, being able to do it myself and constantly tweak it.”

The app has seen steady adoption since launch. More than enough high-volume business customers have picked up on the app to validate their decision to build it.

“About a quarter of our active business customers have used the app. Of those customers, half use the app exclusively, the other half use a combination of the website and the mobile app.”

The extra convenience of the app is an invaluable addition for business owners who are constantly moving, and don’t have the time to sit down and make orders from a PC.

“Some people are more likely to sit at a desk and place orders, and some people, restaurant owners for instance, are more likely to not be at a computer and they might want to look up a product or place an order from their phone in the kitchen.”

Their next step is integrating push notifications more extensively, to further improve the experience for their customers and bring even more of their loyal, regular customers into the app.

MobiLoud Makes It Easy to Get a Positive ROI From Your Mobile Apps

MobiLoud helped a small, community-focused organization modernize their business and cater to busy, mobile-first customers, by converting their existing web experience into a mobile app.

“If you have a website you're happy with already, a mobile app is a no brainer at that point. It doesn't take a lot of sales to get a return on investment, and it's a great marketing tool. Even if you're not getting tons of orders at first, having the app, the visibility on the app store, having it in people's pockets, that's worth it from a brand development and business development standpoint.”

The launched apps for an affordable cost, with little maintenance and overhead required, and any UX or design tweaks they want to make can easily be done in-house, just by making changes to their website.

If you want to do the same for your business, get in touch with us now. We’ll show you how easy it is to convert your website into an app, and you’ll see that the low cost, effort and risk makes the decision to launch an app a no-brainer.

Ready to learn more? Book a free demo now.