Following the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), approximately one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year is lost or wasted. That’s about 1.3 billion tons of good old food! Such a waste makes no sense in any parallel universe you might think of.
Food production requires a lot of fertilizers and industrial processes, which negatively affect the sustainability of our planet.
Throwing away a third of all food production means that we could have reduced the pollution impact and carbon footprint by one-third! At the same time, FAO estimates that 1 individual out of 9 was suffering from chronic undernourishment between 2014 and 2016. How ironic is that? While one-third of the world seems to get obese, the other third is starving, and the last third is tossed out. If you really think about it, isn’t it shocking!
It goes without saying that it’s urgent to find ways to produce food smarter as well as to reach people better in order to avoid food waste. With this purpose in mind, two friends launched the YourLocal app in 2015. The company wants to connect people to local shops that have excess food. A few days before the expiration date of a food product, stores have to stop selling and, shortly after, throw it away.
However, there are many individuals who would be happy to purchase close-to-expiring products at a discounted price. And this is exactly where YourLocal comes in handy, allowing stores to notify the app users of special discounts on food in their local area.
Disclaimer: The information and screenshots presented below reflect the website and/or application at the moment of its publication. Wiredelta does not have a maintenance agreement in place with this client, therefore all changes and updates that occurred after this date have been made by the client.
This generates a clear win-win for consumers and shops:
- Individuals benefit from cheaper food
- Shops still make money out of unsold food products.
- And the short food circuit makes the world greener
The Problem
Logging into YourLocal, you are asked to choose between:
- Setting up a personal account if you are looking for food deals
- Setting up a business account in case you are a food retailer with excess food on a daily basis
On the one hand, as a user, you would be keen on benefiting from the smoothest experience possible. From finding discounted products to payment. Nonetheless, at the time YourLocal made contact with Wiredelta® it was not yet benefiting from any online payment options.
On the other hand, as a business owner having set a business account on YourLocal, you may be facing several issues, such as:
- Sharing credentials with the staff members. Indeed, for practical reasons, you may want to involve several workers in notifying the shop’s followers that new discounts are available. However, it could turn out you may be reluctant to do so if there isn’t solid and intuitive user permission set up.
- Remembering credentials for two accounts: your personal one and your business one.
- Sharing credentials with the staff members. Indeed, for practical reasons, you may want to involve several workers in notifying the shop’s followers that new discounts are available. However, it could turn out you may be reluctant to do so if there isn’t solid and intuitive user permission set up.
The Solution
YourLocal teamed up with Wiredelta to figure out user interface solutions that would eliminate these pain points.
Creating an online payment process for users
For the shops that signs up, an online payment option has been made possible. As a user, you will know that paying through the app is possible with the “Buy” button. Click on it, just select the number of items you are keen on purchasing and enter your credit card details. After that you just need to pick up your order.
Creating a permission system for business owners
On the business side, Wiredelta is working on linking personal accounts to business accounts. This feature is a great step forward in terms of usability as users benefit from the freedom of logging in with their personal account in a shop’s account to edit and create new offers on the business side.
But then, how to manage permissions as a business owner?
As a result, Wiredelta came up with a three-level user permission implementation. All the staff members have a YourLocal account and the shop owner, as a “super admin”, can grant and remove permission to all employees including the manager. The latter will be able to do the same for all workers except for the shop owner.
Conclusion
As for today, YourLocal, which started in Denmark, is now also available in Sweden and Germany. Step by step, we are looking forward to seeing YourLocal expanding worldwide. Indeed, food losses and waste still amount to huge levels in industrialized countries ($680 bn) as well as in developing countries ($310 bn).
Join in the food waste battle by downloading YourLocal on Google Play or on the Apple Store.
