Co-founder & User Experience Director2014 — 2015
Gourmetli / Stockfiller.com
From producer to consumer, with fewer steps in between
Introduction
Operating in Sweden and the Netherlands, Gourmetli set out to challenge the traditional food supply chain by removing unnecessary middlemen and connecting producers directly with consumers online.
The idea was simple: a shorter path from farm to table could mean more value for the producer, better prices for the consumer, and fresher, higher-quality products. Combined with an online marketplace and virtually unlimited assortment, it became our take on what was then emerging as the third wave of food e-commerce.
I co-founded the company, defined its customer experience vision, and stayed hands-on designing and developing both the consumer platform and its supporting CRM tools.
Customer insight
What people say and what they actually do
Before designing the experience, we needed to understand whether people were ready to buy food online and have it delivered to their door.
We started with focus groups to explore needs, motivations and barriers. This quickly helped us identify distinct customer personas, with surprisingly clear geographic differences, and gave us an initial understanding of which product categories mattered most.
But when we moved from discussion to testing actual behaviour, something more interesting happened. What people did was often almost the opposite of what they had told us in the focus groups.
It became a useful lesson that has stayed with me ever since: when designing new behaviours, show, don't tell. Put something in front of people and observe what they actually do.
Marketplace
Designing a shorter food chain
The marketplace was designed around a fundamentally different relationship between producer and consumer. Instead of simply moving the traditional grocery model online, we used digital distribution to shorten the chain itself.
That meant giving smaller producers direct access to customers, creating room for a much broader assortment, and building an experience where provenance, quality and freshness could become part of the value proposition.
More to the producer. More to the consumer.
Legacy
The foundation for Stockfiller.com
Like other online grocery pioneers such as Mathem, Gourmetli struggled with the economics of last-mile delivery. Getting fresh food directly to consumers proved costly, making it difficult to scale the business sustainably.
These challenges eventually led to a strategic pivot from B2C to B2B. The platform and technology we had built became the foundation for Stockfiller.com, shifting the focus from connecting producers with consumers to connecting suppliers directly with retailers.
What started as an ambition to reshape how consumers buy food evolved into a platform designed to transform how the food industry does business.
01
Directlyfrom.nl
To strengthen the connection between producers and consumers, we introduced the brand Direktfrån.se in Sweden and Directlyfrom.nl in the Netherlands. Both names reinforced the core idea: buying directly from the source, without unnecessary middlemen.
02
Marketing & Campaigns
Customer acquisition was driven through a mix of print advertising, email, social media and direct marketing, including door-to-door outreach and leaflet distribution. This campaign appeared in DI Weekend.
03
Platform
The platform was designed to connect supply and demand, making it easy for consumers to discover and buy products directly from producers. Behind the scenes, tools helped producers track sales, manage their assortment and plan supply based on customer demand.
01
Directlyfrom.nl
To strengthen the connection between producers and consumers, we introduced the brand Direktfrån.se in Sweden and Directlyfrom.nl in the Netherlands. Both names reinforced the core idea: buying directly from the source, without unnecessary middlemen.
02
Marketing & Campaigns
Customer acquisition was driven through a mix of print advertising, email, social media and direct marketing, including door-to-door outreach and leaflet distribution. This campaign appeared in DI Weekend.
03
Platform
The platform was designed to connect supply and demand, making it easy for consumers to discover and buy products directly from producers. Behind the scenes, tools helped producers track sales, manage their assortment and plan supply based on customer demand.
About
Gourmetli / Stockfiller.com — Co-founder & User Experience Director, 2014 — 2015.
Capabilities
- Product Design
- Marketplace
- Founder
- E-commerce
Next case
Skype
From 5,000 to 5 million users