The ASH – the online butcher shop
High-quality meat, to order with excellent user experience: With the webshop “The ASH”, Apeiron Restaurant & Retail Management GmbH succeeded in creating a great digital American steakhouse concept. The implementation of the webshop with digital menu and butcher & retail store was done in only 6 sprints thanks to excellent teamwork.
The first step towards a digital ecosystem
11 restaurants and a very simplified form of a webshop already existed, but the task was to optimize them more extensively and in a new design. The goal was a modern web store where steak fans can order meat and everything that goes with it (side dishes, sauces, etc.). However, a standard solution was out of the question. Instead of a landing page with a few products on it, it should be a really good user experience and at the same time the first step towards a digital ecosystem. We therefore decided to set up the new webshop with the Saleor system.
Availability according to postal code
First of all, the delivery area had to be clearly defined. By specifying their own zip code, users can now check in advance whether a food order in the restaurant or a delivery of raw ingredients in the Butcher Shop to the desired address is possible. Both ordering options have a well thought-out user journey and a design that matches the brand.
In the Butcher Shop, users can choose very precisely which piece of meat they want. Just like in a butcher shop, there are different types of meat to choose from in the digital delicatessen showcase. Users can filter according to their preferences, e.g. from which part of the beef or from which country the meat should come.
Fast loading times thanks to real-time rendering
In addition to a well thought-out user journey and appropriate design, our team created a completely new frontend for The ASH with the bleeding edge technology Next.js, which scores with performance. The code is rendered in real-time. This means that only the part of the page that the user is looking at needs to be loaded and the page loads very quickly. By hosting the site on Google Cloud in Zurich, the site gains even more speed.
Fit for the future with a central, modular system
The newly created webshop is the cornerstone for a future ecosystem. While we used Saleor in the backend and as admin dashboard, the frontend was set up with Next.js as usual. It's a headless e-commerce platform, a centralized system with standard functions like creating products, managing orders and deliveries, and issuing receipts. Even The ASH's newsletter is now sent through the same system.
In addition, the system is modular, meaning it can be used with other applications. For example, we have already integrated the systems of external delivery services thanks to interfaces. The sixth and final sprint, in which we tested all interfaces, was probably the biggest challenge and at the same time the biggest success for our small team. And The ASH is definitely future-ready for the integration of further systems.
UX and UI round off the project
The webshop shines in a new coat of paint that runs continuously through the website and webshop. Filter options allow you to quickly find the product you want and an easy check-out with SimplyDelivery and Mollie makes ordering a breeze. You'll also find great recipes and, as a cherry on top, users can add the ingredients of these recipes directly to their shopping cart.
