When it comes to healthy eating habits, it’s not uncommon to hear complaints about its accessibility from people who are interested in it. From expensive organic ingredients to hard-to-find pesticide-free fruits and vegetables, those complaints are arguably the main reasons why not everyone is able to have a healthier lifestyle.
But it was thinking about these problems that Ecoloupe was born, with the intention to simplify daily eating patterns in a more natural way.
The World Health Organization (WHO) website states that an unhealthy diet is leading to global risks to health. Taking it in consideration when choosing what to eat is a key factor to change our lifestyle for the better, knowing that the benefits of eating natural and organic food are endless to the long-term. That’s exactly why Ecoloupe’s idealists reached out to LinkUp Studio, with the intention to change the alarming numbers of unnatural food consumption and improve people’s diet in an easy way.
The initial idea emerged when Ecoloupe’s team realized a hard reality in our days: most farmers believe that good quality food must be grown through the use of pesticides and other toxic products before arriving at our tables.
But the truth is that this unnatural food is slowly poisoning the consumers. A study conducted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) showed that pesticides can affect different aspects of our health. Some of them can affect the nervous system, others can cause irritation on the skin or eyes, among other issues.
Trying to make organic, natural grown and pesticide-free products more accessible for people was a challenge that Ecoloupe was ready to accept, and so they did.
They realized there should be a platform focused on people who are tired of not being able to find natural food in the market, helping them get the best products in an innovative place. With that exciting idea in mind, there was no time to lose: they reached out for LinkUp Studio to develop this innovative organic food website, resulting in a brand new way of eating better in Japan.
Ecoloupe is an e-commerce company that focuses on offering fresh and organic products for delivery in Japan. Users can create their accounts on the website and shop products or subscribe to receive weekly packages of delicious meals.
All of the products offered on the website are provided by different certified farmers who specialize in organic pesticides-free food, which are available to be consulted in detail by the clients. The company’s transparency and humanized philosophy allows the consumers to have in-depth access to the food they are buying, from the fruit and vegetable’s farming conditions to the animal’s diet.
Creating a personal and involving experience in the platform was essential to Ecoloupe’s team, which resulted in the development of a special place for clients to feel comfortable in. Learning the company’s story, philosophy, and motivations throughout the website helps create a meaningful environment that becomes much more than a simple store.
The website offers a wide range of organic products that vary from individual ingredients to ready-to-eat meals available for purchase. The client can add as many items as they desire to the online shop cart after creating a profile with their personal information on the website.
The platform also offers total transparency of the suppliers and their work and a special section with a complete list of all of the farmer providers that users can access and read about. Each clickable supplier’s options present complete supplier’s details, such as:
Apart from buying products and getting to know their suppliers, clients can find many different recipes with natural ingredients to prepare at the comfort of their houses, making the experience even more personal and simple for those who just want to enjoy a home cooked healthy meal.
A “News” page is also available in the website so that clients can be always updated in the organic food world and keep up with tips and interesting articles.
Another groundbreaking feature thought out especially for suppliers is the layout editing mode. Users can customize their professional page by adding text and images, and it is possible to manage how everything will be placed on the final result.
Flexibility and personal touch with easy editing options are special functionality that allows suppliers to better manage their own space and be free to use their creativity.
These features imagined by Ecoloupe’s team had the noble goal to improve the client’s experience with the company, providing a trustworthy platform that will engage and humanize their moments in the website as they get to know the people who are producing and providing their food, bringing both clients and providers together in a unique space.
Our teams combined ideas and talents to bring life to a new form of eating healthy and delicious food in Japan. LinkUp Studio’s experience in creating innovative and effective technologies to help people all around the world was a key factor to Ecoloupe’s success, achieving their goal to supply quality ingredients through an efficient platform.
“We started everything from scratch, going from the fact that our client already had a very clear vision of what they wanted. (...) The project definitely was a good experience”
Marharyta Glukhenko, Business Analyst at Linkup Studio
From the first contact to the finished product, Ecoloupe’s idealists and LinkUp Studio’s team were aligned and synchronized with their visions for the platform, with clear communication and effective ideas to be implemented.
And even though the first steps and the development process began at the most challenging period of the Covid-19 pandemic - resulting in a tough schedule with designers and developers working until dawn, nothing could stop our team from designing an innovative and groundbreaking platform such as Ecoloupe.
“It was a new challenge for us because we just entered into new working conditions, doing everything from home. But together, with teamwork, we had not problems with designing the project and it turned out as a very interesting experience”
Pavlo Savchenko, Lead designer for the Ecoloupe platform.
Apart from the tough schedule due to the pandemic, LinkUp Studio’s team found a new challenge ahead with this project, as this was our first time working with the Japanese market and culture. There were many steps to be learned before starting to properly develop the website, such as the currency and the client’s preferences based on their region.
For the back-end development of the platform, our team worked primarily with Ruby On Rails and Spree in order to achieve great results as fast as possible. The front-end development of the website was possible through the use of frameworks such as Next.js and React.js for the types of functionalities required for Ecoloupe. In summary, the primary tools our team used during the developing process included:
The client required that an MVP of the landing page, the cart and of other pages of the website was launched for a previous analysis. Afterwards, the first element that was designed for the website was the main page, which was supposed to contain important features such as a list of projects and a search bar.
Step by step, many other interesting functionalities were added to complement the platform's experience. The Event page and the News option were added a little later in the project, as everything was carefully thought and planned.
In order to create a truly humanized art that would properly represent Ecoloupe's essence, LinkUp Studio team worked to transparency the client's philosophy and heart through an effective logo for the website.
The leaf and the loupe were especially designed to come together representing both their natural and organic proposal and their innovative and forward-inclined vision, with green and orange colors to implement a natural atmosphere.
To LinkUp Studio, that personal touch carefully thought to every design offered is crucial to the business success and the client-supplier relationship, from the colors' meaning to the tiny details included in each of them.
Designed envisioning the practicality and in-depth experience for the user, the Ecoloupe website includes a special user's information functionality. The client can get their address automatically added by choosing the PayPal payment method, which is an easier and time-saving option.
Furthermore, our design team crafted an efficient user system divided in three different login options: Buyers, Suppliers and Administrators. Those features guarantee personalized options for each user to better run their activities on the platform in an organized and convenient way.
Those are just a few of the many innovative development and designing decisions our team managed to make in order to provide an effective, high quality and user-friendly website for the Japanese organic market.
Now, we are proud to say that Ecoloupe has been successfully launched into the market and allowed our client to grow his business with their new special platform.
Instead of doing endless searches for the ideal organic and natural food in different places and expensive formats, now eating healthy and well got way easier. Ecoloupe’s online store is the answer to Japan’s necessities on the organic food market, offering everything you need in a single place, without leaving your house.
No excuses to skip natural meals anymore!
When compromise and professionalism are combined together, no mountain is too high to climb. LinkUp Studio understands its clients' pains and ideas, always aiming to provide tools that will help people. If you want to find out more about our team and get your ideas working, contact us and let’s reach the top together!
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