HomeCooks connects independent chefs with food lovers across the UK. Offering hundreds of dishes, they’re on a mission to make good food with a personal touch available to everyone at great value. The startup is backed by $7 million in funding and intends to become Etsy for food.
Meal subscriptions and a returning customer base are at the heart of HomeCooks’ business model. This makes a mobile app essential. Having utilized Shopify to build their web store, the team preferred a no-code platform for their mobile app. The benefits were clear: save the cost of hiring a large in-house technology team as well as gain speed in app launch and future enhancements.
The expectation: A no-code app platform as good as Shopify’s
Shopify set a high benchmark for no-code platforms in the minds of the HomeCooks team. Hence, to start, superlative user experience and performance were non-negotiable. Furthermore, they sought full control over design and features—their app needed to handle dynamic content, enable easy meal discovery, and manage high user traffic without skipping a beat. Lastly, the platform had to support self-serve content and app management.
Optimized for speed and scalability: Apptile's tech team went the extra mile to ensure fast loading times for HomeCooks' data-rich homepage. Displaying 15 custom carousels with 200+ dishes required making 15 API calls to Shopify, which could slow performance. Apptile optimized the app architecture to efficiently handle multiple network calls and deliver a snappy user experience as the app scales.
Flexible design and self-serve updates: Apptile transformed HomeCooks' design into custom modules, enabling the team to make design tweaks, content updates and add features without coding. This level of customization and flexibility is made possible through Apptile's modular no-code platform.
Innovative subscription engine: To support HomeCooks' ambitious growth goals, Apptile implemented a unique subscription flow. Diners can subscribe to meals, edit upcoming deliveries, and choose frozen/chilled packaging, capabilities not offered by other app builders. This bespoke subscription engine is expected to significantly boost recurring revenue.
Inspiring meal discovery: HomeCooks' immersive homepage features 15 high-speed carousels, each displaying 10-15 cards, inviting diners to explore 200+ meals with enticing visuals and descriptions. Chef profiles add a personal touch, allowing users to discover meals by their favorite chefs and learn about their culinary journeys. This inspiring, content-rich discovery experience encourages deeper exploration and engagement with the brand.
Ultra-fast, informative product cards: Customized product cards showcase key meal details such as image, name, price, ratings, reviews, and chef photo in a visually appealing, easy-to-scan format. Diners can seamlessly add meals to cart and adjust quantity and serving size right from the card, streamlining the purchase process. These optimized cards load instantly and drive higher conversion by providing all essential information upfront and enabling quick decision-making.
Smooth subscription and checkout: Detailed meal pages highlight whether a dish is available frozen and allow one-click subscribing, making it effortless for diners to set up recurring deliveries. The optimized checkout flow enables instant order placement, with the option to schedule delivery slots powered by Bird integration. Subscriber account management empowers customers to easily view and modify upcoming deliveries and subscription preferences. This frictionless subscription and checkout experience, coupled with helpful nudges and notifications, is designed to drive recurring revenue and long-term customer retention. For example, gentle reminders are sent about upcoming scheduled deliveries, giving customers the chance to make adjustments or add more items if needed. Clear notifications provide real-time tracking information and confirm successful delivery. Well-timed notifications let customers know when their subscription is about to renew, providing options to modify, pause, or cancel.
"Our collaboration with the HomeCooks crew was deep and rewarding. We were like their extended team. For instance, they owned the design but we constantly recommended integrations, UX flows, etc. based on our collective experience across customers. We're very proud of what we've created together and very excited for the future roadmap. A special thanks to Fran for having high expectations, giving us a chance to rise to the occasion."
HomeCooks opted for both custom and off-the-shelf integrations from Apptile Integrations Store.
When we set out to build our first app we researched the market for the best app builder. Apptile quickly appeared to be the best choice for us and we have been very happy with the quick results. The team has been great at the basics and knows how to put together the best standard app. But we were most impressed with how great they have been with developing some of our more unique and custom features, like our subscription product. Their experience shines through in these cases, especially with UI/UX where they've been able to point out possible issues with our ideas and with our tech stack where their input has been great at steering some strategic decisions.
HomeCooks launched a user-friendly mobile app with Apptile, enabling quality while optimizing resources. This collaboration shows how custom quality plus no-code speed supports a brands' growth goals.
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