Farmcrowdy Foods / MeatHub — Fresh Food Commerce During COVID
Designing a consumer fresh food delivery platform from research to live transactions during Nigeria's COVID-19 lockdown — combining Farmcrowdy's beef processing infrastructure with direct-to-consumer ordering across app, WhatsApp, and phone channels.
Context
In early 2020, Farmcrowdy extended its infrastructure into consumer food retail through Farmcrowdy Foods — a direct-to-consumer fresh food platform built on top of the Best Foods beef processing facility, capable of processing 100 bulls daily. Meathub was the franchise retail arm: strategically located physical pick-up shops layered over the delivery infrastructure. The product launched into Nigeria's COVID-19 lockdown, with public rollout in April 2020.
The problem
Physical markets were closed. Urban consumers needed access to safe, quality meat without travelling to crowded market environments. Farmcrowdy had supply chain infrastructure, processing capacity, and a team in place. The question was whether a consumer product could be designed and launched quickly enough to serve the demand — and whether consumers who had never bought meat online would trust a digital platform for fresh food.
My role
I led product definition and design for Farmcrowdy Foods. The work covered user research, product scoping, and design across three channels: the Farmcrowdy Foods mobile app (Android and iOS), a WhatsApp ordering flow for customers without smartphones, and a phone hotline for voice orders.
Research focused on urban consumer trust signals for fresh food online — hygiene cues, sourcing transparency, and friction in first-time ordering. The findings shaped the trust and onboarding design across all three channels.
Meathub franchise model
Meathub was designed as a hybrid: physical pick-up shops where customers could collect online orders or walk in to buy directly. This served customers who wanted the reassurance of a visible, hygienic retail presence, created brand awareness in target neighbourhoods, and reduced last-mile delivery risk for orders in proximity to the shops.
Outcomes
In the first month of operations, the platform recorded 143 orders. By the September 2020 Company Profile, Farmcrowdy Foods had generated $33,000 in transaction revenue from 3,567 unique orders and 831 unique customers — entirely through organic growth since March 2020. (Source: Farmcrowdy September 2020 Profile)