Food subscription platform case study

Client context

A prepared meal company delivered fresh, ready-to-eat meals to customers across the UK. Their business model centered on weekly subscriptions where customers could customize their menu selection each week. Perishable products required strict delivery windows and cold chain logistics.

Their existing platform struggled with the complexity of weekly menu changes, delivery cutoffs and production forecasting. Customer experience issues were driving churn: customers found it difficult to manage their selections and often missed cutoff deadlines.

The company needed a platform that could handle the unique requirements of food subscription while integrating with their production planning and fulfillment operations.

The challenge

Food subscription has requirements beyond standard ecommerce:

• Customers must select or customize their menu each week before production cutoff
• Delivery windows are constrained by perishability and cold chain requirements
• Production planning needs accurate forecasts before cutoff to minimize waste
• Customers need to skip weeks, pause subscriptions and change delivery days
• Allergen and dietary preference filtering must inform menu options
• Integration with kitchen production and fulfillment systems is essential

The new platform needed to improve customer experience while giving operations better visibility and control.

What Starcodia delivered

Starcodia designed a subscription platform purpose-built for food delivery operations.

Subscription platform. Subscription functionality was implemented with weekly billing cycles and flexible management. Subscribers could skip weeks, pause for vacation and change delivery preferences without contacting support.

Menu customization. A custom menu builder allowed subscribers to select their meals each week from the available menu. Dietary preferences and allergens filtered options to relevant choices. Default selections were applied for customers who did not customize, based on their stated preferences.

Delivery scheduling. Customers selected delivery days based on availability in their postcode. Delivery windows were constrained to ensure products arrived fresh. Cutoff dates were enforced for menu changes and skip requests, with clear communication to customers.

Production integration. As cutoff passed each week, order data was exported to the production planning system with meal quantities by SKU. This enabled accurate production runs with minimal waste from overproduction.

Cold chain fulfillment. Fulfillment integration connected Shopify with the company's cold chain logistics partner. Shipping labels, routing and tracking flowed between systems automatically.

Allergen and nutrition information. Food-specific compliance content including allergen warnings, nutritional facts and ingredients displayed on product pages using metafields.

Results

The new platform improved customer experience and operational efficiency:

• 22% improvement in retention. Better subscription management and menu customization experience reduced churn compared to the previous platform.
• 35% reduction in support tickets. Self-service subscription management and clear cutoff communication reduced customer service load.
• Improved production accuracy. Better order visibility before cutoff reduced overproduction waste and improved kitchen efficiency.
• Faster fulfillment. Integrated shipping labels and routing reduced manual work in the fulfillment process.
• Marketing flexibility. Content and promotional updates now happen without developer involvement, supporting seasonal campaigns.

Services and capabilities demonstrated

• Subscriptions and membership
• Food and beverage expertise
• Fulfillment and 3PL integration
• Custom menu builder development
• Production system integration

Discuss a similar project

If you operate a food subscription or meal delivery business and want to improve your ecommerce platform, Starcodia can share more details and discuss how the approach would apply to your operations.