Farmsell Case Study
Agricultural Marketplace
Bulk fresh produce ordering that puts buyers in direct contact with the farms that grow it.
Marketplace
Android
Africa
Android first release
Client type
Agricultural marketplace
Delivered
Android, buyer and farm portals
Headline result
10K+ installs
The Challenge
Buyers wanted a crate price. Farms wanted a fair one. Between them sat four phone calls.
Restaurants, hotels and market traders were buying produce through a chain of middlemen, so the buyer never knew the farm and the farm never knew the price the buyer paid. Orders were placed on calls and confirmed on paper, which meant disputes at delivery were constant.
The commercial reality was awkward for an app: produce is priced by weight that varies, crops come and go by season, and a farm cannot promise stock it has not harvested yet.
The Solution
Buying
Order by the crate, priced by the farm
Buyers browse what is in season, see the farm behind each listing, and order in bulk units they recognise. Prices come from the farm, so both sides are looking at the same number.
Supply
A farm can list what is coming, not just what is picked
Farms publish expected harvests with a date and an estimated quantity, so a hotel can plan next week around what will genuinely be available.
Trust
Weight confirmed at handover, in the app
The delivery is recorded against the order with the actual weight and a photograph. The invoice adjusts to the real figure, which ended most of the arguments the paper process caused.
A signature detail
Designing for produce that refuses to have a fixed price
A crate of tomatoes is never exactly a crate. Instead of pretending otherwise, the app quotes an indicative total from an expected weight, marks it clearly as indicative, then settles on the weight recorded at handover. Buyers see a small variance figure rather than a surprise invoice, and they trusted the app faster because it admitted the uncertainty.
- 1 Farm lists a crop Unit, expected weight, indicative price.
- 2 Buyer orders bulk units Total shown as indicative, not final.
- 3 Weighed at handover Actual weight and photo recorded in app.
- 4 Invoice settles Final figure with the variance shown plainly.
The Result
10K+
installs on Google Play.
0
middlemen between the buyer and the farm.
The screens
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