Fresh fish for the people — this is how we take Frøya Gourmet to new waters

From Reko Ring to Scaling

These are extremely high quality fish, and Froya Gourmet sells to Trønderian Michelin restaurants such as Credo and Mirror Hall at Britannia Hotel. But also the demand from the retail market is high, and this is where Increo comes in.

The challenge is that Frøya Gourmet has until now exclusively sold fish fillets via Reko rings, which are independent meeting places where consumers can buy directly from producers.

Although the Reko ring works well for the faithful users, all organization takes place via Facebook. That excludes new customer groups Frøya Gourmet wants to reach. When you start building up such a big name, and corresponding demand, it's natural to want to scale. So here we had to come up with something completely new.

How could we create a non-traditional online store that enables the sale of fish to a whole new group of customers — while taking care of the Reko ring customers?

Frøya owns the process from the start, and has his hand on the fish from the reins to your hands. What we had to do was give them equivalent control over the convoluted and utterly unique the buying journey. With better logistics, they could get far more customers.

Off with technical blinders

We have developed a flexible and scalable solution that takes into account that this is a completely new way to sell fish. The website, which until now has only been a business card, has become an online store a little out of the ordinary.

Here we have had to design everything specifically for this customer journey. After all, it is still not possible to order the fish in the mail, so here, for example, you have to choose the place of delivery first. And once you have reached the nearest square, or a parking lot in Brumunddal, the same system fixes quick check-out and order handling.

Which products are available at the points of delivery and at what intervals Frøya Gourmet visits them, they themselves easily control in the management tool.

Because the buying journey has in many ways been turned upside down, UX and user testing been absolutely crucial. Tanned online traders have had to “re-educate themselves”.

Not only is everything a little upside down, but people need to quickly and intuitively understand why, for example, it only says approximate price. Which, of course, is because the fish hasn't been caught yet, nor is it filleted by machines. All the way through, we've had to take off the technical blinders and make sure this is a nice and understandable buying experience.

Digital service innovation

The solution is headless, built in Wondercode, and is additionally integrated with an SMS solution. That way, customers can easily get a VIPPS link for payment when the fish pieces are filleted, packed and weighed. MailChimp should be actively used for email marketing.

A funny detail, which shows how engaged customers are, is that their newsletter has grown tremendously without sending out a single email. It is going to be an important channel to inform customers in different areas about new dispensing locations, times and news about fresh produce. And instead of Facebook comments, customers now get a proper ordering solution.

On the whole, the project has been far more than just the development of a digital solution. Increo have had to be marketers, advisers and business development.

For us, this has been digital service innovation. We've had our hand on the wheel when it comes to pretty much everything in this scaling project, and it's been a super cool challenge. Everything is made better by the fact that we have a good chemistry. They have confidence in us, and know that while they know everything about fish, we can digitize.

Fish straight to the door?

And while this solution is a seven-mile step forward, it is still only the first of many. Frøya Gourmet entrepreneur and former ski jumper Daniel Forfang already has his eyes on the next iteration.

Their desire is to get started with sales directly to households. After all, it will depend on the response, but there is no doubt that their customers love fish!

We predict and believe that 2022 is going to be a tremendously interesting year for Frøya Gourmet.

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