The country’s largest foodservice wholesaler has launched a shopping basket that makes it easy for customers to keep track of the climate impact of their purchases.
Background
There is no doubt that terms like emissions, footprint, and sustainability have become part of every consumer’s vocabulary – both in B2B and B2C – over the past years. And in some industries, it has become absolutely critical to be able to identify the footprint that products or purchases leave on the planet.
This is particularly true in the food and restaurant sector, where tracking climate impact or organic percentages is not just a goal but, for many, a requirement or a key sales argument.
Is a foodservice wholesaler obligated to help their customers maintain this overview? No. But for Hørkram, customer convenience is essential – and that made it crucial to help customers gain the right insights and keep track of their purchases, including their footprint.
And that’s how the idea of the new green basket was born.
Solution
At Hørkram Foodservice A/S, reducing environmental impact isn’t just talk – it’s a key item on the strategic agenda. And it’s one that clearly reflects their customers’ own needs and expectations for a smarter shopping experience.
That’s why Hørkram partnered with Vertica to develop a new type of shopping basket. A basket where customers can not only keep track of their purchases and easily add items as they go, but also gain insights into critical parameters such as CO₂e emissions, share of organic products, reduction of food waste, and the total weight of their food purchases.
In practice, this means that when Hørkram’s customers add anything from fresh fruit to fish to their basket, they can monitor its impact in real time across those parameters. Customers can also access a historical overview of their purchases via the “Reports” function, which shows development over time — for example, whether they’ve bought more organic or more CO₂-efficient products this year compared to last year.
And how do they keep track of the numbers? Through a clear, intuitive interface where all information is visualized in easy-to-read charts.
The result: making conscious, sustainable purchasing decisions on Hørkram’s platform becomes both simple and user-friendly.
Positioning
The basket is just one of many examples of how Hørkram prioritises their customers’ needs and wishes, investing in value-creating features that help simplify their users’ workflows.
In addition, the development of features like the basket is a strong differentiator on industry-specific competitive parameters. In the busy restaurant and catering sector, it is crucial to go the extra mile and create the best possible user experiences for customers who juggle many tasks and a high level of administration on a daily basis.
For these customers, a feature like the basket makes a tangible difference in their everyday work. Customers who may ultimately choose Hørkram over other suppliers because of features like this—features that demonstrate Hørkram’s attentiveness to their users.
Behind the scenes
Even though the basket appears simple and intuitive from a user’s perspective, a lot of careful thought lies behind it.
This includes extensive UX work, where customers’ needs were thoroughly explored to ensure the basket truly addressed a problem for Hørkram’s clients, rather than being based on assumptions. The UX work is reflected in a carefully crafted and user-friendly UI that presents the right content and desired functions. All of this is made possible by substantial development efforts designed to guarantee that accurate product data is integrated into the basket, providing a genuine overview for the customer.
Together, these elements create a powerful feature that allows Hørkram’s customers to shop based on informed decisions, easing a concrete task in their daily work. Additionally, the solution gives Hørkram a competitive advantage and strengthens their market position as a company that puts its customers first.
