Showcase: Doorstep Dairy

0 | published by Danny H. on Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Doorstep Dairy is a new business created by Daryl Mast and his wife that brings back the concept and values of "The Milkman". But they have infused the business model with generous amounts of impressive branding and technology. Tasty!

How It Works

Fresh products being delivered straight to your door is made even more convenient with a very user friendly eCommerce website powered by LemonStand. The customer experience is simple and unique.

You start by filling out an application and arranging payment options. Next, you can start building your reoccurring and 1-time orders using the website.

You can choose the products you want and the frequency at which you receive them. "Set it and forget it". For example, you can get the following each week:

3 gallons of whole milk / week
One pound of butter / every second week
One pound of coffee / month

They call this reoccurring order your "Standing Order".

They also have made a provision to order products on a 1-time basis. So let's imagine you are having company stay over the following week. You can order a pie for dessert and some donuts for a morning treat. They call this a "Weekly Order" and they will be delivered along with your Standing Order items.

LemonStand's API allows for multiple, separate shopping carts. In the case of Doorstep Dairy, there are two. Products are held in a different cart, depending on if they are in the customers Standing or Weekly Order. The multi-cart support in LemonStand's API is very flexible and can be used for many different cases.

A simple module was created that uses a cron job to transfer products being held in customers Standing and Weekly carts into actual orders within LemonStand. This happens once a week.

Development Speed and Flexibility

LemonStand made it possible for this unique website to be developed in record time. The module that transfers products to orders on a weekly basis literally took only a few hours to build. And the multi-cart functionality is already part of the API. And of course, LemonStand didn't give their web developer Philip Meissner any grief in terms of design integration.

The easy-to-use template system and great documentation made creating the store I envisioned a joy. Out of the box, LemonStand's API/features were flexible and extensive enough to build my store that had many unique requirements. Oh, and the backend is sweet!!

- Philip Meissner, Web Designer & Developer

Ease of Use

The customer user experience was kept as simple as possible. With LemonStand, you are in control of the experience. And the best part is that it doesn't make you jump through hoops to have that control, either.

As well, Doorstep Dairy staff can manage their website content, customers and orders easily. The user-friendly administration interface is straightforward and efficient. Features like Content Blocks with WYSIWYG editing make it easy to make text changes. And the simple Shop management tools make it easy to fulfill orders and manage customer accounts.

LemonStand is very easy for us to use. We don't have to think about it really. We just log-in and easily manage our store, and get on with our business. We love it.

- Daryl Mast, Owner – Doorstep Dairy

Check out Doorstep Dairy for yourself!