In the early days of the pandemic, LEON Restaurant Group introduced the Feed Britain online shop to supply London homes with fresh fruit and vegetables, store cupboard essentials, and specially curated food. As much a retail site as it was, it was also designed to give back—with a donation option at check out that benefited NHS staff.
This was one of LEON’s swift responses to adapt to a new, emergent reality: keeping on delivering healthy, easy food as physical stores were closed down by lockdown.
Technical Build: Shopify Development & Integrations
To address the needs of this direct-to-consumer (D2C) business – many of which hadn’t yet been encountered by the LEON team – we built an adapted Shopify-based ecommerce platform with:
Postcode-Based Fulfilment Controls
Because deliveries were limited to certain London zones, we adopted Shopify Scripts to confirm customer postcodes while in the checkout process. This helped enforce delivery zones and reduced failed transactions or manual follow-ups.
Automatic Email Flows with Klaviyo
The platform was connected to Klaviyo to help govern transactional and lifecycle email flows. This included order confirmations, cart abandonment flows, and post-purchase nurturing, which helped foster repeat business and enhance customer interactions.
Review Capture via Yotpo
To build customer trust and gather early feedback, the platform incorporated Yotpo for collecting and displaying reviews. These insights helped the LEON team optimise product offerings and service experience quickly.
Built-in Donation Mechanism
During checkout, shoppers were able to make a discretionary donation to help out NHS workers, efficiently integrated into the checkout process. This capability enabled Feed Britain to act upon the needs of communities in real time, merging commerce with social good in one transaction.
Addressing a Changing Market
The launch of Feed Britain followed directly on from a rapid and acute change in consumer behaviour, triggered by lockdowns and social distancing throughout the UK. LEON’s team acted quickly to reformat their business to address customer requirements through an online-first channel – without sacrificing brand values or quality of product.
Although the catalyst was COVID-19, the consumer trends beneath—demand for D2C convenience, online grocery, and brand experience—were already underway. Feed Britain accelerated LEON’s digital transformation, bringing its ability to meet evolving customer needs forward faster while establishing a template for restaurants and hospitality brands looking to lead in a digital-first economy through stronger brand visibility and entity optimisation across digital channels.
Purpose-Driven, Technically Sound
More than a launch of ecommerce, Feed Britain was a model for how digital infrastructure can meet social need. The site was designed to LEON’s fundamental brand values—health, sustainability, accessibility—and translated those values into action through:
- Instant consumer access to basic provisions
- Invisible, integrated mechanism of support from the community
Conclusion
Feed Britain is testament to Propeller’s capacity to move quickly and build intelligently – drawing on established platforms such as Shopify while tailoring functionality to accommodate specific business and operational requirements. As restaurant brands evolve online, this initiative demonstrates what can be achieved in collaboration with the right technology partner even in adverse conditions.
