Forsa blog

Notes from the marketplace.

How the food we sell gets to be cheaper, what merchants actually asked us for, why a countdown changes dinner, and what 250 kitchens taught us about the end of service.

map view with pins on a phone Product 4 min

We removed the map.

A map view looks essential on a food marketplace and answered a question almost nobody was asking. 41 two people sharing a takeaway box Behaviour 3 min

Cheaper food is not lesser food.

The hardest thing to design around is the assumption that a discount implies a compromise. 42 supermarket chiller aisle Partners 4 min

Supermarkets play a different game.

Grocery surplus arrives on a schedule, in volume, with a date printed on it. That changes the whole mechanic. 43 pickup counter with a paper bag How Forsa works 3 min

The pickup window is a real constraint.

A twenty-minute collection window is not a design flourish. It is the merchant’s operational reality, exposed. 44 coins and a receipt on a table Pricing 4 min

Why 10% and not 30%.

The baseline discount had to be small enough that a restaurant could live with it forever. 45 neighbourhood street with small shopfronts Cities 3 min

A marketplace is built street by street.

Citywide coverage is a vanity metric. What matters is whether the feed is full in the four blocks around you. 46 crates of produce at a market close Food waste 4 min

Waste is a forecasting problem.

Almost nothing is thrown away because somebody was careless. It is thrown away because demand is hard to predict. 47 notification on a lock screen Product 3 min

We send fewer notifications than we could.

Every push is a withdrawal from a small account. Spending it on the wrong drop costs more than the order is worth. 48
Written by the Forsa team, Amman. These pieces are updated as the market moves. For day-to-day changes, follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Back to Forsa