Introduction
La Mart Food, a UK-based Asian grocery chain, needed to upgrade its digital channels fast. The existing website delivered a poor user experience and the mobile app wasn’t functioning properly, which hurt conversion and customer satisfaction.
With Wave Grocery, La Mart transitioned to a purpose-built grocery platform that delivered precise inventory logic, customer-first features, and a mobile-native experience, all designed to scale smoothly as new stores came online.
Background and Objectives
Valued at nearly £200 billion, the UK grocery sector is one of the most competitive in Europe, with online sales accounting for a growing share of total revenue. Within this space, ethnic and specialty grocery is expanding rapidly, driven by diverse communities seeking authentic products and a shopping experience that reflects their needs.
La Mart Food operates in the UK Asian grocery market, serving a growing, loyal customer base and three physical stores across the UK. While their online store connected to Lightspeed POS provided a foundation, it was clear the setup couldn’t keep up with the operational demands of a growing grocery chain.
La Mart faced specific obstacles that held back growth and customer satisfaction:
- Non–user-friendly ecommerce website
- Difficulty managing store-specific catalog and availability
- Lack of reliable native mobile apps with grocery-optimized UX
- No item-level customer notes (e.g., “unripe mangoes please”)
- No substitution preferences when items are unavailable
- Limited tools for zip-code–based delivery logic
- Rising customer frustration and operational inefficiencies
It also lacked the native mobile apps and delivery logic required to satisfy modern customer expectations.
To overcome these barriers, La Mart set out to:
- Upgrade from a general-purpose ecommerce platform to a grocery-specialized solution
- Keep Lightspeed POS integration for stock & pricing synchronization
- Launch native iOS and Android apps
- Enable store-specific catalogs, delivery zones, and pricing
- Support item-specific notes and substitution preferences
- Unify the existing offline loyalty program with online using Wave Grocery’s loyalty module
- Give each store its own admin panel to manage fulfillment independently
- Build a platform that could scale seamlessly with new store openings
By partnering with Wave Grocery, La Mart aimed to unify its growing operations, improve customer experience, and establish a scalable foundation for future expansion.
Approach and Solution
La Mart’s previous setup wasn’t built for grocery specifics. As the chain expanded, a clunky website UX and non-functional mobile apps hurt conversions, while managing store-specific catalogs and delivery rules became increasingly difficult. Rather than enabling scale, the setup held back growth.
Wave Grocery was chosen for its grocery-specific approach and proven ability to handle exactly these pain points. Rather than forcing La Mart to work around the limitations of a general-purpose system, Wave Grocery provided a roadmap built specifically for multi-store grocery operations.
The grocery e-commerce sector is notoriously difficult: fluctuating inventories, store-specific pricing, diverse product assortments, customer preferences for substitutions. Generic ecommerce platforms could cover the basics but lacked the depth required for grocery chains aiming to expand.
Wave Grocery addressed these challenges head-on. By combining multi-store architecture, real-time POS integration, and mobile-native UX, La Mart gained precise control of operations and the confidence to keep opening new stores without fear of complexity spiraling.
For La Mart, the Wave Grocery Platform offered:
- Each store has its own catalog, pricing, delivery zones, and admin panel
- Store managers fulfill orders independently without cross-store confusion
- Real-time sync of products and inventory per store
- Reliable catalog accuracy, eliminating manual updates and errors
- Fully branded iOS & Android apps launched
- Mobile UX designed for groceries. Fast reorders, loyalty integration, smart search
- Mobile adoption growing steadily
- Customers add notes per product (e.g., ripeness)
- Substitution preferences: call me / no subs / auto-replace
- Digital loyalty card linked to customer accounts
- Points-based rewards and targeted coupons
- Tag-based filtering and curated collections
- Ideal for niche-heavy Asian grocery assortments
- Architecture supports rapid onboarding of new stores
- Store #3 launched with minimal setup
- Infrastructure ready for future growth
Implementation and Results
To ensure a smooth transition, Wave Grocery adopted a collaborative rollout plan with La Mart’s team. Together, they created a clear timeline with milestones for data migration, integration, and customer-facing launches.
By mapping existing processes and adapting to La Mart’s operational reality, Wave Grocery was able to customize the platform without disruption.
Following a collaborative rollout, Wave Grocery gave La Mart the tools to scale without friction, improving efficiency across every aspect of their multi-store operations.
Despite the complexities of multi-store operations, the implementation was delivered successfully. La Mart went live with full confidence, equipped to expand operations and serve customers more effectively than ever before.
Data Migration
Implementation
Imported product catalogs, customer records, delivery zones, and store-level pricing from the legacy stack, mapped cleanly to Lightspeed.
Result
Store-specific catalogs and inventory became accurate and dependable, reducing pricing/availability mismatches and lowering support tickets.
Lightspeed POS Integration (enhanced)
Implementation
Wave Grocery integrated directly with Lightspeed POS, ensuring real-time inventory sync across all stores. This eliminated manual catalog updates, reduced fulfillment errors, and gave each store reliable visibility into stock levels.
Result
Real-time synchronization of stock and catalogs significantly reduced errors. Store-specific logic ensured customers always saw accurate availability. As a result, order fulfillment complaints dropped, and catalog update speed improved.
Multi-Store Architecture
Implementation
Upgraded to a store-aware setup with separate catalogs, pricing, delivery zones, and role-based admin per location.
Result
Managers now operate independently without cross-store bleed, speeding local changes and reducing coordination overhead.
Native Mobile Apps (iOS & Android)
Implementation
Branded iOS and Android apps were launched to give customers a native, mobile-first shopping experience. The rollout included in-store QR promotions and email campaigns, driving adoption early. Customers quickly embraced the apps, with 5.5% of orders coming through mobile in the first phase.
Result
The launch of branded iOS and Android apps activated a new digital channel. Within the first quarter, the apps accounted for 5.5% of orders, with early adopters showing an 18% higher basket value than web-only shoppers. Customers praised the apps’ ease of use, speed, and grocery-focused design.
Smart Checkout (notes & substitutions)
Implementation
Enabled item-level customer notes (e.g., ripeness) and substitution preferences (call me / no subs / auto-replace).
Result
Customer notes and substitution options cut order confusion. Call-backs dropped, and successful first-attempt deliveries increased, leading to a smoother, more transparent customer journey.
Loyalty Unification (offline ↔ online)
Implementation
Wave Grocery activated a points-based loyalty program, linked to customer accounts across web and app. Customers earned rewards, redeemed coupons, and stayed engaged across multiple channels.
Result
The digital loyalty program encouraged repeat purchasing, with many active customers enrolling within the first 3 months, leading to an increase in the redemption rate on points and coupons.
Scalable Store Onboarding
Implementation
Shortly after launch, La Mart added its third store. Thanks to the platform’s multi-store architecture, onboarding was completed with minimal additional setup, proving the system’s scalability for future expansion.
Result
Shortly after launch, La Mart onboarded its third store in under three weeks, proving the system’s scalability. With Wave Grocery, La Mart is positioned to add new stores rapidly without operational bottlenecks.
Lessons Learned
The collaboration with La Mart highlighted the unique challenges of scaling multi-store grocery operations. Unlike single-location grocers, La Mart required precise control at the store level while maintaining a unified customer experience.
This project showed the importance of aligning technology with both operational complexity and customer expectations.
Wave Grocery’s work with La Mart demonstrated that grocery chains cannot rely on generic e-commerce systems. They need specialized platforms that integrate seamlessly with existing POS, respect per-store workflows, and still deliver a frictionless shopping experience for customers.
The ultimate takeaway was that scalability in grocery isn’t just about adding more stores, it’s about maintaining accuracy, trust, and personalization at every step of growth.
- Generic ecommerce platforms struggle with grocery complexity
- Specialized solutions restore precise control across stores
- Grocery-first platforms avoid costly workarounds and operational inefficiencies
- POS delivers value only if aligned with store-level rules
- Real-time inventory sync reduced mismatches
- Lightspeed leveraged fully through Wave Grocery
- Item-level notes improved fulfillment accuracy & customer satisfaction
- Substitution options reduced failed deliveries
- Expansion is only possible with the right foundation
- Store #3 launched seamlessly with minimal setup
- Platform prepared for future locations without added complexity
Conclusion
The case study of La Mart Food and Wave Grocery highlights how a grocery-specialized platform can unify complex multi-store operations while delivering a customer-first experience.
By combining precise integration and collaborative rollout, La Mart achieved greater operational efficiency and improved customer satisfaction.
Their success with Wave Grocery shows how grocery chains of any size can expand with confidence, managing multiple locations, serving diverse audiences, and scaling sustainably on a purpose-built platform.
La Mart is no longer just selling online, it’s scaling smarter.
Interested in building your own e-grocery success story?
