How a family-run seafood business in Adelaide automated 90% of their delivery workload with Locate2u route optimization and Shopify integration.
Madam Seafood was established in 2017 by a group of food-loving mums in Adelaide, South Australia. The business started as a small favour -- Vivian, who was nicknamed "Madam Seafood" by friends and family, would bring fresh seafood home from the Mark Lee Fish Farm where her husband Jack worked. What began as casual runs for friends quickly grew into a full-scale delivery operation.
Today, Madam Seafood delivers fresh and live Australian seafood -- including prawns, oysters, fish, crabs, lobsters, and sashimi-grade products -- directly to customers' doors across Adelaide. They operate weekly home delivery runs on Tuesdays and Fridays, along with multiple pick-up depots throughout the city. Their Shopify-powered online store makes it easy for customers to browse, select delivery windows, and place orders.
In the early years, Jack managed all bookings by hand. After a long day on the fish farm, he would sit down to figure out delivery routes -- often working until the early hours of the morning. As the business grew, the manual process became unsustainable. More orders meant more addresses to sort, more routes to plan, and more time spent on logistics instead of the product itself.
Customers were also calling non-stop to ask when their deliveries would arrive. With fresh seafood, timing is critical -- customers need to be home to receive perishable orders, and any delays or missed deliveries risk spoiled product and unhappy customers. The combination of manual routing and constant phone enquiries was consuming the team's time and limiting growth.
Madam Seafood adopted Locate2u and integrated it directly with their Shopify store. Now, when customers place an order and choose their preferred delivery date and time at checkout, the system automatically organises those orders, creates optimised routes, and provides each customer with a real-time tracking link.
The Shopify integration eliminated the manual step of transferring orders into a routing system. Locate2u pulls orders directly, groups them by delivery window, and generates the most efficient routes for each driver run. Customers receive live tracking updates so they know exactly when to expect their seafood -- no phone call needed.
In the seafood delivery industry, the margin between a satisfied customer and a lost one often comes down to minutes. Unlike shelf-stable products, fresh seafood must be stored at controlled temperatures and delivered within tight windows. A missed delivery or a long, inefficient route can mean the difference between a premium product and one that arrives past its best.
For businesses like Madam Seafood, route efficiency directly impacts product quality. Shorter, smarter routes mean less time on the road, lower fuel costs, and -- most importantly -- seafood that arrives fresh enough to serve that evening. This is why route optimization is not just a convenience for perishable food delivery; it is a fundamental business requirement.
Madam Seafood's integration of Locate2u with Shopify represents a growing trend in the fresh food delivery space: end-to-end automation from online order to doorstep delivery. Customers browse, select their products, choose a delivery slot, and receive a tracking link -- all without a single manual touchpoint from the Madam Seafood team.
This level of automation is especially valuable for small businesses with limited staff. Instead of dedicating hours each evening to route planning and order sorting, the team can focus on sourcing the freshest seafood, managing supplier relationships, and growing their customer base. The technology handles the logistics so the team can focus on the product.
"Locate2u automates 90% of our workload, giving us more time to focus on other parts of the business."
Seafood is highly perishable and must be delivered within strict time windows to maintain freshness and food safety. Route optimization ensures drivers take the most efficient paths, reducing time on the road and keeping delivery windows as short as possible. This directly impacts product quality and customer satisfaction.
Yes. Locate2u integrates directly with Shopify, automatically pulling in orders along with customer-selected delivery dates and times. Orders are grouped, routes are optimised, and customers receive tracking links -- all without manual data entry.
When customers receive a live tracking link with their order, they can see exactly where their delivery is and when it will arrive. This eliminates the need to call or message the business asking for updates, freeing up the team to focus on operations instead of fielding enquiries.
Absolutely. Small businesses often benefit the most from route optimization because they have limited staff and cannot afford to spend hours on manual planning. Locate2u automates the process, allowing small teams to operate with the efficiency of much larger operations.