Commer Coffee: Brand strategy and e-commerce consultancy for a growing coffee business
The brief
Commer Coffee started as an idea in 2017 when founder Lucy was on maternity leave, walking along the river in West Molesey with her pram and thinking how lovely it would be to have a little coffee van to stop at. What began as a curiosity turned into a proper business: first came Daisy, a beautifully converted 1972 Commer Highwayman vintage coffee van for events, then Clover, a horsebox that became a permanent fixture in the heart of West Molesey, serving the local community six mornings a week.
Lucy's background spans Events, Operations and Hospitality across politics, publishing and TV production. She built Commer Coffee around her family, prioritising the school run over scaling up, and turning down more work than she takes on. It's a business with real community at its centre: regulars queue not just for the coffee but for their "two minutes with Lucy" at the chat hatch.
When Lucy came to me, she was planning a significant life change. Her family was relocating to Dorset, and she wanted to keep Clover running in Molesey with someone managing it day to day, take Daisy to build an events business on the south coast, and launch a third arm: selling her own coffee online.
She had found a roaster she trusted, and she wanted to do it properly. No plain brown bags with sticky labels. She wanted branding that felt right, a website that worked for e-commerce, and a strategy that made sense of three different business streams under one roof.
Lucy needed someone to help her think it through, make the right connections, and hold her hand through the process. That's where I came in.
How the consultancy worked
I worked with Lucy as a marketing mentor and consultant, providing strategic guidance and practical support as she prepared to rebrand, build her marketing tech stack, and launch her e-commerce offering.
My scope covered:
Brand and business strategy – Working through how the three parts of the business (Clover in Molesey, Daisy for events, and online coffee sales) should sit together. My recommendation was to keep everything under one umbrella, leveraging four years of community goodwill and an established customer base rather than starting from scratch with a new brand.
Platform and tech stack guidance – Advising on the move from Squarespace to Shopify, based on its stronger e-commerce capabilities, native subscription functionality, and integrations with social selling. I recommended the Editions theme for its clean, flexible design and suitability for a small product catalogue. I also guided Lucy through selecting Shopify apps for subscriptions and customer reviews, plus email CRM software to support customer retention and lifecycle marketing as the business scales.
Creative partnership – Connecting Lucy with Luther Spicer from Slow Agency for the branding and packaging work. Luther's background includes Volcano Coffee and he understands the coffee industry well. He was the right fit: experienced, not rushed, and able to look at how the brand needed to work across packaging, web and the physical vans.
Ongoing mentorship – Regular check-ins to work through decisions as they came up, from content strategy to website architecture to how Lucy positioned her coffee products. The goal was to give her confidence and clarity without overcomplicating things.
Deliverables
Brand architecture recommendation (single umbrella brand across all three business streams)
Platform strategy and migration guidance (Squarespace to Shopify)
Tech stack recommendations including Shopify theme, subscription and review apps, and email CRM
Introduction and briefing with Luther Spicer at Slow Agency for brand strategy, branding, and packaging
Website content guidance - imagery and copy
Ongoing mentorship sessions throughout the project
The outcome
Lucy now has a Shopify website with e-commerce functionality, a subscription offering, and a clear brand that works across her horsebox, her events van and her online shop. The coffee range includes a single origin from a female-run Peruvian farm, a decaf, and two house blends, all positioned with the kind of straightforward, honest copy that matches how Lucy actually talks to her customers.
More importantly, she has the foundations to keep building. The online shop gives her a business she can run from Dorset while Clover keeps serving the Molesey community. With her tech stack in place, she's set up to grow her subscriber base, nurture customer relationships through email, and expand into new products when she's ready.
Working with Lucy was a pleasure. She's built something genuinely special through hard work, good coffee and real human connection. I'm proud to have helped her take the next step.
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Services: Brand strategy, e-commerce consultancy, tech stack selection, creative partnership, mentorship
Duration: June – December 2025
Location: Remote
