Online grocery marketplace in Canada and the US

$16.5

million has raised

$247

million saved by buyers

Native iOS development

Native Android development

Mobile development

Backend development

About  the client

Flashfood is a Canadian startup that created an online food marketplace in 2016. Later, the startup's business expanded to the United States. Flashfood gives stores the opportunity to sell products that are about to expire at a deep discount. Thus, stores increase sales, reduce costs for disposal of expired food products and significantly reduce the negative impact on the environment.

Goals

Minimize waste, and emissions from processing food.

Reduce stores' lost profits and disposal costs of food.

Make food more accessible to vulnerable populations.

Get investment to develop the idea and scale startup.

Needs

To develop four native applications: for stores’ employees to manage sales (iOS, Android), for buyers to proceed purchase (iOS, Android). To develop the backend part of the application.

Challenges

01 Multi-language support

The application interface is supported in English, Spanish and French, ensuring the correct translation of constantly updated content.

02 Loyalty system

On the server side, complex loyalty reward logic is implemented, offering personalized rewards based on individual preferences.

03 Barcode scanning

For efficient inventory management and order processing, it was important to integrate a barcode scanning system into the employee application.

04 Complex data structuring system

The system created included not only a huge variety of products, but also rare characteristics, such as the level of acidity for wine or softness for bread.

Solution Development

Mobile App Functionality

Application for Market Employees

Barcode scanning

via special hardware that facilitates efficient product management by enabling barcode scanning and linking it to relevant product details.

Mini admin panel

to manage offers: put food sets up for sale and describe their contents, update prices, view orders, and track inventory.

Solution Development

Mobile App Functionality

Buyer Application

Product Showcase

Lists of products with detailed descriptions and filtering.

Discover Stores Nearby

Map with a list of stores and their locations with the ability to filter nearby.

Personalized Cart

Formation of an individual shopping cart.

Secure Checkout

Online payments are implemented through Stripe.

Order Tracker

Real-time order updates to track orders and receive status notifications.

Solution Development

Mobile Development Tech Stack

Languages

Kotlin

Swift

Objective-C

Frameworks

ViewModel KTX

Dagger 2

Dagger Hilt

Retrofit

Coroutines

StripeSDK

Google Maps API

Firebase Analytics

Imparticle

Environment

CircleCI

Assistive Technology

Zebra SDK

Infenia SDK

Solution Development

Backend Functionality

Data synchronization

Ensures seamless data flow between store employee and buyer applications, maintaining accurate product information and order updates.

Data analytics

Collects and analyzes data to provide insights into product performance, buyer preferences, and overall marketplace trends.

Geo search for the nearest shops

The function was implemented with the help of MongoDB.

Order processing

Manages the processing of orders, including payment verification, order status updates, and notifications to buyers.

Achieved

results

The stores reduced waste by 90 million pounds, reducing their environmental impact.

Shoppers saved more than $247 million through discounted purchases.

The company has successfully grown from a startup to a large company, raising approximately $16.5 million in funding.

The online marketplace platform currently operates in nearly 1,600 grocery stores in the United States and Canada.

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Flashfood