ALFRED IBIZA

The backstory

Ibiza is the mecca for nightlife enthusiasts. However, the pandemic has changed the way people attend night clubs. Due to restrictions, all clubs on the Island were closed to prevent a second wave of COVID-19. Thus, millions of party goers had to come to the Island and organize their parties in private villas.

In such circumstances, party enthusiasts were looking for an on-demand delivery solution to order their favorite food, alcohol, and groceries with no hassle.

Enrico, our honored client, envisioned this opportunity. There was also no intense competition or big players like Uber Eats on the Island. He managed to launch the product in just two months, earning his first customers and reputation before the season ended.

What is Alfred Ibiza

Alfred Ibiza is an on-demand delivery mobile app that connects restaurants, stores, couriers, and customers in Ibiza. The app allows customers to order from restaurants, pharmacies, and supermarkets, listed on the platform.

• The app charges you the cost of products and delivery services, and withdraws money from your credit card.
• Once you place an order, the app finds the nearest courier to deliver your order.
• The app also includes particular product groups, delivered exclusively by the company’s employees.
• You can connect via a restaurant with email and track the courier’s geolocation in real-time.

Our Goals

Our main goal for the Alfred Ibiza project was to build a platform that would simplify ordering and delivering products on Ibiza island and help party goers to receive their orders on time. We wanted the platform to be equally useful for business owners, couriers, and customers.

Project scope

We needed to design all the business processes that an on-demand delivery mobile app requires and ensure the final result would have similar features to those the most popular food delivery mobile apps include (such as UberEats, Doordash, Glovo, etc.).

We needed to develop a complete infrastructure from scratch for three mobile apps – one for buyers, for sellers, and one for couriers, that would work on both iOS and Android, a web-based admin panel, and a marketing landing page to promote Alfred Ibiza.

We were also responsible for the UI/UX design for all the platform’s components (mobile and web applications).

Our challenges

• Limited timeline. This project was not the first time that clients contacted us after being rejected by other development teams due to tight deadlines. In this case, we needed to build cross-platform mobile apps and an admin web panel for restaurant owners within two months.
• No technical documentation. The client came to us only with a business idea. Thus, we needed to develop project documentation in-house, which is the core of any IT project. For this, we needed to conduct a business analysis of existing on-demand food ordering apps, define their core features, and suggest technologies to implement them.
• Comprehensive payment calculation algorithm. The client’s business logic required building a complex pricing algorithm that calculated the delivery fee based on the product category and distance of delivery.
• Courier online geolocation tracking. Since most popular food ordering apps include courier services, we also needed to integrate live position tracking of couriers into the client app and an admin panel.
• Live-chat. One of the client’s business goals was to ensure transparency in communication between restaurants and customers. Thus, we needed to integrate a live messaging functionality to the app.
• Couriers provided by businesses. According to Ibiza’s regulations, products from Alcohol,Tobacco and Pharmacy categories must be delivered by the brand’s employee. To enable this option, we needed to empower the restaurant’s admin panel with the function of delivering their products without third-party couriers.

One Ordering Marketplace, Four Products

The customer app
The customer app includes the following sections:

• Home page

The home page is the first screen you see after opening the app. You can find different product categories, such as Food and Beverages, Alcohol and Tobacco, and Pharmacy. As a user, you can select the necessary category, browse the product catalog, select products, and order them.

• Push notifications

Once the order placed is approved by the provider, you service a push-notification about the new order status In progress, and another notification when the courier delivers your order.

• Inbox

You can exchange messages with restaurants and other businesses within the app using the built-in messaging feature.

• Manage orders

This section includes order history, which allows you to cancel or reorder products anytime.

• Add new order

Apart from the Home page, you can place the new order in the Add new order section. You can also select the Take-out option and get the order at the seller’s physical location yourself.

• Favorites

If you enjoyed a particular dish or restaurant, you can save it to your favorites and access them in the Favorites section.

• Offers

This section includes special offers and discounts from sellers and food providers.

• Settings

As a user, you can save your address, add credit card information, etc., in the Settings sections.

• Helps

Here, you can receive help from the platform’s admins anytime you need it.

• Reviews

Here, you can rate restaurants, meals, and couriers.

The courier app
The courier app includes the following features:

• New orders

Once the courier receives the new order required, one can accept or decline it.

• Map

If the courier accepts the order, the app automatically changes the order status to In progress. The couriers see the pickup and delivery address on the built-in map with the shortest delivery route.

• Order history

Couriers can access the history of completed orders in the Order History section.

The provider app
After login, all providers access their mobile application with the following features:

• Menu management

Business owners can add, edit, and delete products in their menus, upload images, change descriptions, and prices.

• Receiving orders

Once a customer places an order, the provider receives a message from the platform with other details, customer name, total order sum, and delivery address.

• Replying to customer reviews

After the customer leaves a review of one’s products, the provider can reply to the customer’s review.

• Live chat with customers

As the customer places a new order, one can connect with providers in the live chat and discuss order details.

• Placing and tracking delivery requests

After the provider approves a new order, one places a delivery request to the courier app and tracks delivery progress.

Admin panel
We empowered the web-based admin panel with the following functionality:

• Dashboard

Here, admins can count the total number of users, restaurants, current orders, and other platform stats.

• User management

As an admin, you can add new users, access their details, and block users.

• Category management

In this section, you can add new product categories, manage existing categories, and delete them.

• Order management

You can view new and completed orders, edit order information, and cancel orders.

• Promo cards

As an admin, you can issue promo cards that give customers discounts.

• Rating and reviews

You can add, manage, and delete user reviews.

• CMS management

Here, you can access your customer management system’s information, add, edit, or delete users.

• Helpdesk tickets

In this section, you can view messages from customers who need support on your platform and solve issues.

• Banners

Here, you can add, manage, and delete banners on the landing page.

• Manage settings

As an admin, you can manage user settings for customers and restaurants.

How we did it

• Step 1. Business analysis

We analyzed the most popular food delivery applications and created a list of selected features to integrate. We decided to build a cross-platform application with React Native, so both iOS and Android device users could access it.
We gathered our core technology expertise in on-demand projects and applied it to create an ordering engine to avoid building it from the ground up. In such a way, we significantly reduced the project development time and costs.

• Step 2. Business processes

As the client came to us with only a business idea, we were also responsible for developing and maintaining all related business processes. We made the project’s account on the Stripe payment system, a cloud platform for hosting the app’s architecture and other project-related services.

• Step 3. Technical documentation

We developed the project documentation for Alfredo Ibiza, in which we described the platform’s primary functions. The documentation also included user stories on how the platform should behave in different scenarios, such as a money refund.

• Step 4. Four product categories

We were also cautious with different product categories and their use cases since they required a different delivery approach. Thus, we decided to divide app products into three major categories, such as Food and Beverages, Alcohol and Tobacco, and Pharmacy, to simplify the delivery calculations process and ensure orders from alcohol and pharmacy would be delivered by business representatives only.

• Step 5. Price calculation algorithm

Since the platform calculates delivery fees based on the product category (from 15% to 30%), the delivery distance and total project sum, we decided to work with an existing payment gateway and customize it for the project’s needs. For this project, we decided to use Stripe because it is a popular payment gateway that supports the main payment options, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, Visa, American Express, and Mastercard.
To make Stripe calculating custom pricing, we gathered main product categories and created calculating price rules first on Google Spreadsheets. Then, we agreed on the price-forming algorithm with the client and our developers made all the necessary changes into the Stripe code, so it met the project’s needs.

Results that we achieved

We managed to develop the Alfred Ibiza platform within just three months, at a total project cost of $70,000, 50-60% cheaper than the average development cost of a food delivery app.

The platform includes an app for customers, couriers, an admin panel for restaurants with only necessary functions. Besides this, we also developed a marketing landing page to promote the Alfred Ibiza platform.

Our tech stack

• Node.js
• React.js
• React Native
• Stripe

Team composition

• 1 Back-end Node.js developer
• 1 React.js developer
• 2 React Native developers
• 1 Quality Assurance manager
• 1 product owner