An innovative new app getting attention for this Vancouver Island Grocer.
Independent grocers today are facing strong competition from big box stores such as Costco, Walmart and even Amazon with their purchase of Whole Foods. To stay ahead, QF reached out to us to develop a new iOS and Android app.- 2,000,000+ Products scanned using the app
- 210% Increase in app sessions month over month from previous app
- 1,000,000+ Push notifications sent
- 4.5/5 App store rating
Vancouver Island based grocer Quality Foods (QF) is well-known in the industry as a leader in technology. We're proud to have been a part of this since our work began with them nearly twenty years ago.
We developed their online shopping platform which lead to their their first iPhone app in 2011 which eventually made its way to the Google Play store for Android phones.
However, since 2011, much has happened in the mobile app space. QF's app was aging, graphics were dated, speed was slow, and their competitors were making strides digitally. It was time for a new app.
Knowing this app would be an important asset for QF for years to come, we had to ensure it was planned properly and created using the most modern technologies.
Overview + Planning
We traveled to Vancouver Island for meetings to define the project scope.
When starting a large scale project like this one, it's important to confirm the exact app objectives with everyone involved. Larger companies mean more people in the room.
We began with meetings with key personnel from QF to discuss what's possible now, and what should be deemed a future upgrade.
Together, we prioritized a final scope of deliverables which would be defined as phase one.
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Latest technologies
It was critical that the app be built using the latest SDKs, both to ensure longevity of the app and to ensure it would be easier to implement new features when Apple or Google released them. -
iOS and Android
This app must be available on both iOS and Android devices and must be compiled into native apps. -
Integration at the store checkouts for "My Daily Special"
Store level integration at the checkouts was a must. A new feature called My Daily Special was outlined. -
Fast loading
Many grocery apps are slow - heavy graphics, network requirements. We had to ensure all data queries were optimized for speed, and all images were cached to only download once. -
New features
This app must do things no other grocer was doing. Together, we agreed upon a new feature called Ad Watch to go along side the new My Daily Special area. -
Push notifications
Push notifications aren't used much in the industry. We had to make a way for QF to have full control of their push scheduling and content.
Challenge:
Store Integration
Many features require detecting that the user is in the store. How do we achieve this accurately when considering poor GPS signals and/or wifi?
Keep scrolling to see the solutionChallenge:
Push Notifications
How do we handle push notifications and the high volume of pushes that this app will send?
Wireframing
Each area of the app was thoroughly wireframed. Every feature, every button. This was to ensure all parties were on the same page as to exactly how the app would function before any programming took place.
Features
Technology - Client side
We had important decisions to make in the early stages regarding how to build this app efficiently.
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Xamarin
Xamarin was chosen as the development platform as it allowed us to save time and budget by having a common code-base between both iOS and Android versions.
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MVC Architecture
We ensured the code bases in both iOS and Android were developed using an MVC layered architecture, as best as possible. -
Testflight and Google Play Beta Testing
We knew we'd be testing with thousands of users. This meant ensuring the most advanced testing methods were implemented.
While we can develop apps natively in Swift & Java, we chose Xamarin for it's cross platform capabilities and use of the Visual Studio IDE, which saved our client considerable expenses in time savings.
25%
Total time/cost savings
Technology - Server side
Both the iOS and Android versions communicate to the same central web service, which relays information to the central database and QF's head office systems.
Performance is critical, as we have thousands of concurrent users.
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AWS Servers
New servers on Amazon Web Services EC2 (web) and RDS (database) were setup with CloudWatch alarm monitoring and auto-scaling. -
Web Service / API
A central .NET Core API Controller manages all communication from the app to the web server. -
Token Security
Every call in the app is encrypted to the web server, and is parameterized with short life span tokens.
Key Feature
My Daily Special
Customers can select any item to be on sale, just for them. Since getting customers to the store is the most important goal of all, this solves a common problem of favourite items being on sale at a competitor.
Play VideoKey Feature
Ad Watch
Have you ever been to a grocery store and an item you enjoy was on sale, and it was only pure luck that you came across it? Ad watch ensures customers get alerted when their favourite items are on sale via push notifications.
Play VideoKey Feature
My Deals
Many grocers now have app-based deals. We took it a step further by enabling a way for QF to create personalized deals that are tailored to customer shopping history data, which they analyze using Python.
Play VideoProblem Solving
We had problems with GPS locator timing, signal strength, 3rd party plugins, iOS and Android quirks, battery life...
...so we built our own custom location system.
To resolve all issues, we developed a custom location management system, one for each operating system.
The system is asynchronous to operate silently in the background with minimal battery use using a combination of low energy GPS acquisition, wifi detection, and fallback procedures when poor signals occur.
What happens when you send a push notification to thousands and thousands of users?
It means that many open the app at the exact same time.
Since QF's app is heavily reliant on the web service for up to date info from the database, that results in thousands of phones asking for data simultaneously.
We had to ensure the infrastructure could handle these large spikes in traffic - achieved through AWS servers, monitoring and burst capabilities.
Testing
Over 1100 employees were sent email invites to begin testing the iOS and Android apps with us.
The app featured a special feedback system which resulted in the smoothest transition to launching that we could have ever asked for, as all bugs were submitted with the help of QF staff long before the public received the app.
Successes
App Launch Day
The launch of the app happened without any issues, and a QF Facebook promotion was created for users to tell us what their favourite new feature was. This is a clever way to promote the app, as the posts were public for friends of those posting to see.
