Case Study
McGrocer
Smart Grocery Delivery
Devinity provided mobile and backend engineers to build McGrocer's end-to-end grocery delivery platform — from customer-facing apps and driver dispatch to AI-powered logistics and real-time inventory management.
Engagement Model
Engineers embedded in their team
McGrocer came to Devinity with a clear vision for an AI-powered grocery delivery platform but needed experienced mobile and backend engineers to bring it to life. Rather than outsourcing the entire project, they wanted developers who could integrate directly with their product leadership and design team — working as an extension of McGrocer, not a separate vendor.
We placed a team of React Native and Node.js engineers on a mid-term staff augmentation contract. Our developers joined McGrocer's daily standups, contributed to sprint planning, and owned the full delivery stack from architecture decisions through production deployment. The engagement gave McGrocer senior-level engineering talent on a flexible timeline without the overhead and delay of full-time hiring.
Project Overview
The Challenge
Competing on technology
Grocery delivery is one of the most operationally demanding verticals in logistics. Inventory changes by the minute — produce sells out, shipments arrive late, seasonal items rotate unpredictably. Customers expect the same item availability they see in-store reflected in the app in real time, and a single substitution handled poorly can lose a customer permanently.
On the delivery side, multi-stop grocery routes are far more complex than single-pickup rideshare models. Orders are time-sensitive and temperature-sensitive. Drivers need to navigate store layouts, handle item-level exceptions, and meet tight delivery windows — all while the dispatch system juggles dozens of concurrent orders across multiple store locations.
McGrocer needed to compete with well-funded incumbents like Instacart and DoorDash Grocery — not by matching their marketing budgets, but by building a faster, smarter, more reliable platform. That meant AI-powered routing that actually reduced costs, inventory systems that prevented order failures before they happened, and mobile apps that customers and drivers genuinely preferred to use.
Platform Capabilities
What we built
AI Route Optimization
Machine learning-powered delivery route planning that analyzes real-time traffic, order density, and driver location to generate multi-stop routes minimizing both delivery time and fuel costs. The system re-optimizes on the fly as new orders come in or conditions change — cutting average route distances by over 30% compared to manual dispatch.
Real-Time Inventory System
Live stock tracking synced across partner stores, the customer app, and McGrocer's warehouse operations. When a product sells out at a specific location, the system instantly updates availability across all channels — preventing order cancellations and automatically suggesting substitutions based on customer preference history.
Customer Mobile App
React Native application with intelligent product search, AI-powered shopping recommendations, and one-tap reordering from previous purchases. Customers track their delivery in real time with live driver location, receive accurate ETAs updated every 30 seconds, and can communicate directly with their shopper through in-app messaging.
Driver App & Dispatch
Purpose-built driver application with real-time order assignment, turn-by-turn navigation integrated via Mapbox, photo proof of delivery, and detailed earnings tracking. The dispatch engine intelligently matches orders to nearby drivers based on proximity, vehicle capacity, and current workload — maximizing deliveries per hour per driver.
AI Product Recommendations
GPT-5 powered personalized product suggestions based on individual purchase history, dietary preferences, seasonal trends, and household size. The recommendation engine learns from every interaction — surfacing items customers are statistically likely to need before they search for them, driving a measurable increase in average order value.
Admin & Analytics Dashboard
Comprehensive operations dashboard for McGrocer's internal team — covering order management, delivery performance metrics, revenue analytics, and AI-driven demand forecasting. Store managers monitor fulfillment rates and inventory health while leadership tracks unit economics, customer retention cohorts, and market expansion readiness.
Technology
The stack behind McGrocer
Results
Measurable impact
25K+
Orders/Month
Monthly order volume processed through the platform at scale
28min
Average Delivery Time
From order placed to groceries at the customer's door
35%
Lower Delivery Costs
Reduction in per-order delivery expense through AI route optimization
4.8★
App Store Rating
Customer satisfaction rating across iOS and Android platforms
Our Role
Staff augmentation done right
Devinity provided React Native and Node.js engineers on a mid-term contract to build McGrocer's mobile apps and backend infrastructure. Our team handled the full delivery stack — from customer-facing apps to driver dispatch and AI-powered logistics. Engineers worked embedded within McGrocer's existing product and design organization, participating in daily standups, sprint ceremonies, and architecture reviews as core team members.
On the mobile side, our React Native engineers built both the customer and driver applications from the ground up — implementing real-time order tracking, intelligent search with AI-powered recommendations, in-app messaging, and proof-of-delivery workflows. On the backend, our Node.js engineers architected the order management system, built the real-time inventory synchronization pipeline, integrated the AI route optimization engine, and stood up the event-driven dispatch system on AWS SQS and Lambda.
The engagement model gave McGrocer immediate access to senior-level engineers without the months-long timeline of recruiting full-time hires. As the platform matured and McGrocer scaled their internal team, our engineers facilitated a structured knowledge transfer — documenting architecture decisions, onboarding new hires, and ensuring a seamless transition of ownership.
Work With Us
Building a delivery platform?
Whether you need engineers to build a logistics platform, a mobile app for drivers and customers, or AI-powered route optimization — our team ships production-grade systems on your timeline.
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