Nyfty Delivery

TBD

System Design

The platform consisted of a backend hosted on AWS, a website for customer’s to place orders, and 2 mobile applications for delivery drivers (“Pilots”) to fulfill orders.

The website was designed for customer use only. It allowed customers to find a store, browse that store’s listed items, and submit orders for delivery. Customers could also submit custom orders either for stores not listed or for items not listed on a particular store. The search page integrated a live map search, which utilized the Google Maps API. After crafting an order, customers would proceed through the checkout process, which was integrated with the Stripe API.

The front-end of the website and the 2 applications

Store Data Scraping / Validation

Data for the site was gathered through a combination of manual user entry and scraping the web to either gather new data and validate existing data.

Since the service was limited to a small area, the number of stores inside the delivery area was limited. This made it feasible to manually enter and validate many of the most popular stores. Contractors were hired to manually research businesses and input data about the stores and their product offerings. A custom dashboard was developed for them to input their findings, which is shown below.

We also developed scripts that analyzed various websites and data sources to gather up-to-date store data (address, hours, etc.) and product listings / pricing where possible. This allowed us to validate manually-entered data and update data as store information changed over time.

Nyfty Pay

The platform integrated with PEX to allow delivery drivers to purchase orders with company money rather than paying out of pocket and being reimbursed. These reloadable debit cards, branded as “Nyfty Pay,” allowed drivers to deliver as many orders as they wanted, not just what their cash flow would allow.

Once a driver was onboarded and approved with Nyfty, a personalized PEX card was created and mailed to them. We created custom mailers and envelopes to ship the cards in. Each mailer had a custom reflection graphic and drop shadow where the PEX card was adhered. This is shown below, and you can see the printed reflection matching the name on the card and the shadow matching where the card would be mounted. A second image also illustrates how this looks when the card is removed.

These cards were integrated to the Nyfty system using the PEX API. We developed a flow where a driver’s card would be immediately loaded with the appropriate amount of money after they accepted an order. This included a buffer amount to allow orders to be completed even if the estimated prices were slightly off. The driver would then purchase the order, and as soon as the order was delivered, their card would be wiped back empty to avoid additional purchases.

To accompany the launch of Nyfty Pay, we created a short 3D animated video. This video helped promote the platform’s new capability and recruit new drivers for the platform.