Dellinoo is a shopping app for a business that buys fashion, phones, watches and electronics in China and sells them in Zimbabwe. This page shows how we built the customer app: the decisions we made, a prototype you can tap through, and what's left before launch.
01 — The problem
The business sells two kinds of stock. Some items are already in Zimbabwe and can be delivered in a few days. Others are bought in China after the customer orders, and take a few weeks to arrive. Selling both through chat messages makes it hard for customers to see what's available, what it costs and when it will actually reach them.
The client wanted customers to shop on their own, with the same honesty about delivery times. They needed:
02 — How we built it
Dellinoo is a client project. Here's what each step looked like, and where it stands today.
A simple way to shop goods bought in China, with honest delivery times and local payments, instead of ordering through WhatsApp. Prices in US dollars, delivery areas and fees set by the business, and the business adds products and updates orders.
The look came from reference mockups the client supplied: yellow and black on a warm beige, rounded buttons and a floating menu bar. We also decided early that every product shows a date, not a vague "a few weeks". More below.
We mapped the main customer path (browse, product, cart, checkout, order tracking, profile) as a clickable prototype, so the flow could be checked on a phone. Try it below.
We built the customer app first, on sample products: categories, search, wishlist and recently viewed, product pages with size guides, cart, checkout, order tracking, and light and dark mode. Then came the finishing touches, real payment logos and the app icon.
Automated tests check the cart totals, placing an order, undoing a removed cart item, wishlist price drops, and that only China orders get the extra tracking steps. We also fixed a crash in the product photo animation.
Not shipped yet. The customer screens are done, and launch waits on the backend, real login and live payments. Before release, the client confirms details we left as placeholders, such as delivery fees, size charts and returns wording.
03 — Try it
This is the clickable prototype, running live on the page. It uses sample products, prices and a sample customer, and it may be a step behind the real app.
04 — Key decisions
In plain English, without the jargon.
Each item is marked either "In stock" (already in Zimbabwe, 1–3 days) or "From China" (a pre-order of about three weeks). The app turns that into a real date, like "Get it by 28 Sep", so customers know what they're waiting for before they pay.
An order with China items shows three more stages: bought in China, flying to Zimbabwe, arrived in Harare. Orders for local stock skip them, so customers only see the steps that apply to them.
The screens get their products and delivery areas from one place in the code. Today that place returns sample data; when the real server is ready, we swap it in there and the screens don't need rewriting.
A data saver setting loads smaller photos to save mobile data. The frosted-glass effects can be switched off if cheaper phones struggle, and decorative animations stay off when a phone is set to reduce motion.
Smaller touches came from the same thinking. A WhatsApp button sits on every product, because that's where customers already ask questions. Delivery areas and fees are a list the business will manage, including a free pickup point. And the wishlist notices when a saved item gets cheaper.
05 — Tech stack
Flutter, Android first, with iOS planned for later
Riverpod for app state, go_router for screens and tabs
Sample catalogue behind a swappable repository; settings saved on the phone with SharedPreferences
Urbanist font, Iconly icons, light and dark themes, cached product images
Paynow planned: EcoCash, OneMoney, InnBucks, Visa, Mastercard and ZimSwitch
Flutter unit tests for cart, orders and wishlist, plus a code check that must pass clean
06 — What's next
The customer app is built on sample data. These are needed before launch and are not built yet:
Your project
We follow the same steps for every client, and you see a clickable prototype before you pay for the build.