About the project
Walsup is a youth-centric social commerce fintech app featuring group buying mechanics, dynamic tiered pricing, and an integrated digital wallet with cashback rewards
My role: Technical architect and lead developer of the MVP, from the group buying engine to the mobile app.
Walsup represents a hybrid between Fintech and Social Commerce, exclusively designed for the 16-28 demographic. The platform enables users to form independent purchasing networks with partners, leveraging collective buying power to unlock better rates. As the Technical Architect and Lead Developer, I engineered the MVP to support complex real-time interactions. The core innovation lies in its Group Buying Engine, where product prices dynamically decrease based on user participation tiers. The system also integrates a closed-loop digital wallet, incentivizing engagement through instant cashback on transactions
Main features
- 📉 Dynamic Group Buying: Implementation of a tiered pricing algorithm where costs drop as more users join a purchase group.
- 💳 Wallet & Cashback: Integrated digital wallet offering automatic cashback rewards on in-app purchases.
- 💬 Real-Time Chat: In-app messaging system powered by Firebase to facilitate group coordination and social interaction.
- 🖥️ Dual Web Dashboards: Distinct portals for Partners (offer management) and Admins (global oversight), built with React.js.
- 🔄 Hybrid Database Architecture: Utilized PostgreSQL for robust relational data (transactions, orders) combined with Firebase Realtime Database for live chat and instant price updates.
- 📱 Cross-Platform Mobile App: High-performance React Native application for iOS and Android.
Problems and solutions
Problem: A young buyer on their own has no leverage on price. Retail pricing is fixed whether one person buys or fifty, so the group that actually drives the volume gets nothing for it, and there is no reason to bring anyone else along.
Solution: The group buying engine makes participation the price. Each tier of buyers that joins a purchase group lowers the cost for everyone in it, so inviting a friend has an immediate and visible value instead of being an act of goodwill.
Problem: Group buying only works if the group can actually coordinate, and transactional data and live conversation have opposite storage needs. Forcing both into one database means either slow chat or unreliable orders.
Solution: The architecture uses each database for what it is good at: PostgreSQL holds transactions and orders where consistency matters, and Firebase carries the real time chat that lets a group organise its purchase.
