Commercial International Logistics Application

A customer-facing native app
for tracking and managing parcels
logistics app development case study
Total time of
development
10,000 hours
Team members
7 engineers
Platforms
Android, iOS
Industry
Enterprise, Logistics
Time before MVP
release
5,800 hours

Our input

Business analysis
Business analysis
UI/UX design
UI/UX design
Android/iOS development
Android/iOS development
Quality assurance
Quality assurance
Project management
Project management

The Client

Our client is a large European logistics company that delivers small to medium-sized parcels. They’re currently present in 23 European countries and process over 5 million parcels every day.

Project idea

Parcel tracking and management was the core of this project: we needed to add all features to make it possible. During the business analysis phase, we offered to build additional features that would increase customer loyalty and decided to include them in later versions of the app.

For the minimum viable product (MVP), we chose these main features:

 

  • Personal profiles
  • Geolocation and displaying of nearest post offices
  • Parcel status tracking
  • Parcel management (e.g. the ability to change the delivery address)
  • Settings
  • Push notifications
  • In-app customer support calls
  • QR code scanner

 

In later versions of the app, we plan to add these features:

 

  • Loyalty programs
  • Special offers from partner companies
  • Customer support chatbot with a queue
  • Real-time parcel tracking

Project background

Our client decided to create a customer-facing app to increase customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and brand awareness. They were successfully operating across Europe but felt the need to provide better support to their customers and unburden the customer support team.

For this, they needed to create accessible software that would keep customers updated on the progress of deliveries while also providing additional services.

Goals

 

  • Provide customers with high-quality service
  • Encourage existing customers to use the app
  • Create a unique experience within the app and tie the app with offline delivery offices

Challenges

The biggest challenge in this project was to tie offline delivery processes with online data and make that data informative and accurate.

Another challenge was to encourage existing customers to use the application. To make the transition from the website to the app more effective, we needed to make both the online and offline experience with the app faster and more efficient.

Development process and results

Our first step was to analyze our client’s business needs and create technical specifications for the iOS and Android applications. We then developed wireframes and documentation and estimated the whole project. To make sure we released the app before the deadline, we extracted a list of must-have features for an MVP version.

To add value to the product, we added features that are unique to mobile apps:

  • Push notifications
  • Deep links
  • Advanced analytics
  • Geolocation
  • Mobile payments
  • Parcel tracking
  • In-app loyalty program app

We chose native technologies for this project to achieve the best quality and performance; we created native apps for both Android and iOS, adapting each to its platform for the best user experience. 

After the initial release, we started to gather the first data about end users, their behavior, the app’s performance, and more. This helped us to create a list of improvements.

As a result of this analysis, we decided to rethink the user experience (UX) and made the most popular screens more visible and accessible for users. For example, the onboarding screen was too cluttered, so we reduced the amount of information we requested from users and made the onboarding process easier. This immediately decreased the bounce rate. 

The team that worked on this project comprised: 

  • 1 iOS developer
  • 1 Android developer
  • 1 quality assurance specialist
  • 1 project manager

 

parcel tracking app 1
parcel tracking app 2
parcel tracking app 3
parcel tracking app 4

Personal profiles

A user’s personal profile contains brief information on the user, the user’s delivery history, preferred delivery offices, payment methods, loyalty program bonuses, and app settings.

 

Delivery management

Delivery management allows users to indicate where and when they want to receive a parcel by changing the delivery destination and day right from the app.

 

Parcel tracking

The live tracking feature shows users where their parcels are at any given time. This feature also updates delivery statuses along with details like delivery cost, size, and destination

 

Finding a shipping center

This feature allows a user to find the nearest parcel shop. The locations of parcel shops are visible on a map that considers the user’s current location and provides search functionality so users can filter shops according to relevant criteria.

 

Push notifications

We implemented push notifications to maximize the retention rate. Notifications inform users about delivery status changes, special offers, and system information.

Technologies we used

java
swift
fabric
crashlytics
google maps
alamofire
facebook core
bar code scanner
SwiftyJSON
objectmapper

What our client said about this project

parcels delivery company
quote
Parcel delivery company CEO
Europe
Their most important strength is the amount of effort they put in and their fast responsiveness to requests.

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