Fleetmart

Empowering small businesses and building stronger communities, one sale at a time.

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Inspiration

In light of recent events, it is abundantly clear that necessary precautions should be taken when stepping out of the house. So why step out at all? Grocery shopping is an essential part of an individual's lifestyle and a pandemic shouldn't stop someone from getting what they need. On top of that, small business owners are taking a heavy financial toll. Not only do they have to compete with major retailers but now they also have to make up for their losses from the decline in sales and foot traffic. This is where Fleetmart comes in to save the day.

What it does

Fleetmart stands for a fleet of markets that are strong together, similar to a fleet of ships in the navy. It helps small business owners (mainly grocery stores for the time being) sell their products to their community in a new and improved way. Instead of having to take trips back and forth to your local grocery stores, your groceries are bagged and ready when you are. You have the option to have them delivered to your doorstep, or even opt-in for carryout! This way, not only do you save time and avoid the hassle of doing things by yourself, but you also empower local business owners. A strong fleet of markets helps stimulate the economy and creates a stronger community all together! :)

How we built it

For the Front-End, we used React (w/Hooks) with Material-UI to setup aesthetically pleasing components and quick-rendering pages. For the Back-End, we used Python (Flask) and SQL (SQLAlchemy) to setup a database and routes that queried this database.

Challenges we ran into

Figuring out how to structure the database hierarchy was one challenge we faced early on. We experimented a bit with different hierarchies before settling on one. We also had issues communicating certain design ideas, so we used Figma, a prototyping tool, to help us lessen the toll of the virtual world.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our team managed to get most of the major features implemented in under 12 hours (yes, we've spent quite a lot of time brainstorming)!

What we learned

We learned to not go overboard when it comes to brainstorming, especially for hackathons with a shorter duration like this one. Additionally, a lot of time was wasted on trivial things which we've taken note of for the future.

What's next for Fleetmart

There are a number of features we plan to implement from here on out (Apple pay, expanding to businesses that aren't just grocery stores, delivery, and much more!). This is only the start of a promising platform and we hope that we can gain some traction from incubators later down the line.

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