Creator of the Week: Supporting Peru’s local shops with a delivery solution

Creator of the Week highlights success stories from our global app-building community. Do you have an AppGyver project you’d like us to feature? Message us at contact@appgyver.com.

Creator Profile

Creator: Jose Villalobos

Profession: Software Developer

Location: Arequipa, Peru

Solution: Franco Delivery

In the midst of the pandemic, Jose Villalobos became stranded in Peru. Unable to return to the US, he’s been using the time to develop a delivery app free of charge for local grocery stores that are struggling.

How did you land in Arequipa and how did the project start?

I came to Lima from California, originally to explore some business opportunities because Peru was doing fairly well economically and thought perhaps there would be a way to do some business with software development here. Then the pandemic got me stuck here for several months, I wasn’t able to go anywhere because Latin America was hit very hard.

I realized that businesses were getting hurt horrendously because of the pandemic, particularly small to medium sized businesses. They had no opportunity to sell their goods and that prompted me to start thinking about and devising an app that could be made available to the local businesses here.

I’m developing the application for a small chain of food stores, but the plan and agreement I have with them is to make that available to anyone, any of the small local businesses who want to use it.

Tell us about the app and how it works

It’s a food ordering and delivery system, and it has many characteristics specific to the local market. For example here in Peru they speak Spanish, but many people also speak two or three native languages. In fact that was my first challenge with AppGyver, that I wanted to publish an app that was multilingual and I had a heck of a time trying to learn how to do that. Finally I developed the capabilities and it worked very well.

I’ve developed it in English and Spanish, but eventually it has the capability to absorb native languages that could be beneficial to people who are living up higher in the Andes and don’t speak Spanish. That was something that AppGyver didn’t provide natively, but I managed to develop it using variables and AppGyver’s technology. And actually in the end, it wasn’t very difficult.

The other part of the project has to do with the fact that the pandemic has really affected the industrial and commercial environment in Peru. Even if the store has a list of products available, at the time of delivery the store might be out of stock of some items. There has to be a way of interacting between the stores and the customers, so that if something is out of stock the customer can either choose an alternative or agree that they won’t receive the item. There’s a communication feature that lets them pass messages and photos, so the stores can inform the clients if something isn’t available and what the alternatives are. This also modifies the way that you pay for goods, so with this app you pay on delivery, instead of paying beforehand.

How has the development process been in AppGyver so far?

I tried other tools, but they were more for making toys or simple apps in no time at all, so nothing serious. I found AppGyver and saw that it could allow a developer to really do some serious work. It’s not the easiest tool to use, but once you learn it it’s very powerful. I think the fact that I came from a software development background, going into no-code was harder in my view because I had to think of the process in a completely different way.

At the beginning, while I was based here in Peru I was having trouble getting some information, but the forum turned out to be very helpful. The few times I went directly to the AppGyver team, they were very helpful in their response.

AppGyver is a solid platform for developing applications, not just for toys, but actual professional applications that have benefits for the public.

How did you identify this specific problem?

There was absolute chaos at the beginning of the pandemic, there was no food, missing information about what to do, and stores were missing a lot of items and in some cases bare. After a while it stabilized, but the problem of inventory became more acute. I saw the problems by talking with a lot of business owners in Lima and Arequipa, and also just by reading the local papers. None of the apps for US grocery stores would work for them because of the issues I mentioned, so the owner and the staff of this grocery store chain told me what would work for them in an app.

You’re also developing this project at no cost, is that right?

Yes and I’m making it available for anyone who wants to use it. The fact that AppGyver allows me to build this without paying them, it allowed me to do the work because otherwise it would have been impossible. I’m also in conversation with Xano for the backend, so they can also provide services at a lower cost.

Working on this project has been extremely helpful because it kept me concentrated on something other than covid. AppGyver has given me an opportunity to not think about covid and do something positive and accomplish something. Altogether, it has been really therapeutic for me. I’m very pleased with the time spent and the effort of learning AppGyver, and the benefits that come with it.