Golocal customer app
Golocal connects customers with nearby shops and service providers, making it easy to discover, order, and support local businesses from one simple app.
About Project
Golocal is a local marketplace app that brings together neighbourhood stores and service providers in a single, mobileāfirst experience.
Your team delivered the full customerāfacing platform, UI/UX, native Android and iOS apps, Laravelābased APIs, and an admin panel, so users can browse local products and services, place orders, and interact with businesses around them, while the Golocal team manages everything from one central backend.
Technology Stack
Tools
Xcode
Android studio
VS code
Git
UI/UX
Figma
Cloud/Server
AWS
GoDaddy
Apache
Database
MongoDB
Back-end
NodeJs
Front-end
EJS
HTML5
CSS3
JavaScript
jquery
Mobile
Swift
Kotlin
Android
iOS
Team Members
Android
1 Member
IOS
1 Member
Node.js
1 Member
QA
1 Member
UI/UX
1 Member
Project Manager
1 Member
Project Description
Many people want to support local businesses but don’t always know who is nearby, what they offer, or whether they accept online orders. Golocal was built to solve that by acting as a digital bridge between customers and local shops, restaurants, home services, and other neighbourhood providers.
With the Golocal customer app, users can create an account, set their location, and instantly see a list of nearby businesses inside the app. They can browse categories, view store or service profiles, explore products or service offerings, and place orders or service requests directly through the app. The experience is designed to feel like walking through a local market, only smarter, searchable, and available in your pocket.
On the tech side, native Android (Kotlin) and iOS (Swift) apps handle the customer experience with smooth navigation and responsive design. A Laravelāpowered backend with a MySQL database manages user accounts, business listings, categories, orders, and ratings. The admin panel, built using HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, jQuery, and Laravel views, lets the Golocal team onboard new businesses, manage content, configure service areas, and track marketplace activity.
Business Goals
The main business goal of Golocal is to create a single platform where local businesses can be discovered and customers can easily shop or book services without switching between multiple apps, DMs, or phone calls.
For businesses, Golocal aims to increase visibility, simplify order intake, and provide a digital storefront without them needing to build their own app. For customers, the goal is convenience and confidence: one app to find reliable local options, compare, and transact.
Longer term, Golocal positions itself as a hyperlocal ecosystem that can expand to more cities and regions, introduce premium placement for businesses, and offer additional features like loyalty programs, promotions, and deeper analytics for merchants.
Features
Local Business Discovery
Users can find nearby shops and service providers based on location and category, making it easy to see who is around and what they offer.
Product & Service Listings
Each business has its own profile with descriptions, photos, and lists of products or services, so customers can explore options before engaging.
InāApp Ordering / Requests
Customers can place orders for products or submit service requests from within the app, instead of relying on calls or scattered chat messages.
User Accounts & Profiles
Users can create and manage their profiles, view order history, save favourites, and quickly reorder from preferred local vendors.
Ratings & Basic Feedback
The system supports basic feedback or rating mechanisms so customers can make better decisions and businesses can build trust over time.
Native Android & iOS Apps
With Kotlin for Android and Swift for iOS, Golocal provides fast, platformānative experiences optimised for everyday use.
LaravelāBased Admin Panel
The Golocal team uses a web admin built with Laravel, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, and jQuery to manage businesses, categories, banners, configurations, and user issues.
MySQLāBacked, APIāDriven Architecture
A MySQL database stores users, businesses, and orders, while Laravel exposes APIs consumed by the mobile apps, keeping the system structured and scalable.
Typography & Color Palete
Challenges & Solutions
Challenges
Solutions
Onboarding and organising diverse local businesses
Each business has different offerings, price points, and ways of working, which can make the platform feel inconsistent.
The admin panel and data model were designed with flexible categories and listing structures, allowing Golocal to standardise how information is shown while still respecting each business’s uniqueness.
Making local discovery feel relevant, not cluttered
Showing too many options can overwhelm users; showing too few can make the app feel empty.
Location and category filters, along with curated sections, help users quickly find what they need, like groceries, food, services, or specialty shops, without wading through irrelevant listings.
Balancing simplicity for users with power for admins
The customer app needed to stay clean and intuitive while the backend needed to be robust enough for operations and growth.
All complexity (business management, approvals, categorisation, configurations) is handled in the Laravel admin, keeping the mobile app focused on discovery and ordering.
Trust and reliability with local merchants
New users may worry about quality, delivery times, or service reliability when ordering from lesserāknown local providers.
Business profiles, consistent listing formats, and basic ratings/feedback help build confidence, while the Golocal team can monitor and manage merchant performance via the admin panel.
Preparing for multiācity scale
What works for one area needs to be adaptable as Golocal expands to more neighbourhoods and cities.
The backend was structured with location, service area, and city as firstāclass elements, so new regions can be added through configuration rather than rebuilding core logic.
Get a Free Consultation
Have an app, web platform, AI solution, or custom software idea? Share it with us and get practical guidance from an experienced product development team.
Need a mobile app, web app, AI solution, or custom software?
Get a free consultation and discuss your project with our team.
Business
Passionate about mobile apps, websites, AI, and software development?
Join our growing team!
HR
