Neev developed an iPad-based application for a client that connects the sales team of fashion and lifestyle businesses with retailers who make wholesale purchases. The application acts as an on-the-go marketplace through which sales personnel can download and share collections, suggest orders and receive and submit orders even when offline. Retailers can browse, edit and approve orders by simply signing on an iPad.

The Client

Since 12 years, the client has focused on simplifying the way the fashion and lifestyle industries do business. Launched in 2000, the client has grown to become one of the world’s largest B2B retail network that enables over 50,000 retailers to shop numerous top brands 365 days a year.

Business Need

The client required an application that enables the sales team of leading fashion and lifestyle businesses sell to retailers in bulk easily, quickly and effectively.

The application was required to enable the sales personnel download and share collections, browse by brand, collection or by style, send suggested buys and orders, send customized assortments and orders for buyers to browse, edit and approve, receive and submit orders while confirming the order by taking signatures directly on the iPad. The application was also required to work offline and automatically update the data as and when it came online.

The application was required to enable buyers to receive collections, browse through suggested buys and place orders for wholesale purchases on-the-go or at tradeshows.

Neev Solution

Neev built an iPad application that forms a bridge between retailers and sales personnel. The application automatically downloads the collections whenever the device is online. The application could also work offline. While it enables sales personnel to conveniently serve retailers and to close a sale, it enables retailers to browse through collections, receive suggestions and place orders at the comfort of their homes or shops or at tradeshows.

Neev used the iOS 6 SDK for developing the application. The application was developed using SQL-Lite. We used Crashlytics for superior crash reporting and Flurry for onboard analytics. FMDB was used for data storage.

Technology footprint

• iOS-6 SDK
• SQL-Lite
• Crashlytics
• Flurry
• FMDB

Top features

• Ability to work offline and automatically sync data when online.
• Enable sales personnel to take signatures directly on their iPad.
• Suggest orders and send customized assortments/orders.
• Retailers can edit orders.

Top Challenges

• Conflict resolution challenge since the application works offline also and the changes in the server had to be communicated to the app when online.
• When offline items are sent to the server, conflicts had to be handled when the app is online.