KARM Thrift Stores
Swift / Ruby / Rails / SidekiqWe're not software developers, and so it helps to have someone tell us how to make all the pieces fit together.
We had an idea of what we needed, but they made it a reality, and that was the beauty of our partnership.
KARM Stores approached us to first confirm that there was not an existing product solution to fit the unique needs of the thrift industry.
With confirmation that building a custom iPad application to tie into KARM Stores software platform, ThriftTrac, we were able to define the user experience and requirements to offer a tailored Point of Sale solution meeting not only the needs of KARM as an organization, but also customers of ThriftTrac.
KARM Stores has little experience building software, so we walked Evan and the team through the entire process - from discovery, design, development and launch.
We designed the app for ease of use, hands down. Our goal was to create an experience that cashiers and customers alike would find intuitive, pleasant, and keep the checkout experience fast. Our design features large buttons, bright high contrast colors, full screen messages and a guided workflow to lower the training threshold for cashiers.
It was incredibly important for us to craft an experience that cashiers would find quick and not cumbersome, while supporting a variety of configuration options and even different iPad sizes.
With a focused user experience defined with detailed user stories and intuitive high resolution interactive designs, we delivered builds of the native iPad application, written in Apple's Swift programming language, to KARM as quickly as features were completed.
By delivering builds of the app to KARM continuously, we were able to gather feedback often and quickly, adapting to tweaks and scenarios that were not uncovered during the discovery process.
We're very proud to have delivered a high quality Swift iPad app that will power KARM Stores and ThriftTrac™ customers Point of Sale solution across the country.
KARM Stores markets a software platform, ThriftTrac™, to thrift stores across the country to manage and analyze their store performance in an industry that is very data poor.
By offering OnTrac POS as a feature for existing ThriftTrac™ customers, we were able to build upon an existing customer base, integrate with data collection systems in place, and offer an extremely streamlined workflow for store managers and executives alike.
We added functionality to the ThriftTrac™ web application, allowing management to configure the POS to fit their organization needs and view live transaction data and metrics. Additionally, we built an entirely new mobile API for the POS iPad app to communicate with ThriftTrac™, allowing us to scale and deploy the API separately from the main web application.
We launched an MVP in late 2018 without initial support for integrated electronic payments; however, offering a streamlined solution was always on the product roadmap and after launch, we immediately began work.
We integrated using Heartland Payments, offering cashiers the ability to sell store gift cards, redeem gift cards, and take payments via credit and debit cards.
The entire cashier experience is easier than ever, store managers have much less end-of-day paperwork and reconciliation tasks to perform now that electronic payments are handled seamlessly, and the entire functionality is configurable, including allowing organizations to opt-out if desired.
We worked closely with KARM Stores to research hardware options for cash drawers, payment processing, and receipt printers, advise on device deployment options using a Mobile Device Manager (MDM) and the Apple Volume Purchase Program (VPP), and how they could deploy a large fleet of devices to their stores.
Throughout this process, we built a strong partnership that we can use in our continued support of the ThriftTrac™ and OnTrac products.
We're so happy to have been given the opportunity to collaborate with an organization doing such good in our community and streamline their operations to make personnel and customers alike that much happier!
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We're in Knoxville, TN - but we can work with you wherever you are.
