Burboneur is a platform for bourbon enthusiasts. The platform has both a website and mobile app for their users to make the experience better. Users need to have a subscription based on monthly or yearly to access this platform. Users can interact with different types of fun interactions like Wheel of Destiny, Bourboneur Blue Book, Flavour Guide, etc., to deepen their knowledge of bourbon.
Bourboneur: Helping the World Become Whiskey Wise
Bourboneur: Helping the World Become Whiskey Wise
Description
Technologies
Backend: Docker, PHP, Apache, Linux (Ubuntu), MySQL, S3 (AWS), Digitalocean
Mobile: Flutter, Firebase
Integrations: Apple In app purchase subscription service, Stripe Subscription service
Our role and services
UI/UX Design, Mobile Application Development, Website Development, REST Api, Frontend, DevOps, QA, Support
The Vision
When the client approached us, he had a very specific need to extend his existing website to add new features like Wheel of Destiny, Bourbon Blue Book, flavor guide, etc. He also wanted to create a dedicated native mobile application so that users could simply download the app from the app store and use it from their mobile directly. Users needed to subscribe to the monthly or yearly subscription package to access the internal of the platform. The client asked us to implement the in-app purchase for Apple users and Stripe for non-apple users as a payment gateway for subscriptions
Key Functionalities
- Subscription Model: Users need to subscribe via Apple in-app purchase or Stripe to access the application.
- Wheel of Destiny: There needs to be a spin-the-wheel-like feature where the user can enter the list of bourbon bottle names and spin the wheel to get a random suggestion.
- Suggestions By Taste: There needs to be a quadrants-like section in the app where user can browse the whiskey, based on their test.
- Bourbon Blue Book: List of thousands of bourbon whiskey, where users can easily search and browse based on bottle names.
- Blog: A blog to write engaging articles about bourbon and promote the product based on that.
- Payment Gateway: For IOS user can only use Apple in-app purchase and Stripe for other platforms to manage their subscription to the platform.
- Removing Third-Party Dependency: As the main website was built in Webflow, one of the main concerns for the client was to remove the external third-party dependency to reduce the monthly cost and make everything internal.
- General Features: Other general features like user registration, Password Reset, ability to delete the account if needed, etc.
How we made it a reality?
Once we got confirmation for the project from the client, we started to prepare a plan ASAP. We have selected Flutter for the mobile application while for the website we told the client that keep the website in Webflow (As the client had budget concerns), but, move the platform functionalities like Wheel of Destiny, Bourbon Blue Book, etc., to the mobile application. This resulted in lowering the cost for the application itself as third-party dependencies were hugely reduced. Every week we followed up with the client for this feedback and took note of the changes or fixes he said. Once we got a confirmation from the client to make it live, we uploaded the app to the app store and made the platform live for the users.
Things we have done
- We chose Flutter as a technology for this mobile application, as we think it suited the client’s needs perfectly.
- Planning to move the existing feature to in-house servers to reduce the cost.
- Moved data from Supabase to MySQL.
- Migrating existing users from the old website to the new mobile application.
- Setting up the docker-based server.
- Took Client feedback every week.
- Quality checking before getting feedback from the client.
- Uploading and making the final version live to the users
The pitfall
The application was rejected by Apple, due to not implementing Apple in-app purchases as Apple will not list an app that uses Stripe as a subscription service. So, we told the client to move everything to in-app purchase and remove the stripe as this would make sense and will be easy to manage in the future. But the client wanted to keep both of them. So, in the final version of the application, we kept both Stripe and Apple in-app purchases for platform-based subscriptions.
Final Result
Moved all data and features successfully and added new features to the new mobile application.
Added subscription service for the users from where the client can generate their revenue.
Seam less Apple “in-app purchase” integration and stripe integration to manage the user subscriptions.
Integrating MailChimp for the newsletter, so the client can reach out to bourboneur subscribers via email also.
The monthly cost to maintain the platform has been reduced dramatically.
An admin panel to add/update Blue Book, Wheel of Destiny, Flavour Guide, users, and blog articles from the back end.
Review
”I have been working with twiplo for the last 5+ months for my app Bourboneur. I needed to transfer my web application to a native mobile app and they have managed to do it the exact way I wanted it. Now the app is fast, secure, and native. This team is highly recommended.
Nick OwensCEO, Bourboneur
Together We Build Dreams
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