SmallBiz Go

Inspiration

With the onset of COVID-19, many small businesses struggle to stay afloat. This is in contrast to large conglomerates which have seen a surge in customers due to “pandemic buying.” source

We created SmallBiz Go to encourage shoppers to buy from small businesses in their community and thereby address the widening income gap in the US today.

What it does

Shoppers are put into random teams. By shopping at small businesses on the platform, customers can expand their team's territory.

Small businesses can set a discount amount on their dashboard. The discount is eligible only for the team that contains the shop within its territory.

This creates economic incentive as small businesses can advertise their products and shoppers can help their community while saving on purchases.

How we built it

We built the website in React, Firebase, and Fuse.

Small businesses can use the Firebase Realtime Database to update their inventory and set the discount amount for the team that has it in their territory.

Customers can search for and add items to their shopping list. The search bar is powered by fuzzy matching to make the user experience as seamless as possible. Once their shopping list is complete, customers will be presented with a map of the shops that contain those items as well as what territories they control.