Building Froodly: A Headless D2C E-commerce Platform for Grocery Delivery
Grown here. Sold here. Delivered here. – Engineering a farm-to-table digital experience from the ground up.
Client Overview
Froodly Inc. is a visionary direct-to-consumer (D2C) grocery delivery service dedicated to connecting consumers in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) with fresh, locally sourced Canadian produce. Their mission is to champion the local food ecosystem by making farm-fresh products accessible through a seamless digital platform. Despite a robust operational plan leveraging existing logistics infrastructure, they started with a blank slate digitally. They needed a technology partner to build their entire e-commerce presence—one that was scalable, user-friendly, and reflected their brand promise of freshness and authenticity.
Services Provided
Solution Technologies / Tech Stack
The Challenge
Froodly needed more than just a website; they needed a complete digital commerce ecosystem built from scratch. The primary challenge was to create a high-performance, decoupled platform capable of handling the complexities of grocery e-commerce. This included real-time inventory, hyper-local delivery validation for the GTA, a seamless multi-step checkout process, and a content management system that the Froodly team could easily update. The architecture had to be robust enough for launch and scalable enough for future expansion, all while delivering a fast, intuitive user experience on both desktop and mobile.
The Solution
Our agency was selected to be the end-to-end technology partner for Froodly, tasked with translating their powerful business vision into a fully functional digital platform. We architected the solution around a modern, headless commerce model using a Turborepo monorepo. This approach provided maximum flexibility, allowing us to build a custom Next.js storefront tailored to the "Harvest Harmony" brand aesthetic while leveraging the powerful, extensible commerce engine of Medusa.js for the backend. Our goal was to build a system that was as fresh and reliable as the produce Froodly delivers.
Designing an Intuitive Farm-to-Table Experience
Guided by Froodly's "Harvest Harmony" design theme, we built a pixel-perfect Next.js storefront that is warm, authentic, and incredibly easy to use. The user interface, built with Tailwind CSS and shadcn/ui, is fully responsive and optimized for mobile-first shopping. We focused on creating a frictionless path from product discovery to checkout, implementing features that build trust and drive conversions.
- Enhanced Address Management: A React 19-compatible system allowing users to add, edit, and delete addresses with instant UI updates, backed by real-time GTA validation.
- Dynamic CTA System: A smart, context-aware Call-to-Action system that presents personalized messages and offers to users based on their authentication status and location on the site.
- Sophisticated Stripe Integration: A custom payment form using individual Stripe Elements for a professional and secure checkout experience with real-time card brand detection.
- $50 Minimum Order Validation: A robust client- and server-side validation system that enforces a minimum order value for delivery, a key business requirement.
- Real-time Order Tracking: A live order details page that updates automatically using webhooks, providing customers with an interactive timeline of their order's progress from placement to delivery.
Collaborative Development in a Monorepo
We leveraged a pnpm-powered Turborepo monorepo to manage the entire project. This structure allowed our frontend and backend teams to work in parallel, share code where necessary, and maintain a single source of truth. Using GitHub Codespaces and a pre-configured Docker environment, we created a seamless "it just works" development experience, enabling rapid iteration and consistent builds.
- Efficient Dependency Management: pnpm workspaces ensured fast, reliable installations and prevented dependency conflicts across the project.
- Streamlined CI/CD: Turborepo's build cache and task pipeline dramatically reduced build times and simplified deployments to Vercel and Railway.
- Turnkey Development Environments: A fully containerized setup using Docker and a .devcontainer configuration allowed any developer to get up and running in minutes.
- Agile Iteration: Preview deployments on Vercel allowed the Froodly team to review changes and provide feedback instantly, creating a tight, collaborative feedback loop.
The Result
The final product is a production-ready, feature-complete D2C e-commerce platform that perfectly embodies the Froodly brand. The headless architecture provides best-in-class performance, while the intuitive user interface makes grocery shopping a delight. The robust backend automates critical business logic, freeing up the Froodly team to focus on what they do best: sourcing and delivering the freshest local groceries. The platform's modular design ensures it can easily scale and adapt as Froodly grows its operations across the GTA and beyond.
What Our Clients and Team Say
"This platform is the digital embodiment of our mission. It’s trustworthy, beautiful, and works flawlessly. Our customers love how easy it is to shop local, and our team can manage everything from a single, powerful dashboard. Agency by Naman Kataria was the perfect partner to bring our vision to life"
"Froodly was a dream project. It challenged us to integrate complex business logic—like postal code validation and minimum order rules—into a seamless user experience. Building it within a Turborepo monorepo allowed us to move incredibly fast and maintain high quality across both the frontend and backend. It’s a showcase of modern headless commerce"