Gravity is a large and growing coffee chain in the Pacific Northwest that has been revolutionizing the drive-thru coffee experience. With a signature coffee blend and a colorful line of super-charged energy drinks, Gravity are expanding at an incredible rate and have demonstrated success in one of the most competitive coffee markets in the United States.
For this project, Gravity asked CitrusBits to design and develop a mobile application for iOS and Android platforms, integrate with their existing POS, and create a admin dashboard to manage the app’s seasonal and promotional content. As they have robust gift card and loyalty programs, Gravity also wanted to feature these in their mobile app for a heightened guest experience.
We conducted extra workshops during our Discovery phase so that Gravity could bring employees into the process. From baristas to upper management, we guided a large group of team members through Discovery to ensure people had buy-in and that the subject-matter experts were involved in bringing truth to the user personas, the customer journey, and the features needed for the new app.
Next, CitrusBits created the app’s UX and UI designs, with prototypes so that Gravity could visualize the user experience. CitrusBits’ engineers developed both an Android and iOS app using React Native and AWS for hosting. We integrated with Revel, the POS system that fuels Gravity’s stores. We also designed and created a custom, web-based admin dashboard to manage store location information, menus, featured content, order details, and customer service requests.
We designed the ability for customers to schedule their pick-up order at a specific time or create an order for immediate pick-up. Orders can be paid with a credit card and Gravity gift cards. Customers can check their card balance in the app, reload a gift card, and check their reward points. Additionally, CitrusBits helped Gravity strategize and design a monthly subscription model — the Galaxy Club — that includes benefits such as drink rewards, exclusive deals, and a secret menu only available through the app.
The new Gravity mobile app is the most convenient and exciting way to order ahead for pickup, take advantage of rewards built right into the app, and for customers to earn points towards free drinks and other benefits.
We created a scalable and efficient app, offering a personalized experiences for customers while on-the-go. The app increased customer retention through the usage of a loyalty program and modern payment services.
The app saw around 8,000–9,000 downloads in the first month it launched, even without a marketing campaign. Gravity had over 5,000 orders taken through the app in the first month — with great customer response. The subscription model both generated revenue and reduced the time that employees spent answering repetitive questions around loyalty programs. The app has also helped speed up order service and upsells, since customers now order more products through the app. Gravity has seen that app orders have a higher average ticket spend than store orders.
CitrusBits continues to provide Gravity with ongoing support, and with plans to add more features to the app in the future.
