Case Study: Food Rescue Mobile Marketplace App Development for Too Good To Go

Client

Too Good To Go is an international social impact company and Certified B Corporation fighting food waste. Its mobile marketplace helps people find quality unsold food at nearby cafes, bakeries, restaurants and stores, and helps businesses sell surplus food instead of writing it off. The service is built around Surprise Bags: a bag is reserved and paid for in the app and then picked up at the venue at a set time.

Challenges

Offers on Too Good To Go depend on location, a limited number of bags and a specific pickup time. The goal was to turn food rescue into a simple smartphone flow — find a nearby offer, reserve, pay and pick up — without losing the emotional mission of the service.

The audience: city residents looking for food near home or work, shoppers who want to save money, eco-conscious users, and local cafes, bakeries and stores that need to sell their surplus.

Fast nearby search: current offers on a map and in a list, tied to the user's location.
Purchase in a few steps: reservation and online payment right in the app.
Clear pickup: a defined time window and pickup confirmation at the venue.
Repeat orders: notifications, favorite venues and purchase history to keep users coming back.

Solution

A location-based catalog. Offers from cafes, bakeries, restaurants and stores are shown based on the user's location — in a list and on a map, with a link to the venue page.
A Surprise Bag card with everything needed to decide. Venue, food category, discounted price, number of bags left, address, rating and pickup time window. Filters by category, distance, pickup time, availability and saved venues.
Reservations with availability control. The app accounts for the limited number of bags: after confirmation and online payment, the order appears as active.
Pickup at the venue. Pickup time reminders, venue details and pickup confirmation directly in the app.
User retention and the partner side. Push notifications about new offers nearby, favorite venues, order history. We also covered flows for venues that list Surprise Bags and manage their offers.

Results

Users find available food nearby via the map and geosearch and see all offer terms before buying.
The path from choosing a bag to payment takes just a few steps in the app.
Order pickup has a clear time window, reminders and pickup confirmation.
Push notifications, favorite venues and order history drive repeat purchases.
Local venues gained a digital sales channel for surplus food and new customers instead of writing products off.

Technical details

Platform: mobile app for iOS and Android, REST API for the marketplace, partner offers, reservations and profile, push notifications, order funnel analytics.
Integrations: geolocation and maps, online payment.

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