WeGrocery: the open-source platform for group orders
The problem
Group buying clubs coordinate shared orders by hand, between spreadsheets and WhatsApp threads, with mistakes and wasted time on every cycle.
The solution
WeGrocery: a single open-source (MIT) platform that every organisation activates under its own brand via environment variables, with no forks or dedicated code. Order cycles, a prepaid balance, card payments through Stripe, a treasury and two native languages, in a new version rebuilt from scratch.
How it went
A Milan-based association ran its own group buying club (GAS) the way almost everyone does: shared spreadsheets, WhatsApp messages for every order cycle, reminders sent by hand. It worked, but every cycle cost time, and every transcription mistake became a wrong order.
Instead of building a one-off app for a single client, we generalised the problem: WeGrocery is a single open-source codebase (Next.js, MIT licence) that any buying club or GAS can activate under its own brand, language and colours, set via environment variables. No forks, no dedicated branches: a platform update reaches every deployment at once.
Every order cycle has an opening and closing window, members order from a shared catalogue, the system sends automatic notifications when a cycle opens and tracks who ordered what. The interface is natively bilingual (Italian and English, not translated at runtime), built to be adopted outside Italy too.
Then the platform was rebuilt from scratch, with a new phone-first design. Members top up their balance by card through Stripe or, if the group chooses it, pay for each order and get any overpayment refunded to their card at the end of the cycle. Every treasury correction is a traceable reversal instead of an edit, closing a cycle is all or nothing, and every night a check verifies that payments, refunds and charges add up. Members also gained family orders, sign-in with an email link or code, an app to install on the phone and a searchable guide.
The first production deployment is the association that started the project: it has been running real orders for real members since 2026. The platform stays public on GitHub, open to anyone who wants to adopt or contribute to it, with a tailored implementation (domain, branding, integrations) offered as a service to whoever wants their own deployment without running it themselves.
The product behind this case: WeGrocery