Automatically sorting shopping list

Inspiration

🚀 What Inspired Us

When you're in a store with a shared shopping list, things can quickly get chaotic. Someone adds items in no particular order, and before you know it, you're walking back and forth across the aisles trying to make sense of it all.

Smart Shopping was created to solve that. Instead of just listing what you need, it helps you move through the store efficiently by automatically sorting your list based on the layout and grouping similar items. It’s about reducing friction and making shopping feel more straightforward, especially when collaborating with others.

What it does

🛠️ How We Built It

Frontend: React Native for cross-platform support with a focus on minimal, practical design.

Backend: Node.js with MongoDB to manage users, lists, and store layouts.

Sorting Logic: Simple location-aware ordering system based on aisle zones defined per store.

Sharing Feature: WebSocket-based real-time updates for collaborative list editing.

Layouts: Created simple store layout models that can be reused across locations of the same brand.

Challenges we ran into

🧗 Challenges We Ran Into

Creating reusable and flexible models for store layouts without relying on third-party APIs.

Keeping the app responsive and easy to use while processing changes in real-time.

Designing an intuitive UI that didn’t require users to think too much to benefit from the features.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

🏆 Accomplishments That We're Proud Of

Lists reordering automatically based on layout really works — and makes a noticeable difference.

Collaboration between users feels natural, and changes update instantly.

Initial testing showed users complete their shopping trips faster and with less backtracking.

What we learned

📚 What We Learned

Good UX is as important as good logic — especially when users are moving around and multitasking.

Collaboration adds complexity, especially when multiple users are editing the same list live.

Optimization doesn’t always have to be perfect — simple heuristics can be good enough if the experience feels right.

What's next for Automatically sorting shopping list

Next, we want to help more people benefit from smarter shopping by expanding access to better data.

A big part of what makes the app work is store layout information—and right now, that’s a bottleneck. So, we’re focused on:

Scaling layout data: Making it easier for users to contribute or refine store layouts in their area.

Improving coverage: Supporting more types of stores, not just big chains, so more people can benefit.

Learning from usage: Using anonymized data to improve sorting and adapt to real-world store variations.

Building a small but useful network effect: The more people use it, the better the data gets—for everyone.

The goal is simple: make it easier for anyone to get in, get what they need, and get out—without wasting time. And we think smart, user-driven data is the key to unlocking that.

Built With

• bolt
• fastapi