Vanilla
Arabic-first beauty shopping for Iraq
A cosmetics and beauty shopping app for Iraq, built with Flutter on the client's WooCommerce store. 100K+ installs on Google Play, rated 4.4.
- Country
Iraq- Type
- Client project
- Platforms
- Android · iOS
- installs on Google Play
- 100K+
- rating on Google Play
- 4.4
- rating on the App Store
- 4.3
Overview
Vanilla (ڤانيلا) is an online cosmetics and beauty store for customers in Iraq. Shoppers browse makeup, skincare, haircare, perfumes, body care and gift boxes, filter by category or brand, follow offers and best sellers, and order from inside the app. Prices are in Iraqi dinar and Arabic is the default language.
I handled the full mobile delivery: brand customization, an Arabic-first experience for the Iraqi market, WooCommerce integration, push notifications, and releases on Google Play and the App Store for iPhone and iPad. The iOS app has been on the App Store since March 2023.
The challenge
- 01
A big catalogue on a small screen: thousands of products across many categories and brands must be easy to find in Arabic.
- 02
One source of truth: products, stock, prices, coupons and orders must stay in sync with the client's WooCommerce store, with no second admin panel.
- 03
Arabic-first for Iraq: RTL layouts, Arabic copy and dinar prices are the default, while English still works.
- 04
A real brand: the app has to look like Vanilla, with its own colors, banners, category art and home sections.
- 05
Frequent campaigns: offers and seasonal gift boxes change often, and fixes must reach users without waiting for store review.
Highlights
Shopping
- A home built from brand sections: hero banners, new arrivals, best sellers, celebrity favourites, gift boxes and offers.
- Category browsing (makeup, skincare, haircare, perfumes, body care and more) and a brands page.
- Fast search with filters and sorting, and detailed product pages with image galleries and stock status.
Cart and orders
- Cart with quantity controls, coupon codes and a clear order summary.
- Wishlist, saved addresses and order history with order status.
- Gift cards sold through the store.
Arabic-first UX
- Right-to-left UI with Arabic as the default language and English available.
- Prices shown in Iraqi dinar (IQD).
- Layouts that adapt from phones to iPad.
Engagement and delivery
- Push notifications for offers and order updates through OneSignal.
- Firebase Analytics and Remote Config, campaign deep links, and in-app rating and update prompts.
- Over-the-air patches with Shorebird between store releases.
Signature feature
Arabic-first beauty shopping for Iraq
- Arabic by default: the app opens in Arabic with a full right-to-left layout, and navigation, product cards, cart and checkout all mirror correctly. English is one tap away in settings.
- Local pricing: every price, discount and order total is shown in Iraqi dinar.
- Shop the way people browse: the home screen is built from the brand's own sections (new arrivals, best sellers, celebrity favourites, gift boxes), each category has its own artwork, and customers can also start from a brand.
- Always in sync with the store: products, stock, prices and coupons come live from the client's WooCommerce shop, so changes in the shop's admin show up in the app.
Screens
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Engineering notes
- 01
Brand customization that stays upgradeable
The Vanilla look (theme, fonts, home sections, category icons, banners and splash) lives in configuration and assets, so the core app stays easy to update while the brand stays consistent.
- 02
RTL done properly
Lists, sliders, product cards, badges and price rows were checked in both directions. Arabic is the default, and mixed Arabic and English product names render cleanly.
- 03
Store sync
The app reads products, stock and coupons from WooCommerce on demand and caches what it can locally, while the shop team keeps working in the admin they already know.
- 04
Push that reaches users
OneSignal is wired for offer campaigns and order updates on Android and iOS, including the iOS notification permission flow.
- 05
Shipping fast
Releases go out through Google Play and the App Store, and small fixes ship as Shorebird patches so a campaign does not wait on store review.
Results
- Google Play: 100K+ installs, rated 4.4.
- App Store: rated 4.3 from 83 ratings, available on iPhone and iPad, listed since March 2023.
Stack
- Flutter
- Provider
- get_it
- WooCommerce
- Dio
- Hive
- OneSignal
- Firebase Analytics
- Remote Config
- Shorebird