Sub-industry · Food & Grocery
Clear the substitution before the cart falls apart.
We build the pick queue, the substitution engine, and the slot management that keep an order whole from stock check to driver handoff: the system your fulfillment floor actually runs on.
Queue · 4 orders
slot · progress
Agent messaged the shopper on GR-2215: oat milk out, swapped to almond, order continuing
A queue built from fictional orders, styled the way pickers actually see it
Substitutions
Cleared inline
decided before the picker stalls
Slots
Capacity-aware
a window that isn't oversold
Carts
Self-repeating
the weekly order reorders itself
Stock
Synced live
web, app, and floor read the same count
Where orders break
Six moments a cart comes apart before it ships
Stock that lies by the hour
Fast-moving perishables drift by the hour, and a stale count turns into a canceled line item at pick time, long after checkout said yes.
A substitution decided too late
Swaps requested after the picker has already moved on slow down every order behind it in the queue.
A window that quietly overbooks
Delivery and pickup slots look open right up until three vans are promised the same ten minutes.
The cart nobody rebuilds
A weekly order that resets to empty on every visit never turns into a standing habit.
Search built for one item, when the cart holds forty
Filling a large cart across aisles and categories is a different problem than finding a single product.
Web, app, and the floor drifting apart
Three channels reading three different stock counts is exactly how a promised item goes missing.
The pick list
What runs the floor between checkout and the driver
Live inventory sync
Real-time stock across web, app, and the floor, so what's browsable is what's actually pickable.
Substitution engine
Smart, ranked swap suggestions that keep an order whole and hand the picker a decision instead of a dead stop.
Slot & capacity management
Delivery and pickup windows sized to what the dock and the driver board can actually cover.
Recurring carts
A standing weekly order that reorders itself and only changes when the customer says so.
Fast basket-building
Discovery and search built for carts of dozens of items.
Flagship · the substitution call
One thread clears the swap and moves the slot
An out-of-stock line item is a decision that has to happen in seconds, before the picker moves on. The same exchange that resolves it can move a pickup or delivery window at the same time.
- ▸Flags an out-of-stock item before the picker leaves the aisle empty-handed
- ▸Offers a ranked substitute the shopper can accept in the same thread
- ▸Moves a delivery or pickup slot without a second phone call
- ▸Updates the picker, the dock, and the driver board from one exchange
Test it on one delivery window first
Choose a single fulfillment slot from this week's schedule, and the substitution and hand-off flow runs against it end to end (same stock feed, same driver board) before it touches the rest of the week.
How it goes live
From mapped aisles to a queue you can trust
Map the aisles and the queue
We trace where stock, picking, and slot promises actually break today, across your fulfillment centers and stores.
Wire the live feed
Inventory, POS, and delivery or pickup scheduling connect in, so the queue reflects real stock and real capacity.
Turn on picking, subs, and slots together
The pick queue, the substitution engine, and slot management go live together as one system.
Tune against real carts
We refine substitution acceptance, slot accuracy, and cart automation against the orders that actually run.
The cold chain
Perishables get a promise the queue actually keeps
Temperature-zone picking routes
A picker's route respects frozen, chilled, and ambient zones, so cold items spend the least time out of the case.
Time-boxed staging
Bagged cold orders sit inside a monitored staging window before handoff, off the open counter.
Substitutions that respect temperature
A swap for a frozen item never quietly turns into a shelf-stable stand-in.
A handoff record that checks cold count
The driver handoff logs bag count and cold-item count alongside the signature.
Slot windows sized for perishables
Cold-heavy carts get tighter windows, protecting quality without starving capacity for everyone else.
Exceptions flagged before spoilage
A stalled cold order raises an alert before the ice melts, well ahead of any complaint.
What changes
What the floor and the shopper both feel
Picking that doesn't stall the floor
A flagged substitution gets a decision in the same minute, so one out-of-stock line doesn't hold up the rest of the order.
Fewer canceled carts
Swaps happen before the picker reaches an empty peg, so an out-of-stock item no longer costs the order.
Slots that hold their promise
Capacity-aware scheduling means a confirmed window stays confirmed, for the driver and for the customer.
A weekly order that repeats itself
Recurring carts turn a one-off order into a standing habit, and nobody rebuilds a cart from scratch.
Related services
What else goes into a build like this
Every grocery build connects to the wider service work above where it makes sense.
Questions
What grocers ask before switching this on
Does it actually know what's in stock, in real time?
Yes. Inventory syncs live across web, app, and the store floor, so what a shopper can add to a cart is what a picker can actually find on the shelf.
How does substitution work when an item runs out?
The picker gets a ranked substitute the moment a line item can't be filled, and the shopper can pre-approve swap rules or confirm one in the moment, so the order stays whole.
Can it manage delivery and pickup slots without overbooking?
Slot availability is tied to real dock and driver capacity, so a confirmed window is a window your team can actually cover.
Does it help turn one-off orders into recurring carts?
Recurring carts reorder on a schedule the customer sets, with easy edits and skips, so nobody has to rebuild the weekly order from memory.
Will it work with our existing commerce and fulfillment stack?
We connect to the commerce platform, inventory, and fulfillment systems you already run, so stock, subs, and slots stay in sync with nothing ripped out.
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Let's talk
Running a large platform, shaping a first MVP, or getting a product ready for a funding round? Tell us where you are. We'll shape the process around it, and stay with you after launch.
