CincyFoods: Cash Back Rewards Powered by AI Automation
Description: Discover how CincyFoods uses AI technology to automate cashback rewards, giving users instant cashback on daily purchases through smart AI-driven solutions.
What happens when everyday purchases meet AI-powered cashback automation? That’s the question the Lumitech team set out to answer.
About Project
CincyFoods allows users to earn rewards for everyday purchases — whether it’s grocery shopping, dining out, attending events, or using various services. The only thing you need to do is to scan your receipt after a purchase. The system will instantly calculate the cashback amount, transferring it to your in-app account. After that, you can withdraw your cashback to your personal bank account.
However, CincyFoods isn’t only about earning — it’s also about giving back. Schools can register and launch their own fundraising campaigns, while local businesses can contribute by offering cashback that goes directly to a school’s fund. You also have the option to donate your rewards, making a real difference for future generations.
Earning rewards on everyday spending is easy — and helping others is just as simple.
Interesting Facts
Cincinnati, a town where tradition meets technology, became the birthplace of CincyFoods: an AI-driven platform redefining cashback rewards (our client is from Cincinnati.)
CincyFoods is focused not on huge retailers and e-commerce stores but on small family-owned businesses.
The app supports not only cashback rewards for customers but also the opportunity for local schools to start fundraising campaigns and attract extra funds.
The MVP duration of CincyFoods was less than four months.
Client Request
What comes to mind when you hear "Cincinnati"? For us, it’s the Reds — the oldest MLB team, with the entire league tracing its origins back to Cinci. However, this place is not only about Reds but also a city where an idea for a modern cashback app for food and restaurant management came up.
So, what is the story? A client from Cincinnati approached us with a vision: to support local businesses, small shops, and restaurants. While most rewards apps focus solely on big chains and franchises, there was no platform where small businesses could allow their customers to earn cashback for making purchases. That’s how CincyRewards was born — a place where businesses can show appreciation and thank their customers with cash back. The heart of the project? The slogan: “Buy Local!”
Requirements
The key requirement was to create a seamless, automated, and easy-to-use system for everyone. Business owners needed a simple way to offer rewards, while customers required a streamlined and hassle-free process—just upload a receipt and get rewarded.
We also kept in mind the local schools. Supporting them was another core part of the app, ensuring that both businesses and customers had a way to give back. The Lumitech team also needed to take care of various types of discounts, simplified workflows for all categories of users, and AI technology.
With that in mind, we began researching the market, brainstorming the user experience, and designing the platform’s architecture.
Approach
Phase 1: Understanding the Requirements
First, we got to know our client, their product, and the initial documentation they provided. We also conducted market and competitor research to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. Through these discussions, we defined the project scope and created a feature list to guide development. This strong foundation allowed us to move confidently into design and development.
Phase 2: Designing the User Experience
The design phase was split into two key steps: prototyping and UI design.
Prototyping. We sketched out each screen, focusing on user experience (UX) principles. Our goal was to make the app intuitive, personalized, and easy to navigate.
UI Design. We refined the CincyRewards visuals to boost its brand awareness among customers, ensuring the app was engaging, recognizable, and user-friendly.
Phase 3: Development
Our team began by building the app’s architecture and taking care of its smooth integration with all necessary services while maintaining a seamless user experience.
The development process had two major milestones:
The mobile app – A user-friendly app where customers can set up their profiles, browse vendors, unlock rewards, and enjoy their shopping experience.
The web-based admin panel – A powerful tool for schools, businesses, and the CincyRewards team to manage their operations and maximize their revenues by attracting more customers with unique cashback campaigns.
Challenges
Every project we work on comes with its own set of challenges. Each business has different needs, and we must carefully consider every detail to build a product that truly benefits both businesses and users. Finding creative solutions, experimenting, and taking responsibility for key decisions are what allow us to tackle these challenges successfully.
1. AI Integration for Seamless Reward Processing
Our first major hurdle was finding the right technology to make the rewards process effortless. Users should be able to upload a receipt, and the system should handle everything else. Another of our top priorities was to make the app intuitive.
Initially, Lumitech's development team integrated Google’s ML Kit to recognize objects in photos. However, receipts come in many different formats, and ML Kit couldn’t accurately read and categorize them.
So, we kept researching and eventually found a more advanced Google solution that could extract key details from receipts, including the store name, purchase date, location, and item list. After extensive testing, this technology proved to be a perfect tool for automatically processing rewards with a single tap.
2. Multiple User Roles
One of the toughest challenges was designing the system to support multiple user roles, each with different needs and access levels. We had to carefully map out how these roles interacted and ensure the system handled their unique requirements smoothly.
3. Creating Analytics
Businesses using CincyRewards should have an opportunity to make sure their reward programs and marketing strategies are effective. They needed data-driven insights to make informed decisions. Since our mission was to support local businesses, we identified the following key metrics:
Tracking reward expenses: businesses needed to see how much they were spending on rewards.
Measuring customer engagement: understanding how rewards attract new customers.
Transparency: every reward issued had to be logged with details like location, date, and amount.
With this in mind, our team developed advanced dashboards with visual reports, tables, and charts. So, what was the final result? A fully customizable admin panel that vendors could tailor to their specific needs.
Core Features Implemented
Receipt Scanner – AI-powered receipt processing lets users simply take a picture and instantly receive their cashback.
Built-in Map – Users can see nearby vendors, with filtering options by category and location.
Contributor Groups – Users can create groups with friends and family to pool their rewards together.
School Support Events – Vendors can set up charity rewards, directing a portion of cashback to local schools.
Summary
Through close teamwork and step-by-step development, we turned the client’s idea into a smart, easy-to-use, and scalable platform. The core CincyFood’s features now allow customers to get their rewards for shopping on the fly, while small businesses have more opportunities to scale and attract new clients. We also used the power of AI to improve the app’s performance.
Lumitech, as one of the top software developers in Dubai, remains a driving force in innovative app development. Whether you're shaping a new idea or building something bold from scratch, we’re here to help turn your vision into reality. Curious to learn more? Let’s talk — we’re just a message away.
