Retail
Desktop Retail Management System
High-Performance Point-of-Sale Client
Full Stack Developer
6 months
3 engineers
97%
Faster Sync
500K+
Daily Transactions
99.9%
Data Uptime
10%
Less Discrepancy
Overview
Rebuilt a critical desktop application for a retail chain managing hundreds of stores. The legacy Electron-based POS client suffered from slow synchronization and high memory usage, directly impacting store operations and causing inventory discrepancies.
The Challenge
Legacy sync system taking 5+ minutes, causing operational delays for retail stores processing half a million daily transactions
- Legacy Electron app consumed 800MB+ RAM, causing crashes on older hardware
- Full data sync took 5+ minutes, blocking store opening procedures
- Inventory discrepancies between local and server data reached 15%
- No offline capability meant network issues halted all operations
The Solution
01Complete rebuild using Rust + Tauri
02Optimized sync algorithms
03Lightweight desktop client
04Real-time inventory insights
Technical Approach
- Rebuilt using Tauri with Rust backend for 10x smaller binary and better performance
- Implemented delta sync algorithm - only changed records transfer
- Created local SQLite cache with conflict resolution for offline-first operation
- Built background sync service that runs without blocking UI operations
Key Decisions
Tauri over Electron
Why: 80% smaller binary size and native Rust performance for data processing
SQLite for local storage
Why: Battle-tested embedded database with excellent concurrent read performance
Operational Transform for conflicts
Why: Predictable conflict resolution that preserves user intent
Results
Sync time reduced from 5+ minutes to under 10 seconds (97% improvement)
Memory usage dropped from 800MB to under 100MB
Inventory discrepancies reduced from 15% to under 5%
Stores can now operate fully offline for up to 24 hours
Lessons Learned
- 1.Native code (Rust) makes a massive difference for data-intensive operations
- 2.Delta sync requires careful versioning - timestamp-based approaches have edge cases
- 3.Retail environments have unreliable networks - offline-first is not optional
Tech Stack
ReactTypeScriptTauriRustNode.jsAWS LambdaServerlessHasuraPostgreSQL
Interested in Working Together?
I help companies build scalable systems and solve complex engineering challenges.