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Cover image for # Treat: A Global Gifting Platform Empowering Local Businesses
AWS Community Builders profile image Seth David Gyimah
Seth David Gyimah for AWS Community Builders

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# Treat: A Global Gifting Platform Empowering Local Businesses

#h0hackathon

This project was built for the purposes of entering the H0 Hackathon.

🚀 Live at: https://www.sendatreat.app/

The Problem

Gifting is one of the most natural human expressions of connection. People love surprising friends, family, and colleagues with food, gifts, services, and experiences.

However, the current experience is fragmented:

  • People rely on multiple apps and coordination tools
  • Most gifting defaults to cash transfers, losing emotional intent
  • Real-world fulfillment is disconnected from digital intent

At the same time, millions of local businesses globally — from restaurants and food vendors to salons, hotels, and service providers — struggle to reach customers consistently without expensive marketing platforms or technical infrastructure.

This creates a gap between intentional giving and local business access to demand.

What I Built

Treat is a global gifting platform that allows anyone to send meaningful real-world experiences to people they care about.

Instead of sending money or generic gift cards, users send:

  • Food from local restaurants
  • Services (spa, salon, experiences)
  • Physical goods from nearby merchants

Recipients receive a secure link via SMS, claim their treat, and redeem it at participating merchants.

Treat is designed so that:

  • Merchants get visibility at zero marketing cost
  • Senders create meaningful moments instead of transactions
  • Recipients enjoy flexible, low-friction redemption

Live project: https://www.sendatreat.app/

How I Built It (AWS + Vercel Architecture)

Treat is a cloud-native distributed system designed for scale and real-world transaction workflows.

Frontend (Vercel)

  • Built with React + Vite
  • Deployed on Vercel via GitHub integration
  • Handles user experience for sending, claiming, and managing treats

Backend (AWS)

  • Built with Ruby on Rails API
  • Deployed on AWS ECS Fargate (containerized services)
  • Designed as a decoupled API layer for web + future mobile clients

Database Layer

  • Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL
  • Stores users, merchants, payments, claims, and transaction state

Payments

  • Paystack (primary in supported regions)
  • Handles secure card and mobile money payments
  • Supports instant merchant settlement after verification

Communications

  • SMS + Email notifications power:
    • Treat delivery
    • Claim flows
    • OTP verification
    • Merchant alerts

Key Workflow

  1. Sender purchases a treat from a merchant
  2. Recipient receives SMS link instantly
  3. Recipient claims and verifies identity (OTP-based security layer)
  4. Merchant is notified and prepares fulfillment
  5. After verification at merchant location:
    • Payment is released instantly
    • Treat is served

Challenges I Ran Into

1. Designing a 3-sided marketplace flow

Unlike traditional e-commerce, Treat requires coordination between:

  • Sender
  • Recipient
  • Merchant

This meant designing a system where emotional gifting and transactional accuracy coexist.

2. Payments and settlement complexity

A major challenge was ensuring:

  • Low friction checkout for senders
  • Instant payout to merchants after verification
  • Cross-provider payment consistency across countries

This required integrating regional payment providers and limiting rollout to supported markets.

3. Real-world redemption vs digital intent

Bridging digital gifting with physical merchant redemption required careful design of:

  • OTP verification flows
  • QR-based validation
  • Merchant-assisted and self-checkout flows

What I’m Proud Of

  • Treat is now live and operational at: https://www.sendatreat.app/
  • Active deployment across multiple supported regions
  • Fully working end-to-end gifting flow (send → claim → redeem → payout)
  • Early adoption by local merchants and testers
  • Built a system that supports real-world gifting, not just digital transactions

What I Learned

Building Treat reinforced that:

  • Gifting is emotional, not transactional
  • UX matters as much as infrastructure in real-world systems
  • Local businesses thrive when embedded into personal moments, not just marketplaces

What’s Next

  • Expand to more countries and payment providers
  • Mobile app (iOS + Android) rollout
  • WhatsApp + richer notification channels
  • Delivery partnerships for non-pickup experiences
  • Corporate gifting and rewards integration

Ultimately, Treat aims to become the global infrastructure for meaningful gifting and local business discovery.

Tech Stack

  • AWS (ECS Fargate, Aurora PostgreSQL)
  • Ruby on Rails API
  • React + Vite
  • Vercel
  • Paystack
  • SMS/Email infrastructure

Try It Out

🌍 https://www.sendatreat.app/

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