Mobile App Development for Fashion & Lifestyle Company
- Mobile App Development
- $200,000 to $999,999
- Jan. - Mar. 2026
- Quality
- 1.0
- Schedule
- 1.0
- Cost
- 1.0
- Willing to Refer
- 1.0
"They were supposed to deliver a working product by October, but that got pushed to November and then to December."
- Information technology
- Milan, Italy
- 501-1,000 Employees
- Online Review
A fashion and lifestyle company hired INOXOFT to develop a mobile app. The team was responsible for building the first version of a native iOS app based on the client's UI/UX designs and technical requirements.
The client was disappointed with the final product delivered by INOXOFT. Although the team built a strong backend, they built a sparse frontend, and the app had inconsistent formatting and unusable features. Moreover, INOXOFT had a weak communication and project management approach.
The client submitted this review online.
BACKGROUND
Please describe your company and position.
I am the Media Marketing Specialist of YOOX
Describe what your company does in a single sentence.
YOOX is an online fashion and lifestyle store offering designer clothing, art, and sustainable products while inspiring self-expression through style.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What specific goals or objectives did you hire INOXOFT to accomplish?
- We were looking for someone to help with mobile app development for our invitation platform. We had the entire app mapped out, and we just needed a technical team to help us build the first version in code, as we didn’t have those resources in-house.
SOLUTION
How did you find INOXOFT?
Clutch Site
Why did you select INOXOFT over others?
- High ratings
- Pricing fit our budget
How many teammates from INOXOFT were assigned to this project?
2-5 Employees
Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.
We hired Inoxoft to build the first version of the native mobile app for iOS. I have a 10-year background in technology product design. I had designed and built an entire prototype as well as all of the app’s UI and UX, end-to-end, before even approaching Inoxoft. We needed external resources to help bring the app to life, but we had a very detailed map; it isn’t every day that a client comes to you with a high-level prototype that you can reference and click through on your phone. We also provided them with all of the design files. The scope was just to build what we had planned and to help us figure out some of the tougher technical issues, such as the logic of the app, how it would perform, and the functionality we wanted to implement. They were supposed to provide a full first version of the app that we could launch and raise money with. They weren’t tasked with launching the actual app; we were going to do that, but they needed to build it and have it perform well, to our expectations, which they knew clearly.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?
The CEO was telling us what we did and didn’t need the whole time. He wouldn’t let us look at any of the code before the end of the engagement, so we couldn’t onboard any technical help internally until the engagement was done. We also have a lot of emails of the CEO just emailing nasty stuff, which we couldn’t believe as paying clients. I have never seen that kind of unprofessionalism. We had five different CTOs individually audit their work over a week. They each came back agreeing that it was the worst engagement development-wise that they had seen in a long time. We had one opportunity to make this startup happen, as it’s funded by pretty big people but not a lot of money. Inoxoft essentially took $250,000, which is most of our money, and gave us something worth $75,000–$80,000, according to our CTO audits. I have had people say they would love to see what a $250,000 app looks like, and they have all been very disappointed. Anyone who works in this industry would be. We were very transparent with the CEO from the very beginning about the amount of money we had and what we wanted to build. It wasn’t just written down in text; they had full design files and everything. We didn’t pay for any designers on the project because we didn’t need to. Inoxoft had an entire map to look at, so they knew exactly what features we needed.
Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?
We had to do the product management ourselves, and it was just me and my co-founder. We kept track of the project and managed most of it on our own. The CEO just managed the project through email, which was very unprofessional. We also had a Trello board that allowed for tasks to be done right and by certain times. There was no communication. They didn’t honor any deadlines. They were supposed to deliver a working product by October, but that got pushed to November and then to December. They never really honored the timelines we had agreed upon, which became a problem. When they finally handed us the source code — and I had to force that handoff — they deleted all of their history and delivered old code from months ago. We need to be able to see when things were migrated and pushed, and when code was committed. Everything we had gone through with them over the course of four months was completely erased. That was a huge and very intentional move. We now have to rebuild pretty much everything they did. The CEO basically sold us a Ferrari and gave us a used Toyota Camry. He took everything very personally, which was really disappointing. I have had a great career managing massive development agencies, but it was as if he just assumed that I didn’t know what I was doing. Even when we voiced our concerns over and over again, he constantly pushed back. We then had a pretty weird relationship with them; they wouldn’t let us come into the office very often. We had asked for in-person meetings every Monday, and they declined and just ignored our request. This left us wondering what was going on.
What was your primary form of communication with INOXOFT?
Virtual Meeting
What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?
They did do one thing well, which was building a strong backend for the app. A lot of our senior technologists said they did a good job on the app’s backend, so we were still able to use that piece of it, but they really messed up the frontend. The frontend was very sparse and confusing. We found that a lot of the work they did was not thought through. Ultimately, the app was not usable. We couldn’t launch with it, and it crashed every two seconds. Utility had a lot of people working on the app, and that was very clear. They actually lied to us and said that all of the development was happening locally, but we found in our analytics that there were a few people in India that had worked on the app. They were using outsourced development, even though I had clearly stated that we were hiring them because they had internal developers and were local to us; we didn’t want outsourced developers. When we looked at all of the source code, it had seven different types of formatting. That is very rare when developing a product, because that means seven different people touched it, and there was no one controlling the formatting. You should always have the same formatting throughout an app; that way, it makes sense. There were a lot of things built on top of things that had already been done. There was also a lot of unused code; it was just a mess.
Are there any areas for improvement or something INOXOFT could have done differently?
We didn’t hear much from them unless we pried. There was no thorough communication, which was also a requirement that we had laid out at the beginning of the project. We didn’t have our own development help, so we needed to thoroughly understand every stage of the app and how they were building it, the problems they were facing, and the third-party services they were using within the app. When you go to raise money, you need to be able to talk about how the product is being built and the choices that are being made. They provided none of that. When we had to onboard our own CTO, they were very hesitant and wouldn’t show him anything until they were done and paid in full. We honored every single one of their payments perfectly on time; they honored none of our deadlines. If they had stated that they were facing a lot of challenges and that this was going to take them longer than expected, things wouldn’t have been that bad. They left us in the dark and let it get worse and worse. There was no communication happening; the product manager quit two weeks in, and they never replaced her. The CEO of an agency managing several other projects in-house isn’t going to be able to pay enough attention. We were paying for a project manager to be there every step of the way because it is the most critical position when doing such a complex project with hundreds of tasks, lots of challenges, and tons of technical documentation. They provided zero technical documentation. Communication and honesty around who is working on the project are crucial. It was really unfortunate.
RATINGS
-
Quality
1.0Service & Deliverables
-
Schedule
1.0On time / deadlines
-
Cost
1.0Value / within estimates
-
Willing to Refer
1.0NPS