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Marketplace homepage
Point of sale (live demo)
POS PIN login
Customer-facing checkout display
Courier booking
Driver signup
Store owner onboarding tool
Customer-facing menu board displayFor anyone on a deadline — the numbers and firsts, at a glance.
From a WhatsApp phone number to a four-sided commerce platform.
Founder Rioj Jacob Thomas builds a delivery solution for his own retail store, coordinating orders directly over WhatsApp. Conversations with other local retailers reveal they need the same thing — the idea starts growing beyond one store.
The full marketplace launches at buynearby.store, moving store discovery and ordering off WhatsApp and onto a real platform.
Platform expands into a full Retail OS: point-of-sale, an owned driver network with live GPS dispatch, a supplier wholesale marketplace, and AI-powered product search.
BuyNearby ships a live Model Context Protocol server with OAuth 2.0 authorization and lists it on the official MCP registry — AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT can search products, check stock, and place real orders directly.
One angle per story, factual, copy-and-paste ready. Use as-is or as a starting point — happy to fact-check or expand any of these on request.
Calgary Retailer Built a WhatsApp Delivery Solution for His Own Store — Now It Runs a Local Commerce Platform
BuyNearby began in 2018, when founder Rioj Jacob Thomas built a delivery solution for his own retail store, coordinating orders directly over WhatsApp. Conversations with other local retailers made it clear the problem wasn't unique to one store — they needed the same thing. That's what grew it beyond one store into a platform, which launched publicly at buynearby.store in December 2025.
"I built this to solve a problem in my own store first," said founder Rioj Jacob Thomas. "Once other retailers told me they needed the same thing, it became clear this wasn't just my problem to solve."
From WhatsApp Orders to a Full Marketplace: BuyNearby's December 2025 Launch
In December 2025, BuyNearby moved its store-by-store WhatsApp ordering process onto a full online marketplace at buynearby.store, letting Calgary shoppers browse and order from multiple local stores in one place instead of messaging each one directly. The move turned a manual, one-to-one delivery service into a real platform connecting shoppers, stores, and drivers.
BuyNearby Runs Its Own Delivery Fleet — With Live GPS Tracking, Not a Third-Party Handoff
Unlike marketplaces that route deliveries through outside gig platforms, BuyNearby operates its own driver network. Drivers use a dedicated app that reports live GPS location, and customers can track their delivery against that live position on a map. Driver signup, document verification, and payouts (via Stripe Connect) are all built directly into the platform.
BuyNearby's POS Ties the Cash Register to the Same System as Online Orders
BuyNearby's point-of-sale system runs in-browser or as a dedicated Windows app, and shares live inventory and order data with the online storefront — a sale rung up at the counter and an order placed online both hit the same system, with nothing to reconcile manually. Store staff can toggle between dine-in and takeout order types directly at checkout, and a secondary customer-facing display screen (with QR code support) shows shoppers their order total and details in real time as it's rung in.
BuyNearby Makes Its Local Marketplace Directly Orderable by AI Assistants
In September 2026, BuyNearby shipped a live Model Context Protocol (MCP) server with OAuth 2.0 authorization, and listed it on the official MCP registry. That means AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT can search BuyNearby's local product catalog, check real-time stock, and place actual orders or courier bookings directly — the same actions a human would take on the site, not a request queued for a person to review later.
"The AI agent era isn't coming, it's already routing real orders," said founder Rioj Jacob Thomas. "We wanted small Calgary businesses to be part of that from day one, not locked out of it until a bigger platform decides to open the door."
BuyNearby's Shop & Deliver Sends a Real Driver Into Stores That Aren't Even Partners Yet
BuyNearby's Shop & Deliver service sends a driver into a named physical store — even one that isn't a formal BuyNearby partner — to shop from a customer's list and deliver it, with the team calling ahead to confirm stock for non-partner stores. It's a real order the moment it's placed, the same as a customer finishing the flow on buynearby.store, priced against the driver's actual receipt total rather than an estimate.
BuyNearby Connects Local Wholesale Suppliers Directly to the Retailers Who Need Them
Beyond the consumer marketplace, BuyNearby runs a business-to-business wholesale layer: suppliers manage catalogs, invoice retailers, get paid via Stripe Connect, and share pricing directly with the stores they supply. It's a real ordering and invoicing flow between local businesses, not a directory or lead-generation form.
BuyNearby's Next Release Brings Big-Chain-Style Business Intelligence to the Corner Store
Actively in development, BuyNearby's "AI Cofounder" will give independent store owners the kind of pricing and restocking guidance that's historically only been available to large chains with dedicated analytics teams — built on the same AI foundation already powering BuyNearby's live product search and AI-agent ordering today.
BuyNearby Is Building a Pay-in-Store Option for Pickup Orders
Actively in development, BuyNearby's upcoming "pay at pickup" option will let customers place a pickup order online and pay when they collect it in-store, with the register able to pull up and charge that order directly — rounding out BuyNearby's checkout options alongside existing online card and e-transfer payment.
