Why a shopping app makes sense for Airai
Airai is a state in palau, and one of the markets in Palau where we build mobile commerce apps.
Babeldaob state with the international airport — a business base that increasingly wants to sell online rather than through calls, messages and spreadsheets.
Palau's tourism-led economy and US dollar currency make it a niche market for premium tourism retail and hospitality supply.
Shoppers and trade buyers in Airai already compare options on their phones; a shopping app that loads fast, shows accurate stock and accepts Visa and Mastercard turns that research into orders.
Localised for Airai, not translated into it
A store that works in Airai respects local habits as well as local law. These are the details we configure first.
Currency and pricing
Prices, taxes, shipping and refunds are shown in US dollar (USD), formatted the way Airai customers read them.
Language and content
Content can be produced in Palauan and English, so a Airai customer reads the store in the language they use at home.
Local trust signals
Trust is local: familiar names such as Visa and Mastercard and bank transfer and Palau Postal Service sit next to the buy button.
Domain, phone and contact
Using .pw where it suits you signals a local business to shoppers and search engines. Contact buttons are pre-set with +680, so a customer in Airai taps once to call or message.
A shopping app built around your Airai business
Every NNT Mart shopping app in Airai is engineered to the client's own brief — the web platform, the admin panel and, when you need one, a mobile application built for your workflow.
In Airai we typically work with retail brands, grocery and pharmacy chains, restaurants and cloud kitchens and distributors with dealer networks, and with sellers in categories such as tourism products, groceries, electronics and home that have strong online demand in Palau.
We start with a requirements meeting, show you a working demo within 24 hours, and only then propose scope, milestones and budget.
Features of your shopping app in Airai
These are the building blocks of a shopping app. We scope them with you, so you pay for what your Airai operation needs.
Customer shopping app
Browse, search, wish-lists, cart, wallet and UPI or card checkout, order tracking and push offers. Customers in Airai can pay with Visa and Mastercard, bank transfer and mobile money, with receipts and refunds handled in the same admin.
Dealer and B2B app
Account pricing, quick re-order, statements, schemes and barcode scanning for trade buyers. Couriers such as Palau Postal Service, DHL and air cargo plug in alongside your own fleet for Airai orders.
Delivery partner app
Assigned orders, route navigation, proof of delivery, COD collection and status updates. Stock can be held in Airai or anywhere in Palau, with pickup and local-delivery options where they make sense.
Store and admin app
Order alerts, stock updates, price changes and sales snapshots for owners and managers. Dashboards break sales down by product, customer and neighbourhood of Airai, so you see what to promote.
Engagement
Segmented push notifications, deep links, in-app banners, loyalty and referral programmes. Storefront language, imagery and navigation are set up for Airai shoppers and available in Palauan and English.
Performance and offline
Fast native-feel UI, image caching, offline cart and graceful handling of poor networks. Catalogues come in from spreadsheets, ERP exports or supplier feeds, so your Airai team keeps its current way of working.
Who we build for in Airai
Popular online categories in Palau include tourism products, groceries, electronics, home, fashion and diving equipment. Babeldaob state with the international airport — which shapes what local businesses need online. In Airai, we most often build mobile commerce apps for:
Retail brands
Retail brands get customer shopping app plus delivery partner app workflows tailored to their operations.
Grocery and pharmacy chains
We map how grocery and pharmacy chains sell today and digitise it end to end — from enquiry and order to payment, dispatch and repeat purchase.
Restaurants and cloud kitchens
For restaurants and cloud kitchens, we usually start with store and admin app, then add Firebase and push messaging once orders are flowing.
Distributors with dealer networks
Catalogue, pricing and fulfilment rules designed for distributors with dealer networks in Airai, connected to the systems you already use.
D2C start-ups
D2C start-ups get engagement plus customer shopping app workflows tailored to their operations.
Marketplace operators
We map how marketplace operators sell today and digitise it end to end — from enquiry and order to payment, dispatch and repeat purchase.
Getting paid online in Airai
A store that serves Airai should let customers pay the way they do offline: Visa and Mastercard, bank transfer, mobile money and cash on delivery.
Gateway selection depends on your category and merchant approval; we connect the provider, reconcile payments, automate retries and refunds, and never store raw card data. Prices, taxes and refunds appear in US dollar (USD).
- Cash on delivery
- Bank transfer
- Visa and Mastercard
- Mobile money
Shipping, couriers and local delivery in Airai
Your shopping app can book shipments and share tracking with Palau Postal Service, DHL and air cargo, or route orders to your own riders and stores across Airai.
We set up shipping zones, cut-off times, free-shipping thresholds, cash-collection rules and returns so the promise on the product page matches what your team can deliver.
Owning your channel in Palau
Many Airai sellers already list on local stores and US cross-border sites. Those channels bring traffic, but they also take commission, control the customer relationship and change rules without notice.
With your own shopping app you keep the customer data, set the offers and the packaging, and still push stock to marketplaces from a single admin.
Tax, invoicing and compliance in Palau
For Airai sellers, tax first: Palau introduced the Palau Goods and Services Tax (PGST) at 10% in 2023.
Customer data is handled with general constitutional protections in mind, and the storefront follows the Consumer Protection Act.
Our job is the engineering: price display with tax, invoice numbering, cookie and marketing consent, return and terms pages, role-based access and logs. Legal and tax conclusions stay with your own adviser in Palau.
Take your Airai store onto customers' phones
Every app is published under your own Google Play and Apple developer accounts, with crash reporting, analytics and release management included.
Apps are published under your own developer accounts and share the same backend as your shopping app, so offers, stock and orders are always consistent between web and mobile.
Order alerts, offers and abandoned-cart reminders go out on Airai time (UTC+9), in Palauan and English if you want.
- Analytics and crash reporting
- Commerce APIs and headless backends
- Firebase and push messaging
- Maps and location services
- Customer support chat
- Payment SDKs and wallets
- Social login
- Barcode and QR scanning
Integrations above are examples; we connect any system that offers a suitable API, database access or approved import and export process.
A phased launch plan for Airai
We launch the journeys that create value first, then add depth. A typical roadmap for a shopping app in Airai:
| Phase | What goes live |
|---|---|
| MVP app | Core shopping, checkout, order tracking and push notifications. Configured for USD, Visa and Mastercard and Palau Postal Service from the start. |
| Engage | Loyalty, referrals, personalised offers and deep links. |
| Extend | Dealer, delivery and admin apps on the same backend. Reviewed against how Airai customers actually buy. |
We track app installs and active users, app conversion rate, push-notification click rate, crash-free sessions, store rating and share of revenue from app on a live dashboard from day one, so Airai results are visible, not promised.
Working with our team from Airai
Our team covers UTC+9 — 3h 30m ahead of India (IST) — through three 8-hour shifts, so a Airai client always reaches someone during the local working day.
We work in English and can deliver storefront content in Palauan, Japanese and English. NDAs are signed on request, and you get a named project lead plus direct access to the engineers building your shopping app.
Our head office is in Chhapi, Gujarat, with an office in Hyderabad and representation in Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia and Zambia; Airai clients are served remotely with on-site workshops when the project needs them.
