Designing a Restaurant Ordering System with WeChat Mini Program — MVP Strategy in Practice

Designing a Restaurant Ordering System with WeChat Mini Program — MVP Strategy in Practice A hands-on account of designing an ordering system for a restaurant using WeChat Mini Program (微信小程序). From tech stack selection to MVP scoping to the gotchas along the way — the real story. Background The client is a Chinese restaurant operated by a Japanese LLC. They already had an ERP backend (inventory and sales management) with product data and stock available via API. The goal: layer a WeChat Mini Program on top so Chinese customers can order from their phones. Tech Stack: Taro + React + TypeScript We evaluated three frameworks for Mini Program development: Option Pros Cons WeChat Native (WXML/WXSS) Official docs, no abstraction overhead Proprietary syntax, low reusability uni-app (Vue-based) Multi-platform support Vue-dependent, China-centric ecosystem Taro (React-based) React/TypeScript support, type safety Slightly complex build config Why we chose Taro: The team was already familiar wit