The market reality

Smart Move Italy helps people move to Italy. Visa work. Residency. Property buying. Relocation. The audience is large. Educated. Mostly women aged 40 to 70. Pre-retirees, retirees, and professionals. They are drawn to the Italian lifestyle.

These users had a problem.

They needed reliable answers about visa, residency, property, and relocation. They could not get them in one place. The information lived across blog posts, courses, consultations, and PDFs. Each lived behind a different tool. Calendly here. Stripe and ThriveCart there. Kajabi or Teachable somewhere else. Podcasts on RSS. Success stories on YouTube. Smart Move Italy had built all of it. Their audience was already engaged. But there was no single product surface to capture leads and convert them into paying customers.

The strategic intent

Smart Move Italy came to Stellarwind with a sharp goal.

The goal was to ship a lead generation mobile app for the Italy relocation market. The lead generation mobile app had to capture prospects with free interactive tools. It had to convert them via in-app purchases. Courses. Consultations. Services. Memberships.

It also had to:

• Strengthen brand authority by giving high-value content for free in a branded mobile experience
• Run the entire funnel in one place, instead of stitching it across five third-party tools
• Target educated 40 to 70-year-olds planning to move to Italy

The execution problem

A lead generation mobile app for an audience this engaged is harder than it looks. We had six things to solve at once.

• A dual user model — guest users with full access to free tools, registered users with premium access — without a clunky paywall
• A library of interactive lead magnets users would actually use: Schengen calculator, eligibility quizzes, interactive checklists, currency converter, time zone tool, cost-of-living comparisons
• In-app purchases wired to the existing Stripe and ThriveCart stack — no rebuilding the commerce backend
• An AI Q&A assistant trained on Smart Move Italy's content. It had to answer common visa, residency, property, and relocation questions. Gated by membership.
• A Calendly-grade booking flow for paid consultations
• A delivery process tight enough to launch on stores, not just demo

The scope below is what we built. None of it was descoped.

A fixed-scope, milestone-based delivery in two phases

We delivered the Smart Move Italy lead generation mobile app under a fixed-scope, milestone-based engagement governed by a Service Agreement and one amendment. Scope is locked. Payments are tied to milestone acceptance. The client always sees what comes next.

This is the model we use on every premium build. Read more on our services page or browse our other case studies.

The work was sequenced in two phases. Guest experience first. Premium and AI second. The lead generation mobile app could go live and start producing leads while the premium layer was still being built.

Ten milestones. Contract to public store launch + premium layer.

| Phase | # | Milestone | Outcome | | ------- | --- | ------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | — | M0 | Initial project deposit & kickoff | Workspace, brief, tooling, communication channels | | Phase 1 | M1 | Concept, design & creation | Login, home, content pages, premium dashboard, in-app purchase, notifications, responsive iOS + Android | | Phase 1 | M2 | Database development | Firestore schema for users, content, tools, transactions, filters; Numbeo API for cost-of-living | | Phase 1 | M3 | Guest user features integration | Sign-up + recovery, content browsing, interactive tools, Calendly booking, notifications | | Phase 1 | M4 | API integrations & advanced workflows | Stripe + ThriveCart for courses, consultations, memberships; in-app purchase flows | | Phase 1 | M4.5| Amendment N°1: Currency Exchange + Time Zone tools | Two additional B2C lead-magnet tools for the international audience | | Phase 1 | M5 | Testing, QA & deployment | Cross-device QA, store deployment, post-delivery support | | Phase 2 | M6 | Premium user features integration | Premium in-app purchases, push notifications for new resources | | Phase 2 | M7 | AI user feature integration | Chatbot, Q&A data, response logic, membership-gated access, push notifications | | Phase 2 | M8 | Premium user features QA | Validation of premium flows, store update, post-delivery support |

Each milestone closed with formal client acceptance. All 67 tasks across the 10 milestones were completed.

What we built, grouped by business value

Lead capture surface — the free side that fills the funnel

A lead generation mobile app needs free tools strong enough to pull users in without pitching them. We built six.

• Schengen calculator — checks 90/180-day Schengen compliance for non-EU travellers
• Eligibility quizzes — visa and residency type qualification
• Interactive checklists — relocation steps and document gathering
• Currency exchange tool — real-time conversion for budget planning
• Time zone tool — cross-zone scheduling for international users
• Cost-of-living comparisons — powered by the Numbeo API

Each tool is a lead magnet. Each tool solves a real problem before the user sees a single offer.

Content surface — guides, podcasts, videos, ebooks

• Content pages for visa, residency, property buying, relocation
• Podcast and YouTube content surfaced inside the lead generation mobile app
• Success stories and testimonials integrated as community proof
• Filterable by resource type, location, and topic — so users find what they need fast

Monetization layer — buy without leaving the app

A lead generation mobile app only works if buying friction is near zero. We wired the existing commerce stack directly into the in-app experience.

• Stripe + ThriveCart integration for in-app purchases (courses, consultations, services, memberships)
• Calendly integration for paid booking and scheduling
• Confirmation notifications on every action
• Payment workflows tested end-to-end on iOS and Android

AI Q&A assistant — scales the founder

Common visa, residency, property, and relocation questions get asked thousands of times. Each one used to land in someone's inbox.

We built an in-app AI assistant that answers them automatically. Gated by membership tier.

• Chatbot UI with full Q&A history
• Curated Q&A data trained on Smart Move Italy's expert content
• Response logic configured per question category
• Membership-based access controls
• Push notifications when new answers ship

Notification & engagement layer

• Real-time push for new content, podcasts, and updates
• Saved-search alerts
• Email notifications for booking confirmations and purchases

A production launch, not a demo

• UX assessment on iOS and Android devices
• Comprehensive QA on all guest and premium flows
• App Store and Google Play deployment
• Technical documentation
• Post-delivery support and bug-fix coverage

Architecture & stack

The Smart Move Italy lead generation mobile app runs on this stack.

| Layer | Technology | | ---------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | | Mobile runtime | FlutterFlow (iOS + Android, single codebase) | | Authentication | Firebase Auth | | Persistent data | Cloud Firestore | | Push notifications | Firebase Cloud Messaging | | In-app purchases | Stripe + ThriveCart | | Booking | Calendly | | Cost-of-living data | Numbeo API | | Distribution | Apple App Store + Google Play Store |

The stack was picked for one reason. It is the right balance of velocity and operability for a lead generation mobile app. FlutterFlow keeps iOS and Android in one codebase. Firebase covers auth, data, and push without standing up separate infrastructure. Stripe + ThriveCart kept the existing commerce stack intact. No migration. No rebuild.

If you are exploring a similar lead generation mobile app for your audience, we can walk you through the trade-offs. Book a strategy call or check our services for relocation agencies. We will tell you honestly whether this approach fits your context.