Marketplace for Audiovisual Equipment

About

The highly customized platform focused on the sale of used audiovisual equipment in Norway and nearby countries: audio, lighting equipment and the stage itself. With the maximization of unique options for partners, it offers the ability to sell and buy all the stuff safely and confidentially.

The Challenge

The client hired our team for building a custom marketplace specialized in used audiovisual equipment. The idea was to divide users into different groups of sellers and buyers with different product positions in order to improve their experience on the platform. People on both sides of the trade deal should have seen only positions accurately selected for them. The other important feature was to provide an ability to work on the platform together as a team with a shared interface and different roles.

The Solution

We developed different types of sellers’ and buyers’ accounts for the marketplace, including a possibility for users to create individual or company profiles. A company profile allows users from one company to work within a shared interface according to the roles assigned by the company account administrator.

SELLERSSellers create items and provide a wide description for them. The platform is self-learning, so if there is no desired value in the list of categories, users can add their own. Sellers can choose the currency and the platform will automatically convert prices.

BUYERS There are two account types — regular and broker accounts. Broker accounts have a certain privileges: only broker can see and order expensive items. The advantage of the regular account is an ability not only to buy, but also to sell stuff. Brokers can make a search request instead of simple site search.

ADMIN Platform administrator has control over the whole process — approve new companies and users, approve seller’s items, descriptions, and new categories, send invites and manually respond to brokers’ search requests. They also have the ability to send customized newsletters with updates on specific sets of items.

TECHNOLOGIES

React

Node.js

Express

PostgreSQL

UI/UX APPROACH

First, we created a sitemap of the platform to see the big picture and plan all user flows. Then we built wireframes to get the whole interface architecture. This allowed us to perform early usability testing. At the very end, when the UX part was ready, we moved to the visualization part. We received stakeholders’ feedback for each iteration and made adjustments accordingly. Particular attention was devoted to tablet and smartphone versions of each page as it was expected that many customers will use the platform from their mobile devices.

The Result

We developed the whole platform from scratch and prepared the release 1.0 version in 6 months. Besides that, we released the first beta version in just three months, which allowed us to get early feedback from users and make appropriate adjustments in the product roadmap. Currently, the platform is widely used by equipment owners and brokers in Norway and other countries. We continue ongoing work on the platform to bring new functions and improve user experience.

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MARKETPLACE FOR AUDIOVISUAL EQUIPMENT