Development of a Dual-Role Marketplace Application for Small Business Retail & Customer Engagement

Small retail businesses struggle to increase their visibility within local communities and rely on multiple disconnected tools for store management, order processing, customer engagement, and marketing, leading to inefficiencies and missed revenue opportunities.

A small to medium-sized retail business aiming to establish an online presence and directly engage with local customers through integrated mobile applications.

• Enable small retailers to easily set up and manage their online store front, including product addition, editing, and categorization.
• Facilitate direct engagement with customers through social media posts and updates to increase discoverability.
• Implement real-time notifications for new orders and customer inquiries to improve responsiveness.
• Provide an analytics dashboard that offers insights into overall business performance and sales metrics.
• Streamline order and payout management, including order processing, returns, and weekly payouts.
• Integrate instant communication channels to connect directly with customers, fostering loyalty and trust.
• Support the rapid generation of revenue and customer acquisition for small retailers operating in local markets.

• Online Store Setup: interface for adding, editing, and categorizing products.
• Content Sharing: ability to publish posts and updates linked to products for marketing.
• Notification System: alerts for new orders, customer questions, and messages.
• Performance Dashboard: analytics showing sales data, orders, customer engagement metrics.
• Order & Payout Management: tools for processing orders, managing returns, and tracking weekly payouts.
• Customer Interaction: chat and instant messaging capabilities between buyers and sellers.
• Discovery Features: mechanisms to help new customers find vendors and generate revenue quickly.

• Payment gateways for payout processing
• Social media platforms for content sharing and notifications
• Real-time chat and messaging services
• Analytics tools for performance monitoring

• Scalability to support an increasing number of vendors and users
• High performance with minimal load times on mobile devices
• Data security and privacy compliant with relevant standards
• Reliable notification delivery with a target latency under 5 seconds

The implementation of these digital solutions is expected to increase small retailers' market visibility within local communities, accelerate customer acquisition and engagement, streamline internal operations, and ultimately generate a measurable increase in revenue and customer satisfaction. Early deployment aims to achieve faster revenue cycles and improved operational efficiency, similar to reported positive outcomes in comparable projects.