About the project

The customer is a German entrepreneur who recognized a gap in the online market for a platform that could connect sellers of high-end products and services with potential buyers while simultaneously offering opportunities for members to earn through product recommendations and network expansion.

During the development process, a close collaboration with the client was established, involving numerous workshops and in-person visits to our office, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of their needs and vision for the platform.

Before the inception of Casulu, no online marketplace catered specifically to high-end products and services. Our customer was looking for a way to make these products and services easily accessible to potential buyers while also incentivizing product recommendations through commissions. Furthermore, a traditional sales approach and word-of-mouth marketing were insufficient to sell these niche products, and an effective online solution was missing.

Challenges

The target audience for the platform included sellers, buyers, and intermediaries, all with distinct needs. Designing a platform that caters to all these different user expectations was a complex task. Thus, the task at hand was to design a platform capable of satisfying this diverse user base, adding a layer of complexity to the project.

Furthermore, the development of such an online marketplace is intrinsically complicated due to the multitude of features it necessitates (payment processors, recommendation system, seller and member management, offer management, advanced filtering and sorting, content management, security and validation, and a notification system).

Solution

To successfully bring such an ambitious project to completion, the company recognized the need to extend their internal development capacities. As a result, they partnered with our team, leveraging our technical expertise and experience to materialize their vision of Casulu.

Below are some of the functionalities that we successfully incorporated into the Casulu platform:

Integrated Payment Processors: We embedded an efficient payment system within Casulu to streamline transactions. The payment processors used were PayOne and Paypal. This system allows for various payment methods, manages payment statuses, and handles errors and missing payment methods.

Recommendation System: Our team designed a unique recommendation mechanism for creating and managing recommendations. It allows users to confirm recommendations and ensures they are unique, visible, and have functioning confirmation links used by different roles. The platform was built to incentivize transactions by offering commissions on successful recommendations, promoting active participation from its members.

Seller and Member Management: Our team incorporated extensive management capabilities that enable the creation and management of seller and member profiles, offer creation status updates, and various administrative functions such as impersonation features.

Offer Management: The platform offers extensive functionality for managing offers, including the ability to view, create, update, and extend offers. It also includes an “offer of the month” feature and a customizable thumbnail carousel for offers browsing on the main page.

Advanced Filtering and Sorting: We implemented powerful filtering and sorting functionalities across various modules, enhancing the user experience, particularly for sellers and those viewing recommendations.

Content Management: We incorporated a versatile content management system allowing for the addition of static text, email template creation, and content translation. It also allows the customization of labels and text across the platform, managing all platform users and entities through a Super Admin backend user.

Security and Validation: Prioritizing user safety, we integrated enhanced security validations, including unique email requirements and a ‘Remember Me’ option. The platform also provides validation for various forms and fields. This is critical for calculating and attributing commissions based on the number of member subscription plan tiers.

Notification System: To ensure a seamless workflow, we established a notification system that promptly updates users on status changes, transactions, and member upgrades. It also has a system for sending warning emails. This system must work flawlessly to ensure a seamless offer-to-purchase workflow within the platform.

Technologies used

Yii Framework and LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) for custom development

Node.js for real-time functionality implementation 

Balsamiq for wireframes during the product discovery phase

Graphic design, User Experience, and User Interface creation for optimal look and feel

HTML, CSS, jQuery, and Responsive design for explicit design integrations

Selenium IDE for automated browser testing

Redmine as a project management and communication tool

Jenkins for continuous integration and automated deployments

Results

With our team’s contribution, Casulu has achieved significant outcomes, transforming the high-end products and services marketplace:

Sellers now have a platform to showcase their products to a wider audience. Our expertise in platform development and design played a crucial role in creating a user-friendly and visually appealing interface for Casulu. By collaborating closely with the client, we ensured that the platform effectively showcases sellers’ products to a wider audience, maximizes their visibility and attracts more potential buyers.

Buyers have a place to discover unique, upscale products that were previously difficult to find. By developing a unique mechanism for managing recommendations, we enabled buyers to explore and discover a diverse range of high-end products tailored to their preferences.

Members, on the other hand, have leveraged this platform to create an additional income stream through product recommendations and network expansion. Our technical expertise in payment processing and member management systems was crucial in enabling Casulu to provide a seamless experience for members looking to generate additional income.

Perspective

The development of Casulu has been a journey of consistent growth and continuous learning. As with any software development process, we are aware that the real measure of success lies in the platform’s ability to adapt and evolve in response to user feedback and changing market dynamics. Therefore, our focus remains on refining and enhancing the platform based on user experiences and technological advancements.