Case Study
Providing No-Contact Delivery with an Appealing Marketplace Mobile App for Saadhanam
Saadhanam is a supermarket company in Kerala, India. Saadhanam saw a demand for online shopping and home delivery that could reach the villages in the Kerala region. They approached Elite mCommerce with the goal of a multi-vendor marketplace solution and we worked to understand their requirements, in terms of what features would work for the marketplace business model and the target market of the area. We worked with the client to understand their requirements and produced an app that could support multiple vendors under Saadhanam’s administration.
Challenges
A marketplace app development based on convenience and accessibility
The client faced several challenges due to the needs of their business. They initially preferred a single-store plan, but ultimately saw the need for a multi-vendor marketplace solution. They searched for a solution with marketplace functionality so multiple vendors could sell products through their platform.
They wanted to start small, selling in their hometown Kilimanoor, and gradually expand to major cities in Kerala. We discussed which features were necessary and added them to the goals of the project. They stressed the need for a bug-free eCommerce platform that could accept other vendors and serve the region.
- On the vendor side, individual stores need to be able to log in, list their own products, and get paid.
- On the customer side, shoppers need to be able to browse products from multiple stores, and only get offered products from stores within their delivery range.
- The app needs to display accurate product and store categories such as groceries, fresh vegetables, snacks, and books, and GST taxes need to be applied appropriately to sales.
- Shoppers need to be able to buy from single vendors or multiple vendors at once. Users can create a single account to buy from marketplace vendors. A payment gateway solution was needed so vendors could get paid.
- To support shipping, marketplace vendors need to view the fees in advance and set what their customers pay.
Solutions
We set out to create a marketplace website and app for Saadhanam, while verifying that our app design could address these various issues. We determined that EMC’s readymade marketplace functionality could meet their needs with some modification.
Single-Store Checkout & Delivery
Based on the use cases of the vendors, the app lets customers order from a single store so that whenever an order is placed, the customer could select delivery time slots set by the admin so orders could be dispatched from their respective store warehouses. The shipping cost would also be based on the distance from the store warehouse to the delivery location. In this case, single-store checkout was the ideal solution to meet the demands of the client.
Timeslot & area-based contactless product delivery
The store admin can set up time slots for delivery based on the Seller Delivery time slots. If stores can only make a certain number of deliveries, they can show their customers what times are available. Contactless delivery was offered to support local businesses during the pandemic.
Location-based delivery fees
Implementing fixed shipping fees was challenging to set up with multi-seller checkout, since it would not be cost-effective for some sellers. We implemented distance-based shipping to assess the right price for shipping different distances so vendors could ship affordably. Using location restrictions, customers would only be able to buy from nearby sellers. Customers could easily enter their geographic location on the website with autofill or use an automatic store selector based on their device’s GPS location.
Payment Gateway Integration
For payment, we implemented Razorpay, the most widely accessible online payment gateway in India, due to its ability to process a variety of payment methods.
Communication with customers
We implemented MSG91 to send transactional SMS messages reliably and securely to customers.
Applying taxes on products
The app was set to apply the proper GST taxes on the goods based on predefined conditions, and automatically calculates and displays the post-tax price and tax amount during checkout.
Outcomes
The product was delivered and launched on the planned app launch date. The launch was confirmed when the client approved the staging iOS and Android apps and the website after reviewing the flow of the service. The EMC team didn’t observe any issues during the launch that caused obstacles for the client or customers.
Following the launch, Saadhanam requested a change in the shipping setup; the app was originally set up to offer fixed shipping costs, but they asked to use only distance-based shipping costs instead, which better met their needs for providing shipping that would be cost-effective to the vendors using the platform.
The client was strongly satisfied with the product that EMC provided, especially its marketplace capabilities. They are now able to showcase all their participating stores’ products on a single marketplace and can conduct marketing campaigns to drive traffic to the Saadhanam platform.
Raju from Saadhanam said of EMC’s work: “Excellent team work and readiness in providing necessary support as and when it is required.”
Key Takeaways
The challenges of multi-vendor marketplaces can be eased with a comprehensive eCommerce platform that takes care of common issues with marketplaces and makes administration as easy as possible. Multi-vendor marketplaces are a major advantage to businesses, letting them offer a wider range of products on their eCommerce platform, attract more traffic, and profit from indirect sales. EMC rose to the challenge of creating modules and features to address the unique issues of multi-vendor marketplaces.
The modules and features we developed for this project helped us meet client needs in later projects. These modules included multi-vendor marketplaces and distance-based shipping, seller-based delivery slots, and single and multi-seller checkout-based experience. With the help of our eCommerce development experience, we can provide the solutions that work best for our clients, even if they don’t know from the start what their business will need. Offering more flexibility in advance will make projects go more smoothly and make developing with EMC more appealing. It’s important to anticipate the needs of the market so we can provide the best solutions for our clients.