Discover how Apiko built a buy-and-sell marketplace app for gently used kid's items - Markid. Read on about the development stages and main features of a P2P marketplace.
Short overview
Stas Kravchuk
Max Romanyuk
Vitaliy Kobytsia
Alex Voitenko
Yura Kruhlyk
Christina Trach
Time:
Aug 2018 - Dec 2019
Platform:
Mobile app
Industry:
Buy and sell marketplace
Country:
USA
Services:
Mobile app development, mobile UX/UI design, landing page development and UI/UX design, concept development, quality assurance, MVP development, IT support
Short overview
Team:
![Stas Kravchuk]()
Stas Kravchuk![Max Romanyuk]()
Max Romanyuk![Vitaliy Kobytsia]()
Vitaliy Kobytsia![Alex Voitenko]()
Alex Voitenko![Yura Kruhlyk]()
Yura Kruhlyk![Christina Trach]()
Christina TrachTime:
Aug 2018 - Dec 2019
Platform:
Mobile app
Industry:
Buy and sell marketplace
Country:
USA
Services:
Mobile app development, mobile UX/UI design, landing page development and UI/UX design, concept development, quality assurance, MVP development, IT support
About the client
Markid is a P2P buy and sell marketplace, where parents can easily buy gently used kids’ items and also sell things their children no longer need.
Project idea
Welcome to the parents’ community! Browse and you will find everything for your children’s comfort - from clothes, furniture, books, and toys to bathing, sporting, and safety equipment. Do you have some things your kids have outgrown? Sell them, all within one ecommerce mobile app - Markid!
Story
Story
Markid is designed by parents who know better than anyone else about the needs and problems of modern families with children. To satisfy their unique needs, Ankur Dhawan came to Apiko to develop a customized buy and sell marketplace - Markid, which makes it possible for parents to cooperate efficiently in buying and selling kids’ preloved items.
The main idea of Ankur Dhawan was to build an ecommerce mobile app that would have a meaningful impact on people’s lives. In Markid, parents can not only help each other but also take part in building a better future for their children. Users can help schools in need by donating a portion from their revenue for the classrooms improvement. For this, Markid has partnered with DonorsChoose - a non-profit organization that connects donors who want to help with teachers in high-need communities. Apiko helped bring this useful and impactful idea to reality. We started with wireframes and user flow design creation based on the client's requirements. When the minimum viable product was ready, Ankur Dhawan tested the idea with early customers. Having found that Markid project idea was well-received, he decided to continue the development of new features for the buy and sell marketplace with our team. As a result, Apiko built a secure and robust digital solution that facilitates effective cooperation and creates a smooth user experience for parents.
Challenges & solutions
See the challenges and solutions we've offered to our clients
Developing a ready-to-use MVP for market validation and first customers’ feedback
Creating an intuitive and highly functional UI/UX design focusing on parents’ needs
Enabling integration with DonorsChoose for thoughtful donations
Building a secure and powerful P2P marketplace with features that ensure a smooth user flow for both buyers and sellers
Starting Point
The client initially had:
Business idea
Target audience
Marketing strategy
Research & Analysis
Steps we took to analyze the project:
Analyzed the business idea and created a list of functional and non-functional requirements
Created wireframes and design based on the outlined requirements
Prepared presentation materials
During the ecommerce marketplace development, we achieved the following milestones:
Ready-made wireframes and user flow design
MVP built with just enough features to satisfy early clients
Market validation
Product development
Ongoing support
What our clients say
Check out what our clients think of us
Apiko team really get into things and do the necessary research before coming up with a solution. They’re very thought solution oriented and respond to fedback very well, taking action immediately. With any remote team, set up the polarities and lay them out very well with the context of the project too. Don’t use them simply as a third-party that does the code—when I’ve shared my vision with them, they’ve gotten excited and become part of the team.
Ankur Dhawan
Main buy & sell marketplace app features
We helped to deliver the following features in Markid during ecommerce marketplace development:
1
Thoughtful donations
Apiko made it easy for any users of Markid to help a classroom in need. Our developers enabled the mobile app integration of DonorsChoose - a platform, where public school teachers from every part of America can create classroom project requests. So, when parents post kids’ items for sale at Markid, they indicate if some part of their income can be transferred to the classroom in need. We included the Stripe payment gateway as the best solution to ensure secure and reliable financial transactions.
2
UI/UX design
Creating a compelling and engaging UI/UX design is one of the essential tasks when developing a buy and sell marketplace that involves both kids and parents. Apiko team did their best to develop a product’s design that is well thought out and implemented with real users’ needs in mind.
3
Seamless buying experience
To create a seamless experience for buyers, Apiko implemented a variety of helpful features. Parents, who are searching for kid’s items, can use a thorough filter system, choose if they want to meet up at the specific location to get a product or if it can be shipped. What’s more, the buy and sell marketplace platform enables buyers to save the things they liked, follow their favorite sellers, and stay tuned for their updates not to miss any good items.
4
Well-thought out selling process
For sellers, Markid provides the benefits of a secure and convenient selling process. Parents can upload their kids’ items for sale in a snap, add pictures and descriptions. When a buyer sends an offer, a seller will get notified about the possible purchase.
5
Secure chat
In a parents’ community, a chat makes interactions between users easy and highly efficient. All communication happens inside the buy and sell marketplace app, so there is no need to give any contact information. Users can chat securely at Markid and have all their questions answered. Parents can also check out each other’s profiles for positive reviews and leave feedback after interactions.
6
Hassle-free shipping
Our developers integrated Shippo - a multi-carrier shipping API that helps businesses handle the challenges of shipping. With Shippo, sellers at the Markid app can easily deliver the desired products to buyers. The service provides detailed shipment information, tracking data, and automatic updates to make sure parents have a hassle-free customer experience at the ecommerce mobile app.
7
Buy and sell marketplace push notifications
Adding push notifications to buy-and-sell marketplace app allows businesses to capture attention, gain loyalty and interaction. Push notification is an essential feature of a P2P marketplace, which makes productive communication possible. It keeps the users engaged and updated when they receive new text messages, or someone sends an offer to buy or sell kid’s items, as is in the case of Markid.
Integrations
We've integrated the product with the following services
Technologies
Ecommerce marketplace development outcome:
It's vital for businesses to address the specific needs of their customers. Markid knows its target audience and their challenges inside out. This buy and sell marketplace app was designed by parents and for parents to respond to the unique and ever-growing needs of modern families.
In the buy and sell marketplace, every detail of the customer journey has to be perfect. When we were developing the Markid app, we wanted the user experience to be centered around parents’ comfort and live up to their expectations. Today, Markid is a highly functional ecommerce mobile app that’s available on both iOS and Android platforms. Markid has been welcomed by users, and now helps parents across America to buy and sell kids’ gently used items conveniently.
