The project
Technical launch and phased development of the Magento marketplace
Year
2024-2025
Client
A marketplace for local goods in Uzbekistan, an analogue of Wildberries. The project was born about two years ago, but due to technical and organizational difficulties, the full launch has been repeatedly postponed.
The situation at the start of the project
At the time of commencement, there was no clear architecture, product strategy, and a viable MVP. The client's internal team was developing, but deadlines were regularly missed: when one problem was fixed, new ones appeared.
The audit revealed that the showcase and mobile application exist, but placing an order is impossible, which means that key business functionality is missing.
Issues
The main difficulty was to systematically postpone the launch dates: the entire offline infrastructure in the form of warehouses, logistics and equipment was already ready and was burning the budget. Every month of downtime made things worse.
The technical challenges were complex:
- The project architecture did not provide for a modular approach, which is why any changes affected the entire system.
- Importing goods was inoperable and required manual input.
- The seller's personal account did not provide a basic user experience.
- The user journey from choice to purchase was broken: it was impossible to purchase goods.
Business result
In 3 months, the KT.team relaunched the key functionality and brought the project back to life. We did not rewrite the system from scratch, but made existing solutions work to show investors a viable product.
- A full user scenario has been implemented: from registering a seller to placing an order and receiving a receipt.
- A full scenario for connecting sellers has been set up: from a personal account to importing goods and displaying them in the marketplace catalog.
- Several real sellers are connected to the marketplace and about 3,000 items have been uploaded, some of which have already been physically delivered and accepted at the customer's warehouse.
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KT.team comment
“This project was not a trivial task for us: we had to quickly get into someone else's development and ensure the launch of key functionality within three months. We immediately worked in partnership, not just fulfilling tasks. We were later invited to participate in hiring executives and auditing related initiatives. Now we are continuing to develop the project on the basis of a sustainable strategy and with a clear understanding of the goals. This is exactly the format of cooperation we are striving for: when both sides have trust, expertise and a common focus on results.”
Development process
Business request at the start
The client asked: “Help launch this Frankenstein monster.” The current system was unstable and did not allow investors to demonstrate a working product.
The goal of the project at the start
Ensure the restoration of critical functionality and launch MVP by the end of the year.
How we approached the task
The first step was a technical audit: we analyzed the current architecture, identified key problems and risk points.
Due to the limited time frames and investors' fatigue from waiting too long for the MVP, it was decided not to rewrite the system right away, but to bring the current monolithic platform to a viable state. At the same time, we have begun planning a more global architectural redesign divided into services.
We collected the task backlog, identified priority functional blocks and moved on in stages: almost every block required improvements.
Development time
3 months — from start to launch of a working MVP.
The team
At the first stage, the project team included: a manager, an analyst, two backend developers and a mobile application developer on Flutter.
Result
In 3 months, the KT.team team consistently checked all the key functional blocks of the online store and fixed critical errors that prevented the launch of the MVP. Instead of rewriting the platform from scratch, we made sure that the existing system worked stably and could be presented to investors as a viable product.
As a result, the following were restored:
- Basic user features: register, view the catalog, place an order and receive a receipt.
- Basic features for merchants: registration, manual loading of goods through your personal account, basic import and the ability to track orders placed.
This made it possible to connect the first real sellers to the marketplace, upload about 3,000 items and ensure that some of them actually arrive at the customer's warehouses.
Technology stack
Platform, showcase and API — Magento
Mobile app — Flutter
What's next
In January, we implemented another key improvement — integration with the tax service. The terms of reference were received in the middle of the month, and by the end of the month, the solution had been implemented. However, the project was temporarily suspended shortly after due to a review of the internal strategy.
In April, the KT.team team supported the client in relaunching: they helped find and attract CEOs and CTOs who took product and strategic responsibility. Today we work as full-fledged partners, focusing on achieving business metrics and increasing the number of sellers and orders.
Currently in active development:
- An updated seller's personal account with automated withdrawals;
- Easy and intuitive import with a multilingual template;
- Order cancellation and return mechanisms.
The project has great prospects, and we are continuing to move forward — already with clear goals, a clear architecture and a strong joint team.
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