The strategy for this was to create a flexible, functional and scalable solution that would allow farmers to create ads to sell or source products or services to buy across thousands of categories.
The end goal was a platform with incredible UX allowing farmers of all generations to effortlessly use it whether in the field, at home or on the go.
The brand would require a companion iPhone and Android able to keep the community connected even when in the fields, featuring real-time push notifications and reminders.
The tool needed to be simple in appearance in the customer’s eyes but deliver a wealth of insights, live data dashboards and support functionality to the Farmers Market team.
Before the commencement of the project a number of workshops were held featuring core stakeholders. It was agreed that Umbraco would be used allowing the flexibility, scalability and security required as a CMS.
Umbraco is one of the most deployed CMS systems on the Microsoft stack. Umbraco CMS offers the power and flexibility to run anything from pure publishing sites and large media sites, to complex applications for Fortune 500 companies.
A powerful search experience helps buyers to find exactly what they’re looking for – filtering by category, location, price range, and more.
When they find an advert, they can add it to their favourites or connect with the seller through the site’s messaging system (custom site messaging application).
Specialist finance providers (e.g. LoanItt) can offer financing to buyers within a couple of clicks.
Once a deal is agreed, dealers receive payment directly via the messaging system (P2P with PayPal) or through several supported 3rd party options (e.g. Revolut) – all parties can rate their experience and share the price of the sale analytics and trend insights) once the transaction is complete.
Farmers Market is the IFJ team’s control centre for every aspect of the marketplace.
An eye-catching dashboard with graphs lets the team analyse and export data on how ads perform for each category/user over time.
Vendr helps with keeping track of eCommerce transactions and revenue, while out-of-the-box Umbraco features help with managing customer accounts/profiles (Members), configuring subscriptions/pricing/finance providers (Content), building modular marketing pages (Block List), and even dynamically creating email / SMS/push notifications that users receive (Dictionary).
The solution brings together a best-in-class combination of technologies.
The fully bespoke ads engine is an Entity Framework database, custom Examine search, member accounts and profiles use Umbraco Identity, all transactions and subscriptions are handled by custom Vendr + Stripe integrations, print-ready PDFs are generated for ads by Chili Publish, PayPal handles peer-to-peer payments, email / SMS / push notifications with SendGrid + Twilio + Firebase.
In contrast, the public API uses AuthU for authentication. Despite all of these integrations, users only ever see the one unified Farmers Market experience.
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