Case study
Social Marketplace
OrganicNet was an award-winning social marketplace for organic food that directly connected consumers with local organic food producers. The platform allowed consumers to quickly and easily find healthy organic products while helping local farmers to offer their own organic produce. OrganicNet platform is no longer active.
Our focus was on creating an engaging user experience that covers both the social and knowledge sharing aspect. After analysing the requirements and needs of our target audience, we came up with initial wireframe sketches and user stories and started with custom ecommerce development.
In order to cater to the needs of our users, we released a private beta version to collect valuable feedback. The workshops with our target audience resulted in the alteration of several functionalities and introducing new features to improve the platform.
With the help of an effective branding strategy, we managed to create an interactive user journey for the target audience, making the registration, shopping and selling process more engaging.
The OrganicNet logotype was designed in a circular shape, to symbolise nature and the ongoing energy found around us. Pictographic elements that the logotype consist of represent the core elements of Organic and Pure: nature, sun, earth.
The logotype symbolised the all-embracing nature of the universe, indicating that OrganicNet was a universal place for everything organic related.
OrganicNet colours gave a personality to the brand and portrayed the relationship between nature, sun and earth.
We used the colours green, yellow and brown to form the foundation of our branding and represent the beauty that is nature. To add vibrancy to our communications and bring a fresh energy, we introduced other colours that complement the look and feel of the brand.
To add to the brand's visual aesthetic, our approach was to create simple and symbolic illustrations. We designed custom icons to create a more engaging and intuitive user interface.
The simple form of communication represented in custom icons grabed attention and left a lasting impression, which was our goal.
Our goal was to create a social marketplace for consumers who wanted to find organic food with a few simple clicks.
The platform recommended products through geolocation, by connecting consumers with nearby producers. Consumers browsed and sought for products by using different filters: food type and category, location, price, producer’s ratings, delivery points, keywords, and food production and provenance - whether the food was certified organic, grass-fed, free-range or locally-grown.
Besides the list of products, consumers could head over to a map to see the location of the producers’ farms and households.
OrganicNet was a comprehensive solution developed to improve direct communication, giving users full control over their activities. The user profiles were created to meet the needs of an online shopper and seller. We created three different types of profiles: producers/sellers, consumers/buyers and certification bodies/ companies.
The producers’ profiles were their online shops, a direct marketing, communication and business channel to help them to grow their business.
The profiles included information about their identity, location, contact information, organic certificate and comments and ratings left by the consumers. By personalising their profiles, sharing their mission and the story of their farm, producers gave their brand a voice and increased their recognition.
The consumers’ profiles represented their online shopping persona. Information about their identity, ratings, recommendations and reviews from the producers and contact information was a part of their online profile.
Consumers could browse and search through the database of products and producers at any time, but they needed to create a profile to place an order or contact the producers.
The certification bodies’ profiles were created to make important information readily available for producers, fostering interaction between interested users.
These profiles included basic information about the company and contact information, or more detailed information and the opportunity to add company documents for premium members. Rating and recommendations from producers were visible on their profiles and helped them to build their reputation.
All producer’s products were visible at My Stand. With only a few simple clicks, the producers could add products, upload photographs, describe products, set prices, choose delivery options or insert pickup point locations.
Producers who owned a certificate could upload it and receive a special badge that showed that the products were certified organic.
With rich content and photography of the products, not only did they create a unique online store, but they also kept consumers informed about their organic produce.
Once a buyer submitted an order, the producer received a notification about a new order and could accept the order, decline the order (if the ordered products were currently unavailable) or suggest a change (different delivery time).
The buyer would receive the response, and also either accept, decline or suggest another change to the order, similar to the process of negotiation in the real market.
Both producers and buyers received SMS notifications related to the ordering process which made the whole shopping experience quicker and more efficient.
OrganicNet was based on trust and reputation. Both the buyer and the seller rated and reviewed the overall experience and cooperation.
To promote a fair and supportive rating system, OrganicNet only accepted the ratings from users who have successfully completed the ordering process. Reviews and comments are hidden if only one user leaves a review or until the rating period expires, after which the reviews become public.
Producers who had at least one accepted order in the previous month would receive a sales report via email for the previous month.
The report included the list of sold products, their quantities and the total sales value of the accepted orders in the previous month. In this way, producers could easily keep track of their sales which helped them improve as well.
OrganicNet provided a knowledge base for consumers, organic producers, and anyone interested in organic agriculture.
With original content and relevant information, the platform contributed to the promotion of organic agriculture, raising awareness about ecology, environment, sustainability, and healthy nutrition.
The magazine offered relevant, up-to-date information and content on nutrition, health and healthy lifestyle. Sharing significant nutritional information and advice built a stronger community of health enthusiasts.
The events section was where users found upcoming events, educational workshops and conferences related to organic agriculture and a healthy lifestyle.
Knowledge base offered in-depth articles and guides on all topics of interest for producers and those who wanted to start an organic food business. Readers got valuable information and data on organic agriculture and certification, business opportunities and partnerships.
The Discussion section enabled consumers to seek answers directly from producers, decreasing the knowledge gap and satisfying the need for information transparency. The community of users directed, created and edited discussions. Each user could start a relevant discussion related to organic agriculture, farming, nutrition, legislation, certification and other similar topics.
OrganicNet platform was a multilingual platform built for the global market. We designed the social marketplace to be flexible, easily scalable and adaptable for different markets. To launch a fully functional and operating platform in other markets around the world, the platform only needed to be translated to a preferred language.
OrganicNet was available in Serbian, English, Spanish, Romanian and Brazilian Portuguese.
Only a year after launching, the platform won its first awards. In 2016, OrganicNet was recognized as the best local and regional eCommerce solution and received E-TRGOVINA AWARD.
Soon after the OrganicNet team won the FInish Final Award for the best software product and Aurea Award for innovation, social usefulness, and financial potential.
As a powerful PHP framework capable of powering some of the biggest websites, Symfony was the right choice for this social marketplace. Due to its outstanding features, Symfony is capable of supporting such a large system.
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React is one of the most popular JavaScript libraries that allows maximum flexibility in order to create the best possible app. We opted for React because it allows the team to scale the social marketplace efficiently without causing any delays or affecting other components.
Learn moreFor environmentally-conscious consumers who want organic food from farmers they can trust, the platform removed the obscurity and the middlemen from ethical shopping whilst putting the power back in the hands of the producers.
Even though no longer active, OrganicNet supported diverse, local, family farms and small businesses by promoting organic agriculture and the development of the local economy.
