Highly flexible B2B E-Commerce platform

Create and manage a variety of marketplaces and brand shops in the blink of an eye

The challenge

Companies should be able to digitise their buying and selling processes in an uncomplicated and cost-effective way.

A platform concept should enable easy scaling so that a large number of different marketplaces and brand shops with a wide variety of products can be operated.

Buyers and sellers should benefit from a central single sign-on (SSO) and central data storage.

Possehl Online Solutions GmbH

Possehl Online Solutions GmbH is a corporate start-up of the Possehl Group. With its many years of experience in B2B e-commerce and its expertise in mechanical and plant engineering, it supports companies in their digitalisation.

How we supported

XITASO has implemented a highly flexible B2B e-commerce platform that enables a variety of different marketplaces and brand shops to operate on a central database. The complete platform is implemented as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) concept with the latest technologies on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

In a joint approach with Possehl Online Solutions, the basic architecture and product vision were first defined. The features were developed in workshops and UI/UX concepts were created in consultation with the development department. After only four months of development, the MyPossehl Marketplace went live.

Technologies

User Journey/Flow Visual Design Personas Wireframes Klickdummy Design System Kubernetes Pulumi Jenkins Cypress Node.js React AWS S3 Docker SSO REST

The MyPossehl Marketplace went online after 4 months of development.

“XITASO convinced us right from the start with its technical expertise and professional conception. On the one hand, a first version of the product was implemented in a short time. On the other hand, the course was already set for long-term goals.”

Alexander Wachter
CEO & Co-Founder
Possehl Online Solutions GmbH

The players

At the beginning of the project, the first task was to understand the domain and the basic processes. For this purpose, the UI/UX experts from XITASO created customer journeys. Based on the in-depth industry knowledge of Possehl Online Solutions, the current buying and selling process was examined in workshops and the individual steps with the roles involved were recorded. This actual state was then checked for optimisations and transferred into the target state as a target image.

The process steps and the roles involved were recorded in customer journeys. The customer journeys optimised by XITASO were hung up in the main meeting room at Possehl Online Solutions.

The platform concept

The platform concept stores that the most important data centrally and can be used by buyers and sellers for the various marketplaces and brand shops.

Through Single-Sign-On (SSO), users only have to log in once.

Sellers only have to maintain their products in one central place and can then conveniently place them in different shops. At the same time, they benefit from the large buyer base.

Sellers can also open their own brand shop at any time. This can be created by the platform operator in no time at all. In a brand shop, the seller can offer only his products and adapt the appearance of the shop exactly to his needs.

Die Akteure

Buyer
Logs in only once through Single-Sign-On (SSO) and sees all orders in a central portal UI.

Seller
Can conveniently place his products in all shops starting from a central database and see all orders in a central portal UI.

Shop operator
Manages buyers, sellers and settings for your own shop in a central portal UI.

Platform operator
Manages buyers, sellers and settings for all shops in a central portal UI.

What makes the E-Commerce platform special?

Multiple shopping baskets and sellers

As a buyer, you can structure the products clearly in several shopping baskets. For example, a shopping basket “Maintenance parts machine 1” and another shopping basket “Office supplies”. In this way, the various products can be sorted according to subject and ordered at staggered times.

Ordering products from different sellers is also no problem. This can be done conveniently in the same checkout process.

New shop at the touch of a button

Thanks to the flexible platform concept, a new marketplace or brand shop can be created in no time at all.

The appearance of each shop can be individually adapted. For example, to the corporate identity of the shop operator.

Buyer, seller and shop data are stored in a central location and can be used by all shops (if authorised).

Portal

A separate administration interface has been implemented for sellers as well as marketplace and platform operators. The so-called “portal UI”. Sellers have an overview of the orders from all shops on which they are active.

In addition, sellers receive quotation requests here and can write offers, also across all shops.

Marketplace and platform operators can manage sellers and buyers in the portal UI.

The development process

The development and conception took place in several two-week sprints. In each of these two weeks, the highest-priority user stories were implemented. On the other hand, the concepts for future functions were developed in workshops together with the customer.

At the end of each sprint, the result was demonstrated. During these meetings, valuable feedback from the customer could be collected for further development.

During the entire development process, there was a close cooperation between UI/UX experts, software developers and the client. In this way it was possible to create a product that offers the right functions, is technically flexible and robust, and that users like to use.