— Case / Marketplace Discovery
International multi-vendormarketplace
- Czech Republic
- Mobile app + website
- e-commerce / marketplace-tech B2B2C
A full Discovery phase: from business goals and a stakeholder map to the SRS, non-functional requirements, an integration map and the buyer’s mobile app UX flow.
— Overview
Discovery phase for a new type of marketplace
A comprehensive business analysis and requirements project for a multi-vendor marketplace (website + mobile app), targeting the European market and bringing together buyers and sellers from different countries in a single space. The team fully completed the Discovery phase: from business goals and a stakeholder map to detailed documentation, non-functional requirements, an integration map and the UX flow of the buyer’s mobile app.
The client is entering the market not with another online store, but with a hybrid ecosystem where the platform’s own sales and the sales of hundreds of independent sellers run under one roof. The project is ready for development to start, with a clearly fixed MVP scope, budget and roadmap.
— Challenge
What had to be formalized before development started
01
Hybrid business model. The platform sells products under its own name and at the same time provides a sales tool for third-party sellers — separate accounting, logistics and commission logic is needed for two fundamentally different sellers on one storefront.
02
Complex logistics. The target model is one parcel from multiple stores: an order of products from several sellers and countries is delivered as a single shipment, to lower delivery costs and not lose conversion to expensive multi-shipment.
03
Two seller types with different rules of the game. Individual sellers are private individuals with a limited assortment paid as a percentage of sales; professional ones are legal entities with an unlimited assortment, a fixed access fee, analytics and integrations.
04
Trust and fraud protection. A transparent review and rating system for buyers, KYC/KYB verification of sellers before they start selling and, separately, protection of the referral program against fake registrations.
05
A dense EU regulatory perimeter. GDPR, ePrivacy, PSD2/SCA, DSA, VAT/OSS, AML/KYC and national consumer law had to be built into the data and process architecture from the start.
— Solution
A sequence of business-analysis artifacts
Business analysis and role requirements
- 7 business goals: from entering the target market and optimizing logistics under the one-parcel model to EU compliance, profitability and scalability
- 28 formalized requirements — separately for buyers, sellers, the operations team and external partners: banks, logistics, regulators
- Buyer: authentication via email, Google, Facebook and phone, a profile with addresses and cards, a catalog with filters and comparison, checkout with promo codes, returns, a messaging bot and notifications
- Seller: registration with document upload and a KYC check, products added manually, by bulk CSV/Excel upload or via API sync with their own ERP/CMS, orders, balance, commissions and payouts
- Manager: seller and content moderation, category and promotion management, communication with sellers and users
- Administrator: access rights and RBAC, commission setup, the referral program, consolidated analytics on sales, traffic and revenue, 2FA and activity logs
Non-functional requirements, integrations and architecture
- 7 NFR domains: availability and fault tolerance, performance and scalability, maintainability and SLA, compliance, localization and cross-platform support, extensibility, usability and security
- A compliance document for the EU market: GDPR, ePrivacy, PSD2/SCA, DSA, VAT/OSS, AML/KYC and national consumer law
- Around 30 integrations and external services across 10 functional domains — each marked as to whether it is in the MVP
- The payment layer: acquiring, Apple/Google Pay, PSD2/SCA, split payments and marketplace payouts, refund API, fiscalization and document workflow
- Logistics and communication: warehouse integration, tracking and delivery statuses, notifications, an in-app messenger and chatbot, AI content moderation
- A system context diagram — a single source of truth for the development team about the system’s external boundaries
- A pre-development roadmap: fixing the scope, choosing the technology and deployment approach, checkpoints, team composition, budget estimation and syncing with the design team
— Results
What was handed off to development
- 7
- business goals
- 28
- stakeholder requirements
- 4
- user roles in the SRS
- 28
- formalized business rules
- ~30
- integrations in 10 domains
- 7
- EU regulatory domains
- 7 business goals and 28 formalized stakeholder requirements, consolidated from the client’s scattered wishes into a single document.
- A full SRS for 4 user roles, with the MVP and the full product version worked out separately.
- 28 formalized business rules: product limits, verification and payout timelines, cart and return limits, financial and security policies.
- Around 30 integrations and external services, distributed across 10 functional domains, each explicitly marked MVP / non-MVP.
- A system context diagram and the full end-to-end user flow of the buyer’s mobile app.
- A compliance document covering 7 EU regulatory domains and national legislation.
— Highlights
What was atypical
1P + 3P model
The platform sells under its own name and at the same time works as a marketplace for third-party sellers — separate accounting, logistics and commissions for two seller types on one storefront.
One parcel from many stores
Consolidating products from several sellers and countries into a single shipment to the buyer — an atypical logistics architecture for standard e-commerce.
Fintech-grade verification
Four stages for a professional seller: business data → owner identity with passport and selfie → store and brand data → final review.
Split payments and payouts
Payouts to sellers on a configurable schedule — 14, 30 or 90 days — with automatic invoice generation.
Uptime by calendar
Peak dates are listed explicitly — Christmas, New Year, Easter, Black Friday — with load testing for ≥600 concurrent users before launch.
— Outcome
The team guided the client from a set of ideas and scattered wishes to a complete documentation package ready to hand off to development.
Business and stakeholder requirements, a detailed SRS across four roles, non-functional requirements and regulatory compliance for the EU market, an integration map, the system’s context architecture and a worked-out UX for the buyer’s mobile app — with a clearly fixed MVP and a roadmap for further development.