Essential commodities auction platform
Essential commodities auction platform
A large scale procurement network serving restaurants, hostels, hotels, and central kitchens needed to transform how they sourced essentials such as vegetables, fruits, groceries, and gas cylinders.
As procurement volumes grew, traditional buying became inefficient, opaque, and dependent on manual coordination. Price discovery lacked transparency, seller participation was fragmented, and allocation decisions were inconsistent.
To solve this, the client envisioned a technology first platform for structured procurement and transparent pricing. Mallow worked with them to build a custom marketplace with real time reverse auctions, automated allocation, and accessible participation for farmers and distributors.
2021 – Ongoing
Web and mobile application
Procurement and marketplace platform
reduction in manual procurement effort
faster price discovery through automated bidding
Key challenges and how we solved them
What was the client’s key challenge
Seller participation growth
4X
Driven through WhatsApp based workflows, enabling seamless onboarding, real time bidding, and easy participation for farmers and distributors.
What was our approach
Mallow approached the problem by building a fully custom, auction driven procurement ecosystem tailored to real world buying and selling workflows, rather than relying on or extending conventional marketplace patterns.
The focus was on delivering real time performance, simplifying seller participation, and automating complex decision making such as bidding and allocation. Critical architectural and product decisions were defined early to ensure the platform could scale efficiently while remaining intuitive and accessible for both technical and non technical users.
Key functionalities delivered in the project
01
Reverse auction management
Admins and buyers can create and manage real time reverse auctions with defined quantities, timelines, and participation rules. The system ensures controlled bidding, live updates, and fair pricing visibility across all participants.
02
Seller and product management
Sellers such as farmers and distributors can manage product availability, pricing limits, and participation preferences. Products include quantity, category, and supply details, enabling accurate auction matching and procurement planning.
03
Automated bidding and allocation
Sellers can configure minimum price and tick values for automated bidding. When multiple sellers reach the same price, the system intelligently splits quantities, ensuring fair and accurate order allocation.
04
WhatsApp based participation
Sellers can receive requirements, join auctions, place bids, and view results directly through WhatsApp. This removes dependency on apps and enables seamless participation for non technical users.
05
Real time notifications and updates
The platform delivers instant updates for outbid alerts, auction status, and results. All interactions are synchronized in real time to avoid discrepancies and ensure transparency.
06
Order and procurement management
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Technologies and capabilities to build and scale
Technology stack
Services offered
UI/UX design
Designed intuitive auction flows with user focused interfaces and iterative feedback cycles
Frontend development
Built responsive web and mobile applications for seamless user experience across devices
Backend development
Developed scalable systems handling real time auctions and allocation logic efficiently
DevOps
Configured AWS infrastructure ensuring scalability, performance, and reliable deployments across environments
Testing
Tested auction flows, real time updates, and critical edge cases thoroughly under load
Website development
Built optimized static website showcasing platform features and business value clearly
How we approached and executed the project
The engagement began by understanding how procurement decisions were made, how sellers participated, and where inefficiencies existed in the current process.
Reverse auction rules, bidding logic, allocation strategies, and pricing controls were defined and validated before development.
Special focus was given to designing WhatsApp based workflows to ensure accessibility for farmers and distributors with minimal technical barriers.
The system was built using React for the auction dashboard to handle real time interactions. Flutter powered the mobile apps, while Ruby on Rails handled backend services, with a strong focus on scalability and performance.
AWS AppSync and DynamoDB were implemented to deliver real time updates, ensuring auction data consistency across all participants.
Extensive testing was conducted, especially for edge cases like equal bids and allocation splitting, to ensure reliability under real world conditions.
Designed around distinct user roles and their pain points
Buyers
Core need
Efficient and transparent procurement of large quantities.
Biggest pain
Manual purchasing, inconsistent pricing, and lack of structured sourcing.
Frequent usage, operations-driven
Farmers and distributors
Core need
Direct access to high demand buyers with transparent, competitive pricing opportunities.
Biggest pain
Limited reach, manual coordination, and lack of transparent bidding systems.
Flexible participation, mobile-friendly
What impact did team Mallow deliver?
- Enabled bulk buyers to procure essentials through structured and transparent auctions
- Increased seller participation by simplifying access through WhatsApp
- Eliminated manual coordination in procurement workflows
- Ensured real time accuracy in bidding and auction outcomes
- Built a scalable system capable of handling high volume transactions
- Introduced automated allocation logic for fair and efficient order distribution
Explore more on what really goes into shaping our client's successful outcomes?
No two journeys here follow the same path. Each story captures a different starting point, set of constraints, and path to execution. As you explore our portfolio, you’ll see how priorities shifted, what trade-offs were made, and how decisions evolved in response to real-world challenges. It gives you a more complete view of what actually shapes outcomes, beyond just what gets built.
