ABOUT PROJECT
At Roobykon, we’re driven by innovation, but even more so by the desire to create positive change. That’s why the Natuja platform stands out as a shining example of our commitment to a better tomorrow. Founded by Andreas Paffrath, Natuja is a carefully curated health products marketplace that fosters a community built around conscious consumerism, ethical production, and environmental responsibility. This project goes beyond simply selling products. It serves as an educational hub, enlightening consumers about the importance of sustainable, natural, and fair products. By fostering understanding, Natuja empowers individuals to make informed choices that benefit both themselves and the planet. Also, in a market dominated by mass-produced goods, Natuja provides a much-needed platform for pioneering sellers of natural and sustainable products. This natural products marketplace connects innovative entrepreneurs with a community of buyers who appreciate and seek out their unique offerings.
Natuja’s vision extends far beyond online transactions. It’s a community working together to make sustainability the norm. Our team at Roobykon was excited to tackle the technical challenges of bringing this vision to life. We developed a robust, user-friendly platform for entrepreneurs that seamlessly connects sellers and buyers while incorporating features that highlight the unique stories and values behind each product.
Key Challenges
Natuja’s journey wasn’t without its hurdles. While Sharetribe provided a solid foundation for this eco-friendly marketplace, implementing the specific functionalities of a sustainable food marketplace presented some unique challenges for Roobykon’s team. Integrating PayPal as a payment option seemed straightforward at first. However, ensuring a seamless experience for German users while adhering to local regulations proved to be a hurdle. Additionally, ensuring the marketplace’s scalability and performance under high traffic was a critical concern. As a food marketplace, it was essential that the platform could handle peak times without compromising user experience.
Another challenge arose with implementing the shopping cart functionality. Supporting two distinct payment methods – PayPal and credit card – proved to be more intricate than initially anticipated. Further complicating matters was the complexities of calculating delivery costs for various food items. Thankfully, throughout these challenges, open and detailed discussions with the customer were paramount. Each new feature was thoroughly discussed to ensure it aligned with their vision and addressed the specific needs of the sustainable food marketplace. This collaborative approach was key to delivering a comprehensive PayPal marketplace solution that met the unique demands of our client.
TECHNOLOGY STACK
Solution Highlights
At Roobykon Software, our journey to build Natuja, an ecology nature marketplace, was powered by innovative solutions that allowed us to focus on what truly matters: creating a seamless experience for both buyers and sellers. One of our standout integrations is Stripe Connect, which enabled us to implement a robust, secure payment system. With Stripe Connect, managing multi-party transactions in the marketplace became streamlined, ensuring quick and reliable payments while maintaining compliance and security standards that are vital for a thriving digital commerce environment.
To ensure that Natuja operates with high performance and reliability, we chose Digital Ocean for our hosting needs. Digital Ocean’s flexible and developer-friendly cloud infrastructure has been a key factor in delivering consistent uptime, rapid scaling, and easy deployment of new features.
The process
01
Communication and project management: Our project manager facilitated all interactions between the customer and our development team, ensuring that requirements were clearly understood and progress was regularly reported. We used Slack for real-time communication, which allowed for quick resolution of any queries or issues that arose. Trello was employed to manage the project, with boards and cards helping us track tasks, deadlines, and progress. This combination of tools ensured that everyone involved had a clear view of the project’s status and next steps.
02
Planning and go-ahead: Our team meticulously crafted a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) outlining the entire project scope. This detailed breakdown ensured transparency and a clear roadmap for development. After presenting the WBS to the client, we received the green light to move forward with building Natuja.
03
Quick wins and core functionality: Speed was key. We prioritized a rapid initial launch, focusing on core functionalities. This meant setting up the basic marketplace infrastructure, implementing a clean and user-friendly design, and introducing minor adjustments to the product listing process. This streamlined approach allowed us to put a functional version of Natuja into production very quickly.
04
Feature request and approval: Once the marketplace was live, the process of ongoing development and enhancement began. The workflow was clearly defined: the customer submitted a request for a specific feature, which our team then reviewed and estimated. This estimate included a breakdown of the effort and time required to implement the requested feature. After presenting the estimate to the customer and obtaining their approval, we proceeded with the implementation.
05
Implementation and testing: The performance phase was followed by staging testing, where the new feature was thoroughly tested in a controlled environment to ensure it functioned correctly without affecting the live marketplace. Upon successful testing, the feature was then verified by the customer. If the customer was satisfied with the implementation, the feature was released into the production environment.
Main Features
Anonymous checkout
Natuja understood that not everyone wants to create an account for a single purchase. The anonymous checkout feature allows users to buy products without registering. At the same time, authorization is performed transparently for the user during the purchase. Customers simply provide their email address and proceed with payment. The system then triggers an email containing login credentials, allowing them to access their purchase details and manage their account if they choose to do so in the future. This seamless process caters to both one-time buyers and those who might become regular customers.
Cart functionality
This feature goes beyond just single-product checkout, allowing users to add multiple items to their cart before completing the purchase. To facilitate accurate shipping cost calculations, Roobykon implemented a custom weight field for each product. This allows vendors to specify the weight of their offerings, ensuring transparent shipping costs. Additionally, the system allows vendors to activate “advanced cart features,” which require all their products to have a weight entry. Once activated, these vendors can define weight-based shipping rates, offering a more customized approach for users with larger orders.
Paypal payments integration
While PayPal is offered as a payment method, all payments are ultimately processed through Stripe Connect. PayPal serves as a gateway through which funds are received, and then these payments are transferred to Stripe Connect for processing and settlement. This feature simplifies the checkout process for users by providing reliable payment options for their one-time purchases. Additionally, the platform is designed to handle both logged-in and guest users, with functionalities for immediate transaction confirmations, proper handling of payment disputes, and comprehensive customer support features.
Invoicing tool for vendors
This tool in the Natuja marketplace was designed to meet German and EU VAT standards. It allows vendors to generate legal invoices, with Sharetribe admins assigning VAT rates to product categories while vendors can override these rates on individual products. Vendors can also choose to operate with or without a VAT ID and toggle the invoicing feature on or off based on their preferences for handling invoices directly with clients.
Product variants
This feature allows users to select different product variants and view corresponding images, a crucial aspect of a marketplace where product variations such as size, flavor, or packaging are common. When a user selects a variant, the system displays the associated image in the carousel, providing a visual representation of the chosen option. Despite this change, users can still browse through the carousel to view other images without altering the selected variant. If the user switches to a different variant, the carousel updates to reflect the new selection, ensuring that users always see the correct image for the variant they are interested in.
Shipping cost variations
Designed to cater to multiple regions including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the EU, this feature allows vendors to set varying shipping rates for different countries through the Shipping Cost Settings. Germany’s shipping rate is the only required entry, while rates for other regions are optional. The user-friendly interface includes country flags for easy reference and displays a warning message reminding vendors that, without additional shipping rates, products will only be available for delivery in Germany. At the checkout stage, the system detects the user’s location to show the correct shipping cost for their country, defaulting to Germany’s rate if no specific rates for other countries are set.
RESULTS
The partnership between Roobykon and Natuja has yielded remarkable results, culminating in the successful launch and ongoing growth of a cutting-edge eco-friendly online marketplace. Despite the complex requirements, our agile development approach allowed Natuja to enter the market quickly. This early launch provided valuable real-world feedback, enabling continuous improvement and feature refinement. The robust technical foundation laid by Roobykon has positioned Natuja for future growth. The marketplace can easily scale to accommodate increasing traffic and transactions without compromising performance.
Natuja and Roobykon’s teamwork is a shining example of how collaboration can create real change. Together, we built a thriving marketplace that puts the power in the hands of consumers, supports businesses that care, and paves the way for a future where sustainability is the norm, not the exception.
Lessons from Natuja
When we first approached the task of turning Sharetribe into a food-specific project, we underestimated the complexity involved. We quickly realized that many of Sharetribe’s general-purpose features needed substantial modification to accommodate the nuances of food retail. This experience taught us the importance of thoroughly analyzing platform limitations before committing to timelines. It also honed our skills in extending marketplace platforms beyond their intended use cases, a capability that has since become one of our core strengths.
During the shopping cart implementation, we found ourselves trying to balance the needs of buyers, sellers, and Natuja itself. The complex delivery cost calculation, in particular, required us to consider multiple variables that often conflicted with each other. We learned to facilitate more effective stakeholder discussions, helping to prioritize features and find compromises where necessary. These lessons have been invaluable, significantly enhancing our capabilities as a development team. They’ve allowed us to take on more complex, specialized marketplace projects with confidence, knowing that we have the skills and experience to overcome similar challenges in the future.
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