From a Tech Challenge to Smart Simplicity: How Codica Built an Auto Parts Marketplace

One key challenge that online auto parts marketplaces have is the subtle differences between a spare part and the relevant car. You cannot notice them until you put the part in place. The differences between the original part and the one bought online may be so small that they are only noticeable when you test it.

Fortunately, online marketplaces solve this problem through the TecDoc integration, which searches for auto parts by VIN. This breakthrough for online auto parts marketplaces solves the wrong-fitment problem. So, the average 86% of auto parts returns due to this issue can be reduced thanks to this powerful integration.

Why do we focus on this? This technical solution is a go-to tool in the PartStall auto parts marketplace built by Codica. Many more integrations and engineering methods reduced error-prone and time-consuming actions for this platform’s vendors and buyers to minutes.

Read on to learn more about this auto parts marketplace and equip yourself with handy knowledge before building your own.

Why PartStall? How it started and where it moves

This versatile auto parts marketplace has been built for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The platform is a two-sided marketplace. It serves the B2C and B2B sectors, and supports languages spoken in the Baltic countries.

The primary purpose of building this auto parts marketplace was to reduce friction in auto parts sales, namely, high prices, incorrect fitment, and long delivery times. Easy to say, not as simple to do.

Behind the front simplicity and speed in use stand technical solutions and integrations. This functionality helps vendors create listings and buyers find the right auto parts. Thanks to these implementations, vendor operations are smooth, and buyers enjoy streamlined next-day delivery of their orders.

To learn more, let’s dive deeper into the intricacies of this marketplace tech, starting with the features.

You may also like: Building an Auto Parts Marketplace with Seamless TecDoc Integration

PartStall auto parts management features that make a difference

The functionality comes from a broad vision of the marketplace’s mission. For PartStall, it meant delivering the necessary auto parts to buyers fast, accurately, and at affordable prices. Here’s how we achieve this.

Robust and flexible search for auto parts

The tandem of Elasticsearch and TecDoc API enables buyers to find auto parts even if they misspell the name or do not know the exact name.

Context-based and fuzzy search enabled by lightning-fast Elasticsearch allows you to find a vehicle part by make, model, and engine.

More advanced and accurate search requires entering a 17-digit VIN or state number, with the help of TecDoc integration. In this case, the likelihood of a mismatch at the end is significantly reduced.

Bulk import with Excel/CSV support for vendors

Vendors can now use bulk import with Excel or CSV support, along with progress tracking and error handling, instead of entering catalog items individually. Thanks to this feature, vendors can map thousands of items in seconds. This enhancement saves significant time and reduces errors.

Our multi-worker architecture also tracks failed listings separately. It means that vendors can retry more easily and debug unsuccessful entries.

Convenience for buyers to help them get orders quickly

In addition to a helpful search, buyers can view the product card, which provides data on fitment, brands, and OEM numbers. We introduced a secure, swift shopping cart and checkout system, integrated with the local Montonio payment system.

Buyers can also manage orders and their statuses.

Convenience for vendors to assist them in product and order management

Buyers’ success depends on how vendors can manage their processes. To make these processes efficient, we decided to create a well-thought-out system that allows vendors to create listings, edit and upload images, import entries from Excel and CSV files, manage inventory and orders.

All of this can be seen on a comprehensive dashboard that also handles payouts. This system ensures that buyers can see all auto parts that vendors offer and get them the next day.

Usability for administrators to connect all parts

To improve the connection between buyers and sellers, we’ve created actionable dashboards. They help admins manage vendors, buyers, listings, orders, brands, categories, and pages. Moreover, to help admins, we’ve included email subscription management, brand synonym management, and audit logs.

Sidekiq integration helps admins monitor background processes running asynchronously to ensure optimal platform performance.

Localization to serve multiple communities in the Baltic countries

Building for the Baltic region, we know that this community is diverse. So, our client requested the features that would serve the local community best. Not only did we integrate the support for all languages, but we also added Montonio, the leader in local payments.

Hence, the platform feels like home and is known to users, enhancing the overall experience.

Product discovery sessions

The project discovery phase for this marketplace was intended to outline how the client can streamline sales processes and ensure proper fitment and next-day delivery. During product discovery, we also outlined the tech stack and team composition and created prototypes to illustrate the solution.

Business logic and specification

The marketplace system connects multiple nodes, ensuring that vendors can sell efficiently and buyers get what they need for their cars quickly. Hence, the business logic of this marketplace comprises the following key components:

• Validating queries based on make, model, engine, and the VIN or the state numbers;
• The platform pools inventory from multiple vendors;
• The logic processes complex return constraints;
• When an order is placed, the system automatically routes the order data (SKU, shipping destination, and quantity) to the specific vendor's ERP;
• Inventory checks are automated. When a part sells out, the backend immediately delists or updates the availability status to prevent overselling.

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Prototype development

Prototypes are an indispensable part of our product discovery sessions. They are valuable helpers in showing what the future solution will look like and how it will work. When creating the prototypes for PartStall, we focused on key features for buyers, sellers, admins, and the platform-wide experience.

Not only do prototypes help to preview the future solution, but they also help you make changes as soon as possible. We discuss prototypes with the client and make adjustments when needed. This particular case involved discussions on how the auto parts will reach the end customer and what vendors and admins need to ensure this process is smooth and quick.

We discussed the buyer flow, the vendor flow, the admin functionality, and how supporting features will work. Below is an example of how prototypes for PartStall look:

Tech stack for PartStall

When selecting technologies for this marketplace, we weighed the options based on the efficiency requirements. The complexity of sales in the auto parts industry should not hinder the customer experience on the marketplace.

That is why we have chosen time-tested technologies that ensure the platform runs smoothly. Here is our core selection:

• Ruby on Rails: the marketplace processes data about many models. RoR ensures rapid development in a complex domain, a mature ecosystem, strong conventions for REST APIs, and the ActiveAdmin feature for internal tools.
• Next.js: the SSR/SSG modes of rendering are critical for online visibility of the products (parts catalog pages, sitemaps) and organic customer acquisition;
• React: its ecosystem ensures rich interactive UI: cart, search, and VIN lookup;
• Elasticsearch: millions of parts listings require a fast, faceted, full-text search that PostgreSQL alone can’t efficiently serve at scale;
• Sidekiq and Redis: this combination ensures bulk vendor imports with the processing of thousands of rows. Moreover, TecDoc sync and Elasticsearch indexing require async/background processing, which this powerful tandem ensures.
• AWS (ECS, S3, CloudFront): provides scalable container hosting, durable image/file storage, CDN for catalog images;
• TypeScript: this technology offers a large frontend codebase with many forms and data structures; type safety reduces bugs in complex checkout and listing flows.

Codica’s development process for PartStall

Step 1: Infrastructure & DevOps

DevOps technologies serve the core purpose of the PartStall marketplace: the complexity should be experienced as simplicity. That is why the infrastructure setup and DevOps services for this project involved the usage of the relevant modern technologies, namely the following:

• Using PostgreSQL for transactional integrity (orders, users, payments).
• Using VIN decoding and fitment API, namely the TecDoc integration;
• Caching frequent database queries with Redis, user sessions, and API responses to lower the server load;
• Using continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD);
• Packaging microservices using Docker and managing them using Kubernetes.

These technologies serve the key purpose of the PartStall project: to make the development process optimized and cost-efficient.

These are not only preliminary steps. Our DevOps engineers support projects throughout, from start to finish and during the maintenance and support phase. Hence, we are careful in the initial preparations, as they lay the foundation for subsequent development processes.

Step 2: PartStall product design

For UI/UX design, we used Material-UI, a tool that sets a component foundation and ensures consistent typography, spacing, color system, and icons. Also, MUI's breakpoint system ensures that the platform is displayed correctly across mobile, tablet, and desktop versions.

As we designed the product for scalability, we’ve chosen the feature sliced design (FSD). Thus, we organize the frontend architecture into layers: entities, features, widgets, and shared elements. Such an organization ensures that the product scales well as it grows.

Crucial design features also included the following:

• Advanced interactions: Drag-and-drop image upload, image galleries, carousels, date pickers, input masking for phones and formats, OTP inputs;
• Form UX: instant validation feedback;
• Search UX: Elasticsearch React UI with faceted filters necessary for parts catalog browsing;
• Loading states: page transitions, skeleton and loading indicators;
• Notifications: react-hot-toast for non-blocking feedback.

Step 3: PartStall development

For this project, we focused on key flows and features to ensure that all parts are properly connected and work together smoothly. Also, the most critical part in this project is fiftment accuracy. Thus, we connected all the nodes of the system to ensure that, in the end, buyers get the correct parts with next-day delivery.

Here are the essential aspects that we put in the PartStall platform while providing our online marketplace development services:

• Mapping parts to specific years, makes, models, and trims;
• Implementing a vehicle identification number (VIN) and state number decoder (TecDoc);
• Strict seller verification processes and quality controls to ensure genuine parts;
• Seamless logistics handling;
• Managing return authorizations and restocking;
• Providing a secure payment gateway, Montonio, which is a local leader in the Baltic countries.

Step 4: Testing and quality assurance (QA)

When testing the PartStall auto parts marketplace, we focused on fitment accuracy, that is, verifying parts match exact vehicle makes, models, and years. Also, we prioritized easy browsing, catalog and order management, online discoverability for better user acquisition, and more in our quality assurance services:

• VIN decoding to test the correct work of the TecDoc integration;
• Fuzzy search with Elasticsearch that handles millions of listings;
• Seller verification to test authentication flows for third-party sellers and dealers;
• Testing vendor bulk import from Excel/CSV files;
• Vendor dashboard self-service that lowers load on operators;
• ActiveAdmin tools so that the team could handle operations without a custom admin dev;
• Real-time stock to test the latency between sellers’ inventory systems and the marketplace to prevent backorders on rare or fast-moving parts;
• Logistics handling to ensure the next-day delivery;
• Data security to ensure that Montonio works in line with the regional financial regulations and protects high-value B2B and consumer transactions.

Step 5: Maintenance and support for PartStall

Currently, the project is in support. We monitor its state constantly. Our DevOps engineers check its work and make necessary updates when needed. The constant monitoring preserves the marketplace’s consistent performance and ensures that users have an experience that helps them reach their goals.

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What does it mean to build your own auto parts marketplace with Codica

The development process for auto parts marketplaces involves a deep dive into the product specifics. The system connects providers with buyers and admins and should be smooth at every step; otherwise, the whole system will break down.

When building an auto parts marketplace, we connect the frontend, backend, APIs, and integrations as components that nevertheless work in tune. That is why we involve specialists who oversee the product strategy and work on the platform accordingly.

PartStall is a successful example of our work in the auto parts industry. We are happy to see that this platform works for the Baltic community. It helps sellers and buyers navigate complex processes, making them smoother while providing auto parts at affordable prices and next-day delivery. Moreover, organic customer acquisition, combined with a scalable design, ensures that our client’s business is set to grow.

To wrap up

The PartStall project provides simplicity for users despite the back-office complexity. Modern technologies solve that complexity, and have helped us build a robust solution that handles challenging tasks in minutes. Moreover, we designed the solution to be scalable. So, the technologies are used at scale, up to processing millions of entries and listings.

If you want to build an auto parts marketplace yourself, we are eager to help you. We know how to solve the complex challenges that auto parts platforms face, thanks to our successful experience in this industry, as reflected in our portfolio. Feel free to contact us. Our team will guide you through the processes and provide you with a free quote.