Sector(s)
A prominent directory publishing company, in collaboration with a renowned Japanese partner, focuses on producing industry-specific guides. Headquartered in Delhi, it publishes widely recognized resources for the construction and industrial sectors.
To broaden its reach, the company explored the online B2B directory space by creating a platform aimed at connecting suppliers with buyers while showcasing a wide array of products. The goal was to develop a comprehensive website serving as a directory for suppliers and their offerings.
About the project
The Goal:
Our client wanted a website that has a directory of suppliers and the various products they sell. The website should serve as a marketplace which allows users to register and then use various facilities on the site. An anonymous user should also be able to browse the site and explore features and listings. But based on the level of payment, some features of the site may or may not be visible.
The Solution:
The website was developed to have the following features:
User Level:
- The site has 5 levels of users
- Each user sees a different landing page for people logging in
- Site level notifications for all user activity. Call back, registration, account upgrade, buy/sell requests, call-back requests, enquiry, microsite changes
- The number of sales or inquiry made on the product
- Member login page may have only tenders relevant to users registered categories
User- Site admin Functionality:
- Admin reporting panel; details of changes to all Revenue flags/fields - by member, with start/end dates etc.
- List of all users, by membership level, dates - site registration date, membership level start date, membership level end date, number of days member has been free
- Analytics for Listings: number of searches for a keyword; top cagetory and category accessed for listings for the keyword, number of clicks on listings, number of products viewed, number of enquiries, number of times video viewed, number of times clicks to an outside URL, number of Call Back requests etc.
- Ability to mark International members distinctly
Products:
- A product consists of title, search keyword, product-image, associated documents, multi-media, link to external URL, brief description, optional pricing information
- Products per-manufacturer “weight” based on: the number of sales or inquiry made on the product
Portal Functionality:
- Admin has direct access to site-level analytics
- Different elements can be bought – like the Chat only functionality; Sell Offer , Buy Offer, call back requests etc
- Search results: Sort, make unique and then randomise result.
- Product search results output is a function of the following: If there are multiple hits of the same manufacturer in a category, only one of the products will be picked up, with a message “X more products from same supplier message” which is somewhat like a Google search. Also, any exception while adding a keyword – for example, if the keyword is found out to not belong to a member specific category, he will be flashed a message confirming if the keyword is appropriate. All such exceptions are ‘flashed’ to the member. On the results page, at the top, below the bread crumb, where the category name/search keyword is specified - "Results in Category" or "Results for keyword "pumps"" - there will be an option to flip the view from Products to Suppliers
- Advertisements serviced using Google DFP
- Each micro-site has an admin
- Messaging Section: Report Spam, and Block User functionality. Messaging Section: Ability to delete messages etc
Technology:
- Drupal version used: Drupal 6
- Apache SOLR has been tweaked to use facets as menu items and have search results itself as part of the content. A more detailed case study of how we tweaked the URLs to return search results for a category term URL, can be found here.
- SEO rules followed uniformly - in terms of URL, Meta Tags etc
Why Drupal was chosen
Drupal 6 was used for the online marketplace because:
- It could provide multi-user functionality
- Had the features that matched the client's requirements
Technical Specifications
Drupal version:
Business Benefits:
Be it multiple administration levels, private messaging, analytics, managing scores of products and suppliers database, extensive search capabilities, streamlined and quick content, all have been managed using the combination of Drupal and Apache SOLR.
