Multi-Vendor Appointment Booking Platform: ReactJS Based App Development

As an e-commerce business owner, once you are done with the e-commerce website development process, website visibility is considered a next big challenge.

While marketers deploy different marketing strategies in order to increase visibility on search engines. Search visibility is considered as a crucial indicator to see how well their websites rank in organic search results.

Generally, customers tend to click on the first few pages of the search results. This leads merchants to compete for securing better rankings for highly relevant and converting keywords. Sometimes, even after employing various website optimization techniques, desired results are hard to obtain.

Apart from the on-page optimization methods that search engine specialists use for enhancing the ranking of their website, marketers opt for numerous off-page tactics like classifieds, guest posts, and more.

Besides visibility, marketers struggle hard to employ ways for providing better customer satisfaction, scintillating online experience, and bring traffic to the website.

One of the most effective solutions to bring traffic, better ranking, improved visibility, better customer credibility is by adding businesses on the Business Listing Websites.

If you are a local business adding/registering your business on a business listing website makes your presence on web more prominent. Online Searchers and search engines do prefer business listings because they present a list of merchants at a single place, the visitor can compare services, get contact details and instantly inquire about the services.

Thus, business listing websites get high traffic and win a place higher up in search results. Merchants can take this up as an opportunity to increase revenue and sales by adding a smart listing that justifies the expert services they offer.

Based on this, experts at our ReactJS development company built a multi-vendor appointment booking platform for a client.

Let’s proceed with:

Introduction to the multi-vendor appointment booking platform

The multi-vendor appointment booking platform is a system where a number of merchants can list their online businesses and let their customers search business contact needs.

This is also called ‘Business Directory Listings’.

Merchants prefer listing their businesses on these directories as they provide numerous advantages in terms of their search engine optimization. A few of them are:

• Targeted Advertising

Adding businesses in directories can help merchants to be more visible on the web and improve their sales. For finding specific businesses, customers browse through specific directories.

Once people find a suitable company for their needs they will definitely make a purchase. In such a way, directories help merchants to attract customers who are in dire need of their services. Online directories help you have higher returns from your website. The high relevancy products are given more importance in the directory listing.

• Increased Web Traffic

While people today prefer getting results at a single place, business directory listings or multi-vendor appointment booking platform helps to enhance the online visibility of your brand by entering details.

Google gives preference to quality websites. You can increase quality using relevant content. So, adding your quality pages can help you attain higher ranking and website traffic.

• High Return On Investment (ROI)

Listing products on online directories can increase your profits. As customers search for products on different online directories before making a purchase, it increases your accountability, most directories today have a customer review module added on their website where  a consumer can rate the level of service/product offered by a particular merchant, on the basis of this other prospects can take  an idea if he can expect a better purchasing experience with the merchant.

From an SEO perspective, the multi-vendor appointment booking platforms have been helpful in increasing rankings and the return on investment.

From the buyers perspective, these platforms help them to create bookings for their products and enable merchants to get their commission per order basis. Moreover, it allows customers to find all the products/services of a specific location.

How we built a multi-vendor appointment booking platform?

Considering numerous advantages of multi-vendor appointment booking platforms, our expert developers built one ReactJS-based platform for one of the clients who provide vendors of the fitness industry to register services related to gyming, studios, and the personal trainers.

We have developed a frontend technology stack that is jQuery framework based on ReactJS and the backend technology using nodeJS.

Other technologies that we have used in the development process are:

• Redux, SaSS, HTML 5, CSS3, Bootstrap, MongoDB, Google APIs, Twilio SMS API for different sections of the website.

Why ReactJS?

While we started off with developing and designing the business listing portal, handling huge web traffic could have been a major challenge and area of concern for the client. After a brainstorming session, we chose to employ ReactJS for setting up the whole system instead of other JavaScript frameworks like Angular.

As our application required the creation of reusable UI components, there was a need for a framework that could allow our developers to break down complex components and reuse the code to complete our project faster. ReactJS provided a desirable solution.

Developed by Facebook, ReactJS refers to an open-source Javascript library used to build the user interfaces.

It uses JSX which is a unique syntax that allows HTML quotes and HTML tag syntax application for rendering specific subcomponents. This makes ReactJS a great solution for promoting the creation of machine-readable code and at the same time compounding components into a single-time verifiable file.

The well-defined lifecycle, component-based approach, and use of just plain JavaScript make ReactJS very simple to learn.

Due to its great features, like native approach, simplicity to test, one-way data binding, and excellent performance, we considered ReactJS as an effective technique to outpace competitors while creating web applications.

Moreover, our app was loaded with huge data, ReactJS provided a fast, scalable, and simple solution. However, it is important to note that ReactJS works only on user interfaces in the application. Moreover, it can be used with a combination of Javascript libraries Angular JS.

It enabled our developers to build huge website applications which can alter the data, without the need of reloading the page.

Key features of our React-based multi-vendor app platform

• Ease of use for every user

It is easy to use the multi-vendor application platform that even a novice can add the required details to it. The guided experience adds to it.

• Manage Pricing

Sellers can manage their pricing in their admin panel. There are four types of pricing we provided to the sellers:  Flexible services, Membership, Multi classes, and Fixed Classes.

• Flexible services: These services are provided by the vendor as per the customer’s schedule. These are programs that are provided as per the preferred timings of the customer.

Membership services: These services are provided on a monthly and yearly basis.

Multi-classes: The services included providing group classes.

Fixed classes: In these classes, vendors provide fixed time classes to their customers.

• Manage Orders Effectively

Our developers provided a slot in the user admin panel to manage the orders in a simplified manner. They can add images of products, start and end date, amount, offer the amount of the product/services, status and the action taken.

• Mobile-friendliness

As a huge number of search queries are conducted on mobile devices, we expanded its functionality to let users add their businesses in the system anywhere, anytime. Even customers can find services wherever they are.

• Feature-enriched approach

We created a booking platform that has appealing features like attractive design, appropriate buttons which facilitate competing with the rivals.

• Provides SEO assistance

Vendors can register their services on the portal for improving ranking in Google search results and boosts local visibility. This app is a great SEO solution for merchants.

How did our multi-vendor appointment booking platform look like?

Our ReactJS-based Multi-vendor app platform is an effective solution for merchants to display their services/products wherein they can enter their NAP- Name, Address, and Phone number for their customers who are finding them across the web.

Let’s have a look at how our app looks like at the user end. He can search for the gyming, studios and professional trainers in any location.

At the marketer/seller end, each seller is enabled to create an account where he enters his business details including name, address of the business, working hours, phone number, and more.

Besides adding businesses, marketers can manage the pricing and offers for their customers. At the seller/marketer end, it panel looks like:

Challenges we faced while developing a Multi-Vendor Appointment Booking System

• The foremost challenge that came across our team before we started developing the app was to handle the huge chunks of data, specifically, handling a large number of users at the same time making it a heavy website. So, we preferred the ReactJS based approach.
• Another challenge was to provide mobile-friendliness to users so that they can have access to a responsive website. With our expertise in responsive design development, we were able to design a responsive design.
• Performance orientation posed another challenge. We overcome this by creating a component-based structure using Redux. We used the express API framework in the node for populating data faster followed by the market standard code with zero bugs, followed by unit testing using Enzyme.
• Another major challenge was to manage the whole business from services to revenue calculation. To eliminate this barrier, we added the following options in our platform:

(i) Manage services – add service, edit, delete service by the business owner

(ii) Manage Trainers – add, edit delete assign trainer they have hired on their shops.

(iii) Auto-allocate available time-slots to the trainers.

(iv) Auto-check the availability of a time slot for requested service or not. Approval rejection of service by the business owner in case a trainer is not available for a day.

(v) Auto-debit customer credit card after service and credit business owner account.

(vi) Calculate money earned in a week, month or year and generate reports for the record.

This helped us develop and deliver a streamlined appointment booking solution for the client.

Final Thoughts on The Multi-vendor appointment booking system

This app was designed to help the client escalate the SEO visibility of vendor products. Our multi-vendor appointment booking solution helped multiple sellers and third parties to connect their services to the customers in one place.

This smart application allows customers to built a dynamic booking/reservation online which saves their time of visiting the businesses in-person.

In case you are looking for any website and app development solution for your ecommerce developer, you can reach our dedicated ecommerce developers anytime for an expert consultation.