A marketplace for organizing the events and online event booking services
Event Top has grown from a site with a simple application for event organizing to a full-fledged marketplace. Event Top gathers vendors who provide any services for events – from food ordering to sound equipment booking.
Field: organization of events, sale of products for events organizing Country: Russia Website: EventTop
The client had a website with an application for an event. It included sections for the event’s name, number of people, date, time and special wishes. The client then received several offers with prices from companies that were ready to organize the event. We came up with an idea to create a full-cycle event booking service to give clients the opportunity to preview, evaluate and select companies that are associated with event organizing.
We created a convenient B2C platform, where:
- Vendors provide services for organizing events, catering, and delivery.
- Buyers can reserve premises, equipment, and hire staff, in addition to usual application and purchase.
CS-Cart Multi-Vendor Plus platform allows you to manage not only online sales, but also supports booking and rental services functionality. In addition, this particular edition has many useful tools for working with vendors. For example: promotions and ratings, payment directly to vendors, advanced management of vendors’ rights, etc.
The main task in design is usability for buyers and vendors. Most often, the marketplace is associated with the product purchasing. But in our case, Event Top also offers booking services.
Therefore, it is important to create a clear and logical menu, with a simple understanding of what you can book and what you can buy. Initially, a ready-made UniTheme2 theme was chosen. We significantly reworked its elements and animations during the development process. We also significantly changed the mobile version for a comfortable user experience. The main menu offers a large choice of available categories, and the names of those categories speak for themselves.
The button for booking an event is located in the sticky top menu, and is always visible to the customer. The application form contains simple fields with drop-down lists, everything is easily available on one page and is clear at a glance. In order not to miss important points, a hint system has been developed for the convenience of customers.
Smart booking filters for maximum conversion
Marketplace offers a huge amount of products and services to choose from, and the conversion will be the highest if visitors are offered the most relevant results. In order to achieve this we thought over and developed a system of filters and sorting for booking services:
- If you select the required date and time, then the store visitor will be offered everything that is available for booking in the selected category. It can be: premises, photo studios, furniture, utensils, equipment;
- In addition, he can further sort these filter results by price and seller rating at the same time.
By setting up filters and sorting for themselves, the customer will go to a page formed for his specific request. He can easily find the necessary services to book an event for his specific budget.
We developed an availability calendar
We created a timeline system to make it easier for a vendor to control and manage premises, products and services. It simply and transparently shows everything that is booked. The calendar is automatically populated based on placed orders. As the result:
- Doubling of orders for the same premises or service is excluded;
- The vendor sees which places are less popular for events and can quickly respond to their promotion;
- Analyzing the number of booked events in the calendar, the vendor will understand when to scale up or offer seasonal promotions.
Dynamic price system for rent at different times
Thanks to the function of a multi-dimensional price calendar, sellers can maintain a flexible pricing policy. The price may change to a higher or lower end depending on the time of day or day of the week. For example, renting a photo studio on weekdays can be cheaper than on weekends. The calculator will automatically calculate the price based on the selected dates and times.
We have created a separate mobile version of the marketplace for mobile devices in order not to compress web pages to fit the phone screen. It is easy for the user to navigate the booking functionality of the mobile version. The necessary buttons and functions are visually highlighted and accessible even on a small screen.
A simple and quick start for vendors on the marketplace.
The marketplace itself places information about new vendors and their products, acting as an aggregator for this niche. The vendor only needs to log in and verify information about himself. Next, the new vendor adds subsequent products on its own.
Vendors get a new channel for selling their services without much effort.
1. A unique platform for creating any turnkey event
You can not only buy, but also book places, equipment, as in a regular booking system.
2. Automation of the work of administrators on available products
The developed availability calendar eliminates booking errors as it is filled automatically from placed orders.
3. Insights and opportunities for vendors in pricing policy and marketing strategy, thanks to the “Availability and Pricing Calendar” tool.
4. You can find and book the desired service in 2 steps: by selecting the date and time.
Overall results for the first 2 months of work of the event marketplace:
- 27196 items were placed
- 254 vendors attracted
- Were involved: 5 developers, 1 project manager.
Deadline: 8 months, start – May 2021, delivery to the client – December 2021
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