Gratofy: Custom E-commerce Marketplace Development

Corporate gifting has traditionally been a one-size-fits-all proposition - companies select items they hope recipients will appreciate, often missing the mark. Gratofy approached us with a vision to revolutionise this experience: create a marketplace where gift givers provide the choice, and recipients select what they actually want from a curated selection of products.

The technical challenge was substantial. We needed to build a platform that could aggregate products from multiple e-commerce systems (Shopify and WooCommerce), maintain real-time inventory accuracy, filter thousands of items with precision, and provide a seamless selection experience for recipients. All while giving corporate clients full control over branding, budgets, and communication.

Our solution leveraged Laravel for robust backend API development and Nuxt.js for a responsive, intuitive frontend. This modern stack provided the flexibility and performance needed to handle complex product synchronisation, user management, and campaign workflows that make Gratofy's unique business model possible.

The API architecture forms the backbone of Gratofy's platform. We engineered a sophisticated integration layer that connects to both Shopify and WooCommerce APIs, normalizing diverse product data structures into a unified format. This enables seamless filtering across thousands of products regardless of their origin platform.

Real-time synchronisation was critical to the user experience. Recipients needed confidence that items they selected were actually available. Our solution implements webhook listeners and scheduled polling to maintain up-to-date inventory data. When stock changes occur on connected stores, Gratofy's platform updates within minutes, preventing the disappointment of unavailable selections.

The filtering system leverages Laravel's query builder and caching strategies to deliver fast, precise results even across massive product catalogs. Recipients can filter by category, price range, brand, and custom attributes while maintaining sub-second response times. This performance was crucial for the smooth selection experience that makes Gratofy's model work.

The branded communication tools empower corporate clients to maintain their identity throughout the gifting experience. Companies can customise email templates with their logos, colours, and messaging while Gratofy handles the technical delivery and tracking. This white-label approach positions the gift as coming from the sender, not Gratofy, strengthening client relationships.

Campaign management features allow companies to organise multiple gift campaigns, set budget limits per recipient, track redemption rates, and monitor overall program performance. The dashboard provides real-time visibility into campaign progress, enabling proactive management and optimisation.

The platform evolved from an MVP focused on corporate gifting to a broader gift-giving solution. This flexibility in the underlying architecture demonstrates our focus on building scalable systems that can adapt as business models evolve. Nuxt.js's component-based architecture made it straightforward to add new features and user flows without disrupting existing functionality.

"National Digital have been pivotal partners in the scope and build of our platform," says Stefanie Carniato, Founder & CEO of Gratofy. "Their technical expertise and collaborative approach made our marketplace vision a reality." This partnership approach allowed us to understand not just the technical requirements, but the business goals driving them.

The platform's success demonstrates the power of custom development over off-the-shelf solutions. While template marketplaces exist, Gratofy's unique business model - gift givers provide choice, recipients select items - required custom architecture that could handle the complex workflows, multi-platform integration, and brand control their clients demand.