Case Studies
Online Advertising for Automobiles, Real Estate & Careers
Customer Profile
Online Classifieds Inc., is a US-based marketing concern that recently commenced operations, targeting the classified advertising market. Driven by the brand image of "Embark: Progress: Arrive" the organization aims at becoming the largest warehouse of automotive, employment and real estate listings.
Business Requirements
Online Classifieds Inc. wanted to capitalize on the growing market of classified advertising, covering three major categories - automotives, real estate, and employment. To implement its strategy of tapping business opportunities from a $16billion online classified market in the US, the organization required a Web presence, where buyers and sellers could advertise their products.
Dynamic Web-Empowered Solution for Empowered Classified Advertising
Benefits
- Powerful and User-Friendly Search Capabilities
- Customized Shopping Cart
- Integration with Credit Payment Gateways
- Easy-to-Use Contextual Selling Capabilities for Sponsored Ads
Technologies used in developing this application are:
The online classifieds market is growing at an astounding rate in the US. Online Classifieds Inc., identified this trend and wanted to venture into this business using an online classified portal. Catering to the needs of the US market, Online Classifieds wanted to initiate the project with three most popular classified ad categories - automotives, real estate, and employment. They required the Web portal to allow buyers to place 'wanted' ads for any of the categories and sellers to advertise classifieds for 'available' products. A powered search would allow prospective buyers to look for product listings and select the most suitable offer. In addition, the portal required contextual advertising capabilities for advertisers to customize and highlight their offers on the portal.
Online Classifieds Inc., realized that with the advent of the Internet age, many offline classified advertisers were switching to the online mode, where they would be able reach a wider audience. The intention to formulate Online Classifieds Inc. was completely based on the organization's strategy of exploiting the growing customer base in the online classified advertising market. The success of Online Classifieds Inc. would thereby, determine the successful implementation of the organization's strategy. While Online Classifieds Inc., concentrated on deciphering their marketing strategy to launch and use the portal, we at Open Source Development designed the portal as an effective and turnkey solution for the organization.
Online Classifieds Inc. is a combination of plug-in modules for different types of users. There are three sections on the portal - Automotive, Employment and Real Estate. Each section functions independently, providing advanced search capabilities. Using this feature, buyers and sellers can look for relevant offers based on various criteria such as, state, city, categories and preferences. Catering to the needs of buyers, sellers, employers and career seekers, the portal is segregated into two categories - Wanted and Available. The Wanted category is for people looking for automotives, real estate, or employment listings and the Available category is for people who list their products on Online Classifieds Inc.
In addition, the portal has been integrated with a credit card payment gateway to allow online payments, for customers who place classified ads with Online Classifieds Inc. Users can create their user accounts and use the shopping cart to purchase any of the product listings.
A unique feature of Online Classifieds Inc. is Contextual Advertising or sponsored ads. It allows advertisers to customize ads and highlight them as top listings within the relevant category (automotive, real estate or employment). So, if an employer places a classified ad on Online Classifieds Inc. for a specific profile, using contextual selling, this job listing would appear among the top job listings on the portal. This feature is administered by the Administrator module for Online Classifieds Inc. A buyer or seller can select from the Premier Sponsor or Paid Sponsor advertising programs. For Premier Sponsor advertising, the administrator needs to enable the purchase order feature for the applicant or advertiser, which entitles the advertiser to a certain credit limit for placing advertisements. In the Paid Sponsor program, the advertiser needs to make payment through a credit card. The portal authenticates the payment instantly and activates the service.
Based on the business requirements and processes that had to be implemented for Online Classifieds Inc., we suggested a 3-tier architecture for high-performance and scalability. The technical architecture for Online Classifieds Inc. is displayed below.
The front-end is designed using HTML, while MySQL is the backend database for managing data integrity. The PHP Business Logic layer ensures smooth flow of data between the backend and the front-end. In addition, it is integrated with the GD Graphics Library for retrieving & managing images on the front-end. The entire architecture is designed for high compatibility and performance in a distributed environment.
Summary
Online Classifieds Inc. is highly dynamic and database-driven portal designed for easy usability and serves the business-critical needs of Online Classifieds Inc. In this venture, Online Classifieds Inc achieved its aim of developing a 'business-efficient' portal, while we at Open Source Development ensured that the product met the client expectations in all aspects.
