Auction & E-commerce Hybrid Marketplace
A unified marketplace where company and public users buy and sell via competitive auction bidding or instant fixed-price purchase — doubling order volume within 90 days of launch.
The Challenge
The client needed a single marketplace where the owning company and independent public users could list, buy, and sell items through two distinct commerce modes: competitive auction bidding and instant fixed-price purchase. Existing off-the-shelf platforms only supported one mode, forcing users to operate separate systems. The client also required role-based dashboards for admins, verified sellers, and buyers — each with distinct workflows and permission layers.
Our Solution
Cyberbeak engineered a full-stack hybrid marketplace using Python/Django and Django REST Framework for the backend API, paired with a performant Next.js frontend. We built a dual-mode listing engine where sellers could activate Auction Mode (configurable bid increments, reserve prices, anti-sniping auto-extension) or Fixed-Price Mode on any product. A real-time bidding engine powered by Redis pub/sub and WebSockets delivered instantaneous bid updates to all active participants. Celery handled scheduled tasks including auction closing, outbid alerts, and winner notifications. Stripe integration managed split payments, escrow holds, and automated seller payouts.
The Results
The platform launched with 2,000+ active listings in its first week. Order volume doubled compared to the client's previous manual trading process within 90 days. Auction-mode listings drove a 35% higher average transaction value than fixed-price equivalents. Over 500 independent sellers onboarded in the first three months, and the platform processed its first $1M in gross merchandise value (GMV) within the initial quarter.
Stack & Expertise
“We had the concept but no platform that could handle both auction and fixed-price modes properly. Cyberbeak built exactly what we described — and exceeded it. Doubling our order volume in 90 days and crossing $1M GMV in our first quarter was beyond every target we'd set.”