Custom Marketplace for Agriculture Industry

As a part of the farmer community, the Client could see and experience the key challenges of most farmers and laborers nationwide:

- difficulty for farmers to hire labor force with the right skills, available in a certain region and time;

- difficulty for farm laborers to find a gig in their region that fits their skills and rate.

The challenge can be overcome by creating a network of farmers and laborers for full visibility of available jobs and accessible laborers in real-time.

Our aim was to create such an app that serves as a solution to a rural labor shortage across the USA.

The initial request from the Client described the idea and expected functionality without specifying any technical requirements. That's why our team suggested full-cycle development, design, business and technical consulting, and software testing.

The Full Cycle of Development Services

Step 1. Mapping the idea to estimate the project cost.

Belitsoft team started with mapping the client’s idea to create a basis for further project estimation. The Map was presented and discussed with the Client to agree on the suggested functionality, features, and other details.

Creating a map allowed Belitsoft's team to estimate the project cost. So at the very first stage, the Client received the rough sum with optimistic and pessimistic estimate that let him effectively plan the budget.

Example of mapping of future application flows and functionality

Step 2. Creating mock-ups for the project to attract investors.

At this stage, the leading designer joined the project to create a mock-up to show investors. It represented a full-sized model of the future application that allowed the designer to test how visual elements worked together for creating great UX.

This visual draft was demonstrated to potential investors with the aim to raise the funds for the project. And the Client managed to fundraise enough for developing an MVP.

Step 3. Developing an MVP to release the app and start monetizing it in a short term.

The app development was organized as an iterative process with the following sequence of steps: we suggested a certain feature to the Client, got his approval, and then implemented the idea in the software.

Our team applied all the experience and time-proven best practices in choosing the technological stack, design, and development sequence to make a profitable product in a short term.

As a result, Belitsoft's team managed to release an MVP and a batch of extra features (not agreed in advance) within an agreed timeframe and budget.

Step 4. Further development after the app launch to enhance functionality.

After the successful release of the application to the stores, our team continued working on the project.

We have already agreed with the Client on a list of new features and improvements to be implemented in the near future.

But we are not limited to the agreed list, so if the Client comes up with a new idea, our team will be happy to help him put it into effect.

Setting Up & Managing the App Development

Choosing the Pricing Model

The Project Manager estimated the project cost at the mapping stage by assessing the best-case estimate, the most likely estimate, and the worst-case estimate. This is a Three-Point technique that allows a Client to understand the required budget well.

The project ran on a Time and Material pricing model. Considering that the project requirements were constantly changing, hourly billing for the performed work was the most suitable and logical solution.

Applying Scrum methodology

The Client and Belitsoft agreed to stick to the Scrum methodology. Turning development into an iterative process with frequent and transparent communication makes it a crucial tool to deliver results on a regular basis and increase the Client's engagement into delivery.

The entire development process was split into 2-week sprints.

Such a methodology turned development into an iterative cycle when every 2 weeks the development team delivered certain results and reported to the Client.

The Client, in his turn, provided the offshore development team with regular feedback and gave updates if needed.

The communication between the team and the Client didn't limit to 2-week reports. Both parties arranged Zoom calls as often as needed at every project stage. These calls were majorly supposed to show our ideas and designs to the Client to get his opinion and approval.

The Team and Project Scope

The development of an MVP and the first batch of extra features took 6 full months - from February to August 2020.

The project took over 2500 hours of analytics, design, development, and software testing.

Belitsoft's team included:

• 1 x UX Designer who used the full freedom to implement bold ideas for making the app user-friendly, engaging, and simple-to-use;
• 1 x Backend Developer who ensured smooth work of all the requested functions;
• 2 x Frontend Developer who took care of making the app responsive, fast-working, and good-looking;
• 1 x QA Engineer who checked the app to timely detect and fix bugs and ensure excellent app quality;
• 1 x Project Manager who communicated with the Client and ran the development process from gathering requests to the app launch.

The Technology Stack

Backend: Laravel Nova

Frontend: React Native, React.js

The choice of technologies was well-thought and majorly conditioned the tight budget and timeframe.

In hindsight, we can evaluate the validity of such a decision. Thanks to using Laravel and React, our development team saved about 80-120 hours thanks to the availability of ready-to-use code and features.

As a result, the Client received a web version and mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Our team has created a system for connecting farmers, ranchers, and other agribusinesses with laborers.

The app has 2 user roles:

1. Employer. People who need extra workforce can post job offers and search for available and suitable laborers in real-time.
2. Laborer. People who search for a gig can apply for a job and post the resume to stay visible to potential employers.

The application allows registering and using both roles within one account. This was one of the major Client's requests due to the specifics of work in agriculture. A farmer may need a laborer to vaccinate cattle but can perform as a laborer for a large agribusiness to harvest cereal crops at the same time.

Solving Labor Shortage with the App

Challenge #1

The difficulty for farmers, ranchers, and other agribusinesses to hire a labor force with the right skills, available in a certain region and time.

Solution #1

Farmers can find laborers in real-time according to their criteria such as working experience, rating, rate, or location.

For that, they register in the application.

When creating an Employer profile, a new user, Dennis Harris, enters information about his location, personal contacts, and payment data. This information is filled in once. Then he will get it auto-filled when posting a new job.

Once extra hands are needed or there is a job where Dennis has no expertise, such as cattle vaccination, he creates a job through Add Job function. Here Dennis indicates all the job requirements and details: industry, specialization, location, timeframe, rate, and the number of laborers needed.

When a potential Laborer applies for this Job Offer, Dennis gets a notification. He can accept or decline such a Job Request.

If the Employer accepts a Job Request from a Laborer, a standard fee is withdrawn from the account. And the contact data of a Laborer become available for further communicating and hiring.

There is another possible option to find a required laborer.

Dennis can open a Laborers Tab to see a list of available Laborers with their rates and ratings. By applying a filter, he chooses the required industry, specialization, and location to find the most appropriate candidates. In this scenario, Dennis decides to send a Job Offer to a selected Laborer, Veronica V.

If the Job Offer is accepted, Dennis gets notified and pays a standard fee to get Laborer's contact data and start collaboration.

The project status can be changed in line with a collaboration stage: Confirmed, In Progress, Completed, or Cancelled.

After completing a gig, Dennis as an Employer will rate a Laborer, Veronica. The rating is revealed in a Laborer's profile and can be seen by potential Employers.

Challenge #2

The difficulty for farmworkers to find a gig in their region that fits their skills and rate.

Solution #2

Rural laborers can find a gig with a suitable timeframe, rate, and location.

Now Dennis decides to get extra money for his farm and living, and being good at construction, he wants to search for a gig that would require his skills.

To see Job Offers and get a gig, it's enough to switch the Employer role to the Laborer role in one click. Or just choose the Laborer role when registering (both user roles will be available anyway).

Dennis can see all the available job offers in a Job Listing tab. The Tab includes several listings where jobs are grouped by Industry and Specialization. So Dennis chooses Construction - Fence. The offers can be filtered by location. There is also Google Maps integrated to see where exactly a potential Employer is located.

By opening Job details, Dennis can see the clarifying information. An offer suits Dennis, so he applies for it.

If an Employer accepts a Job Request, Dennis gets the Employer's contact data, and they can communicate and agree on the details.

Key Features for Better User Experience

• Secure In-app Payments. The application has the payment system Stripe integrated. Payments are charged within a secure payment structure organized in the app.
• Google Maps integrated. It shows an employer's or laborer's location. Using a dynamic map, a user can zoom in and out of the map to view additional landmarks and details.
• Review and rating support. Employers can rate and leave reviews based on their experience with a certain laborer. This information is visible to other users as a part of a laborer's profile.
• In-app notifications. Every event is followed by a notification. So when you have a request for your job offer or an employer accepted your request, you will get a notification not to miss a new event.
• Search filtering. The ability to narrow down a huge amount of results through a search filter makes UX much more convenient and simple.
• Switching roles within one account. The most convenient option that was a must-have for great UX is the ability to switch user roles without registering two accounts or logging out for every switch. Both user roles are available for every registered user.

How Is the App Monetized?

The application enables two monetization options:

1. Payment for connection. Both Employer and Laborer can use the application for free. The payment is charged only from an Employer for getting Laborer's contact data for further communication and agreeing on job details.
2. Partners' banners. The app owners suggest businesses place banners with ads aimed at an agricultural audience. The paid partners’ banner appears on the top of the app for better visibility. And partners can edit and manage their banners by themselves without having to depend on the app admins or developers. The corresponding functionality was added to the admin dashboard.

Belitsoft's team has built a high level of trust and communication with the key people from the Client's company, which helped us to achieve the expected goals.

After 6 full months of work, we managed to launch an MVP with a set of extra features that were being added during the development process.

After launching the app, the startup has seen 113% user growth and has nearly 2,000 active users on the app.

The key Client's worry was that the gap between Employers and Laborers was going to be pretty wide, but there's only about a 9% difference in the app.

That proves that the app has resolved the most critical challenges in agribusiness by connecting employees and laborers in real-time.

The idea of matching farmers in need of help with qualified workers is not new, yet utilizing an app that simplifies the process could be a tremendous benefit for both employers and employees. Our organization supports the concept of using new technologies to ease farm labor bottlenecks.
- Missouri Farm Bureau

Now Belitsoft has started the 2nd phase of the project - further app improvement. The nearest plans include:

• Building an in-app chat. The idea is to enable two-way communication among users directly in the app after they get contact data from one another.
• Enabling reviews and rating options for laborers. At the moment, only employers can rate laborers and leave their feedback. Soon, the same ability will become available for laborers as well.
• Adding SMS notifications. Now users can get in-app notifications only, so adding SMS notifications will help users stay aware of actual events even without entering the application.
• Expanding payment options. Now the app supports a single payment system. The integration of alternative payment systems and of an in-app money wallet will give wider choice for users making their experience better.

We keep on working to deliver features that customers request to keep the Client's revenue growing.