SellerForce - A Brokerage Business Marketplace

Technology

WordPress, PHP

Industry

eCommerce

Project Type

Portal

Country

USA

About The Project

SellerForce is a business brokerage firm. They have 10+ years of expertise and an impressive track record (over $1 billion in sales). For decades, the company operated as a traditional brokerage firm. Now, SellerForce’s entire operation runs digitally. Every deal and negotiation happens online.

The big challenge was to convert their old business model into a modern, online marketplace. In addition, they wanted this without losing the trust and relationships they had built over the years. But the market was changing. And SellerForce knew they needed to evolve, not just survive, but grow in a digital-first economy.

When they came to us, they had a clear goal. Turn their website from a static information hub into a fully functional, subscription-based marketplace. A place where small business owners can list their offers, buyers can find them, and brokers can facilitate negotiations and close deals.

Key Project Deliverables

These are the essential outputs, products, features, and outcomes provided by us to meet the project objectives.

Advanced Search & Filtering

Built such a custom filter system that helps users search by industry, valuation, location, budgets, and many other criteria. Users can now also save searches for later.

Custom Ad Promotions

Platform users can now buy subscription packages and run targeted ads on the platform itself. It’s another revenue stream and brings quality traffic to premium listings.

Zoom Video Integration

Integrated Zoom into the platform, so buyers, sellers, and brokers can join virtual meetings directly from the portal. This was a premium feature and the most important client requirement.

Subscription Listing System

Built a custom subscription module with plans for business listings and ad promotions. This incentivizes upgrades while keeping the platform open to all.

Digital NDA SignUp

Implemented a digital NDA signature system that hides confidential business details until signed. Once signed, the NDA confirmation goes straight to the listing owner.

Business Valuation Calculator

To verify that sellers are pricing their business realistically, we made a custom valuation calculator. This used multiple formulas and data, like three years of profit/loss data plus industry multipliers, etc.

Major Project Challenges

Over 99% of SellerForce’s business is digital. Designing a website that represents the process of buying and selling digital business was the tough part. Custom filters and financing features were also very challenging to integrate.

At any point in time, multiple operations will be running in the background. If anything is missed, it may cause a big loss to the business.

The SellerForce broker and sub-broker modules required separate access and distinct relationships for each role on the platform.
Not all sellers will be brokers and vice versa. So we had to introduce the flow and access chart and manage the data accordingly.
The client shared multiple reference websites with us. They wanted the best of multiple high-quality filters, and even customized ones for their own use. So the customers can manage financing options from the filters. They can also save the results to reassess them anytime in the future.

Another requirement was to integrate Zoom-like meetings into the platform. This was based on partner-up results in the same business. For example, if somebody is interested in an investment, they can chat in the private chat room and join the Zoom meeting with the other party at any time.

Solutions & Impact

After conducting extensive market and competitor analysis, our UI/UX team proposed a flowchart and Figma design, which the client approved. Here are some of the solutions provided during the project.

We created a standard operating flow chart that ensured its easy integration into the custom code.
Our experts designed user role modules. They were further incorporated into user-specific tables within the database. Custom code was then developed to grant access based on assigned roles.
A custom advanced search module was specifically built for the listing page. It featured AJAX-powered search results that were displayed on the front end.
Zoom and partnerUP module flow are clearly defined. So it’s now easy for the customers to manage Zoom meetings and chat with brokers/sellers.