B2B marketplace development for the macadamia industry
Expanded a B2B agricultural marketplace with support for new product categories, role-based company management, and advanced bidding workflows. We rearchitected the system to improve scalability, streamline compliance, and enable future platform growth.
Business context
MSM platform is a marketplace for the macadamia industry that connects verified buyers and sellers in a single trading environment. It provides real-time market insights, price tracking, supply & demand listings, and negotiation tools. The service helps businesses trade more efficiently and transparently.
Project in facts
- E-commerce
- South Africa
- 2 RoR developers
- April 2024 – ongoing
- Ruby on Rails development, ReactJS development, Staff augmentation
- Ruby on Rails, React, Sidekiq, Grape, Rspec, Kubernetes, Helm, Github Actions, Google cloud
Challenge
The marketplace was originally designed for trading macadamia kernels, limiting its ability to support other product categories. The client needed to introduce dried-in-shell trading while ensuring the architecture could accommodate additional nut types in the future, complete with dedicated price charts, filtering options, and transaction document templates.
At the same time, the client had recently transitioned from a previous software development vendor, inheriting a platform with accumulated technical debt and unresolved issues. They needed a partner who could quickly stabilize the existing system and eliminate legacy problems.
Product goals
- Expand the marketplace to support new product categories
- Introduce a third user type
- Maintain and improve the platform, fix bugs
Solutions
We rearchitected the platform to support multiple product categories. Our team built dedicated flows, filters, and document templates for dried-in-shell nuts, establishing a foundation for adding new product types without major redevelopment.
To support complex enterprise workflows, we introduced multi-user company accounts with role-based permissions, advanced administrative tools, and integrations with external compliance systems. These changes improve collaboration within organizations and simplify user verification.
We delivered new features such as bid retraction, enhanced contract management, dynamic market graphs, and data exports to increase transparency for buyers, sellers, and platform administrators.
Multi-category architecture
A flexible product structure that accommodates new categories with minimal redevelopment.
Enterprise collaboration
Multi-user company accounts with granular role-based access and compliance integrations.
Transparency tools
Bid retraction, contract enhancements, real-time market graphs, and exportable data for all stakeholders.
Engineering approach
We paired a Ruby on Rails backend with a React frontend to balance rapid feature deployment with a highly responsive user experience. To handle intensive background tasks like contracts processing, we integrated Sidekiq, while Grape was leveraged for high-performance API design.
The infrastructure is fully containerized using Kubernetes and Helm on Google Cloud, driven by GitHub Actions for seamless CI/CD pipelines. Supported by strict RSpec automated testing, this modern stack ensures maximum uptime, top-tier security, and a rock-solid foundation.
Business impact
Result
Rubyroid Labs transformed the macadamia trading platform into a scalable marketplace capable of supporting new business models.
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Support for multiple product categories
The platform was rearchitected to create a flexible foundation for adding future nut types without major redevelopment. -
Future-ready architecture
By eliminating legacy technical debt and introducing modular components, the platform can accommodate new features, integrations, and increasing transaction volumes.
Rubyroid Labs has been the best value-for-cost option based on comparing estimates. They were flexible and didn't mind scaling the team size up and down as our business needs changed. Each task was delivered on time and within budget.
Gerhard Potgieter, Chief Digital Officer, Macadamia Sales Market 
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