iMart - B2B Sourcing Marketplace

Overview

iMart is a B2B sourcing marketplace Darwinbark built for buyers who source industrial and wholesale goods from manufacturers, and for the manufacturers who supply them. It replaces supplier discovery over cold email and trade-show business cards with structured RFQs, verified supplier storefronts, and a Flutter mobile app running on the same API as the web platform.

The Problem

Before iMart, the buyers and manufacturers we spoke to were working around the same gaps:

• Buyers found suppliers through personal networks, trade shows, or cold outreach - there was no way to compare quotes from multiple manufacturers side by side.
• Suppliers had no storefront to showcase their catalogue, so every quote request meant starting from scratch over email.
• Nothing verified that a supplier was an actual manufacturer rather than a reseller marking up someone else's factory-direct price.
• Order status lived across email threads and WhatsApp chats, with no single place either side could check where an order stood.
• Buyers checking quotes from a factory floor had no mobile option - everything needed a desk and a browser.

The Solution

Darwinbark built iMart as a two-sided marketplace: a buyer posts an RFQ against a category, verified suppliers matching that category respond with quotes through their own storefront, and the negotiation, order, and delivery tracking all happen inside one thread instead of scattered across email. A Flutter app mirrors the web experience so buyers can review and accept quotes from the floor, not just from a desk.

Technology Stack

• Backend: Laravel (PHP) - handles RFQ matching, the supplier verification workflow, and the order and catalogue data model.
• Mobile: Flutter - one codebase covering Android and iOS, consuming the same REST API as the web app.
• Database: MySQL - relational schema for buyers, suppliers, RFQs, quotes, and orders.
• API: REST API - the shared contract between web and mobile, so a feature ships to both at once instead of twice.

Architecture

iMart is structured around four entities: Buyers, Suppliers, RFQs, and Orders. A buyer posts an RFQ against a category; matching verified suppliers are notified and respond with a quote through their storefront; an accepted quote becomes an order both sides track through to delivery. Supplier verification is a manual admin review before a storefront goes live, which keeps the catalogue side of the marketplace trustworthy without asking buyers to vet manufacturers themselves.

Features

• Buyer & seller dashboards
• RFQ & lead management
• Supplier verification
• Catalogue & inventory
• Order tracking
• Android + iOS app (Flutter)

Challenges Solved

Trust between strangers. A marketplace where anyone can list as a "manufacturer" is only useful if buyers can trust the listing. The verification step - checking business registration and manufacturing capacity before a storefront goes live - means a buyer isn't the one doing due diligence on every new supplier.

Comparing quotes without losing track. Buyers previously juggled quotes across separate email threads with no consistent format. Because every quote against an RFQ lands in the same structured view, comparing price, lead time, and MOQ across suppliers takes a glance instead of cross-referencing inboxes.

Mobile parity, not a stripped-down app. The Flutter app isn't a read-only companion - a buyer can review, negotiate, and accept a quote from their phone with the same data the web dashboard shows, because both clients call the same REST API.

Result

iMart now lists 2M+ products across its verified supplier base, giving buyers a single place to source, compare, and order instead of rebuilding trust with a new supplier on every purchase.