AlutaMart is a social marketing e-commerce platform targeted towards buying and selling on the campuses of various tertiary institutions. The main idea behind the project was to create an interactive online platform where students who are in business, or who want to buy and sell, can easily come to place advert for other students (or people in general) within their locality to see. The platform enables students to sell a wide range of things, even mattresses they want to get rid of after graduation.
Adewumi Anaopemipo, CEO Alutamart, said, “AlutaMart will serve as an e-commerce for students in tertiary institutions all over Nigeria and beyond. We will make selling and buying among students as fast and easy as possible through a highly interactive system; an alternative to poster advertisement on campuses. AlutaMart will also serve as an event directory/management site for students. We want to be an intermediary between businesses and customers in various tertiary institutions, bridging the gap between sellers and buyers.”
Alutamart is built and managed by six computer science final year students in Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife and currently has 905 shops on the platform.
What can you do with AlutaMart?
- Post items: users can post items under four categories – products, services, events and needs
- Manage: there is a page where all categories can be managed on the site. Users can publish, delete or archive their posted items.
- Bidding: buyers can bid for product or services of interests to them and the owner will decide who he wants to sell to after viewing all the bids.
- Service directory: a comprehensive list of services rendered by individuals or established businesses on camousare posted on the site.
- Messaging/SMS service: users can send messages to the bidders’ inbox on the site or send SMS using the SMS credit that will be available based on the account type the user has. SMS credit can also be bought on the site.
- Past works/Projects: the owner of a particular business can add a portfolio of past works/project to enhance his business, e.g., a graphic designer can add the past works that he has done for potential customers to view.
- Picture gallery: a picture gallery can be added to a particular market post for users to view new products and description.
- Chat: users online can communicate through a highly organised and effective chat system on the site.
AlutaMart is currently available on web, mobile and as a j2me application.
