Itunu Marketplace

An underserved diaspora market.

The African diaspora in the US has substantial purchasing power but underserved access to African products, groceries, restaurants, and culturally-specific services. Existing marketplaces either focus on a single category (Amazon for products, DoorDash for restaurants) or are not designed for the specific operational realities of African vendor networks.

Itunu came to us with an ambitious vision: a single platform connecting US-based African vendors across multiple verticals — physical products, groceries, restaurants, and services — with a unified customer experience.

Multi-sided, multi-category, single platform.

The hard part of marketplace builds isn't the front end — it's the operational backbone. Itunu needed to handle:

• Multiple vendor types (product sellers, restaurants, service providers, grocery stores) with different onboarding flows, inventory models, and fulfillment logic.
• Inventory synchronization across product vendors with stock-level changes happening in near real-time.
• Multi-vendor cart and checkout — a single customer order might involve products from three different vendors with different shipping or fulfillment requirements.
• Payment routing with vendor payouts handled correctly, including fees, taxes, and currency conversion.
• Customer review and rating systems across all vendor categories.
• Logistics integration for shipping, food delivery, and service scheduling.

Phased build, one spine.

We started with a phased build. Phase one: products only. Get the multi-vendor mechanics right — inventory, cart, checkout, payouts — before adding complexity. Phase two: groceries (similar to products but with perishables, expiry tracking, and substitution logic). Phase three: restaurants (real-time menus, prep times, delivery integration). Phase four: services (scheduling, recurring bookings, calendar integration).

Each phase added a new vendor type without rebuilding the platform spine. The core abstractions — vendor, listing, inventory, order, fulfillment — were designed to accommodate all four verticals from day one.

Key features.

• Vendor onboarding — Onboarding flows tailored to each vendor type — products, groceries, restaurants, and services.
• Unified listing model — A single product/listing model accommodating products, groceries, menu items, and services.
• Real-time inventory — Near real-time inventory synchronization for product vendors with stock-level changes.
• Multi-vendor cart — Split-fulfillment logic so a single order can span multiple vendors with different shipping needs.
• Payment routing — Stripe integration with vendor payout management — fees, taxes, and currency conversion handled correctly.
• Logistics & reviews — Shipping API, food delivery routing, service scheduling, plus a customer review system with vendor replies.