Building Kemotives: A Multivendor Automotive Marketplace Dashboard
The Problem
Kenya's automotive market is fragmented — dealers, importers, and private sellers all operate in silos with no unified digital platform. I set out to build Kemotives, a multivendor marketplace where automotive businesses could list, manage, and sell vehicles through a single, polished dashboard.
Tech Stack
- Next.js — server-side rendering for fast page loads and SEO
- JavaScript — core application logic
- Vercel — deployment and hosting
- REST APIs — integration with payment and inventory services
Key Features
Vendor Management
Each vendor gets their own scoped dashboard where they can manage listings, view sales analytics, and handle customer inquiries. Role-based access ensures vendors only see their own data.
Inventory Dashboard
A real-time inventory view with filters for make, model, year, price range, and status (available, sold, reserved). Bulk operations let dealers update multiple listings at once.
Analytics & Reporting
Built-in charts show sales trends, popular models, and revenue breakdowns. Vendors can export reports for their records.
Challenges & Lessons
The trickiest part was designing a multi-tenancy system where each vendor's data is isolated while the admin has a global view. I learned a lot about scoped queries and role-based UI rendering in Next.js.
Performance was another concern — with hundreds of vehicle listings, I had to implement pagination, lazy loading for images, and optimistic UI updates to keep the dashboard responsive.
What I'd Do Differently
If I were starting over, I'd reach for a component library like Shadcn/UI from the start to speed up the dashboard UI. I'd also add real-time notifications using WebSockets so vendors get instant alerts when a customer makes an inquiry.