Donation and merchant features for a charity shopping marketplace

The challenge

A US shopping marketplace connects local merchants with non-profits and schools: shoppers buy from participating merchants, and a percentage of each sale goes to a cause. The marketplace runs on OpenCart with a set of multi-merchant extensions the owner had already licensed.

As the platform grew, the owner needed features that off-the-shelf extensions did not cover. Fundraising partners needed to see what they were earning, affiliates needed trackable links, merchants needed clearer tools, and store addresses had to be tidy and search-friendly. Rather than a single build, the business needed a development partner who could keep adding features as its model evolved.

What we did

• Store URLs and SEO. In 2022 we reworked how merchant store addresses and company IDs are handled, then moved the short URL into an admin-only SEO field at the owner's request.
• Affiliate and donation-recipient reporting. We programmed dedicated reports for affiliates and for donation recipients, supporting the marketplace's fundraising model.
• Merchant tools. In December 2024 we added a recurring tab to the merchant area and listed merchants on the search results page, so shoppers can find stores as well as products.
• Members area. In 2025 we took on a members-area specification from the owner, including a custom link generator for donation recipients so each cause can promote its own tracked link.
• Ongoing support. We pick up smaller change requests as they arise and have advised on hosting matters, including SSL certificates and notices from the managed cloud host.

Tech stack

PHP, MySQL, OpenCart, Cloudways, Let's Encrypt