pinkMART

Pinkmart connects students with the people and businesses that make their campus community unique, from beauty to fashion, food, and services, while giving local business owners the tools to grow.

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Inspiration

College campuses are full of talented student entrepreneurs and local businesses, but students often have to search through Instagram, word of mouth, and different platforms to find them. For many business owners, simply starting up is difficult because of a lack of secure funding, high startup costs, and marketing and advertising

We wanted to create a space where students could easily discover the people and businesses around their campus while also giving small business owners a way to reach their campus community.

That idea became Pinkmart — a campus-focused marketplace built around discovery, community, and connection.

What it does

Pinkmart connects students with businesses and services around their campus, including hair stylists, nail artists, clothing brands, beauty services, food, and more. Students can:

  • Discover businesses around their campus
  • Search for services and businesses
  • View business profiles
  • Explore portfolios and reviews
  • Save businesses they like
  • Book services
  • See their upcoming bookings

Business owners get a completely different experience. Instead of using the same student marketplace interface, they can access a dedicated business dashboard where they can:

  • View upcoming appointments
  • Track business statistics
  • Manage services
  • Showcase their portfolio
  • View customer reviews
  • Monitor business growth
  • Manage their business profile

How we built it

We built Pinkmart using:

  • React
  • JavaScript
  • Vite
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • Git & GitHub

Challenges we ran into

One of our biggest challenges was building a platform with two completely different user experiences. Students need a simple and visual way to discover businesses, while business owners need tools that help them manage and grow their businesses. We had to think about how both experiences could exist within the same platform without making the interface confusing. We also had challenges with styling, Git collaboration, and making sure changes made by different team members worked together. Working through these challenges helped us become more comfortable with React, CSS, Git, GitHub, and collaborative development.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Through building Pinkmart, we learned that creating a good application is about more than just writing code. We had to think about the actual people using the platform and what they would need from it. We learned how to structure a React application, manage state, create reusable UI components, work with Git and GitHub, collaborate with teammates, and design different experiences for different types of users. Most importantly, we learned how to take an idea from a simple concept and turn it into a working product.

What's Next

pinkmart is currently a frontend prototype, but we have many ideas for where we could take it next. Future versions could include real user authentication, a database for businesses and appointments, real-time booking availability, payments, messaging between students and business owners, notifications, location-based discovery, and personalized recommendations. Our goal is to make Pinkmart more than just a marketplace — we want it to become a digital community for students and the entrepreneurs around them.

What we learned

Through building Pinkmart, we learned how to turn an idea into a working product while collaborating as a team. We became more comfortable with React, JavaScript, CSS, Vite, Git, and GitHub. One of our biggest lessons was designing for two different types of users. Students need an easy way to discover and book services, while business owners need tools to manage their services, customers, and growth. We also learned how important it is to test, communicate, and adapt when building a project under a deadline.

What's next for pinkMART

Pinkmart is currently a frontend prototype, and we have several ideas for future development. We want to add real user authentication, a database for businesses and appointments, real-time booking availability, payments, messaging, notifications, and location-based discovery. Our goal is to grow Pinkmart from a prototype into a complete campus marketplace that helps students discover local businesses while giving student entrepreneurs the tools they need to grow.

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