Pocket Market

Problem Statement

Local markets are lively and exciting but somewhat limiting: they rely on physical attendance, happen only on certain days, and vendors struggle to set up shop and commute between events. Existing online platforms feel too impersonal. They focus on the product and not the stories of the people. We set out to bridge this gap.

Inspiration

Street markets, including farmers’ and flea markets, offer more than products — they’re about the experience, whether that’s browsing, chatting with vendors, or discovering hidden gems. We wanted to capture that energy and enthusiasm in a digital space. Overhead costs or man-hours for booths take up a large portion of the revenue that small businesses make. Pocket Market aims to take this burden off of vendors and buyers, while still providing a more personalized and on-demand option for consumers to shop local and small-businesses.

Core Features

• Casual browsing: Stroll through a playful, interactive market layout
• Tinder-style Swipe-through: Flip through items like you would in person
• Sticky elements: Persistent cart mirrors the physical experience of filling a tote bag
• Vendor storytelling: Bios and personal anecdotes humanize sellers
• Live chat: Direct vendor-customer messaging for personal connection
• Flexible delivery & pickup: Choose local pickup or integrated delivery

Feature Justification

• We knew customers should be able to go through and explore different stores on their own, instead of being tied to a search bar or the popular opinion.
• We wanted to emulate the feeling of going through a clothing rack when designing the swiping feature on items.
• We included a button to the shopping tote on every screen for easy navigation and checkout.
• We brought in storytelling to allow vendors to distinguish themselves from others and earn the trust of their customers.
• We added a live chat with the store owner or one of the sellers to quickly resolve any issues, delays, or concerns.
• We decided on flexible buying options to make the exchange of goods that much simpler for both sellers and buyers.

How We Built It

We used Figma to design our prototype, focusing on immersive UI patterns, color schemes, and user interactivity. We designed with scalability in mind, supporting self-onboarding for vendors and expandable markets for future growth. The prototype integrates location features, a chat feature, and contains different flows for browsing.

User Persona (Kai)

• Doesn’t like being pushed products on traditional e-commerce sites; he likes to discover himself
• Likes supporting local businesses but struggles to visit markets regularly
• Enjoys knowing who he’s buying from

User Flow

Kai opens the app, selects his neighborhood location, browses the virtual storefronts, clicks on one, swipes through the vendor racks, chats with vendors for details, adds items to his tote, and completes checkout with local delivery or pickup.

Challenges We Ran Into

• Balancing the immersive design with usability — making sure the interface was not too gamified or transactional
• Capturing the fun of accidentally discovering something new digitally

Accomplishments We’re Proud Of

• Achieved a tangible, delightful browsing experience
• Prioritized vendors first in our design, empowering small businesses to go digital
• Designed swipe-able UI features that pushed us beyond our previous skills and comfort zone with Figma

What We Learned

• Not all physical experiences can be transformed into digital experiences.
• Community is essential to elevate the digital experience to connect with humans on a more basic and interpersonal level.

What’s Next for Pocket Market

• Launch regionally (Seattle pilot), expand to more neighborhoods.
• Expand to others local businesses and cafes
• Add seasonal popup digital events
• Vendor discovery tools

Built With

• figma