StepUp Shoes E-commerce

Project Overview

PRABRIDDHI, a Local Economic Development (LED) project run jointly by the Governments of Bangladesh and Switzerland, partnered with ARITS Limited to bring the Bhairab footwear sector online, one of the country's most promising manufacturing clusters. Bhairab is home to nearly 13,000 footwear enterprises, and more than 60,000 people depend on the trade for their livelihoods. The brief: build a B2B e-marketplace that widens market access for these businesses and helps the cluster grow.

Objective

Design, build, and launch a B2B e-marketplace that connects footwear manufacturers, wholesalers, and buyers across the country, backed by a workable revenue model and hands-on training for the sellers who use it.

What We Built

Digital platform

• A responsive web and mobile marketplace for buying and selling Bhairab-made footwear.
• Integration with the existing footwear e-directory so sellers could onboard quickly and keep trading.
• Secure online payments, with product search and filtering across thousands of listings.

Business model

• A revenue model built on advertising, premium seller features, and commissions.
• An ROI analysis to test long-term commercial viability before scaling.

Training and support

• Workshops and digital-skills support so sellers could manage their own profiles, listings, and customers.
• A dedicated helpdesk for ongoing technical support.

Market linkages

• Marketing campaigns to bring B2B buyers onto the platform.
• National business linkages to widen the footwear supply chain.

How We Worked

ARITS Limited and Exemplary Consulting delivered the project together. ARITS led the build: marketplace development, UX and UI design, and the integrations. Exemplary Consulting ran the stakeholder interviews and shaped the business strategy. We shipped in agile cycles over a 24-week timeline.

Outcomes

• A single digital marketplace for Bhairab footwear.
• New visibility and sales channels for local manufacturers.
• A direct route to buyers, with less reliance on middlemen.
• Digital-skills training for local entrepreneurs.
• A revenue model the industry can sustain on its own.

Technology

Mobile: Flutter (Android and iOS). Web: Next.js. Backend: Node.js.

Key Contributors

Team Leader: Mohammed Nurul Azam. Software Architect: Fahim Hossain. UI/UX Lead: Maher Khan. Senior Developers: Soumya Rauth, Arifur Rahman. SQA Engineer: Abu Raihan Md. Saifullah. Field and Research Lead: Mostaq Ahmed.

StepUp is part of our web and e-commerce development work. See more case studies.