Mapping an ever-changing marketplace for wholesale buyers
We designed and built native mobile apps and a responsive web platform to help buyers navigate the world's largest permanent wholesale marketplace.
4
Platforms Delivered
54
User Interviews
25
Competitors Analyzed
3
Buildings Mapped
A connected buyer experience for a massive marketplace
AmericasMart Atlanta is the world's largest permanent wholesale marketplace — a multi-building campus hosting thousands of exhibitors across home furnishings, gifts, apparel, and more. Buyers travel from across the country to navigate its vast showrooms, but the sheer scale made planning and wayfinding a significant challenge.
Digital Scientists partnered with AmericasMart to design and build a suite of native mobile apps (iOS and Android) and a responsive web application that transformed the buyer experience — from pre-visit planning through on-site navigation and post-event follow-up.
Navigating a campus that overwhelms even experienced buyers
AmericasMart's massive multi-building campus is an overwhelming experience. With thousands of exhibitors spread across multiple floors and buildings, buyers needed an organized way to maximize their limited time at market. The paper-based guide books and static directories couldn't keep pace with the dynamic marketplace.
Overwhelming Campus
Multi-building complex with hundreds of floors — physically exhausting to navigate without a plan.
Paper-Based Directory
Heavy printed guide books were the only reference — unsearchable, outdated by market day.
Fragmented Event Info
Shows, seminars, and vendor events scattered across separate sources with no unified calendar.
No Pre-Visit Planning
Buyers had no way to research exhibitors, build an itinerary, or plan their route before arriving.
Research-driven design for a complex user ecosystem
Before writing a single line of code, we conducted extensive user research to understand the needs of every stakeholder — buyers, exhibitors, employees, and board members.
User Interviews
We conducted 54 short interviews (20–30 minutes each) with buyers, exhibitors, employees, and board members to understand pain points and feature priorities.
Top-rated features (all 5.0/5.0): freed from carrying the guide book, quickly accessing exhibitor info, mark and save vendors, not getting lost, having a buying planner.
Competitive Analysis
We researched 25 major trade shows and their digital experiences. Of those, 16 had mobile apps — but only 5 direct competitors offered them.
We mapped a feature matrix across 15 capabilities: AR/geolocation, buyer profiles, exhibitor search, floor maps, market planning, QR scanning, and more.
Feature Prioritization
Interview data drove feature priorities. Every proposed feature was scored on a 1–5 scale across mean, median, mode, and standard deviation to eliminate subjective bias.
The result: a data-validated feature set that addressed real user needs — not assumed ones. 100% of interviewees said they would use the app.
A connected, mobile-enabled buyer experience
Digital Scientists and the AmericasMart team reconceived the marketplace experience around six core capabilities — delivered across native iOS, Android, and responsive web.
Exhibitor Search & Browse
Buyers can search across all markets and browse the entire directory by content facets — exhibitor name, product line, category, or building. Results render in four complementary views:
List View
Scan exhibitors with building & booth numbers
Gallery View
Preview product images before visiting
Map View
See locations on interactive campus map
Floor View
Navigate building-by-building, floor-by-floor
Market Plan
The Market Plan lets buyers save exhibitors they want to visit, make appointments, and take notes — all accessible from any view within the app. Buyers can build their itinerary before arriving and optimize their route through the campus.
With login and sync, the entire Market Plan — including notes, agenda, and completed items — stays synchronized across devices, so buyers can plan on desktop and execute on mobile.
Interactive Exhibitor Profiles
Each exhibitor gets a rich, interactive profile featuring social media feeds (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter), product images, booth location with Google Maps directions, and a complete company overview.
Buyers can quickly preview exhibitor details with a swipe gesture — or expand for the full profile without leaving the search results page.
QR Scanner & Augmented Reality
A custom scanner and QR reader lets buyers scan the printed AmericasMart guide for instant digital content — exhibitor details, directions, and booth locations. On-site signage scanning provides location-aware wayfinding throughout the campus.
The augmented reality feature bridges the physical and digital experience, making the printed catalog an interactive gateway to the full digital directory.
Multi-platform delivery with integrated mapping
Native iOS & Android
Purpose-built native apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android — optimized for on-the-go market navigation with full offline support.
Responsive Web App
Seamless responsive experience across desktop, tablet, and mobile browsers — enabling pre-visit planning from any device.
Google Maps Integration
Each building's floors were electronically mapped, providing wayfinding, exhibitor locations, and cross-building skywalk navigation.
Market-Wide Wi-Fi
Integration with campus Wi-Fi enabled location-aware features and custom messaging for on-site visitors.
Cross-Device Sync
Login-based sync keeps Market Plans, notes, appointments, and completed items synchronized across all platforms.
Event Calendar
Official AmericasMart shows, seminars, and events displayed in a unified calendar for premier annual markets and temporary exhibits.
Day-one adoption by market-goers
To deliver the anywhere-access that AmericasMart buyers needed, we built iPhone, iPad, and Android apps — plus a complementary responsive website. The seamless integration of market search with location and mapping features helped market-goers navigate their trip with unprecedented efficiency.
On the day of the mobile application's release, market-goers and buyers resoundingly approved the new experience. The ability for buyers to create a Market Plan before visiting directly addressed the top-rated needs identified in user research.
Native apps for iOS (iPhone + iPad) and Android
Responsive web app for desktop and mobile browsers
Interactive floor maps with Google Maps integration
QR scanning and AR for bridging physical and digital
Market Plan with cross-device sync and offline support
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