Arcadier officially launched both a Developer Platform and a Plug-In Marketplace for its community of developers and users respectively.
The Plug-In marketplace provides installable applications and integrations that users can easily add to their Arcadier-powered marketplace. The developer platform on the other hand provides a suite of developer tools and APIs which enable developers to execute exclusive customization projects for specific Arcadier-powered marketplaces or develop plug-ins for the Plug-In Marketplace.
With the introduction of the Plug-In Marketplace, Arcadier users can easily install additional functionalities of their choice to their marketplace, on top of those available on Arcadier’s native standard software capabilities. To start, 10 plug-ins are currently available on the Marketplace, including: (i) Marketplace Analytics & Reports Generator, (ii) MailChimp Export, (iii) Recommended Retail Price Creator, (iv) Coupons Generator, (v) Minimum Order Quantity, (vi) Web Page Builder, (vii) Subscriptions & Memberships, (viii) Blog Page Builder, (ix) Add Blog Post and (x) Profile Input Fields with more on the way.
Utilization of plug-ins on the marketplace is optional, and each plug-in can be installed and uninstalled at any time. The creation of this newest capability was a user-driven decision as Kenneth Low, Arcadier’s Chief Commercial Officer, stated: “We often get very specific feature requests from our users, so that they can further customize their marketplace experiences. Our Plug-In Marketplace is a flexible solution that will allow users to install specific features or integrate other software to their marketplaces when desired, providing a customizable experience.”
Another trend that Arcadier has observed is the increase in request for unique marketplace experiences. This would require customization of standard user interface or marketplace workflows. Currently such projects have been allocated to a small community of Arcadier accredited developers, but with the launch of the Developer Platform where resources are made readily available, including step-by-step articles, technical tutorial videos and full API documentation, the broader developer community would now be able to start easily as well.
Paul Cascun, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Arcadier, shared further about the reasons for the launch of both the Plug-In Marketplace and the Developer Platform: “Currently all new features and plug-ins have been created by Arcadier exclusively for our users. There is a limit to the speed in which we can create new applications. In the long term, we expect third-party developers to utilize our open developer platform to create plug-in applications and perform customizations for our users thereby generating an income for themselves from each customization project or installation of their created plug-in.”
Arcadier is currently inviting the broader developer community, both freelance developers and development companies, to participate in building new applications for its user community.
“The best way for developers to identify what customizations or extensions to build would be to look at the user community feature request list on the Arcadier website and register their interest to partner with Arcadier,” Cascun added.