░▒▓█ STOCKFINDER █▓▒░

⟦ Real-Time Local Inventory • Smart Price Negotiation ⟧

Transforming modern retail — checking local shelves from home and bringing the traditional bargaining culture to e-commerce.

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📌 The Problem

Modern shoppers face two major disconnects between physical retail and online shopping: blind local trips and rigid online pricing.

Pain Point	Impact
🚫 Blind Store Visits	Consumers make wasted trips to stores only to find desired items sold out or not yet restocked.
💰 Rigid E-Commerce Pricing	Shoppers feel they overpay online without the ability to negotiate like in traditional retail.
📦 No Bulk Discount Tools	Difficult to request better rates for multiple items directly from the seller.
⏳ Inflexible Inventory Clearing	Sellers have no mechanism to accept alternate pricing for older or near-expiry stock.

Traditional e-commerce is static and physical retail is disconnected. RetailBridge brings them together.

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💡 The Solution

RetailBridge is a hybrid commerce platform that provides real-time local shelf inventory tracking alongside a dynamic negotiation engine.

Instead of blind trips and fixed prices, shoppers can verify stock before leaving home and negotiate deals just like in a physical market.

Verify Local Stock → Propose Price/Bulk Request → Seller Approves → Purchase/Pickup

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🚀 Key Features

🧭 Consumer Features 📍 Real-time nearby store inventory check 💬 Live price negotiation & bargaining engine 📦 Request bulk discounts for multiple items 🏷️ Propose alternate pricing for older stock 🔔 Notifications for restocks & counter-offers

📊 Seller Operations 🖥️ Dashboard for live inventory sync 🤝 Offer management (Accept/Reject/Counter) 📈 Analytics on user price proposals 🔄 Automated clearance for near-expiry goods 📱 Mobile-friendly seller portal

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🎨 Figma Design

Our UI/UX is carefully crafted to make complex negotiations feel simple and intuitive.

• 🔗 View Figma Prototype
• Core Flows included in design:
  • Local store discovery & inventory check
  • The "Make an Offer" / Negotiation interface
  • Seller dashboard for managing proposals

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🏗️ System Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ RetailBridge System │
├────────────┬────────────┬──────────────┬───────────┬────────────┤
│ Shopper │ Mobile / │ Backend API │Inventory &│ Seller │
│ Request │ Web App │ (Node.js / │Negotiation│ Dashboard │
│ │ │ Express) │ Engine │ │
└────────────┴────────────┴──────────────┴───────────┴────────────┘
│
┌───────────────────┼──────────────────┐
│ │ │
┌────▼─────┐ ┌─────▼──────┐ ┌──────▼──────┐
│ MongoDB │ │ Inventory │ │ Real-time │
│ Firebase │ │ Sync API │ │ WebSockets │
└──────────┘ └────────────┘ └─────────────┘

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🛠️ Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	HTML · CSS · JavaScript · React.js · Tailwind CSS
Backend	Node.js · Express.js
Database	MongoDB · Redis (for rapid inventory caching)
Design	Figma

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📂 Project Structure

RetailBridge/
│
├── 📁 frontend/ # React UI — shopper & seller interfaces
│ ├── src/
│ │ ├── components/ # Reusable UI components (Buttons, Modals)
│ │ ├── features/ # Feature-based modules (Bargaining, Inventory)
│ │ ├── pages/ # Route-level views
│ │ └── assets/ # Icons, images, fonts
│
├── 📁 backend/ # Express.js server & REST APIs
│ ├── routes/ # API route handlers
│ ├── controllers/ # Business logic (Offers, Stock updates)
│ ├── models/ # Database schemas
│ ├── sockets/ # WebSocket event handlers for bargaining
│ └── middleware/ # Auth, logging, error handling
│
├── 📁 database/ # MongoDB schemas & seed data
│
├── 📁 design/ # Exported Figma assets and brand guidelines
│
├── 📁 docs/ # Architecture diagrams, API docs
│
└── README.md

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⚙️ Getting Started

Prerequisites

Make sure you have the following installed:

• Node.js v18+
• npm v9+
• MongoDB

Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/TajaparaDhruva/stockFinder.git
cd stockFinder

2. Install dependencies

npm run install:all # Assumes a root script that installs both front/backend

3. Set up environment variables Create a .env file in the root directory:

PORT=5000MONGO_URI=your_mongodb_connection_stringJWT_SECRET=your_secret_key

4. Start the development server

npm run dev

Visit http://localhost:3000 to access the app.

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🎯 Roadmap

• Project scaffolding & architecture design
• UI/UX Wireframing & Figma prototyping
• Real-time local inventory sync database modeling
• Core e-commerce browsing & search functionality
• Phase 1 Core: Real-time negotiation & bargaining engine via WebSockets
• Bulk discount request workflow
• Seller dashboard for inventory & offer management
• Automated rules for near-expiry item pricing
• Mobile app development (React Native)

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Built to connect local retail and empower online shoppers.

Bridging the gap between real-world stock and dynamic digital pricing.