CarSwap

Case Study: A Car Marketplace Built Around Swapping

CarSwap is an online marketplace for buying, selling and swapping new and used cars in Nigeria. Its twist is the swap: offer your own car toward another and let the platform work out the difference.

I built the platform for buyers, sellers and verified dealers, from search and filters to the swap tools.

The Challenge

• Trust in a high-value purchase: Buyers need verified dealers and clear information before they commit.
• Making swaps simple: Trade-ins are confusing. Users need to see the value difference quickly.
• Choosing the right car: With so many listings, buyers need help matching budget and lifestyle.

What I Built

• Swap Calculator: Pick a target vehicle, pick one of your listed cars, enter its value, and see the difference.
• AI Vehicle Match: Describe your budget, family size and driving style. The tool compares live listings and returns a match score and budget breakdown, delivered by WhatsApp or email.
• Search and discovery: Filters by condition (new or fairly used) and price band from under ₦5M to ₦50M+, 16 brand pages and categories such as sedans, SUVs, trucks, electric and sports cars.
• Seller and dealer flows: Anyone can post a vehicle for sale or swap, and dealers can apply to become verified partners.
• Amira, the AI assistant: A chat assistant that asks about budget, brand and body type, then replies with tappable vehicle cards showing photo, year, mileage, location, price, a "Swap" badge and a condition rating. Quick-reply chips (SUVs, Under ₦15m, Toyota) keep the conversation moving, there is a "Talk to a person" hand-off to the team, and it is honest that it can make mistakes and that the team confirms every deal.
• Dealer portal: A dedicated dashboard where verified vendors track total revenue after commissions, orders received, pending shipments and wallet balance, with a sales performance chart, quick actions (add listing, withdraw funds, complete KYC, view orders) and sections for products, swap requests, orders, wallet, messages and store profile.
• Listing workflow with approval: Dealers add a vehicle through a guided form (title, auto-generated SKU, condition, description, category, subcategory, model and series), and every listing is submitted for admin approval before it goes live, which protects buyers from bad listings.
• Cart and bank-transfer checkout: Buyers add cars to a cart, enter contact and delivery details, see an order summary with shipping arranged by the vendor, and pay by bank transfer with a payment countdown and a "send payment details" confirmation step.
• Account security and preferences: Notification controls, light, dark and system themes, and security settings covering two-factor authentication and passkeys.
• Community and content: Wishlist, a remote trading community with swap alerts, a car reviews blog and a newsletter.

Outcome

CarSwap gives Nigerian car buyers and sellers one place to browse verified dealers, work out a fair swap and get a personalised recommendation.