PRJ/
SixtSh
Sixt Group Romania, a leader in the car rental industry, faced the challenge of modernizing its used vehicle presentation website and online auction platform. With an ever-increasing demand for a more efficient and user-friendly, they were looking for a solution that would allow admins and users to manage car auctions and Second Hand car shows more efficiently. This case study explores the project's journey from the initial challenges to the successful implementation of a platform based on TYPO3 CMS.
The Challenge
The existing website was outdated and lacked the necessary features for efficient cars search and display for users and potential car buyers. In the auctions platform, administrators needed help adding, modifying, or deleting cars, and users faced difficulties managing their auction participation. The need for a modern, robust system to handle the cars search and presentation, user registrations, auction notifications, and a streamlined auction management process was evident.
Rethinking the perspective
To address these challenges, a new platform was developed using TYPO3 CMS version 11.5, running on PHP 8.1 based on Extbase, Fluid Templating Engine, Doctrine, Typoscript, jQuery, HTML/SCSS/JavaScript, Composer, git. The solution provided a complete overhaul of the auction process with the following features:
- UI/UX design tailored to enhance user interaction
- Development of a website and application specifically for second-hand car sales and auctions
- Implementation of auction and car management modules
- Features for user registration, email notifications, and auction history tracking
New auction platform
Implementing the TYPO3 CMS-based auction platform for Sixt Group Romania was a great success. The project met and exceeded the client's expectations, providing a modern, efficient solution that streamlined the auction process. This success story highlights the importance of leveraging modern technologies to meet evolving business needs.
Web presentation of used cars and online auctions
For the second-hand car sales section, which is visible to any site visitor, we used the Cardealer extension from the repository. It was chosen because of the many functionalities it offers. Made precise customizations requested by the customer for the search area and details of each vehicle.
For online auctions, we developed a new extension, Reea_Auctions, which, while relying on Cardealer for details, brings specific functionality. With Reea_Auctions, auctions can be created directly from the backend, configurable with start and end dates, and with the option to add vehicles to the auction.
In the admin area, Reea_Auctions has introduced the Auction Management module, which includes the vehicle list view, as well as a complete auction history, allowing detailed tracking of each auction: who bid and what amount was offered for a particular vehicle.
An auction can include multiple vehicles, all available for bidding. At the end of the auction, an informative email is sent to all participants, announcing the end of the auction. The winner receives a personalized email notifying them of their win.
One of the essential features requested by the client, which brings real help to the auction participants, is the "Autopilot" feature. This allows a participant to set a maximum amount for bidding, and the system will automatically continue to bid in their place if another participant outbids. For example, if a car has a bid increment of €50 and the current bid is at €5500, the participant can set the Autopilot to €7500. The system will automatically bid for it at the value of €5550. If another participant bids €6000, the system will continue to bid for the first participant at €6050, and so on, until the set maximum amount is reached.
Another system implemented at the customer's request is to set an incremental value for each auction, defining how much a participant can bid above the current bid. In addition, in the settings you can set the number of minutes by which the auction is extended if, in the last few minutes, bids are still being made.
There is also a notification system that each user can customize from their account, with the following options:
- Notify me when I have placed a new offer
- Notify me when someone has outbid me
- Notify me when an auction starts soon
- Notify me when an auction I participated in has ended
- Notify me when an auction I participated in has been fully processed
- Notify me of any marketing messages.
User accounts participating in auctions are created either by site administrators or through online registration followed by approval from admins. The account becomes active and the user can participate in auctions only after email validation and approval from the auction administrator.
