International premium alcohol marketplace with live auctions
We built from scratch a comprehensive auction platform for the luxury alcohol industry — connecting sellers and buyers worldwide. Spirits Treasure is now a working international marketplace that ByteWave designed, built, and deployed in 6 months on WordPress with a multivendor architecture.
Client and business context
Spirits Treasure is a Dutch business venture by Jarni Stevens, with the ambition of building the first global marketplace dedicated to premium alcohol — whisky, cognac, collectible wines, and rare distillates. The client is based in Venray, Netherlands, and operates internationally, serving buyers and sellers from multiple countries.
The luxury alcohol industry is a specific e-commerce segment — combining elements of classic online sales, auction houses (like Christie's or Sotheby's), and regulatory requirements characteristic of alcohol trade. The client needed a platform that could handle this complexity and easily list products in both live auction and fixed-price modes.
That is why ByteWave was chosen: the client was looking for a partner who would understand both the technical layer (multivendor, real-time auctions) and the UX requirements characteristic of luxury e-commerce — minimalist design, attention to detail, an exclusive atmosphere.
The challenge
Building an international marketplace with real-time auctions is a project of significant technical complexity. The client needed a platform that not only handles transactions but creates a complete ecosystem for both sides of the market.
One of the biggest challenges was designing and implementing dedicated sales form templates — a premium alcohol seller must provide much more detail than in classic e-commerce: provenance, vintage, bottle condition, authenticity, collection history, certificates. The form must remain intuitive and aesthetic.
The second key challenge was integrating three core WordPress plugins: Dokan (multivendor marketplace), JetEngine + JetFormBuilder (advanced forms and custom post types), and Elementor (visual builder). Each is a powerful tool, but combining them into a coherent whole — with data synchronisation between seller panels, forms, and frontend — required precise code-level work.
Specific technical requirements
- Individual panels for buyers and sellers — each with its own dashboard, statistics, history
- Functionality for listing products in both auctions and direct sales
- Detailed product rating and review system with buyer verification
- Powerful multi-criteria filter (alcohol type, country of origin, vintage, price, sale type)
- Built-in live chat for direct communication between users
- Email and SMS notification system for new offers, auction status, transactions
- Premium design aligned with the exclusive character of luxury alcohol sales
- Full responsiveness for desktop and mobile
- Performance optimisation and architecture ready for international scaling
Project process
We delivered the project in 6 months, divided into 5 structured phases. Each phase ended with client verification and the delivery of a concrete artefact.
Discovery and specification
2-3 weeksWorkshops with the client to understand his business vision, competitive analysis (Christie's, Sotheby's, Whisky Auctioneer), defining the seller and buyer process, mapping critical functionalities. Output: specification document + key screen mockups.
UX/UI design and prototype
4-5 weeksDesigning all key views: home page with live auctions, product listing with filters, seller panel, buyer panel, product listing forms, purchasing process. Premium aesthetic aligned with luxury product character.
Architecture and technical setup
2 weeksConfiguration of Dokan (multivendor), JetEngine (custom post types), JetFormBuilder (advanced forms) and Elementor (frontend). Data structure, user roles, and permissions design.
Development
12-14 weeksImplementation of all modules: auctions, panels, rating system, filtering, chat, notifications. Iterative delivery every 2 weeks with client verification. Customisation of Dokan to industry needs.
Testing, optimisation and deployment
3 weeksFull UAT testing, performance audit (Lighthouse, Core Web Vitals), database query optimisation, CDN configuration, production deployment, client training on admin panel use.
Technical solution
The heart of the platform is WordPress with a customised multivendor ecosystem — this technology choice was deliberate. WordPress enabled faster deployment of proven components (Dokan, WooCommerce, JetEngine), full control over code, and easy content editing for the client post-deployment.
Three key plugins — Dokan, JetEngine + JetFormBuilder, Elementor — were synchronised to operate as one coherent system. This required writing custom add-ons connecting these plugins' APIs: data entered by the seller in JetFormBuilder must reach a Dokan product, and then be displayed by Elementor in the appropriate template. This data flow was one of the most demanding technical elements.
The architecture is ready for scaling — from the start we assumed the platform would grow. We applied object-level and database caching, lazy loading for images, and asynchronous architecture for notifications (job queue).
Why WordPress + Dokan and not React + Node.js?
The client needed a platform to launch within six months, with the ability to edit content independently after deployment. A custom solution would have required building modules (multivendor, payments, CMS) from scratch — extending the project by months. Dokan is a mature multivendor plugin with a ready-made shop, seller panels, and purchasing process. Customising Dokan + JetEngine + Elementor allowed launching on time without compromising functionality.
Why dedicated sales forms?
Standard e-commerce forms would not handle the specifics of premium alcohol — vintage, country of origin, collection, authenticity certificates, bottle history. We created our own templates in JetFormBuilder with validation per alcohol category (whisky, cognac, wine), with conditional fields and automatic mapping to Dokan product attributes.
Live chat and notifications
In auctions every second counts — buyers must see real-time activity of others. Integrating live chat between users enables direct questions about a product, and the email and SMS notification system informs about auction end, outbid offers, victories. This increases engagement and conversion.
Key platform features
Spirits Treasure is not a regular shop — it is an ecosystem connecting premium sellers with buyers in a global market. Here are the key functionalities that make it a whole:
Individual buyer and seller panels
Each side of the transaction has its own dashboard with appropriate tools. Seller: offer management, sales statistics, auction history, visit analytics. Buyer: favourite products, purchase history, price alerts, auction tracking.
Live auctions in real-time
The auction system handles bidding with minute-level extension (anti-snipe), automatic bidding up to a limit, and push notifications for all participants. After the auction ends, an order is automatically generated.
Direct (fixed-price) sales
Alongside auctions, sellers can list products at a fixed price — classic e-commerce model with cart and checkout. Some collections are available only in one of the modes (e.g. unique = auction, standard edition = direct).
Multi-criteria filter
Advanced search by: alcohol type, country of origin, region, vintage, price range, sale type, valuation, seller. Filters can be combined and saved as "Saved searches".
Rating and review system
After every transaction both sides rate each other. Sellers build reputation (gold/silver/bronze sellers), buyers verified by purchase history. The system protects against fake reviews.
Built-in live chat
Seller and buyer can talk directly — questions about bottle origin, detailed photos, reservation possibilities. Chat is archived and accessible from panels.
Email and SMS notifications
Key events (new bid, auction ending in 5 minutes, victory, product sale, new chat message) trigger notifications in selected channels. User configures preferences.
Premium design
Aesthetic aligned with the luxury industry — minimalist typography, plenty of white space, dark accents, high-quality product photography. The design enhances the sense of exclusivity.
Full responsiveness
The platform fully works on desktop, tablet, and mobile. Live auctions have an optimised mobile version — touch controls, compact layouts, push notifications.
Performance optimisation
Caching at multiple layers (object cache, page cache, browser cache, CDN), lazy loading of images, asynchronous notifications (queue). The site loads under 2 seconds even with complex listings.
Tech stack
Each element of the stack was chosen for a specific reason — component readiness, ecosystem maturity, and the client's ability to edit content post-deployment.
Results
Spirits Treasure has been operating since 2025 as a stable international premium alcohol marketplace. The client is positively assessing the cooperation and is in the active business development phase — expanding the offer, adding new categories, working on acquiring more sellers.
From a technical perspective, the platform handles growing traffic and serves more auctions without downtime. The caching and asynchronous architecture allows scaling without fundamental code changes.
From the client's perspective two aspects are most important: (1) the platform actually works according to the business vision — connecting international sellers and buyers in the premium alcohol market, and (2) speed of introducing changes — Jarni Stevens can independently edit content, add categories, change appearance through Elementor, without involving developers.
What's next
Spirits Treasure is actively growing — the client is acquiring new sellers, adding product categories, planning geographic expansion. ByteWave remains a technical partner, supporting platform maintenance and developing new functionalities.
The roadmap includes, among others: expanding the KYC system for professional sellers, integrating additional international logistics systems, and analytical functions for the most active sellers.
"BYTEWAVE demonstrated great professionalism, flexibility, and an excellent understanding of the project's vision. The work was delivered on time, with attention to detail and user experience."
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