E-Campus Marketplace App: A Peer-To-Peer E-Commerce Platform for St. Clare College Students

Abstract

This study focuses on the development and evaluation of the E-Campus Marketplace App, a peer-to-peer (P2P) e-commerce platform designed specifically for the students of St. Clare College of Caloocan. The research addresses the logistical challenges students face when acquiring school essentials—such as uniforms and booklets—including long waiting lines, uncertain stock availability, and the security risks associated with trading on unofficial social media groups. Using a descriptive developmental research design and an agile development methodology, the researchers created a centralized digital marketplace tailored to the school's environment, utilizing a React Native frontend and a Firebase backend database.
The application provides a secure login system, an organized product catalog, and integrated digital payment options designed to make transactions faster and more reliable. Diagnostic pre-surveys conducted among 193 respondents confirmed manual bottlenecks, specifically highlighting the frequency of long waiting lines (weighted mean = 4.06) and peer transaction anxieties on external social networks (weighted mean = 3.65). Subsequent post-implementation user evaluation of the functional prototype among 113 participants showed high levels of satisfaction regarding the system’s ease of use, security features, and overall performance. Notably, respondents highly validated the platform's search and filter capabilities (weighted mean = 4.65) and expressed strong confidence in credential security (weighted mean = 4.52). The findings demonstrate that the app effectively modernizes campus commerce, providing a safer and more convenient alternative to manual methods. The study concludes that this platform is a valuable tool for improving organization, transparency, and trust within the school's community by bridging the gap between the school and students' transactions.