Products / 2021–2022
Linkcart
A personalised link-in-bio storefront where small businesses could list products and accept payments.
7 images · Select to enlarge
About the project
Linkcart grew out of an idea I had during the pandemic. More people were starting small businesses, and a link in their Instagram bio often led to a simple store with only a handful of products. I wanted to bring commerce into the link itself: a small, personalised storefront where someone could discover a business and buy from it.
We built mini stores with product listings and payments, giving merchants control over their sections, colours and fonts. The platform used Next.js, React and Tailwind CSS. We initially built our own checkout using Stripe’s APIs, then moved to Stripe Checkout.
Building it was an intensive technical learning experience. I spent a lot of time working through Stripe’s APIs, tax requirements, product restrictions and the different ways a marketplace could be structured. That work sparked my particular interest in checkout and the decisions behind a good purchasing experience.
As Linktree grew and Shopify launched Linkpop, the competitive landscape changed. My co-founder and I chose to conclude Linkcart and take what we had learned into a new idea. The project ran from 2021 to 2022, and its lessons stayed with me.
