Marketplace transformation in less than six months

Secret Sales began as a flash-sale retailer using a subscription-based email model to drive traffic to time-limited deals. Large volumes of stock were uploaded for short sales windows, causing significant spikes in demand. Their bespoke platform struggled to cope with this volatility, limiting scalability and performance.

Secret Sales decided to pivot from flash sales to hosting an online marketplace, enabling third-party sellers to list products across different categories. They needed a platform that could facilitate this change and help their brand go global.

Through our Accelerator programme, we assessed their legacy platform and defined a tailored solution that would support their new marketplace business model.

Best-in-class Magento ecosystem

We replatformed Secret Sales to Magento 2, integrating Akeneo as a product information management (PIM) system to address growing product complexity. With accurate, consistent product data and improved merchandising available, Akeneo was connected to their internal ERP to streamline operational workflows.

Game-changing integrations

To enhance search, navigation, and on-site merchandising, we integrated Attraqt, ensuring customers could easily discover relevant products and enjoy a seamless shopping experience.

A critical component of the marketplace shift was Mirakl, which enabled Secret Sales to onboard multiple sellers, manage product uploads, and allow sellers to bid for placement on the platform.

Our proprietary middleware Snow connected all systems, ensuring smooth data flow without overloading Magento. Snow acted as the central communication layer, enabling scalable, efficient system integration.

The new platform significantly reduced operational costs through improved product management and data mastering, while enhanced brand-led content and visual merchandising elevated the customer experience. Secret Sales successfully transitioned from a flash-sale model to a brand-driven marketplace and launched ahead of the Black Friday deadline—delivering their most successful Black Friday to date.

The platform also supported international expansion, starting with the Netherlands and Belgium. Localised product data and translations were enabled through Akeneo and Mirakl, creating a scalable foundation for continued global growth without additional development support.

"IDHL understands the fine balance between working at pace and following a process to ensure quality, usually you can’t have both.“

Andy Christodoulou, Head of Product, Secret Sales