Forsa: a trust-first marketplace app
Forsa is a mobile marketplace for buying and selling anything — goods, electronics, fashion, vehicles, property and services — designed around the problem that stops most classified marketplaces from growing: neither side trusts the other.
- Type
- Consumer marketplace
- Platforms
- iOS, Android, web admin
- Stack
- React Native (Expo), NestJS, PostgreSQL, Prisma, Claude API
- Languages
- English, French, Arabic (RTL)
The problem
Classified marketplaces fail on trust long before they fail on features. A buyer will not send money to a stranger, and a seller will not ship before payment. Most platforms answer this with a review score, which is easy to game and tells you nothing on a first transaction.
What we built
A bidirectional trust and verification system, where both parties accumulate verified signals rather than a single star rating, paired with a transaction engine supporting both escrow and cash on delivery so the platform can match local expectations rather than impose one model.
Payment and delivery integrations are configured per country by a super-admin, so entering a new market is a configuration exercise rather than an engineering project.
Listing creation is AI-assisted: rather than making a seller complete a long structured form, the app generates a category-appropriate listing from minimal input. Listing friction is the main reason marketplace supply stalls, so this is a growth mechanism, not a novelty.
Design and reach
The interface follows a social feed pattern familiar from Instagram and TikTok rather than the table-and-filter convention of older classifieds, with a Gen Z-first design system. It ships in English, French and Arabic with full right-to-left support, mirrored layouts and bidirectional text handling.
Common questions
Can you build a marketplace with escrow payments?
Yes. Forsa supports both escrow and cash on delivery, with payment and delivery providers configured per country so each market can use what its customers already trust.
Do you support Arabic and right-to-left layouts?
Yes, on every product we ship. Forsa is built in English, French and Arabic with full RTL — mirrored layouts, flipped iconography and bidirectional text — designed in from the first screen rather than retrofitted.
Tell us what you are building
Most projects start with a one-week discovery sprint. You get a scope, a technical plan and a costed roadmap — yours to keep, whoever builds it.