Exchangify

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Inspiration

Every year at UBC, thousands of students move in and move out of residences at the same time. Clubs running events end up with unusable banners and items that they end up throwing out. Perfectly usable items: mini fridges, lamps, desk chairs, kitchenware, and get sold chaotically or simply thrown away.

We noticed three consistent problems:

Trust: anyone could join most marketplaces, leading to scams and unsafe interactions
Discoverability: students miss great deals because listings are fragmented
Waste: huge amounts of usable items and furniture end up in landfills

We wanted to build something made specifically for UBC students, that feels safe, seasonal, and sustainability-driven. That idea became Exchangify.

What it does

Exchangify is a UBC-only student marketplace where students can buy, sell, and trade dorm items and student essentials, especially during move-in and move-out seasons.

Key things it enables:

Verified access using @student.ubc.ca emails only
Campus-aware marketplace filtered by UBC residences
Dedicated move-out mode for bundles and dorm essentials
Built-in offers, messaging, meetup scheduling, and transaction tracking
Wishlist and price alerts so students never miss what they need
Safety-first features like user reviews, reporting, blocking, and safety guidelines
A Sustainability Impact Dashboard that shows how many items were reused, CO₂ saved, and waste avoided

Instead of being just another resale app, Exchangify turns student exchanges into a trusted, campus-wide sustainability system!

How we built it

We built Exchangify as a full-stack, production-ready web application using modern tools:

Frontend:

Next.js 14
TypeScript
Tailwind CSS
Fully responsive, PWA-enabled design

Backend:

Next.js API Routes
MongoDB Atlas with Mongoose
RESTful API design for scalability
Authentication & Security
NextAuth.js (Credentials provider)
UBC email validation
JWT-based sessions
CSRF protection, rate limiting, and input sanitization

Core Systems

Listings, bundles, offers, transactions, reviews
Real-time messaging and notifications
Cloudinary image uploads
Push notifications using Web Push + VAPID
Gamification engine for badges and achievements

Challenges we ran into

Designing trust without real payments: we had to carefully design reviews, transaction states, and moderation tools to build trust even without in-app payments.

Balancing feature depth with usability: with listings, bundles, offers, alerts, and messaging, keeping the UI intuitive took multiple iterations.

Push notifications & PWA setup: implementing Web Push, service workers, and notification preferences reliably across browsers required deep debugging.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

A fully functional end-to-end marketplace, not just a prototype
Campus-specific UX (residences, move-out mode, safety tips)
A meaningful sustainability impact dashboard, not just a marketing claim
Clean, well-structured backend with clear API boundaries
A codebase that’s easy to extend for AI features, payments, and native apps
Most importantly, Exchangify feels like something UBC students would actually use.

What we learned

Building trust is as important as building features
Small UX decisions (filters, alerts, bundles) massively affect usability
Designing for a specific community leads to better products than building generic platforms
Sustainability metrics motivate users when they’re visible and personal
Production-quality architecture matters, even in student projects

What's next for Exchangify

We see Exchangify growing into an official campus utility. Next steps include:

CWL (Campus Wide Login) integration for seamless authentication
AI-powered features like smart pricing, fraud detection, and auto-categorization
Verified meetup locations and in-app video calls
In-app payments with escrow for higher-value items
Dorm-specific marketplaces and group buy/sell channels
A native mobile app

Our long-term goal is to make Exchangify the default way students exchange goods at UBC, reducing waste while strengthening the campus community.