A complete redesign and of course new features, that’s what’s included in version 3 of RepArchive TOP and LIVE.
RepArchive LIVE was launched in October 2020, RepArchive TOP followed one year later. This makes it our oldest app. When it came out, it was a big step ahead of our static blog and item listings and anything else in our scene. While it was never outdated, the fact that it was built with a different software stack than the Shipping Calculator, the Weidian Search and the recently released Sellers list meant that it was often left out from general updates (think of the dark mode or the new waffle menu).
It was clear that sooner or later it had to be incorporated in our monolithic app, that contained all our other apps. The 1688 sub on reddit was what finally pushed us to take this leap.
New Features
Which brings us to the first new feature: each platform (taobao, weidian, 1688, tmall) now has their own best sellers charts. Of course I kept the mixed best 200 of all sites, but these separate views were highly requested, for enthusiasts of a particular shopping site this is an important distinction. And it also increases the total number of items you can lay your eyes on.
You have easy to use buttons to handle the time frame (1 day, 1 week, 1 month, all time) and platform at the same time. Preferences are retained when you switch, greatly improving the quality of live. You can also switch to the live feed with a single click.
Talking about the live feed, here you also have the buttons for the platform, however they work as filters.
Another highly requested feature is the search bar. I was against this at first, because I said you can just use CTRL + F to find items. Also, for new users it will be hard to understand that they are just searching the original store titles. They might be thinking they can search for brand names and that the search will figure it out, but it’s not that smart yet; it’s just searching the marketplace title. It’s also just searching within the top 200. Maybe I’ll let it pull from the database at some point, but for now it’s a client side interaction, which makes it fast. Now that it’s there I really came to like it. You could even say there’s a slight edge of CTRL+F, which is that it also searches titles that have been cut of due to length, and it works better on mobile.
Other new features are the max price filter, an exchange rate converter that uses the agent’s specific real time currency exchange rate. The agent selector itself now saves your preference to your browser, and it’s retained when you revisit the site later or revisit the Weidian search.
Some other, smaller changes are preview pictures while the fullsize pictures are loading and the fact that you can see the exact time when the top 200 list was compiled the last time (this is in your timezone btw.).
Conclusion
I really hope you enjoy the new update. While I actually planned it as a simple update to the newer software stack, it did end up being a worthy feature update, with many highly requested features.
It has been greatly received when it went live on April 20th, 2023. Just look at the feedback on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/1688Reps/comments/12xxln5/reparchive_top_1688s_top_200_most_popular_items/
Thanks to everyone who gives the new site a try, let us know if you have any feedback or comments.
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