Recently, people have become more and more familiar with the idea of a marketplace. The main reason for marketplaces is the ability to purchase the required product or service in a more convenient way. First of all, it takes only minutes to find what you are looking for on the internet. It offers greater convenience to people who want to purchase products or services online. The internet has made things easier for everyone, and marketplaces allow customers to find their desired items and have them delivered to their homes at affordable rates.
With a couple of clicks, you manage to find great deals online and have any type of product, electronic gadgets, or furniture delivered to your doorstep. Anyone aiming at selling their products understands the benefits of the strong online presence and wants to build a marketplace app, but creating a successful app requires considerable resources and a lot of knowledge. However, building a marketplace startup is not an easy task and requires quite a lot of knowledge as well as resources.
To start with, we are going to look at what Marketplaces are and how they are different from online stores. If you have been searching for information online on how to build a marketplace app, you have come to the right place.
Below, we discuss the following questions:
- How you can build a marketplace app from scratch.
- What the main marketplace characteristics are.
- What differentiate marketplaces from online stores.
WHAT IS A MARKETPLACE PLATFORM?
The main difference between a marketplace and an online store is the ability of independent sellers to list their products or services. There are multiple variations of the platforms available. They differ by the size, the strategy, the products provided, and the way they market themselves.
Depending on the purpose and the location, the pricing and technology used are also different. The online stores only provide their own services and goods. They are in charge of the prices, the products themselves, the payment, and the delivery. There are various types of marketplace platforms of different sizes marked with lots of options ranging from products that sellers offer to the choice of the marketing strategy. The technology and pricing will also be different depending on the location and purpose of the marketplace.
The important factor to regard is to realize the role of the marketplace as a mediator. Marketplaces bridge the gap between sellers and buyers. Hence, the purpose of a marketplace is to provide effective cooperation while connecting buyers and sellers.
Online stores only offer their own services and goods and control all aspects including the products, prices, delivery, and the payment. A marketplace offers you a platform for listing services and a payment system. These marketplaces can be used for exchanging goods or to trade since they include everything from online services like coupons and apps to physical objects like electronic devices, furniture, or clothing.
WHY SHOULD YOU CREATE A MARKETPLACE APP?
Marketplaces have become the primary place for people to buy products. They’re beneficial for everyone: sellers, buyers, and marketplace owners. Thinking about marketplace app development, then this article will be useful for you. Marketplace apps are the hottest trend right now, especially with the dominance of market leaders like Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Airbnb, Uber, and Groupon. All these companies have gone on to become billion-dollar businesses that achieved unparalleled growth.
It’s way faster and easier to put your product on an online platform than to create your own ecommerce website or app and then struggle to get traffic, investing thousands of dollars in search engine optimization (SEO), app store optimization (ASO), and advertising. This has obviously shed light on different marketing concepts like B2B, B2C, and C2C. A successful marketplace will be based on scalability, execution, performance, and design.
Mobile commerce has become the preferred method for customers shopping online, as they can easily access different products and services online. E-commerce sales in the United States have gone through the roof after the emergence of mobile commerce companies, with revenues generating more than $200 billion last year.
The popularity of mobile shopping has meant that more retailers in the United States have started to invest in marketplace apps. Most global businesses that are online have moved their activities to mobile platforms, as smartphones and tablets have allowed them to interact with clients in real-time.
5 Types of marketplaces
Here are the 5 most common categories of online marketplaces:
1. On demand: This type of marketplace provides users with services that are in immediate demand by customers. For example, car rental or home delivery of groceries.
2. Community-driven: Community-driven marketplaces gather independent retailers and brands on its platform.
3. Decentralized: In a decentralized marketplace all power is in the hands of the sellers. There’s no operator to control the platform , it has a P2P system: anyone can enter to sell and buy.
4. Managed: Managed marketplace always has an intermediary who intervenes to ensure the proper functioning of the marketplace. The intermediary provides support, logistical analysis and maintenance.
5. SaaS: A SaaS marketplace allows users to build their own page within the marketplace network. However, it usually has sales commissions.
CLASSIFICATION: THE MAIN TYPES OF MARKETPLACES
Before you build your marketplace app it is important that you determine what type of marketplace you want, since there are various versions of marketplaces. Marketplaces fall into three main categories when grouped by their target audience: business-to-business (B2B), business-to-customer (B2C), and peer-to-peer (P2P), sometimes referred to as customer-to-customer (C2C). Let’s look closely at each type to learn its concept, business models, and common challenges.
They can be divided into different categories according to customer type, selling model, market sectors, etc.
Frequently Asked Questions
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About Author
Mr.Vivek Chaturvedi
Vivek Chaturvedi is the co-founder and CTO at Vidhema Technologies. He is responsible for the overall technical operations of the company and has played a major role in bringing Vidhema up from its humble beginnings and, with his immense energy and drive, transforming it into a globally trusted name in IT solutions.