The trend of online shopping is at its highest level and the online marketplace bought a revolution in today’s digital era. eBay and Amazon are some big names with millions of active users worldwide.
Marketplace applications are changing the face of the world economy. It has become crucial for businesses to position themselves among the competitors and build marketplace applications while leveraging the emerging trends.
There was a time when to buy every product, people had to move out of their houses and look for the desired product. But now, with a couple of clicks, you can find great deals online without any hassle. Whatever type of product you want to buy or sell, everything gets delivered to your doorsteps.
To create a successful marketplace app, you need considerable resources and knowledge. Let’s discuss the comprehensive information in detail.
What is a Marketplace App, and why invests in the same?
Just like the online stores, a marketplace offers the buyers and sellers to list their products individually. There are plenty of marketplace platforms available with different sizes, and products are marked with a wide range of options. It helps to diminish the gap between the seller and buyer. The marketplace apps are the talk of the town and many industry leaders earned billion dollars while achieving unparalleled growth.
Let’s Look at the e-Commerce Market Trends
As per research, online marketplace accounts hold the largest share of purchases worldwide. Here is the invaluable data that will help you to take the required and necessary decision to grow your business further:
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It is expected that mobile commerce will take a market share of eCommerce of 72.9% by end of 2021.
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There are over 2 billion digital buyers in the world.
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Due to the continued growth of marketplace applications, it is expected to reach $4.5 trillion by the end of 2021.
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The topmost reason why the users decide to buy online is because of the price tag, and other factors include discounts, speed of delivery, and different spectrum of products.
Types of Online Marketplace
E-commerce marketplace is all about buying and selling products, services from the resellers. Here we have listed the most popular types of online marketplaces offering you the most promising services.
1. By commodity
It includes goods, services, and staff. The very first thing that comes to mind is categorizing the marketplace applications. Customers can use these to buy:
- Physical goods that include clothing, electronics, books, household material, and more
- Services include house cleaning, tutoring, rent, and others.
- Staffing includes filling up different positions while hiring.
2. By Structure
It includes marketplaces and building market networks. In the commodity marketplace, the main focus of the customer is to find a perfectly good or service. Whereas the market network is special as they focus on creating a reputable profile while building a suitable network. Here, more focus is given to building a network of connections.
Here is an example of such a marketplace, where the restaurant workers can create robust relationships among themselves and the owners.
3. By Participants
It can be two-sided and multi-sided. Booking a cab on Uber is an example of a two-sided marketplace whereas ordering food on Swiggy where you can select from a wide range of restaurants comes into a multi-vendor marketplace.
4. By Target Audience
Your audience can be B2B, B2C, C2C, therefore it entirely depends on the target audience who you are serving. Be clear about your audience and choose carefully before you start a custom mobile app development project.
Top 5 Marketplace Apps Worth Stealing From
Here, we have rounded up your favorite apps that let you buy and sell things virtually. Let us check out what all we can take away from these applications before you create a marketplace of yours.
1. Amazon
With more than 600 million users actives on the web, Amazon rules the world. Amazon is the largest online retailer where around 50% of the sales are generated from third-party sellers. Amazon operates 16 marketplaces worldwide and continues to spread more.
2. eBay
Founded in 1995, it became one of the largest online marketplaces with over 182 million buyers on the marketplace. It allows to sell the item in two ways-via auction or fixed price listing. There is an inbuilt payment gateway and the sellers are paid via PayPal, Credit or Debit cards, and other digital payment options.
3. Facebook Marketplace
Facebook marketplace allows you to offload your stuff while making some extra cash. It is used by around 70 countries and 800 million people. Just snap a photo and add a product name, short description, and price. You will also be asked about the product’s location and category and sell your product instantly!
4. Decluttr
It helps you to sell even your old technology items. So pack up your old stuff and send it off. The app pays you the day the parcel arrives. It is one of the quickest apps and has a competitive advantage over other applications. Another advantage it offers is that you can also sell your broken devices and gadgets.
Must-have Features for the Perfect Marketplace Mobile App
1. Easy Sign Up
The registration process should be hassle-free as this process is the main cause behind the increase of more apps uninstalls. An easy entry into the application includes the name and e-mail address to be filled. Also, the user should be able to sign-in via social media credentials.
2. Dashboard
The dashboard serves as a home screen for the sellers who want to stay updated with the data like new orders, reviews, customers reviews, conversation, and more.
3. Social Media Integration
It is the most important factor that helps to retain customers. It is a matter of promoting your products/services on social media platforms and allowing the customers to share their buy, reviews, discounts, and referral coupons with their friends and others.
4. Separate app for buyers and sellers
As both play a crucial role in the Marketplace App development, they should have separate applications. The buyer application should contain all the necessary information about the past, items bought, wishlist, payment mode, and settings.
The seller should be able to view the list and number of people who have marked their products as favorite and the number of views on the product listed.
5. Filtering
Categories add life to your application. It makes it more convenient for the users to look and buy specific items as per their needs. Make sure the categories you add are logical and display what your marketplace is all about.
6. Shopping Cart
This is the most mandatory feature of the marketplace application. The app should allow the users to add products to their carts seamlessly and show the total sum up after applying the applicable discounts and coupons.
7. Track Delivery
Once the order is placed, the user should be able to track their goods as it ensures the goods are sent via a trusted service. Once the item is received by the buyer, they should be able to leave their valuable feedback.
8. Push Notifications
It is one of the most powerful tools that allows retargeting your customers and easy communication with them.
9. Multiple Payment Gateways
Customers are choosy, and they have a different mindset of making payments. So, it's crucial to add different payment gateways for the customers to easily make payments.
Key Features of Buyers App
- Social and Sign-up Login
- Product Listing With Features
- Product Detail Page
- Ratings & Reviews
- Favorite Listing
- Questions & Answers
- User Profile
- Billing & Shipping Addresses
- Delivery Status
- Add To Cart
- Checkout Page
- Order History & Tracking
Key Features of Seller App
- Social And Sign-Up Login
- The Product, order, return, Inventory Management
- Reports & Analysis
- Offers & Discounts
- Settlement Module
- Feedback & Seller Support
- Reviews & Ratings
How much it cost to build a perfect Multi-vendor Marketplace App?
Well, the cost of the development of a multi-vendor application depends on the functional features and the time that is required to develop the application. Wireframe, Design, and Development are the basic factors that affect the cost of development of the marketplace app.
1. Wireframe
It is the rough estimate or prototype model that gives the idea of the app functioning.
2. Design
The GUI and flexibility that you present to your visitors make a big platform for its acceptance in the market.
3. Development
It refers to the implementation of the idea and features in developing the application with the codes. The development cost of a marketplace application depends on two factors – the number of functional features and the resources required.
Winding-up
Don’t forget to integrate the above-mentioned features to make your online marketplace app successful. The other crucial aspect one needs to consider in selecting the right app development company. Ensure that the organization knows all the features and has rich expertise in creating such types of applications.
Bring us your idea and let’s together develop a successful marketplace app designed to engage your consumers!
