In this modern digital landscape, the rising dominance of an online marketplace is adding a big advantage to the people of this era. Especially, entrepreneurs and business owners who are looking to build a brand-new app or website need thorough market research and to look at the customer buying patterns at a glance.
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The advent of technology gives young start-up enthusiasts a major breakthrough to establish a strong presence in the world of online marketplaces. Why? Let us explain a bit deeper with statistics.
According to Statista report, online marketplaces such as Alibaba, eBay, or JD.com have seen a globally accounted customer footfall for over one-third of online shopping orders.
An online marketplace is where the goods and service providers sell their goods directly to potential buyers. The key elements of a marketplace consist of P2P, or peer-to-peer B2C, or Business-to-customer, and B2B, or Business-to-Business business models.
Custom development refers to building a mobile app and website from scratch, whereas marketplace software is what web app development companies use as a ready-made solution.
There are four major stages that concretely help in launching a successful online marketplace builder and making a marketplace website from start to finish.
Let’s quickly skim & scan all those stages that would be helpful for business owners to build your e-commerce marketplace in 2023.
This is the first stage where businesses need to level up their game in order to comprehend what they actually need VS what they should do to create an online marketplace.
There are certain well-defined sub-stages that need a closer eye to examine from where business owners need to begin. Here are the steps to follow.
– Market Research
First and foremost, well-thought-out business research is essential. Market size and a range of potential customers come next. With that being said, a competitor analysis is the utmost way to figure it out.
– Competitor + SWOT Analysis
Secondly, when you have this vision in mind, start noticing the key players in the market performing outstandingly. Analyze the competitors and evaluate your chances to stay ahead of the competition.
– Buyer Persona
Thirdly, knowing who your buyers are is also one of the most important factors. What if you keep on targeting the wrong audience and get no results in the end? This is why understanding specific buyer persona plays a pivotal role.
This particular stage has the designing and create online marketplace with the initial MVP prototype to seek customer feedback and how it is going to have a positive impact after the launch. This is the most important phase of a project life cycle. It is where an expert team gives their best to create a one-of-a-kind prototype.
This is the most important phase of a project life cycle. It is where an expert team gives their best to create a one-of-a-kind prototype.
Once the initial prototype is good to go, it comes to the phase where, based on the client’s requirements, the entire stages of development take place right from scratch.
The team works on incorporating third-party integrations (if any), using the right tech stack, including custom requirements, additional features based on client needs, and so on.
Finally, it comes to the ‘launch’ stage when the product is fully functional, tested, and ready to be launched in the market for the end users.
From here, businesses can start attracting sellers to register and start selling their products and services.
The advantages of the e-commerce marketplace are umpteen. No wonder why e-commerce marketplaces are best known for selling online, all under one umbrella.
For instance, one of the major reasons of build your e-commerce marketplace is the revenue model that businesses yield from its outperforming business model ideas.
Between the years 2004 to 2022, Amazon.com’s e-commerce and service sales witnessed net revenue was almost $514 billion USD in 2022. It has outgrown tremendously from $470 billion USD in 2021.
Here are a few reasons that symbolize why building an online marketplace platform in 2023 are a green signal for entrepreneurs.
Since the inception of online marketplaces companies have come into the picture, it has certainly created a strong presence that attracts a large audience. It is not limited to just customers, but sellers are also becoming a part of it in abundance.
Henceforth, it has become a place of selling and purchasing both for sellers and buyers.
Online marketplaces are a way big yes for creating a platform for those sellers/ vendors/ merchants who want to sell their products and goods to a larger audience.
If businesses create a feature-loaded online marketplace platform, it has the potential to take in merchants who can further be independent sellers. Ultimately, the more the sellers, the more the earnings would be. Everything is interconnected.
Infrastructure is the major concern for business owners while establishing a business idea in the market. However, with the ease of establishing an online platform, one needs to be at ease. Because, they do not need to stock inventory or buy such a place where they should worry to keep a proper infrastructure initially.
All just they need is to be having the following:
– A web development company with an experienced team of developers and designers.
– A prototype that brings the feasibility of the product before product launch.
– Rich feature-loaded panels for sellers and their potential shoppers.
The special part of building an online marketplace is that business owners can go stress-free without having to worry about inventory maintenance. This is why launching an online marketplace business attracts a lot of entrepreneurs to build such a platform and yield profitable earnings.
Online footfall is incredible for businesses as it tends to attract higher traffic volume due to a number of benefits. The finest example is Alibaba (B2B), Amazon & eBay (B2C), etcetera.
With marketplaces, entrepreneurs have the potential to witness profitable results and yield great marginal earnings through sellers and buyers.
On top of it, business owners can charge some amount of commission on the basis of each transaction that takes place on the marketplace app.
Apart from brick-mortar stores, online shopping is a trend that seems hard to go away anytime in the future. Instead, it is going to see a boom in the upcoming years.
For new entrepreneurs, if you are highly inclined to drive an impactful customer base, it is the ideal time to start creating an online marketplace in 2023 due to the supercharged business potential it has.
For more information, list down your business requirements to flourish in this reign of online business model.