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Building a marketplace mobile app is no easy thing. It requires many hours of work, a clear vision, a well-defined target audience, understanding all the features needed, and a great team that can make it happen. Once it is done, the work is only starting.
You will need to contact businesses that believe in your app in order to offer their products and services. You will also need customers, and most importantly, you will need to keep things going. After all, sales are an essential part of a marketplace’s growth.
Marketplace development for iOS and Android, the two most popular mobile OS, can be hard if you don’t have a well-thought-out plan. Although plans usually don’t work as expected, having one will help you prepare for what’s to come. Consumers can be very demanding and they want to have the best customer experience possible.
In this article, we will review what a marketplace is, its fundamentals, and factors to consider when building a marketplace mobile app.
An online or digital marketplace is an online store that aggregates various vendors that can offer products and services on the same platform. Just like a regular marketplace, an online one gives small businesses the opportunity to access a bigger market than they would otherwise be able to do on their own.
A mobile marketplace is a specific type of marketplace application that is thought out with a mobile-first strategy. In other words, it prioritizes a mobile application experience. It differs from a marketplace website in the type of User Experience it can deliver.
On some occasions, a digital marketplace is often referred to as an eCommerce marketplace; both belong to the retail industry, but they are different things. This is usually very confusing, as a marketplace and an eCommerce solution are two different things. A marketplace is a broader online sales concept that offers a wider variety of products and services. Its business model is not to sell things directly, but to offer businesses the place where they can sell them. On the contrary, an eCommerce solution focuses on selling directly to consumers or other businesses.
On a marketplace platform, prospective customers can buy the same product from many different vendors. On an eCommerce platform, customers can only buy from one seller. In other words, an eCommerce platform is usually a dedicated selling place for one company.
Just like a physical shopping center, a marketplace for the digital world offers users a series of benefits that they would be unable to achieve on their own. This applies to both seller and buyer roles, although the main priority for a marketplace is usually the sellers, also known as the businesses that offer their products on your platform.
Through strength in numbers, small businesses and independent sellers can compete using the same tools that larger companies use. These are some of the benefits that a marketplace offers to small businesses:
With mobile devices everywhere, customers can easily access online stores directly from the palm of their hands with marketplace apps. This makes it easier not only for customers to buy what they need but also for businesses to reach their audience. Through powerful marketplace apps for both iOS and Android, businesses can tap into the potential of mobile devices.
Many small businesses do not have the resources to develop their own marketplace, even if they know that these elements might benefit their bottom line. A marketplace app is an ideal solution for companies that wish to reach wider audiences but do not have the capability to develop an app.
There are as many different types of marketplaces as there are business relations. The different types of marketplaces are:
For more information on them, we recommend researching what eBusiness is about.
Developing marketplace apps can be hard if you don’t understand some key requirements of mobile shopping. In order to build a marketplace app, make sure to keep the following considerations in mind:
There are many big marketplaces that have consolidated themselves as the dominant players in specific niches. Some of them focus on geographic niches, while others are more driven by specific products.
Amazon is the most important and biggest marketplace in the world, and although it might be tempting to imitate them, consider that they are a behemoth that’s hard to compete with. Other important marketplaces include Mercado Libre in Latin America, and Ali Baba, which has been gaining traction all over the world. An example of a niche-specific marketplace is Etsy, as it focuses on handmade and vintage products.
Developing an app at the early stages of your business can be demanding. After all, a world-class digital product is something that only expert developers do, and this makes it expensive. Keep in mind that a cheap product will almost always deliver suboptimal results.
When it comes to building a mobile app, cheap is expensive, so make sure to find the right development partner. This is no exception if you want to build a marketplace that succeeds.
Understanding the costs of mobile app development. This can give you a clearer sense of what your financial requirements will be.
Building a marketplace requires more than an app idea. It will take time before you develop innovative features and start to gain traction, but it will surely pay off.
A good idea is to start to build a marketplace app from a minimum viable product. This allows you to implement must-have features first. Other innovative features can later be added in a strategic way, prioritizing the most important aspects first before going all in.
Also, make sure to have the right vision, one that can help you execute your business strategy. More importantly, make sure to have by your side a development partner who understands the development process.
When it comes to developing mobile apps, having a technology partner who can help you build a strong value proposition to differentiate yourself from competitors can make all the difference between failure and success. Find someone who can balance the need for a custom app with meeting your business goals through a mobile marketplace app.
