How to Build a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Marketplace Website?

The marketplace business model has gained enough momentum in the past few years and is continuing to do so. The robust idea of the peer-to-peer marketplace has been readily adopted by several organizations and businesses of the global market. However, although investing in a peer-to-peer marketplace has become a trend today, some people still find it challenging to create a marketplace website like that similar to eBay. Hence, if you are also sailing in the same boat and probably finding it difficult to develop a P2P marketplace website, then this article is the perfect solution for you. Read on to know more!

For the last few years, the eCommerce sector has witnessed some tremendous changes and some positive evolutions. According to the survey giant, Statista, the global eCommerce sales amounted to $3.53 tn in the year 2019. Moreover, it is also predicted that the number is expected to reach $6.5 tn by the year 2023. That’s enough sales for a global sector in a year! The stats clearly predicts that people today are more engaged in online shopping, and that, in turn, is increasing the popularity and the revenue of the online e-commerce segment.

However, it is no surprise that things change very rapidly in today’s tech-driven world, and the e-commerce sector is no exception. With the advancements in the eCommerce sector and with the changing user needs, the marketers felt for a robust platform that could seamlessly connect the customer to the perfect seller. That’s where the P2P marketplace came into existence. Want to know more about it? Let’s dive in to discuss every detail of a peer-to-peer marketplace and its benefits!

What is an Online P2P Marketplace?

An online peer-to-peer marketplace, also referred to as a P2P marketplace, is a fantastic platform that falls under the eCommerce umbrella. It is a robust and scalable platform that connects the buyers with the right kind of sellers. In recent times, the online P2P marketplace has become an exceptional platform for both the buyers and sellers because of the various tools it offers. Meaning, the peer-to-peer marketplace is quite profitable for the buyers due to commission sales, affiliated programs, promotional tools, and due to their scalability.

To put it simply, an online marketplace is a robust platform where small traders or sellers can showcase their products and can sell them to the perfect buyers in need. According to sources, Taobao was the largest peer-to-peer marketplace in 2018, with a gross merchandise volume (GMV) of nearly 515 billion US dollars. However, before proceeding further, it is vital to know how a peer-to-peer marketplace website is different from a classical online store. So, let’s get the answer to that first!

How are P2P marketplaces different from online stores?

Let us see what differentiates a P2P marketplace from an online web store!

An online store is a multifunctional platform that brings sales on the internet. In other words, it is a web representation of a complete offline store with all the products and services on an online platform. In a web store, you are the owner of the website, and only you decide the prices and the availability of the products. And not to mention, the sales of all the products directly go in your account as there is no third-person involved besides your web store handling team, if any. Also, the maintenance of web stores takes into consideration a lot of time and effort.

However, things are a little easier on the other side of the story; a P2P marketplace is somewhat easier to handle as compared to an online store. In a peer-to-peer marketplace, you are not the sole owner of the website. Meaning, you only connect the buyers and sellers and provide them a platform to trade. They can either trade for money, or can also exchange the products following the barter system. Furthermore, you don’t directly get all the amounts from the sales of the products. In fact, you are not selling anything directly; you are just providing a sample space for the selling or buying to take place. You even have to monitor the transactions and have to check for compliances with obligations of suppliers and customers. That’s why a P2P marketplace is also sometimes referred to as a two-sided marketplace. And your job is to make that two-sided marketplace an efficient platform for the marketers.

In the global market, several small online stores have multitudes of products for the customers. However, making a marketplace for these small companies is not a feasible task as it undertakes a lot of tedious operations. However, creating a peer-to-peer marketplace is not that difficult as it does not include providing a platform to small companies. Instead, it involves the participation of every person who either wants to buy or sell some items. That further makes the development and maintenance of the P2P marketplace website a seamless task.

To summarize, we have created a table that perfectly points out all the differences between an online store and a P2P marketplace website.

So, those were some of the differences that sets a peer-to-peer marketplace website different from an online store. Now, let’s tackle another vital question – what are the benefits of creating a P2P marketplace website?

Benefits of making two-sided marketplace

1. Increased Popularity

The first and foremost benefit of developing a P2P marketplace website is more popular. Meaning, you don’t have to worry about marketing your website to attract a large user-base; that work will be done by your buyers and sellers automatically. You just need to make the platform useful for your users, and you are all set to go! You users, after receiving an efficient service will automatically popularize your platform amongst their known ones.

2. Geographical Freedom

When it comes to online stores, it is often seen that geographical barriers are one of the significant problems that hinders the growth of web stores. But it’s not in the case of a peer-to-peer marketplace. Meaning, you don’t have to worry about delivering the product to any remote location that will be taken care of by the seller. You only need to provide substantial support to them by offering a robust platform to sell their products.

3. Enhanced Profits

When it comes to profits, a peer-to-peer marketplace serves the purpose effectively . You don’t need to find the suppliers of the products, or you don’t even have to set-up a marketing process to lure more customers. You users will eventually consist of both the buyers and the sellers and you only need to monitor the processes and make sure all things are under your supervision. And you can earn a good profit for that work!

4. Easy Maintenance

Asy maintenance is also an added benefit of a two-sided marketplace. Unlike an online store, a peer-to-peer marketplace is seamless to develop and more easy to maintain. You don’t have to spend dollars on maintaining or upgrading your website. The design of a two-sided marketplace is quite simple and effective.

5. Seamlessly Accessibility

Last but not least is seamless accessibility. Meaning, you don’t have to spend much on the development process of a P2P marketplace. It is quite cost-effective as compared to opening a whole new eCommerce site with full-fledged functionalities. All in all, you can save a lot by investing in peer-to-peer marketplace development.

Best P2P Marketplace Websites

After witnessing the massive success of a peer-to-peer marketplace website, many marketers and organizations invested in the service and created their P2P marketplace website. To name a few, we have:

1. Amazon

Amazon, the e-commerce giant, has everything and anything you probably won’t. From furniture to electronic gadgets to even clothes and accessories, it provides the user everything and connects them with a perfect seller in no time. Although it a P2P marketplace that was created to sell books, it today offers several options for the users to buy.

2. eBay

eBay, a top-rated trading platform in the USA, is also a peer-to-peer marketplace that provides a space for the sellers to sell their stuff. It is a kind of online auction that enables the user to buy, sell, or offer any products at their desired price. The actual bid is fixed between the buyer and seller, so eBay does not get involved in the bidding process.

3. Etsy

Etsy is also somewhat similar to eBay and is equally popular in the global market. The only difference is the, unlike eBay, it focuses on selling the handmade objects and art products to the interested buyers. Customers can seamlessly find exceptional art pieces on this P2P marketplace.

4. Airbnb

Airbnb is an excellent alternative to all those who are looking for hotels and accommodations but are unable to find one. Airbnb, a P2P marketplace efficiently connects the homeowners to the travelers so that both of them can benefit seamlessly. Nearly every part of the world has been covered by this fantastic marketplace service where the user can become a host and can offer his apartment or cottage to the travelers for money. Airbnb acts as a guarantor, and all the payments are made via its secured system.

5. Uber

Well, who doesn’t know Uber! It is an amazing marketplace platform that offers a variety of services to the customers ranging from taxi booking to meals delivery. It seamlessly connects the restaurants, taxi drivers, hotels, and restaurants to the customers so that they can leverage the services. In return, Uber makes the profit by charging a substantial amount from the service provider. Uber also manages all the transactions made through its pp and provides a secure mode of payments to its users.

6. Rakuten

Rakuten is another powerful P2P marketplace that offers a wide range of products to be sold on its platform. Although we can indeed find all the products, Rakuten specifically focuses on electronic gadgets and appliances. It is the second most popular platform after Amazon, where people buy electronic equipment online.

7. LoveCrafts

Lovecraft is a popular marketplace startup that was introduced in the global market a few years back. Developed in 2012, this amazing P2P marketplace offers unique and mind-boggling handicraft objects. For those who are actively looking for some exemplary crafts can seamlessly find something useful here for sure.

8. Deliveroo

Deliveroo is somewhat similar to Uber, though it is again a successful UK-based startup that was found in the year 2013. It efficiently connects the restaurants and cafes to the people who are actively looking for restaurant food. You can order anything from a specific restaurant in your area using a robust marketplace.

9 Gousto

Gousto is again a food-delivery P2P marketplace but is somewhat different from Deliveroo. Founded in the year 2012, and an active food-delivery startup, Gousto connects the users to the home-cooked food providers. Meaning, the user can now enjoy home-cooked food while sitting in his/her home. Gousto has even launched a customer-facing AI recipe tool for its valuable customers.

10. CarWow

Last but not least is CarWow. As the name suggests, it is a dedicated P2P marketplace that enables the user to buy a new or a used car using the platform. CarWow connects the interested buyers with the car owners who want to sell their cars and even with the companies who are involved in car production. It is again a UK-based startup that came into the global market in the year 2013.

What things to consider before investing in a two-sided marketplace?

Now that you are well convinced to develop a two-sided marketplace website to earn more profits and to benefit your users, it is now time to consider some crucial aspects. It is no doubt that the development of a peer-to-peer marketplace website is not that difficult a task, but some vital factors greatly affect the overall success of your platform. Let’s look at them here in this section.

1. Focus on your Customer Needs

The first and foremost aspect is to focus on customer needs. Now, we all are well aware that there are lots of marketplace websites that are available in the global market. Hence, you need to pay attention to the products or services that users will find on your platform. So, you need to focus on what your customers are seeking and what all products can satisfy their needs.

2. Create a Perfect Balance

The next big thing to consider is to create a perfect balance between your two sets of users, i.e., buyers and sellers. Meaning, you should frame your policies and features in such a way that it satisfies both the sets of your users that are leveraging your P2P marketplace. Only then you will benefit from your marketplace, and your platform will become popular in the global market.

3. Introduce a Secure Transaction System

Another crucial aspect to consider is a secure transaction system. It is no surprise that security has always remained the topmost concern for the marketers of every field of the global market. And when it comes to money, security becomes of utmost importance to the users. That’s why you should invest well in making the payment platform secure and safe for the users to transact.

4. Include the Relevant Features

Features are the most critical aspect when aiming to build success for your marketplace on the global platform. You need to carefully think and should include all the relevant features that will not only be beneficial for your users but could also set you apart from your competitor. So, to help you, we have listed some features that you can include in your P2P marketplace website:

5. Listen to your Customers

The next big thing you need to address before the development of a peer-to-peer marketplace is to listen to your customers. Now, we all know how vital the customer’s opinions are for business growth. Customers are the king, and if they are not happy, you cannot succeed in the global market. So take into consideration every review and feedback of your customers, be it buyers or sellers, and work on your weak areas. Make the platform apt for your users and see the magic it does to your business.

6. Pay Heed to Marketing

Last but not least is to pay heed to the marketing strategies. Meaning, you should market your site efficiently before introducing it on the global platform. A well-marketed site will eventually have more users and, as a result, more traffic and popularity. So frame good marketing strategies and then introduce your marketplace site to your audience.

How to develop a peer-to-peer marketplace website?

So, here we are at the most awaited section of our article – how to create a P2P marketplace website. Hence, without wasting much of your time, let’s quickly jump to the key points that will help you to create a feature-rich P2P marketplace website without much hassle.

1. Decide the Perfect Technology

The first step is to decide all the perfect technologies that you want to include to make your marketplace site a hit in the global market. Now, thanks to digital advancement, today, we live in such a world where we could easily access the disruptive technologies that could do wonders in making our website successful. However, you need to choose the best one that perfectly fits your needs and also fulfills your business goals. You can leverage many options like AI-driven chatbots, to communicate with your users, or big-data to gather more user information accurately.

2. Include Smart Options

Next, you need to make your marketplace website according to the latest trends. Meaning, you know that there are ample of marketplace websites that have already gained huge popularity on the global platform. So, you need to do something extra to set them apart from your already existing competitors. For instance, you could include some smart search filters or even other smart functionalities that will help users to view the products that the maximum people are looking for. All in all, try to make your site unique and, at the same time, valuable for your users.

3. Pay Heed to UI/UX

User-friendliness is the most crucial factor that will decide the fate of your marketplace in the global market. And when I say that, I am serious about it, which means, even if you have all the smart features and functionalities, they are not accessible by the users. Or if users are finding it hard to understand the usage of a particular feature, then it is of no use to your site. In short, try to make things simple yet effective for your users. Make a simple and interactive user-interface and keep your functionalities as clear as possible.

4. Add an Entertaining Element

It is often seen that most of the businesses, when developing a peer-to-peer marketplace website, use a typical and ordinal approach, which may sound annoying to the present generation. So, to attract a large user-base and to gain popularity, you can always think of adding a unique and exciting component in your marketplace site to make it even more useful for your customers. For instance, you can add a gaming component to diversify the process of buying and selling so that users could be engaged efficiently. You can even add some graphics or thank you notes to make your site more valuable. Read this article here to grab all the vital information on how to make your website with added effects.

5. Decide a Development Approach

The next big step you need to undertake is to select a perfect development approach for the development of your P2P marketplace website. Here you have three main options to choose from, namely, Custom Development, Ready-Made Solution, and SaaS Solutions. Let’s talk about the three approaches in brief.

• Custom Marketplace Development

The first and foremost is custom development. Under this approach, you will have all the freedom to add or remove any of the features from your site. You can select the technology, the platform, and can even monitor the development process to be assured of the quality. It is the most cost-effective and scalable approach amongst all the three development approaches.

• Ready-Made Platform

Next comes the ready-made solutions. The ready-made solutions are a perfect choice for anyone who wants to get their website very quickly. Under this approach, the features and functionalities are not selected by you, it is the developer, or we can say the organization which selects the features and technology of the website. The ready-made solution won’t be that unique, but they will surely save a lot of time of yours. And we all know that time is money in today’s competitive market.

• SaaS Solution

Last is Saas, or in other words, software as a service approach. Under this approach, you do not worry about the development phase as the SaaS service provider will be looking after that. Also, the development is quite faster, and you need no such technical team. Although more rapid, the safety and the customization factor remains the drawbacks of the SaaS approach.

Now, if you opt for a custom development, which is the best approach amongst all the three, then you need to select a dedicated team of developers. Now, here again, you have two options, either go for an in-house development team or outsource an experienced software engineering company. Although both of them have specific advantages, choosing an experienced software engineering firm is always considered a better decision. That’s because an experienced firm will have solutions to all the problems that one might face during the development process. Also, the expert developers there could help you to outgrow your competitor by giving you out-of-the-box ideas.

Read: 16 Reasons to Outsource Mobile App Development

7. Test and Deploy

The last stage is to test your website carefully and then introduce it among your global users. Here again, you have two options, either you can check the site yourself with the help of testers, or you can ask the development company to test your website. Nowadays, the trend of automating testing is at par, and an experienced software engineering firm will surely have the dedicated tools that can help you accomplish effective testing of your website. So, you can contact them and can ask if they offer to automate testing or not.

What are the stages of development at Matellio?

At Matellio, we help our customers to efficiently develop their P2P marketplace website leveraging our years of experience and our expert developers. To perfectly design and develop the marketplace website, here are the steps we usually follow:

1. Consultation

The first step that we follow is to consult with the user. In that, we determine the purpose of creating the website and also undertakes all the inputs from the customers that they want on their website. That eventually helps in the proper creation of the website.

2. Prototype Creation

Next, we create a prototype of the site with static features and functionalities to give an idea to the customer how their site will look. If the user wants any other customizations, then they could tell at this stage.

3. Designing

Once the prototype is fixed, the next step is to select an aesthetic design for the site. Here again, the design is firstly approved by the customer, and then it is finalized. The decorative elements and the visualized content is also added during this stage of development.

4. Layout

Layout simply means the transformation of their static designs and features into the dynamic ones. Here, the customer can even check what will happen if they click on a certain button or option.

5. Development

Once everything is finalized, the developer starts to develop the site by the customer inputs and suggestions. The customer also decides the use of technology, and even we help them to determine the proper technology.

6. Testing

The last step is testing where our expert testers, with the help of automated testing tools, check the quality of the site very efficiently. They examine the product on different devices to ensure that nothing hinders the customer’s growth.

What are the costs associated with P2P marketplace website development?

Now you might be thinking, ok, that was the development procedure, but what are the costs associated with marketplace website development? Well, the cost of developing a P2P marketplace usually depends on various factors like:

1. Managerial Cost

2. Customization Cost

3. UI/UX Cost

4. Development cost

5. Testing Cost

Apart from all the costs mentioned above, more factors influence the cost of developing a peer-to-peer marketplace website. To get an estimate of your project, you can seamlessly contact us anytime you want. We are always here to help you.

Let’s build a P2P marketplace website!

To conclude, we can say that the world is evolving faster, and so are consumer needs. At present, the peer-to-peer marketplace is gaining immense popularity, and the reason is quite simple – it is efficiently catering to every need of the consumer. That’s why it is high time now to invest in peer-to-peer technology and to create a feature-rich and scalable P2P marketplace website. For that, if you need any help or you want to know more, then we are always happy to serve you. You can visit www.matellio.com to get all your answers.