We have seen multiple times, reading it every day that more and more people rely on mobile apps to complete their many tasks and day to day activities. Like booking a bus, cabs, taxis, even the movie tickets are being booked through smartphones, making the lives of the people easier. Now let me ask you, what would you prefer? Let go of your used things for free or Letgo (sell) the stuff for money. Well, I’m sure you’re gonna select the 2nd option. And you know what, the buy-sell marketplace apps have eased the process for both buyer and seller to buy and sell locally. These apps are the perfect way to connect to a seller and an ideal buyer in the locality. So, in this blog, we are going to discuss different aspects of buy and sell marketplace apps.
Let’s check out how these apps can serve users efficiently.
The online marketplaces can be divided into three categories
1. Vertical
In vertical type, the marketplace offers the product and services from the various sources, but just one type, like its niche, could be furniture.
2. Horizontal
The horizontal marketplace provides the goods and services from various types having similar characteristics, herein, the users can shop from retailers without the need to individually download them.
3. Global
When we talk about the global marketplace platform, they sell everything and shoppers could find any type of product here, for instance: Amazon, eBay and others.
Scope of Online Business Apps
It was estimated that around 1.8 billion people all over the world purchased goods online in 2018. Also, during the same year, global e-retail sales amounted to 2.8 trillion U.S dollars and projection showed an increment up to 4.8 trillion U.S dollars by 2021. Canada also generated a revenue of 40 million Canadian dollars with the eCommerce market in 2018. Moreover, this was expected to cross 55 billion Canadian dollars by the year 2023. Also, e-retail sales are expected to reach 17.5 per cent of worldwide total retail sales. So, rather than competing against the eCommerce apps like Amazon, eBay, etc. directly, consider by starting small. We talk about some important aspects before you dive into the process of marketplace app development.
Important Aspects to Consider Before You Build a Marketplace App Like Letgo
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1. Decide upon your niche
In case, you want to create a local selling app for selling stuff near your locality, or you want to develop an app to buy and sell the stuff across the cities and borders? Yes, that’s right. The primary step in the process is deciding which market you wish to focus on. This also includes the commodities you actually wish to deal with. You can prefer a single category and develop an app to sell your used clothes or can prefer for a broad spectrum app.
2. User experience
A marketplace app is perceived as an app to buy stuff or an app for selling the stuff online depending on whether it’s the buyer or seller.In both cases, the User experience is a priority and should be taken into consideration. Buy-sell marketplace apps should be performance-driven and should comprise of an advanced set of features.
3. Fraud protection
Fraud protection is the key element to a steady market. As an entrepreneur, consider investing in customer protection reinforcement and use some fraud detection techniques. Both the buyers and sellers should be verified well before they can register themselves for your buying selling app. After these important considerations, it’s time to dive into the benefits that every marketplace app is composed of.
Benefits Of Marketplace Apps
The marketplace is the domain wherein, there’s a lot yet to be explored, and with this, the business owners get the opportunity to leverage the marketplace business model and create their own solution.
1. Efficiency
The release cost of marketplace apps and launch costs of an eCommerce website are same. Even if the logic behind an online marketplace app is complex, but the functionality is efficient of catering to the several requirements of different vendors.
2. Revenue
Being a marketplace owner, one has to select from a revenue model which best fits the market niche and is aligned with their business goals. It’s about how the market owners derive the revenue determines the success of their platforms. We have the most common monetization, models like subscription, advertising, the listing fees, lead generation fees, etc. however, we have several monetization models, but in the beginning, it is advisable to use just one.
3. Automation
In the Marketplace, the primary source of income is always the commission it receives from the sales and needs business process automation. Here, there are no requirements of any paperwork, as automatically everything is being done within the platform.
4. Value Proposition
The major benefit of having a marketplace is that the companies get the chance to handle all their supplies, avoiding the need to make the initial investments in the physical store. The suppliers can also create business ratings and review cards from the customer, as it helps their customer to make much-informed decisions. To grab the attention of the product and the service providers and also of the customers, a marketplace can offer a lower fee, an ultimate user experience, great earnings and a safe app environment.
5. Scalable Business Model
Marketplace requires a lesser financial risk as compared to an eCommerce store. For instance, it’s safe because there’s no need for an initial investment in the inventory. The market place expands constantly and quickly. Thus, the business owner only needs to focus on the supply and demand variations. Herein, high-quality vendors attract more customers and ultimately an expanding customer base draws more vendors.
6. Customer Interest
A marketplace brings a huge number of offers from a number of service providers. And of course, the customers would tend to use a mobile which offers a wide range of offers so that they can pick exactly what they need. That too without having to limit their choice to a single seller and service provider.
7. Analysis
The app allows the marketplace owners, to keep a track of their sales, with accurate metrics, for instance, the owner will be able to see which products and the services have higher demands, and which vendor is being preferred most by the customers. Ultimately, the owners would be able to promote the goods and the services that are of high importance to the users.
Advanced Features of Apps Like Letgo
- Social sign-up/Login- This feature helps the user to register and login into the app with their social account credentials.
- Personalization- This is a useful feature for a marketplace app. As it displays the personalised content to the users each time they open the app.
- Product and Price Comparison- Many users compare the product features and the prices before they buy a product, thus, this comparison helps the users to select the product within their prefered price range.
- Manage warehouse- This functionality is integrated into the app, so that the product, that are already sold out from the warehouse, doesn’t display in the app. So, this functionality syncs the app with the warehouse and automatically removes items on the marketplace from the “display product section” that is not available at the warehouse and informs the admin about the same.
- Auto-tax calculation- This feature helps you in auto-calculating the tax on the cart and displays it to the buyers along with the complete payment to be made.
- Multi-currency and language support- Herein, the users can make payments in the desired currency as well as in the prefered language in order to use the app conveniently.
- Analytics and reporting- This functionality is useful for the admin of the app, as the admin keeps the track activities within the app.
- Loyalty programmes- It is essential for every business owners to hold on loyal customers, therefore, gifting vouchers, and special offers, deals can be ideal to send them time to time. This is a wonderful way to show them that you care about their loyalty.
- Shipment tracking- In a buy and sell marketplace app, it’s great to have this feature, through this functionality, it is easier for all the parties to track the shipments.
- Cloud environment- The integration of this feature in the marketplace app or web platform increases your app’s visibility and provide new opportunities with around 100 million active users.
- Built-in camera- This feature helps to take a picture from within the app and upload them. This way sellers can display products easily in the app.
- Built-in chat- Built-in chat helps the buyers, sellers as well as customers to converse with one another within the app about the deals, offers, products and services.
How does the Marketplace app work?
In general, as we all know a marketplace mobile app comprises of two types of consumers, the buyers and the sellers. So, in the case of the sellers, they need to simply register into the app, and after the registration process, they can create the account, display the products and start selling. But when it comes to buyers, the process is pretty easier for them, they register in the app, using social network credentials, and then they can get started like browsing the products, searching specific products and services and can seamlessly use the app according to the requirements. Once they are convinced to buy the product according to their requirements, they can add them to the cart and move to the payment section and can make payments easily. And once the transaction is approved, they receive an order confirmation via SMS or on their e-mail (according to the details provided by them during the registration process) and within a few hours of the day, users receive the shipping details through which they can track their orders.
Present Market Leaders In The Segment
There are many big players and have proved their mettle in the domain of online marketplaces. Let’s talk about them- The worldwide renowned marketplace platform, sells absolutely everything, starting from clothing, home decor, kitchen essentials, accessories, and many more. The platform sells everything virtually one can imagine and operates in many parts of the world but most popular in North America, Europe and Asia. Now, this one is the oldest marketplace platform. Started in the mid-90s serving to the users who like to shop online, since. Began with the regular marketplace, later added to sell personal used items also help auctions from time to time including renting accommodations. eBay, even today tends to be one of the most successful marketplaces out there.
An Asain platform, that functions on the same line as Amazon. Many of us haven’t heard the name, Aliexpress started off as the BRB project, and later it also developed as a P2P platform, the product price is cheaper that grabs the attention of the buyers from all over the world. Therefore, tends to be among the most popular marketplace platforms.
When it comes to Etsy, their way of handling things is a lot different from Amazon and Aliexpress. Here, they operate with handmade and vintage products, and some products are uniquely manufactured.
This makes Etsy different from others, that enjoys immense popularity among the buyers who just love unique stuff.
Read More: Discover how partnering with a P2P lending platform development company can revolutionize your fintech business by streamlining lending processes and enhancing user experiences.
Required Technology Stack
- Mobile-platform- Android, iOS
- Web- .Net, PHP, JS, etc.
- Push Notifications- Twilio, Push.io
- SMS, voice and phone verification- Twilio, Nexmo
- Payment- Braintree, PayPal, EWallets
- Cloud Environment- AWS, Google, Azure
- Real-time Analytics- Hadoop, Spark Streaming, BigData, Apache Flink, IBM Streams
Required Team Structure For Marketplace App
The marketplace app development team needs the following professionals:
- Project Manager
- iOS Developer
- Android Developer
- UI/UX Developer
- Back-end Developers
- Quality analysts Experts
How Much Does It Cost To Create A Buy And Sell Marketplace App Like Letgo?
The cost of mobile app development depends upon multiple aspects. These include:
1. Features being implemented
2. Number of system users
3. Complexity of the features
4.Technology being used
5. Third-party sources being utilized and a lot more.
However, with a brief idea what a client expects from us, we can help you calculate the time as well as cost to build a mobile application, accurately.
Conclusion
We have mentioned some of the important business considerations, basic features, recommended features, estimated cost as well as the tech stack for developing the best online buy and sell marketplace app. So, It is high time that you let go of your doubts and start planning to build an amazing marketplace app for your business. We are an custom marketplace development company known for our interactive websites and performance-driven apps. We are happy to solve any query or doubt regarding how to make a shopping app.
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