Create a Marketplace: Comprehensive Guide

What is an online marketplace?

A marketplace is an online platform in which multiple third-party sellers present their products or services to end customers. The purpose of the marketplace is to connect buyers and merchants as well as facilitating transactions between them for purchases. Building such platforms requires efficient web development services to guarantee flawless functionality and an easy-to-use interface.

Marketplace website development has been a hot topic of discussion among business owners for many years since running such operations does not require to hold any actual goods or items. Aside from building a website, a marketplace can be a web application and/or a mobile application to broaden the scope of reach of potential users on each side.

In many ways, a marketplace platform replaces the traditional supermarket operating on a very similar model in which one place features many vendors’ products. Although online marketplaces have been around and popular for more than a decade now, there was an unmistakable surge of interest in them during the global pandemic with the demand remaining to this day.

So, where does this marketplace niche currently stand? To put this into perspective, as of the first quarter of 2024, Amazon generated total net sales of over £107,38 billion which is on £12 billion more than they generated in the same quarter last year. This goes to show that the consumer demand is certainly there as well as exponential growth and opportunity.

The only question that currently stands is how can a newly emerged marketplace business compete with industry giants such as Etsy, eBay, Airbnb, and many others? Well, the answer is tricky, and as you may have noticed, the mentioned platforms all carry different purposes, operate on individual business models, and have unique approaches to making money.

In our next sections, we will go over the many intricacies of making a marketplace website which will help you find the right footing in the niche and make informed decisions to reap maximum benefits from this type of site.

Types of online marketplaces

In order to paint a clearer picture of what a marketplace can be before you jump into making one yourself, we need to assess what types of such websites exist first. Here are some of the most widespread models to know about:

• B2B. Direct sales by businesses to other businesses are not a novel concept. One notable representative organization that uses this model is ThomasNet.
• B2C. This refers to a business-to-consumer transaction where building marketplaces relies upon connecting businesses with end customers and selling to each individual user. Amazon, launched in 1995, is a prime example, pushed to grow online commerce into a £784.580 trillion sector by 2024.
• C2C. Here, people trade goods with one another, frequently using auction elements. eBay, a now-dominant firm, popularized it when it was launched in 1995 to make room for customers to auction their things anywhere in the world.
• Rental. Websites like Booking.com and Airbnb are used to rent out properties. Thus, when it began operating in 2008, Airbnb revolutionized tourism with its access to millions of short-term rental options worldwide.
• Employment. Since 2015, job portals, such as Upwork, have changed the global job search and offering process by bridging the gap between employers and employees.
• Wholesale. Using this strategy, you can get in quantity for less money. This industry is dominated by giants like Alibaba and DHgate, with Alibaba alone bringing in £25.134 billion in sales in 2024.

As you can see, one specific marketplace can fall under more than one category which means your options are particularly vast. Choosing a specific model of operation will be generally dependant on the goals you are seeking to accomplish.

Why do you need to create a marketplace?

There could be a plethora of reasons why business owners decide to launch their own marketplaces aside from it being an attractive opportunity. For existing retail stores, it can be a way to scale the corporation and attract larger audiences to their product by being featured as a leading vendor amongst other sellers in different sectors.

On the other hand for entrepreneurs without an e-commerce store, the capability to create your own online marketplace opens the prospect for increased revenue flows. There are a multitude of ways to monetize such a business and have a consistent and substantial profit from commissions and payments.

Into the bargain goes the attraction of reduced risks when operating due to the fact that the owner is not required to hold any actual inventory to start an online marketplace which leads them to remain only as a manager of the platform.

Last but not least compelling advantage is the potential for a safe exit in case the platform is no longer in the interest of stakeholders for whatever reason. A marketplace with an established name and a full base of an audience can become an attractive sales opportunity to other interested parties in the industry.

How to build an online marketplace website?

The key to the success of your future marketplace website lies in making sure what you want to create actually has a demand in the industry and can fill the current gaps, introducing something new and useful. After all, if you build another Amazon or eBay platform, you are unlikely to attract users as you fail to solve their problems — they are already solved.

This means you need a strategic thinking approach to find areas that can either be improved with your website or open new opportunities for customers completely. If you lack such ideas at this point, consulting diverse and experienced business analysts can be of great help. In case you already know what you want to craft — half the battle is won.

When you develop a marketplace website you need a solid development team by your side that has sufficient expertise in delivering similar solutions.

With that out of the way, the typical process you can expect to go through to bring to life your marketplace will look something like this:

• Start by identifying market gaps you can fill with your solution.
• Choose the type of marketplace that suits your and your niche’s needs.
• Document your requirements for website development.
• Select a development provider that meets your expectations.
• Allow the team to conduct market and user research to validate ideas.
• Create and test the UI and UX design of the marketplace.
• Consider building an MVP first to gather feedback from real users.
• If MVP is successful, move to fully fledged development of functionality.
• Let the technical team conduct extensive quality assurance testing.
• Launch your marketplace and focus on support and maintenance.

After you build marketplace platform your priority becomes sustaining it and keeping it afloat throughout the years. Growing a loyal net of customers on either side is undoubtedly hard work which requires putting effort into strategic marketing and advertising as well as implementing incentives that make your users want to come back again.

Still, those aspects are an entirely different conversation and what you do need to keep in mind is that sustaining efforts are going to be easier by a mile with a solid foundation of a market-fit solution and trustworthy technical specialists by your side.

Create a marketplace website that attracts sellers and buyers

The main way to start with a good working setup for a marketplace is to have a plan for the recruiting of both the sellers and the buyers. Here’s how to achieve that:

Attracting sellers:

1. Comprehensive tools. During the development stage, pay attention to crafting features aimed at making the lives of merchants easier, such as inventory and order management, analytics, messaging systems and so on.
2. Affordable entry. As you are growing and building marketplace platform, you should provide lower entry fees such as reduced rates of subscriptions or memberships for the first month of joining.
3. Promotion opportunities. Integrate built-in SEO options so that the sellers can attract natural traffic and obtain a higher ranking in the search engine results.

Attracting buyers:

1. Сustomer experience. Your marketplace should be easy to navigate, exciting to look at as well as cover users’ needs like competent customer support, various payment methods, etc.
2. Product variety. Once you have a solid base of sellers on your platform, consumers will be intrigued by a multitude of choices to pick from and even compare competitive pricings if you include such a feature.
3. Advertisement and marketing are unlikely a practice you will avoid and should be should be factored into your strategy as you aim to create your own marketplace. It is a tried-and-true method that brings tangible results if applied properly and professionally to reach a wide pool of potential users and get your name out there.

Using these tips you are sure to find success in bringing a large audience on board from either side.

Features required for marketplace creation

Touching on the point of the necessary features and functionality of a well-built platform for a marketplace you need to have a precise understanding that they are numerous. It can be a lengthy list if we include every single thing you have to implement for a properly operational website.

In order to make this subject 100% complete, you need to partner with a reliable development company and establish a full plan of action for your solution. For now, we can overview the five essential features your marketplace can’t go without.

• Clear product pages. If you want to know how to start online marketplace then you should definitely prioritize complete yet easy to follow product pages as customers are going to be spending a lot of time there. The interface should not be distracting from the main points of the description and has to feature high-quality imagery so that buyers can scrutinize the item in detail.
• User-friendly navigation. Marketplaces are like large stores where it can be easy to get lost in the abundance of choices. Focus on creating an intuitive information architecture that separates content into logical categories as well as develop navigation through a fully functional search bar, preferably with autocomplete sentences to maximize the experience.
• Rating system. The ability to rate the sellers and the individual products is a great way to build a rating system that lets other customers know how reliable or, conversely, unpreferred a certain merchant is. Typically, it presents as a 1 to 5 star rating with a comment section which lets users detail their experience. Be sure to add the ability for buyers to post pictures of the products since customer generated content is proven to be effective.
• Price comparing. Including a feature that makes it feasible for price comparison is one way to establish a competitive market. Think about creating software that compiles costs for a given product from several vendors and presents them in a particular feature so consumers can select the most economical choice.
• Checkout without registration. This functionality is especially valuable for buyers who are using your website for the first time and are not yet convinced to sign up. You can offer a so-called guest checkout that lets them add items to the cart, enter their personal information and checkout without becoming a part of the platform.

Remember that these are only the basics of a good marketplace platform and only scratch the surface of the variety of features you are going to develop. For example, other ones you need to keep in mind are mobile responsiveness, accessibility, customer support, etc.

What are the prices for creating an online marketplace?

The price of developing any kind of website or software is notoriously hard to predict without taking a look into the requirements of the project first. This is due to the fact that the total cost depends on a wide variety of aspects a lot of which you are able to control.

The most influencing factor is, of course, the scope of work that needs to be done to deliver the entire solution from strategy to deployment. For example, if you want to opt for a completely custom user interface and user experience design it is going to cost more as opposed to choosing pre-made templates and existing UI kits to create online marketplace website.

The same goes for the development of the main and secondary functionalities since you can either choose no-code practices and website builders or go with bespoke web development. In contrast, each of the options can be drastically different in their pricing. Payment integrations and other features can further influence the final quote based on how complex and extensive they are.

The decision to construct an MVP (minimum viable product) as your initial release to the market will ultimately come up, determining if you work with a development partner or employ an internal team. In order to test your idea with actual people and determine the market need before moving forward with a fully fledged development, this refers to constructing a web solution with just the essential and core features.

On the one hand, this option can save your money on investment initially and is generally a fool-proof method of how to start a marketplace. While on the other hand, you need to keep in mind that the development of an MVP is an additional spending on the entire project.

Regardless of the road you choose, you have to be mindful of your budget and pick development providers that fit you in terms of costs. Choosing between lower-end, boutique or higher-end web development companies in the UK can be a determining factor in whether you spend £20,000 to £50,000 for a custom marketplace or be willing to hand out £100,000+ for your project.

Issues that may arise while developing a marketplace website

It is not a surprise for anyone that starting any business carries its own set of risks and challenges. In order to be robust in overcoming such issues and even see them before they come, you have to familiarize yourself with the pitfalls that can lie ahead. So, here are the three most common difficulties you need to be aware of:

1. Responsibility for controlling the quality.

No matter how you spin it, if you are determined to create marketplace website that will truly be successful and not wishy-washy then overseeing and controlling the quality of the products sold on the platform as well as the sellers themselves is a must in your book. If that standard fails to be met, you are unlikely to accumulate customers.

A good practice involves checking the potential businesses who want to sell their items on your website to see whether their products are up to the standard and whether the third party is reputable with trustworthy reviews and records.

2. Targeting two different kinds of users.

Since the question of how to build a marketplace and generate an audience is a two-sided battle you will be faced with the challenge of attracting contrasting types of users — merchants and buyers. After all, one cannot run without the other in this kind of business model.

Having a competent team of branding and marketing specialists by your side is an excellent way to mitigate the risks of failing to bring people in. Just like we talked about earlier, there are plenty of ways to get your marketplace’s name out there in an attractive light. Etsy’s recent marketing tool investments have culminated in a 20% rise in seller sales, demonstrating the positive impact of upgraded seller support.

3. Handling logistics and payments.

Shipping and payment processing can feel like navigating through stormy seas on their own. In high-transaction markets, customer satisfaction hinges on getting these right. In order to accommodate your consumers’ demands, you will need to select reputable payment gateways and appropriate shipping partners.

A simple illustration of how well a company like Amazon has nailed this field is by enabling easy ways to pay and prompt shipping. Poor handling of a logistical issue will annoy customers and eventually damage the reputation of your business.

4. Meeting users’ expectations.

This point is not only about how to launch a marketplace but also about maintaining a competitive advantage in the industry and your position in the market. We already mentioned the sheer necessity of finding the right spot to fill in the niche as well as focusing on engaging user experience.

On top of that you have to keep your hand on the pulse for current and emerging trends as the demands of consumers tend to rapidly change and you need to be able to cater to their expectations accordingly and in a prompt fashion. These kinds of focuses may seem trivial but in reality play a significant role in building a legacy out of your business.

5. Managing customer service.

Regardless of the sector or specialty, customer service is the lifeblood of any marketplace. As your platform matures, the volume of questions and complaints will rise, necessitating excellent customer support. Adding chatbots to your website, hiring a knowledgeable support staff along with developing thorough FAQ pages are all practical methods for the enhancement of user experience.

Companies like Zappos have benefited greatly from the realization that providing fast customer service builds customer loyalty and is a surefire way to increase sales since its founding in 1999. Failing to pay attention to this aspect results to dissatisfaction and tarnishing of the credibility of the marketplace.

Looking to make a marketplace website?

Now that you have gotten acquainted with the ins and outs of what it means to launch your own website focused on selling goods or services, you can make informed decisions down the line. With every crucial detail you know so far it won’t pose such a challenge to pick the right type, establish features and take the right steps to start your own online marketplace.

Your greatest tools in this digital age will be inventiveness and agility because customer expectations are constantly changing. Keep in mind that the big players in the business did not get there overnight; rather, their success has been attributed to a thorough understanding of the markets and a dedication to providing value to users.

Reach out to our team of experts and schedule a free consultation for a more in-depth conversation as we are prepared to walk you through the plan for your idea and discuss how