Last updated - December 22, 2022
Contemporary online marketplaces are richer than treasuries in Arabic fairytales. They are teasing visitors with millions of temptations. Not limited by territorial borders and working hours, popular shopping apps bring great profit to their founders. The star examples are Etsy, Amazon, AliExpress, etc. Some of them started as pet projects and resulted in international businesses.
Though this business niche seems overcrowded, there’s always a place for innovative concepts, better services, unique marketing strategies, and so on. In such a light the marketplace app development performed by experts can serve as a springboard to amazing opportunities in the market.
Why is Marketplace App Development Worth Investing?
Apparel, books, tickets, clothes, workshops – the list of goods and services one can acquire via the internet is almost endless. The pandemic restrictions worked like a catalyst for digitizing the retail industry, so the e-commerce industry has demonstrated impressive growth in recent years. For example, in 2021 e-commerce businesses improved their financial results by 22%. Analysts have estimated the volume of revenue in the industry: it reached $3.56 trillion, and their prognosis predicts further increasing in profit in the industry.
While downloads and use of mobile e-commerce apps have increased for two years significantly, it makes sense to consider marketplace app development as a promising business idea. To catch an ascending trend, try to find out where the blind spots in the niche are, which things can be polished, and how you can improve the existing solutions. Since you catch a promising idea on how to satisfy customers better than competitors do, you are in one step from a life-changing marketplace app development.
Features Essential For Marketplace App Development
When we’re talking about a marketplace app, we usually mean a platform that connects buyers and sellers in order to help them exchange money for goods and services. The complexity of the task of
marketplace app development is conditioned by the two types of users. So, when you’re planning this type of app, take into account that in fact, you need two apps: one for buyers, and another for sellers.
So, the set of expected features will differ for various types of apps. The sellers will need specific tools for the presentation of their items and their promotion. The buyers will be extremely interested in a specific functionality, exact searching and comparing similar items, discount programs, etc. But there are some features that are irreplaceable for both sides.
Functionalities Essential For Sellers and Buyers?
Personal Profile
Something like a personal room in the marketplace app where the user can save everything that matters: personal info, preferences, financial data, personal bonuses, etc.
Item Page
The feature that lets sellers present their goods to the marketplace visitors: it contains photos and meticulous descriptions of the items: size, color, quality, quantity, and others.
Catalog and Search Bar
To organize the items in a systemized order, the app requires a catalog – the collection of listings sorted by, for example, purpose, color, brand, and other parameters. But in case the marketplace app contains myriads of goods, the reasonable approach is to implement a search bar. This functionality enables buyers to select filters and makes navigation on the catalog more precise.
Wishlist
The tool equips users with the opportunity to save favorite items in order to return to the list later and select some of them for purchasing. The beneficial part for sellers is linked to the opportunity to inform «subscribers» about discounts and stimulate them to action.
Payment Tools
The more ways to pay for the goods the online store can offer, the higher possibility to conquer customers’ hearts. Debit cards, credit cards, various payment platforms like PayPal, compatibility with GooglePay and ApplePay facilitate increasing the loyalty of potential users to the app.
Since financial information refers to sensitive data, it is actually essential to provide reliable protection for the app. Using two-factor authentication and other tools makes sure the user’s data is secured.
Purchase History
If the goods satisfied customers entirely, they would be likely to be purchased again or on a regular basis. The simplest way to find out which goods and where were purchased is to open a purchase history. As for sellers, this functionality equips them with information on the star goods and outsiders and allows them to correct an assortment.
Reviews
This feature gives buyers a compass in the field where they can easily get lost without users’ hints and advice. Customers often assess purchases in accordance with the important criteria and add the info that the seller didn’t notice. On the opposite side, the sellers can put buyers’ shoes on and see which characteristics of the items can be improved.
Customer Support Chat
Of course, you can’t leave your visitors without a helping hand in a puzzling situation. Thanks to resolving issues on time and effortlessly, you can increase customers loyalty and retention and, respectively, the profitability of the app.
The second point that makes the task of marketplace app development even trickier. It’s a necessity to pay for double work if you’re targeting to achieve iOS and android users simultaneously. But there is a legal way to avoid overspending when it comes to mobile marketplace app development. And we will reveal the chips on how to save the budget and get an excellent product in the next parts of this overview.
Most Effective Ways to Start Marketplace App Development
Freelancer
You have probably heard that the most optimized for your budget way to create an e-commerce app is to hire freelancers. If you are an experienced IT entrepreneur, it can be a fruitful cooperation: you know how to provide compatibility in the team, how to motivate members to do their best, and how to organize effective workflow. It’s necessary to say that working with a distributed team is a sort of art: you have to juggle miscellaneous tasks and arrange meetings with various timeframes. Without specific skills, the task can be exhausting.
In-house Teams
The idea of hiring a team, especially for your project feels captivating. You can take onboard talented people and organize their work in a way you like. But in such a case you have to demonstrate outstanding HR and PM skills and fulfill a range of various functions: accountant, marketer, PR specialist, etc. And, finally, the in-house team can turn out to be a burden if your financial resources are limited and you can’t afford to pay for the sick leaves, vacations, and other benefits of «your own team».
Full Cycle Agencies
The most balanced approach in terms of budget/efficiency is to hire an outsourcing team. You don’t have to overpay for the expenses that aren’t linked to the marketplace app development. But you can enjoy all the benefits that a professionally organized team can offer.
When all work processes are established and your team is fully staffed, positive results are guaranteed. But the most precious thing that you can take from cooperation with an experienced IT agency is their expertise and ability to give you actionable feedback and help in a range of business issues. The experts are able to help you nurse the project from idea birth to delivery to the market.
If you are anxious about saving the details of your project in secret, sign an NDA with the contractor. The reliable partner is always interested in strong business ethics principles and he will never allow sensitive data leakage.
Top 3 Signs You’re Dealing With a Prominent Team
You can feel it like a quest when it comes to selecting a partner who deserves your trust. Let’s create a checklist of requirements that matter when you’re considering a potential contractor for marketplace app development.
Coincidence in Values
is the key to excellent comprehension in the process of cooperation. Check whether your aesthetic tastes, understanding of quality and requirements for workflow organization are similar. In the opposition case, there’s a high risk to stuck in conflicts during the creative process. You can check studios’ portfolios on Behance, read their corporate blog, and find out if your vision of an unsurpassed product is close. If you’re on the same vibe and enjoy their design solutions, the possibility you’ll be satisfied with the results of mutual work is high.
Impressive Troven Track Record
is the obligatory condition for fruitful cooperation. High Net Promoter Score plus other inspiring metrics are usually a result of professionals’ meticulous approach to the task. Since a professional team knows how to create a marketplace app in practice, you can be sure that all the aspects of the task will be taken into account and performed at a top level.
Fully Staffed Team
The only way to exceed the marketplace app development is to organize work with the experts whose expertise covers all the steps in the app creation. UI and UX designers are responsible for a catchy interface and pleasing navigation. Developers provide the app to work flawless and fast. QA engineers discover errors and drawbacks in the product on time and facilitate their fixing before the app will be delivered to the market. Like the conductor in an orchestra, the product manager conducts communication between all members in order to provide the exact performance of plans. The all-around approach enables you to receive a fully working product very fast and with top-rated quality.
Factors Impacting the Cost of Marketplace App Development
In a nutshell, the cost of your project is a multiplication of the number of working hours the experts should devote to the design & development, and quality assurance tasks by their hourly rates.
If you’re targeting at mobile app development, cut costs by choosing React Native platform for the product: IT experts can simultaneously create versions for various devices, and it allows a decrease in project costs by up to 30%.
As for the cost of the marketplace app development, it depends on the complexity of the product (how many features it requires), and the location of the contractor. The average time that the e-commerce mobile app development takes is about 800 hours. If you entrust the task to a US-based agency with hourly rates of $150, the total equals $120,000. But the contractor from Eastern Europe can save your budget, for example.
To Sum Up
To catch an upward trend, don’t pigeonhole your idea of an e-commerce startup. Devote some time to doing market research and find out which similar solutions are popular among customers and why. Think of what can be performed better to get visitors more satisfied. Try to formulate the essential idea of your marketplace app in a few words. Select a trustworthy contractor to discuss the idea with people who have true competence in startup launching. After discussion, you’ll see the path of how to grow your seed into a harvesting plant. Some full-cycle app development offer the first consultation for free: you don’t lose anything but acquire a prospective vision of your product, step by step plan, and some inspiring insights that conduce an app development approved by addresses.
