At present time, an online marketplace is booming like a breeze. Know the critical geeks and information about getting started with online marketplace development in this blog.
Introduction
An online marketplace is of various types and each is distinct from the other in terms of business of nature, business growth, trade escalation, and others.
The online marketplace refers to an e-commerce marketplace where trade activities are carried out between buyer and seller and you can go through web development with Ruby on Rails.
Without walking outdoors to shop or departmental stores, online marketplaces facilitate a virtual shopping experience for the interested commodities with ease of comfort as well as time and money-saving benefits.
For businesses, developing an online marketplace website or an app conveniently offers many benefits, those are –
- Helps in customer acquisition
- Competing vie and brand awareness
- Increased findability
- High user traffic (high conversion)
- Facilitate revenue through digital landscapes
- Sell newly launched products confidently
For participants, they get a host of doors to shop multiple brands’ products under an umbrella factor.
Starting the guide, let’s understand the types of e-Commerce marketplaces available online. Later we also explore the factors that could influence the cost of online marketplace website development.
Also read: 7 Tips For Choosing The Best eCommerce Platform
Types of Online Marketplace
You may have heard of B2B marketplace and B2C marketplace along with vertical and horizontal marketplace activities.
But what are they? What are they representing?
The types of the online marketplace are widely categorized into two models:
1. Business Model
The business model’s classification is critical to define at an earlier stage because it develops the base for the trade escalation process, market penetration level, customer acquisition rate, and more.
An online marketplace based on a business model could be any of the following:
- Vertical: This type of marketplace has characteristics of a particular industry or niche. Majorly, focuses on a specific category of product and service. Think of Airbnb as specializing in short-term rental options.
- Horizontal: This type of marketplace offers a wide range of goods and services from different categories. Amazon, Etsy, and Walmart are examples of this.
- Global: This type of marketplace website was built with the purpose to offer products and services on a global scale. Amazon, AliExpress, and Upwork fall in this category.
2. Participant Model
The following types of models are generally observed and narrated as the standard principle of the online marketplace. Those are –
- B2B Marketplace: Refers to the business-to-business community and hence goods and services are traded between the two business infrastructures.
- B2C Marketplace: Observed as a business-to-consumer e-commerce marketplace where the trade directly goes from businesses to end-user customers.
- P2P Marketplace: It is the most trending marketplace of this time. The model consists of individuals providing products or services that meet other clients or customers. Olx, Uber, and Postmates are good examples of this.
How To Get Started With Online Marketplace Development?
That now we have cleared the types of online marketplaces, let’s curve our learning towards the development of online marketplace websites or apps.
You can conveniently develop websites, apps, or both for your online marketplace business.
There are two possible options to get started with your own online marketplace development. Those are –
1. Ready-Made Solution
Ready-made solution employing “ready-made platform” refers to the pre-built development of marketplaces in the form of versatile and easy-to-edit templates.
These templates are designed, offered, and deployed by communities that have the intent to earn money by charging templates when using them. Pretty much there are free templates available too. You can try those if your budget is squeezed.
Good for:
- Low-budget businesses
- Can’t opt developers for development
- Emergence launch of online marketplace
2. Custom Development
The marketplace is designed, offered, and deployed based on personalized business logic. Here, each fundamental is executed from the scratch so unique experiences could be delivered to the clients or customers.
Good for:
- Large base organization
- Businesses seeking to gain competitive advantages
- One could wait and give a long-time for the development
Also read: How to Build Your Own NFT Marketplace
Factors That Can Affect Cost of Online Marketplace Development
There are a plethora of factors that influence the cost matter subject of online marketplace website development.
Those are briefly discussed below.
I) Choice of marketplace development
Ready-made solutions or custom development have a bigger impact on the cost accrued for the eCommerce marketplace. Typically, custom development costs are higher compared to pre-cooked marketplace development.
However, the scope of modification and alteration as per need is not available when considering off-the-shelf marketplace design.
II) Escalation of features
Both characteristics of “ready-made solution” and “custom development” of online marketplace websites and apps offer intuitive features. On the off chance, marketplace development based on scratch enjoys a higher degree of escalation of features as per need anytime.
The higher the number of features to be developed, the higher the cost would be charged.
III) Development Charges
Various developers or app development companies have unlike charges for online marketplace development. Based on modules, some charge based on hourly rates while some charge on a fixed basis.
Consider your options as per your budget preference and logic.
How Much Does It Cost To Develop An Online Marketplace Website?
Want to know the specific number for online marketplace website development?
To help you with estimation, developing an online marketplace website or an app could cost around $45,000 to $60,000.
It advised you to explore some alternatives before finalizing an agreement with app development firms.
That’s all in this article.
Thanks for reading and I would love to hear your thoughts on online marketplace development.
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