Quick Insights: What You Need To Know To Build A Successful Marketplace App In 2021

The success of marketplace apps is non-arguable. There are such huge platforms like Amazon, eBay, Uber, and others.  

You also have an idea and have decided to build a marketplace app. And you are right (maybe) about its success. So how to be sure that your marketplace app idea works.  

But before jumping on to start building your “gonna be a success” marketplace app it is imperative that you know the depth of creating a marketplace app business.

Especially if you are new to this arena, knowing key parts of the process might save a lot of time and investment. And as the saying goes that in today’s world, it is not the person with the idea that succeeds it is the one with great execution. You need to understand the nitty-gritty of marketplace app development.  

Let’s get started.  

What is a marketplace app? 

A marketplace is where people buy and sell stuff. A marketplace app is just that but in your palms. The common examples of the marketplace are eCommerce stores like Amazon and eBay where there are millions of buyers, multiple vendors selling the same stuff and the platform facilitates the transactions.  

The more recent trend in marketplace app development is to provide professionals as a service. The top examples are Upwork, Fiverr and UrbanClap.  

Also Read: Easy Mobile App Ads Monetization Guide 2021

Each new vendor and customer added to the marketplace creates a positive impact on the ecosystem.  

Where are the most potential to create a marketplace?  

To accurately predict what will happen we need to dive into the past.  

The first marketplace app to make it big was Uber in 2009. The simple idea just took an entire industry by storm and has since become a massive success.  

After Uber, other companies like Amazon, eBay and Etsy launched their apps in the early 2010s which now has billion-dollar valuations.  

According to Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm – Andreessen Horowitz the next wave of most successful marketplace apps will be from regulated service industries like healthcare, law, and finance.  

So if you have an app idea to replace intermediates from these industries, you are on the right road.  

Different types of marketplace  

Generally, when we categorize marketplaces we tend towards what is the commodity being traded. For marketplace apps, we can divide based on other criteria as well.  

1. Commodity  

• Physical goods – Amazon, eBay 
• Services – Urbanclap 
• Staffing/Hiring – Fiverr, Upwork  

2. Structure 

• market place – Airbnb  
• Market network – Pared 

3. Participants

• Two-sided – Uber 
• Multi-sided – Doordash 

4. Audience 

• B2B – Dial4Trade 
• B2C – Instacart 
• C2C – Letgo 

Now let’s talk about the development process. 

Features  

The exact stack of features for a marketplace app depends on the core service, product or commodity you are offering.  

For an online eCommerce marketplace, there are primarily two parts – a customers profile to buy products using a shopping cart and an admin panel to manage users.  

Also Read: Top 10 User Design Strategies Of 2021 To Reduce Bounce Rate

Although this sounds easy, building a marketplace app is a massive undertaking. One quick hack to build the feature collection you want is to use off the shelf components.  

Now let’s see what are the technology requirements you will need to build the desired features.  

Technology stack  

As we discussed that the basic feature of marketplace apps is to create two-sided platforms one for buyers and the other for admin. You can choose any combination of technology to build a marketplace app as long as it can handle large databases, thousands of users in a day and is scalable.  

To build a marketplace app, eCommerce platforms capabilities might not be enough. If you are looking for detailed functions with top performance, you can hire dedicated developers to build the app from the ground up.  

Here at Imenso, we love to use React Native to build mobile apps for Android and iOS and React.js/Node.js for web application development. Here is a stack of different APIs and SDKs we use to build different parts of the marketplace app:  

• Authentication: Google, Apple IChat: Twilio, SendBird 
• Mapping: Google Maps, Apple Maps, Mapbox 
• Payments: Stripe, PayPal, RazorPay 
• Back-end: Firebase 

For more details you can contact our expert developers, we would love to help you out.  

How much does it cost to make a marketplace app? 

To quote the exact price of marketplace app development is difficult. It depends on many factors including which operating system it is being built for (android, iOS or hybrid development), what is the size and complexity of the app and where the marketplace app development company is located. For different countries the hourly rate of development changes.  

• For US marketplace development company – $80 – $200 / hour 
• For UK marketplace development company – €50 – €150 / hour 
• For India marketplace development company – $20 – $100 / hour  

After adding the overhead expenses and approximate time taken for building marketplace app can be within $5000 – $50000.  

Important things you can’t miss while marketplace app development  

1. Engage the users and sellers simultaneously  

One major sore point for marketplace app developers is the classic chicken or egg situation. As a marketplace app owner, you need the supply and the demand to fulfill the supply. You need to entice the users and sellers at the same time. 

For a food delivery app, you need to show customers that restaurants are delivering their orders and to get restaurants to sign up you need to show that there are already customers using the app. So how do you pull this off? Rather than exhausting your entire budget on hiring a growth expert, there are measures you can take within the app.  

Hacks: 

1. Make it ultra-easy to share the app 
2. Use referral programs and provide benefits for sharing  
3. Integrate API to get promotions from other highly used platforms  

2. Make a prototype and validate your idea  

The right way to win is to learn from the users themselves. Take it from the Airbnb founders and create your MVP to launch it quickly and take users feedback. You don’t want to spend the entire budget on software development to find out that no one is interested in using it.  

Also Read: Best Web Development Frameworks In 2019

Getting that initial traction on the app is the best way to validate your marketplace app idea.  

Another benefit of launching the MVP is that you can talk to users, track their behavior and figure out what are some additional features which can be added to customize the marketplace as per your users. You can learn about the market and develop the app at the same time.  

3. Start engaging with users even before launch  

The last thing you must know about the marketplace app ecosystem is to interact with your customers even before the platform is ready. You should gain more insights into their specific needs and a problem so that the app turns out to be a perfect solution and brings the required value.  

This blog post was a quick introduction to the world of marketplace app crafting. We are sure you have many more questions and we are here for them. Just talk to our experts. And if you need more development or design inspiration check out our previous work samples we have built for our clients.