B2B Marketplace Development
Developing of the b2b sales market is constantly increasing its rates. More and more people consider it the perfect place for services and goods exchange. The number of offers is higher every new day.
Such popularity is not a coincidence, it is actually the result of massive sums of money rotating in this field. A well-thought strategy of using modern resources, including peering markets such as Etsy, Amazon, eBay, etc., is going to make the overall volume of 355 milliard dollars in the year 2025.
How To Create Online Marketplace Website
Following just a few simple but effective recommendations will allow you to start your very own project in no time!
Investigating the Basics of Business Building
But you can’t get and build a marketplace platform is you don’t do a meticulous market analysis with the following essential elements:
- Structural consistency of the proposition — first things first, you need to check if the software you are planning on manufacturing does have demand on the market at the moment;
- Concurrency — Look up the current players and leaders on the market you are interested in. The number of people selling the same programs you do, their strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps, you should first narrow down the range of services you want to provide your clients with (For example, Amazon started off from selling books) or release a trial version of the product to test it in the real environment and then do the adjustments in the process (Etsy was released in three months and then was developing for the following 13 years);
- Forming the target audience — You got to understand the type of end clients you want to attract, their interests, likes, and dislikes;
- Marketing plan — You need a plan if you want to get anywhere. Product development and moving further in the market, influence your clients by implementing targeting advertising and so on.
Affirming the Concept, Market Analysis, Creating a Marketplace Website
If you want to avoid any potential unnecessary mistakes and unneeded expenses during along the way, you just have to do the research. For maximizing the reliability of the results, to make it as unbiased as possible, you have to conduct it among random consumers. Exclude any relatives, friends, acquaintances, and business partners from the statistics. The following questions are absolute must-have on your list:
- Willing and frequency to use your product;
- The feedback you get from the clients, whether it is positive or negative;
- The experience your clients have in the software they are using;
- Dependancy on the outside factors;
- How large the market is.
Planning Out the Project, Arranging the Basic Requirements to Make It Happen
Online marketplace app development just has to have the planning stage where you lay down your idea and figure out the way to make it work. What will come out of it depends mostly on the company developing the potential product. It can have the following aspects:
- The list of requirements (functional and technical) to the project;
- Market analysis;
- Preview version of the program based on the technical task and specifications;
- Cost of creating an online marketplace in terms of time and finance (design, management, developing, etc).
Creating MVP, the List of Basic Functions
Any marketplace just has to have the two following essential elements:
1. Admin panel that is hidden from a regular user, that will allow you to analyze the functionality of the platform: registration process, regulating the balance, assortment, payments, commissions, etc.
2. User panel that is visible to the visitors. Its diversity should depend on the specifics of the business you are engaged in and the strategy of marketing development. The next point is absolutely required:
- Registration form;
- User profile adjustment;
- Signing in, assistance service;
- Navigation system;
- The convenient interface of ordering, payment, and delivery of a product;
- Reviews of the clients, product ratings;
- The ability to scale.
Choosing the Members for the Future Team if Planning the Project from Scratch
It should be easy enough to build marketplace app if you have the following specialists in your team:
- A project manager who can understand all the aspects of the market and manage the entire company;
- Developers, including the front-end and back-end ones in case of building the whole thing from scratch;
- UI/UX designers;
- QA engineers.
Calculating the Final Budget for the Marketplace Project
In the process of development marketplace, you should have the eventual cost of the project planned out as well. It can vary depending on the range of products, the number of functions the marketplace has, the expenses on the developers. The cost of the basic suite is about 80 thousand dollars on average. If you plan the project to get on a global scale, with a large number of additional functions and options, the ability to expand as much as you want in the future — the price will rise accordingly, it can get twice or more as expensive. But if you know what you are doing, that should not scare you.
The mobile app is a little bit easier to develop and it costs around 60 thousand dollars on average. But, of course, the price mostly depends on the functionality.
Developing a Marketing Strategy
Decent suppliers and providers mean more satisfied clients who will eventually attract even more clients to your business; this, in turn, will help you develop your partner base — this is how the idea cycle of the platform goes. But before you can make it work like a clock, you should choose the right channels and steps to growth, these must include:
- Brainstorming the team for any unique and unconventional ideas;
- Searching for the most perspective concepts;
- Choosing the optimal one;
- Analyzing the gathered results. Possible alteration of the tactics and strategy;
- Developing the platform with the help of your customers. Enhancements and adjustments based on the feedback from the clients.
Cost of Creating an Online Marketplace
The basic price of a decent online marketing platform is drawn out by comparing the two possible scenarios of the realization of the project.
The First One is Buying a Complete Platform
Despite being the simplest option with minimal investments on the start, it does have some pitfalls in the further process of development:
- The difficulty of use, and sometimes even inaccessibility of certain functions necessary for your particular business type;
- Expanding problems;
- The difficulty of processing the large numbers of requests from the clients;
- The high possibility to be left among the unsuccessful ones, to become one of the countless businesses that couldn’t make it.
The Second One is to Create the Whole Thing From Scratch
This method is much more difficult in terms of the amount of work you will have to put into developing such a project, the amount of money you will have to put into it. But the advantages of this method are apparent and attractive, they include — personalization of your project and the ability to get exactly the functions you need to get the business going. The financial side of the deal depends mostly on the following aspects:
- The time required for developing a website, which will, in turn, depend on the functionality and design requirements you have to it.
HOURS Functionality Back-end Front-end Design PM Sum Authentification, roles 40 30 20 10 100 Profile, account settings, payment methods 60 40 40 10 150 Notifications (emails, sms, desktop, mobile) 60 30 20 10 120 Posting a job 80 30 48 16 174 Finding suitable suppliers 60 30 40 16 146 Chat, apply, award a job 80 40 40 16 176 Feedback 30 20 20 8 78 Payments 32 30 20 8 90 Localization setup 20 8 20 8 56 Admin Part 40 10 10 8 68 Total 502 268 278 110 1158
- How much you pay the specialists working on your project. The eventual sum depends not only on the level of professional mastery of the workers but also on the region you are working in because the price can be higher in those places that have higher payment standards.
Web Marketplace MVP Approximate Cost Approximate price Ukraine ($30/hour) $34,740 Europe ($60/hour) $69,480 USA ($80/hour) $92,640
The final sum will be decided once you analyze the situation and calculate all the details and requirements for this specific project. Don’t be surprised if it will significantly differ from the initial investment you were planning on.
Conclusion
The idea of a fast-growing online marketplace with large volumes attracts more and more new players into the marketing business: the suppliers can operatively sell their products, and increase the production rates, while the clients can spend their money on the things they need with optimal prices.
At the same time, this particular marketing method is ruled by the global business basics, which means — it requires the right approach, deep analysis on each and every stage of the operation, searching for the unconventional ways of solving problems, calculating the risks and taking them, etc. The last one is especially important because while elaborating on a project, you should keep in mind not only the current state of things but also have some marketing development strategy for the future, which will also predestinate the size of initial investments.
