[INFOGRAPHIC] Best Mobile Marketplace Apps in 2020 – What You Need to Do Before Building Your Own
Technologies changed the way of how we shop, make purchasing decisions, and interact with favorite brands. The recent pandemic added even more fuel to the fire, forcing retailers to change their marketing approaches. However, right now we can see a significant increase in e-commerce which took half of retail growth, and this trend will only intensify. The mobile marketplace application is an ideal solution for both creators and buyers and sellers as well, especially in post-pandemic conditions, when the population’s solvency has significantly subsided.
If you want to take advantage of the crisis as a time of opportunity, in this article we are going to explain why you should pay attention to the mobile marketplace application and a list of best mobile marketplaces hot right now.
Table of Contents
What Is a Mobile Marketplace App?
A mobile marketplace app is a solution that slightly reminds the classical e-commerce store but in fact, its functions are not limited to the possibility to buy a chosen item from a brand. Marketplace app connects different sellers within one platform, and buyers, in turn, get more opportunities for choice and comparison without having to jump from one brand’s website to another.
In addition, the mobile solution allows each side of the transaction to constantly stay in touch with each other, and you, as the creator, provide them with this opportunity. For a moderate fee, of course.
Mobile Marketplace Apps by Types
So, before you decide to build a marketplace app, let’s look at their four main types.
- On-demand. The on-demand concept fits the sharing economy and reasonable consumption ideologies well. On-demand marketplaces are trendy since they allow users to connect with each other only when they urgently need it. This is the way how Uber or Booking works.
- Community-driven. The simplest example of such a marketplace is an ad site like Craiglist or Avito. Using these platforms, people can easily exchange goods and services, and they do not need to be business owners for this.
- As the name implies, the SaaS marketplace is a platform where customers can buy SaaS software directly or make an informed choice and get redirected to the websites of official developers.
- A decentralized marketplace works on blockchain, and that is why, each user who starts working on the platform, initially agrees with the rules for transactions established by the platform’s developers.
Best Mobile Marketplace Apps in 2020
Marketplace shopping is on the rise, that is why there are a lot of new mobile marketplace apps that satisfy a specific need of users, and big brands are also paying attention to this opportunity. Here are the best mobile marketplace apps in 2020.
Main Reasons to Build a Marketplace App
Should you build a marketplace application? Surely, yes, but only if you have an interesting and already validated idea.
- Secure your business from post-pandemic surprises. A lot of businesses have already regretted that they haven’t paid attention to digital presence before the pandemic. In the case of the next outbreak, you will be able to easily attract retailers who have no budgets to invest in full-fledged online stores and blogs for online stores.
- Reach the audience of active mobile shoppers globally. In fact, nothing prevents your marketplace from going global. Surely, in this case you will need a top-notch approach to development and marketing.
- Give the sellers and buyers one more opportunity to meet each other. You don’t need to have your own goods to sell or service to provide. The only thing you need to provide is a mobile platform to connect buyers and sellers.
- Receive a commission from each transaction while being less responsible than in case of managing an eCommerce store. Managing a marketplace, you are acting as a mediator and shouldn’t be completely responsible for the quality of goods or services.
How Does a Marketplace Make Money
There are three ways to make money with the help of the marketplace. Make sure to consider them before starting to build a marketplace mobile app. As usual, marketplace usage is free for buyers but paid for sellers.
- Transaction fee. For example, this is how Booking works – the company receives a fee from every deal made on the platform.
- Listing fee. This is how eBay works – the sellers are obliged to pay for showing their lists of goods.
- Subscription fee. Sometimes, marketplaces are working according to a subscription model – the seller is obliged to pay a fixed price in advance to start selling his goods on the platform.
What Makes a Marketplace Successful?
According to VersionOne research “Transparency is one of the most effective ways to establish trust and credibility. This can be done with a rating system, user reviews, or testimonials.”
In fact, one of the main laws of marketing and e-commerce is that people continue to believe people. The honest recommendation is one of the strongest motivators for buying. However, unfortunately, a large number of reviews (61% on Amazon) are fake, and users have already begun to understand this.
That is why, one of the keys to the success of the marketplace is trust between users, customers, and the platform through honest and transparent reviews. In the process of creating a mobile application marketplace, you definitely need to create a separate strategy for working with reviews – for example, periodically show bestsellers reviews in your social media profiles, or develop a testimonials carousel.
And by the way, according to statistics, 14% of buyers will choose a marketplace to start working with the brand, and the presence of honest reviews is one of the reasons. Moreover, 37% of buyers will do the same in the event of a second purchase.
Main Features of a Mobile Marketplace App
So, let’s discuss the technical side of the marketplace development and then proceed to the price of its creation. Here are the main features you need to develop. Surely, the set of features and add-ones will directly affect the price for the development, so it is necessary to use the LEAN approach, start from the creation of MVP, test the feedback from the target audience, and only then come up with those features that they really need.
| Multi-vendor support | The more high-quality vendors will be registered on your marketplace, the more profit you may get from their transactions. |
| Multi-product support | One of the best marketplace features is the ability to offer a lot of things in one place. However, there is no need to create a second Amazon. It is better to create a specialized marketplace but allow it to support as many goods from the niche as possible. |
| Sellers and buyers profiles | These are the core features that enable interaction in the marketplace between sellers and buyers. |
| Payment system | As for the payment system, here you need to think about several things at once:
● Integrate your marketplace with the payment systems popular among your buyers (PayPal, Visa, optionally cryptocurrencies) ● Decide on the ways how the money will be transferred to you (we will discuss the possibilities futher) ● Protect the money of your users until the goods are delivered to them, for example, using the escrow system. |
| Advanced marketing features | Surely, this item will increase the cost for the development, however, it may increase your profits as well. For example, you may come up with a recommendation engine, or connect customer demand forecasting in retail systems to find out what sellers you should attract to give users what they want. |
| Spam and fraud protection | The best way to protect your users from spam and fraudulent attempts is to use the data analysis and fraud prevention capabilities of AI and ML. |
Cost to Develop a Mobile Marketplace App
As for the cost of marketplace mobile app development, it may vary significantly because of the different factors. The main ones are the functionality you want to create and the location of the vendor you are going to partner with. In an average, the price may reach $100,000 plus half of the figure for app maintenance and marketing.
So, if there is a necessity to save, you should save reasonably as well. For example, offshore outsourcing to Eastern Europe (to Ukraine, for example) may help you to save up to 60% of your development budget without losing quality and with the possibility to constantly stay in touch with your vendor. In addition, you don’t need to buy a new phone to keep up with the latest apps. Here is a list of things you can do before selling your old mobile phone.
Conclusion
So, mobile marketplace app development can be a good choice for startups. However, you should validate your idea first, make sure your app will be demanded by the market, and get in touch with a reliable development company.
