With 600+ million active users, Amazon and eBay rule the world of the online marketplace. Also, around 1,000,000 new sellers join Amazon every year. These stats show the popularity of online marketplace apps. The development of bespoke marketplace apps has become a major revolution in today’s digital era.
The COVID-19 pandemic has further fueled this unprecedented rise of online marketplaces worldwide. Businesses of every genre and type are looking for marketplace app development as they don’t want to lag behind. When talking about Amazon-like online marketplace development, the most common question that comes to mind is about the cost involved in the process. The expenses include keeping the app not only up and running but also secure and appealing to its users. In the following article, we will discuss the estimated cost of developing an online marketplace app and the factors that affect the cost. But before we get into that, let’s see what a mobile app marketplace is and how to build one.
What is Marketplace Apps?
An online marketplace is an independent platform that connects buyers and sellers directly. For instance, Amazon does not own the products it sells. Instead, the retailers post their products at very small or no fees. And the end-users buy those products as per their needs. Amazon here plays the role of a virtual medium between retailers and buyers.
A mobile marketplace app is developed explicitly for simple, convenient shopping on a device like a smartphone or a tablet.
In the marketplace apps, there are multiple variations – they differ according to the size, the type of products, the way they promote themselves, etc.
Marketplace or Amazon-like applications solve all the different concerns that marketers have with online shopping apps –
As you can see, the different concerns that customers generally have with one-seller online stores are something that has awakened them to realize that they don’t prefer using apps from any single retailer. They are most likely to download an app that offers a greater product range as compared to ones that only deal in limited offerings.
This realization has given birth to a number of marketplace platforms and mobile apps on the internet, such as –
As you can see there are a number of marketplace app categories like business app marketplace, investment marketplace, etc. But the one that we are going to focus on in this article is the goods/products-based marketplace.
Now, before we move on any further into how to create an app like Amazon, let us first look into the sentiments and trends that online shoppers are showing toward online marketing.
*Source*: GoodFirms e-commerce app survey
How to Build a Marketplace App?
The process of mobile marketplace app development rests on a ton of material gathering and examination. It is necessary to assess all risks prior to beginning any project. Getting a hold of or understanding the cycle requests is fundamental to making an effective mobile app.
The expenses related to marketplace app development are principally reliant upon the features you need in the application. Nonetheless, if you want to build a mobile app marketplace like Amazon or eBay, it will require a ton of time, effort, and resources. The good thing is that it is not impossible, you can do it if the correct way is known and understood.
The first thing to do before starting to develop a marketplace is to have a proper structure. The next step is knowing your audience and consumers and based on this information the third step comes up of offering different services. And the fourth step is choosing the right monetization model.
Techniques that Amazon uses in its app
- Amazon app marketplace runs on Linux-based technology with the world’s largest database capacity.
- Customer tracking is one of the significant fortes of Amazon to offer a customized shopping experience to its users.
- Its multi-leveled business procedure allows nearly anybody to sell anything utilizing this platform.
- You should know that the main data warehouse of Amazon consists of 28 HPS.
- Since a great many users used to enter their paying card details into this application, thus, Amazon utilizes Netscape Secure Commerce Server with the SSL convention to offer incredible security.
Now that we have looked into how to build marketplace apps and important techniques used by Amazon, it is time to look into the must-have features that your partnered mCommerce app development company will tell you to include to offer the ultimate experience to the users.
Must-Have Features of Marketplace Apps
Deciding on features for your marketplace app is an essential step that you need to carefully consider as it will determine the future scope of the application. To develop a marketplace app like Amazon successfully, ensure to add the below-given features:
Hassle-Free registration process
Although it sounds extremely easy to achieve, not every marketplace app knows how to design its registration page, still making it the number one reason behind the rising mobile app uninstall count.
Nowadays, with the ease of social media integration by your side, you no longer have to make your app users fill in loads of personal data for registration. All they have to do is enter the app with a few clicks using Facebook or Twitter, or any other social media platform.
The whole idea is to create a marketplace app where the whole registration process is as simple and easy as possible.
Multiple payment options
With different customers come different payment choices. While it is tempting to only have a debit/credit card option, it is important to add multiple payment gateway integrations in the app and offer your customers a range of different payment options so that they feel more empowered to make a choice.
So, you are opting for Amazon-like app development, apart from debit and credit card options, you should offer them other payment choices like Cash on Delivery, and PayPal, amongst others.
Push notification
Push Notifications, as your marketplace app builder would have told you, might be your only way (that actually works) to keep the users hooked on to your marketplace application. The power that comes with reminding the users of what they are missing, when timed right by applying the right push notification strategies, can help define the success of your application. So, it is important to invest in a proper push notification system that would keep users from abandoning your app.
Social media integration
Marketplace apps and social media have been walking hand–in–hand for a very long time now. When we talk about social media integration, we don’t just talk about it from the perspective of one-tap login, but we also include social media in all your marketing processes. This allows the customers to promote their buy and share the referral coupon and discounts to their network for it to then enter into an extended network and eventually in the whole social media domain.
Add to cart
More often than not, the customers are not ready to purchase a product instantly but wish to save it for future purchases. In a scenario like this, they prefer the add-to-cart option wherein they can save the product for future buying.
Ratings and reviews
Reviews and ratings are a must-have when you head for marketplace app development, even if you are just starting with the domain. The feature doesn’t just add an element of trust in the authenticity of your services but also helps the customers make an informed decision while giving you direct insight into things that you have to work upon.
Augmented reality view
The augmented reality feature will allow customers to virtually try products before they make their final decision to buy. Buyers can visualize and try the end number of products and get the final look with AR features. This, in turn, leads to enhanced customer experience and an increase in the customer retention rate.
Live chat support
With this feature, users can easily get connected with the support team and ensure hassle-free communication in case any issue arises. Most first-time buyers face issues with online payments or processing orders, therefore, it’s crucial to add live chat on the app.
Now that we have looked into the must-have features, it is time to take a deep–dive and explore the actuality that when you invest in a marketplace app, you don’t invest in one application but three – User, admin, and seller.
Let us look at what each of those app versions entails –
The features that we just saw are what define the answer to how much a marketplace app costs– something that we will soon be getting into.
But, before we move on to giving you the numeric range of how much Marketplace Development costs, let us first look into the ways you can recover and grow the amount of money you are going to invest.
