To Begin With
The marketplace technology entered this era not long ago and has been growing ever since. However, countless businesses and eCommerce platforms build marketplace apps to magnify their customers along with profits. A marketplace app development company has the potentials to help you create a top-notch mobile app for your eCommerce marketplace.
Also, these platforms help merchants to transform their eCommerce stores into marketplaces and allows them to display distinct brands within one place – all done online.
1 – Build Marketplace MVP
Before you start building your existing eCommerce marketplace app, ensure to start with MVP (Minimum Viable Product). Because it helps estimate your approximate cost of marketplace development. Not to mention this is popularly known as a lean startup technique.
Let’s highlight the words of Eric Ries about MVP – “ the minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.”
Observing Eric Reis’s definition of MVP can give us a true understanding of its significance.
This can be an online eCommerce marketplace with all the features necessary to refuge users’ primary requirements. However, extended functions are embedded later on. This technique allows you to put your marketplace out there before the customary time, also lets you adopt user feedback and implement it gradually in your marketplace app. Plus, building an MVP ensures you no add-on features and minimum costs.
Some Takeaways:
You should not overlook the inevitable features of a multi-vendor online marketplace in your marketplace app.
Having a feedback section in your marketplace app help you notice the users review.
Make sure to implement users review in your marketplace app steadily.
Another essential feature that should be added to your MVP costs: built-in translations’ for various customers.
Add unique ideas to your MVP budget.
2 – Research Stage Costs
Building an online multi-seller marketplace needs research on various fields in the market itself. Let alone other technological platforms. Especially few core elements must be researched thoroughly: a multi-vendor marketplace key idea and value; potential customer and vendors’ expectations and requirements; whole market and competitors. However, such kind of research needs an extensive amount of time.
In addition, research costs rest on the depth of research, region, and other boundaries such as mobile phone interviews, mail surveys, and focus group interviews.
Rough Estimation of Research Costs:
Market research: $100 – $30,000
Focus group interviews for a group of eight-person: $6,000
Interviews per person: $300
Phone interviews per phone: $25
Potential customers and vendors’ research: $1500
Then again, these prices are roughly estimated can be reduced by utilizing some technical methods.
How to reduce research costs?
Instead of appointing a survey company, you can hire a professional freelancer with upheld expertise and skills. Using self-service research platforms since they have all the data you require for research analysis. You can use survey platforms and survey apps to reduce research costs. More importantly, conduct a survey yourself; this sure can reduce the hiring cost for what it’s worth.
3 – Technical Stack
A technical stack is the blend of technologies used to build or run its app or project. With that being said, it helps the multi-vendor marketplace system functions smoothly and effortlessly. A technical platform that enables functionalities and adds value to your multi-vendor marketplace to offer a client the best impact and optimum services.
Keep in mind your idea and potential user requirement while defining your MVP’s technical stack features.
A multi-vendor CMS Platform
The top features of a multi-vendor marketplace help clients find and buy stuff with no trouble, support online sellers to manage their services and other catalogs and help the admin manage ongoing courses and transactions.
To list them (top features) out:
Search engine: enables users to find goods with the least effort.
Reviews and ratings: to help users make confident purchasing decisions.
Responsive design: seamless design and allow the users to access your marketplace app on various devices responsively.
Inventories checking: to enable users to control suppliers’ content quality.
Checkout tools: useful payment features to offer users smooth gateways and card security as well.
There happens to exist many types of marketplaces, and the following costs can distinguish that:
A pre-packaged solution
It can comprise the essential features in an initial stage if envisioned, especially for an online multi-store marketplace.
Multipurpose platform
It is essential to build various gears from scratch that initiates added expenses while most basic features can be included in the early stage of development.
Built-from-scratch platform
Here you have the liberty with concern to features – you can add any features, although it’s essential to create all the basic components from scratch also. Not to mention these essential features are already embedded in a pre-packaged solution discussed above.
The basic features from scratch
User interface along with user experience design
Front-end and back-end programming
Quality assurance by automation and manual testing
Integration of payment gateway
Responsive design – should run smoothly and be user-friendly on every device.
Provided that, all those steps fetch extra costs and are very time-consuming to execute.
Domain
From the technical stack, the domain is also part of a multi-vendor marketplace. For instance, Amazon.com is a widely popular multi-vendor marketplace, with a cool name – amazon.com. First, however, choosing a refreshing and striking domain name for your multi-vendor marketplace. A domain name can cost around $10 yearly.
Hosting
Hosting affects the speed of online multi-seller marketplace processes and page loading. Therefore, this element from the technical stack can also improve your app if done correctly. Besides, hosting may cost around for a small marketplace $10 monthly. Yet, it may cost hundreds of dollars monthly based on your online marketplace app’s size, user traffic, and complexity.
Security
Ensuring security in your online multi-vendor marketplace is highly essential. Security is another bonus of the technical stack that provides payment security gateways and user’s financial data protection. This section also ensures security certificates and backups.
The cost of security
Security certificate: $10 – $500 yearly
Backups: $10 -$40 monthly
4 – Acquisition and Marketing
This is the part of strategizing your MVP multi-vendor marketplace short running period. This is the stage you use effective marketing and user acquisition tactic to ensure marketplace app withstand in the long term. It involves free methods as well, not to mention they can bring significant outcomes.
This is the part you
Define your market format
Address customers’ requirements in your marketplace app
Build a flawless understanding of your consumers
Benefit from marketing strategies
Costs
Logo: $300 – $500 or may increase even further
Stock images: free – if you use free image platforms
Active sellers’ community: free
Blogging – $40 – $70, if you hire technical writers
You can find some added budgets required to create a blogging tool from scratch.
Email-marketing
It can be free, or this would cost you around $50 – $70 if you develop a different theme. Likewise, if you take the pre-packaged solution, you would have an email marketing strategy in the initial pricing. On the other hand, such integration adds additional cost for multipurpose and built-from-scratch platforms.
SEO-tool
When you want your multi-vendor marketplace app to be more visible than all you need is SEO. It stands for Search Engine Optimization, focuses on your marketplace app presence in search results on famous search engines. Pre-packaged cost you around $40 for extra SEO implementations otherwise free. For the built-from-scratch platform, additional costs may apply.
How To Reduce Costs?
Nothing makes your idea more fascinating to local media than launching locally. Not to mention which further grab hold of the potential audience focus to your multi-vendor marketplace with the support of district press and media for free. Or you can choose a CMS tool that should contain a fairly enough amount of marketing tools in your multi-vendor marketplace in earlier stages.
That’s an option as well – you can use advertising tools on your own and save advertising costs.
5 – Full-scale Multi-Vendor Online Marketplace
For running a full-scale multi-vendor online marketplace, the outlays vary significantly. It covers areas where you can imagine a more significant portion of costs. However, the price can be proportioned to your budget if you learn some tools for now and hire a guy after it starts to make money.
The more significant part of costs
Additional features
Infrastructure
Platform Maintenance
Security
Tip to Minimize Costs
You can work on a freelance basis for a while rather than launching a full-scale infrastructure from the start.
Use tech support when using pre-packaged or multipurpose cms – It’s always cheaper than hiring a developer.
Use pickup point services rather than creating your pricey delivery system, but under the rules of multi-vendor marketplace concepts.
You should launch a responsive app rather than build mobile apps; developing mobile apps for each platform can cost you more.
Choose free or comparatively inexpensive tools to convert organic traffic efficiently.
The End
At this point, all those points discussed aforementioned in this blog help your top-notch e-commerce marketplace platform with a minimum budget. The trend in online eCommerce marketplace platforms is paving its way to outgrow its current run.
Above all, it’s not an easy job to build an effective online eCommerce marketplace app. But then again, following the steps and tips mentioned in this article above will unquestionably add value to your marketplace.