An online marketplace is a collective of varying scales of businesses selling a wide variety of products. Sellers upload their products to the online marketplace and subsequently make their products available for sale. Basically, sellers serve as facilitators, in return the business pays a certain amount of money to them, depending on the terms and conditions set by the marketplace administrator.
These kinds of platforms include a technology-based solution that targets at enhancing the trading relationship between companies.
How to start an eCommerce business?
Starting an eCommerce business builds awareness and helps understand what the target market opportunity for the marketplace is. The designing of a marketplace is followed by the implementation of all the available tools and applying them to one single platform.
After a detailed analysis, start with the essential aspects such as looking in the participants’ context, their performance pressure, capabilities, and goals. The software can help the user further to look into gains of convenience, access and general value. The marketplaces are designed for connecting activities and resources from a basic level.
Starting an eCommerce business from scratch and the design process consists of motivation analysis, ecosystem mapping, and learning the process. After establishing the strategy and design of marketplace, the next step is action based strategy building. The customer development leads can assist through the validation phase. Validation phase is known to save money
Genstore is turnkey software that answers the question of how to set up eCommerce business. Genstore is an e-commerce platform builder which is used by several top firms like IBM, Facebook, Google, etc. GenStore is an open source Node.js commerce platform & a multi-vendor e-commerce marketplace build on MEAN stack that has a highly scalable robust eCommerce platform with detailed documentation and quality code.
GenStore has incorporated Facebook messenger bot as well, where the customers want you to be within their Facebook messages. The customers can search for a product, track and place an order and get answers to all their inquiries. With a single click, all this happens inside a Facebook messenger window. However, there is no need for a manual exertion to control or manage these activities. GenStore takes automation to a new level.
Tips to Consider While Creating an Online Marketplace
Keep these tips in your mind while creating a marketplace for your business:
- Gain the basic knowledge about starting an online marketplace:
A basic knowledge about the marketplace helps in starting an eCommerce business. That includes why one needs to build it, why are they booming, etc. Come up with good marketplace ideas for building a successful marketplace business with thousands of users.
Find a marketplace business model that finances its operations with commission, subscription, listing and upfront fee that has featured listings and ads. The online marketplace idea and business model needs to be validated.
- Building a Platform:
Building a platform is all about providing a minimum viable product (MVP) that solves the problem of users and improves the learning process. Copywriting and design matter more, as they clearly communicate the value proposition to users. The online marketplace can only be successful if it facilitates transactions.
- Growing and launching the online marketplace:
Build the initial supply before inviting the customers. Then, learn how to find them and how to make their first experience on the site a success. Once the users are enrolled, focus on healthy marketing and growth.
Trust is the foundation block for every marketplace and this has to be gained between the providers and the customers. Turn the online marketplace into a community, as most great online marketplaces are a thriving community in the marketplace’s niche.
Factors to Look Out While Choosing the Marketplace Software
There are several factors to consider before creating marketplace software and choosing a marketplace platform provider, as it has a huge impact on the strategy, business, and investment that requires a lot of effort.
Some of the factors that help to choose the right marketplace platform are:
- Experience
Before starting an eCommerce business, the experience has to be considered. The more the experience, the better would be the product. Another factor to be taken into consideration is reviews. The experience faced by the other users can also help in choosing the right one.
- Procurement & Billing
The user has to make sure that the marketplace allows to source, provide and procure the infrastructure as software as a service (SaaS), independent software vendors etc. The service should have the ability to set billing rules for the customers to subscription terms and paying systems.
- Administration Capabilities
Make sure the platform has the ability to manage the customers, partners, sales organizations with customized dashboards, reporting tools and worksheets. It has to provide role-based access to several users.
- Growth Opportunities
Make the right choice of a marketplace where there would be an opportunity to become the trusted advisor to your customers. In future, it has to provide a right choice from location, price to the customers. It has to enable onboarding of new suppliers and vendors that increase market opportunities.
GenStore eCommerce marketplace software helps you build an online marketplace in a matter of minutes with marketplace website builder and other products provided by ShopyGen such as Gencart, Gentack, and MobiGen. They have got a super quick setup that creates a marketplace in a matter of minutes which does not need any other online marketplace software and developers. They take care of the technology.
Features of GenStore
- Product selling, rentals, services: GenStore supports all types of marketplaces and has built-in availability management for bookings & rental.
- Manage your marketplace: Manages and moderates marketplace easily from the admin dashboard. Connects Google Analytics to get a detailed view of what is going on.
- Robust Administration: Dynamic design to manage everything from the back end for its user management, account management, content management. Everything is automated to be dynamic.
- Digital Product: Has two different marketplace niches on single software that gives your sellers the option to sell both physical and digital products, according to the type of product.
- Unique Seller Dashboard: Gives the sellers a separate dashboard to manage their products and orders that manage profile, uploads products and its approval status, order and shipping status from responsive seller dashboard.
- Revenue Channels: Offers multiple revenue channels, seller subscription, banner ads, prime delivery options, commission percentage against each sale, and much more to generate easy revenues.
- Compatible with iOS & Android App: Helps your users manage everything with just a mobile in hand to search through the collections, making an order, tracking an order all can be done with Android & iOS apps.
GenStore creates a marketplace website exactly the way you want it to look for simple customization. It helps the customer to build their own concept, with their own brand. Easy to monetize that charge a transaction fee from merchants.
The marketplace software is open source and there is no lock-in and it is highly secured. The data and codes are given to the customers. For all intents and purposes, customers can do away with security concerns.
If you haven’t launched your prospect yet and are making a plan of starting an eCommerce business, then it is commendable that you give Genstore a chance to be a part of your plans.
Originally published at shopygen.com