Marketplaces offer businesses unlimited opportunities to reach customers by showcasing their offerings in one place, regardless of the number of sales channels they already use.
For small businesses, it is also an opportunity to build brand awareness by distributing their offer on other platforms. The key question is: How should a company develop its sales? Should they create their own marketplace (like Mirakl's platforms), integrate with other systems or simply list their products on well-known sales platforms? The answer depends on the specifics of the company and the structure of its online shop. We are here to help you choose the ideal solution and tailor it to your needs.
We offer market development services to help you create and implement innovative online marketplaces. Our team will equip your business with the means to create personalised, secure and scalable trading platforms using advanced tools.
As a result, we unlock the potential of your business by connecting suppliers and customers in a unified digital environment. By using our marketplace development services, your company will gain a competitive advantage, increase its e-commerce presence and ensure customer satisfaction.
Marketplace Development
Sales models
Our marketplace development services extend beyond technical implementation. We offer tailored e-commerce sales models that align with your goals, optimizing revenue generation and fostering growth. Those include:
B2C Marketplace
The model signifies a shift in contemporary commerce, wherein enterprises can directly offer their goods and services to individual consumers through a dedicated B2C marketplace platform. It enables them to estabish and cultivate their unique ecosystem effectively. Leading examples of this business model include well-know industry platforms such as Amazon, eBay, and Facebook.
The first one, for instance, started as an online bookstore and eventually evolved into a colossal B2C marketplace, ffering an extensive spectrum of merchandise. Similary, eBay introduced an innovative auction-style framework, facilitating the exchange of products between individuals and businesses. On the other hand, Facebook's Marketplace capitalizes on its substantial user base, enabling localized trading within distinct communities.
B2B Marketplace
It operates as a virtual arena wherein numerous suppliers can exhibit their products and services to potential buyers. This B2B markeplace platform's scope can encompass a specialized industry or a diverse range of sectors, thus accommodating multifaced commercial activities.
Alibaba is an eminent illustration of such, serving as a global hub for wholesale transactions. It allows businesses to connect, negotiate terms, and faciliate transactions. This B2B marketplace platform also fosters cross-border trade and streamlines procurement processes, amplifying market reach.
Direct e-Commerce
This approach confers considerable autonomy upon sellers in their e-commerce pursuits. That derives from their ability to independently manage and curate their digital retail platform, providing a self-managed infrastructure. Consequently, sellers can directly offer their products and services to B2B clients, bypassing intermediary channels. This approach is particularly advantageous for enterprises seeking to estabilish a personalized relationship with their client base and exert meticulous control over their brand image and customer interactions. It facilitates greater flexibility in customizing offerings to meet the unique needs of the customers, leading to increased customer engagement and loyalty.
All these exemplify the dynamic evolution of business models in the digital era. By directly engaging customers or facilitating interactions beetween suppliers and buyers, they forde novel avenues for value creation, redefine the contours of commercial transactions, and underscore the ever-growing influence of technology in reshaping the contemporary business landscape.
Turn online store into
Marketplace Platform
Converting your ecommerce website into a marketplace development platform can be challenging. Still, it can also provide numerous advantages like expanding your product assortment, increasing your reach, and boosting your revenue. To achieve success, it is crucial to take into account various factors such as:
- Market Research: Before transforming your e-commerce into a marketplace, you must do some market research. Find out if there is a need for this type of platform in the industry, and assess the competition's success with offering marketplace development services. At Ideo Software, we start every project with a thorough analysis of the business needs.
- Business Plan: Develop a detailed business plan that addresses strategy, goals, revenue models, finance, operations, marketing, and management. Determine your core marketplace revenue, such as sales commissions, advertising fees, and merchant subscriptions.
- Technology: Choose the right technology platform that will allow you to grow your e-commerce business. You can customize many out-of-the-box solutions like Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce or Salesforce Commerce Cloud. At Ideo Software, we help you create a custom marketplace development platform aligned with all your business goals.
- Offer Expansion: Transform your existing e-commerce into an open marketplace development platform where other sellers can promote and sell their products. Provide tools to help them manage orders, payments, and shipping.
- Engage sellers: Identify potential sellers who might be interested in your marketplace. You can start with your existing e-commerce suppliers to expand their presence on your platform. Prepare attractive offers and show the benefits of joining your online marketplace development platform.
- Creating community: Build a community around your online marketplace development platform. You can create a forum, blog, or other communication tool that allows sellers and customers to interact. Additionally, organize marketing campaigns, contests, and other user engagement initiatives. If you do not know how to do it, please feel free to contact us.
- Security and trust: Set rules and standards for security, privacy, and trust on youre-commerce marketplace development platform. Build a positive image and credibility for your marketplace by implementing seller verification and customer review systems.
- Customer service: Provide quality customer service with tools for communication between customers and sellers, customer service, and resolution of any issues on the platform.
- Analysis and optimization: Regularly analyze data, reports and indicators related to your custom marketplace development platform. Track results, identify areas to improve, and adjust your strategies based on what you learn. Moving from e-commerce to a marketplace can be complex, but success is achievable with a solid plan and the appropriate resources. Doing so lets you, develop a customer marketplace develpment platform convenient for both sellers and customers.
Direct e-commerce vs Marketplace
pros and cons
It is essential to consider several factors to determine the ideal model for your organization's business requirements. So, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each option?
Integrate with other platforms
When it comes to sales platforms, there are two options - creating a custom system or integrating with existing ones. The latter option is more convenient as it makes migrating and configuring data much easier.
Mirakl - SaaS-based software to create and manage your development marketplace. Integrating these platforms enables sellers to easily update their sales offers while enhancing the platform with advanced data management features.
That includes expanding their product catalogue, managing customer service more comprehensively, and ensuring product information security. As a result, business processes are accelerated, and introducing new products is made more intuitive, providing companies with a broader range of growth opportunities.
Put your products
to other marketplaces
There are many tools available for integration with popular marketplace platforms. You can chose various integration tools, such as BaseLinker or Lengow. These tools allow you to configure and migrate your data toinfluential marketplaces like Amazon.
Once you integrate with one of these tools, your orders will be downloaded to their system and processed accordingly, including shipping packages, preparing invoices, and sending order status updates to your customers. Integrations can work in different directions, such as issuing ready-made offers or forwarding orders to your store.
You can import orders and manage your marketplace presence effectively with two-way integration. Division of integrated marketplaces according to Baselinker:
Integration can be achieved through different methods depending on the marketplace in question. To ensure a seamless purchase process and minimize the risk of errors, automation through the use of APIs or forwarding orders from the relevant file is typically used. This approach guarantees a high level of accuracy throughout the entire process.
