How to Build a Marketplace App: An Ultimate Guide in 2024

Do you want to increase your business’s brand awareness and visibility? Are you looking to establish your business on digital channels?

One of the best ways is to build a marketplace app for your business. Taking your business online increases the chances of your growth and sales as you serve a worldwide audience.

As a business owner, if you are looking to create a marketplace application from scratch, you have landed on the right blog post.

We know the online marketplace industry is challenging and tough due to large competition with top marketplace applications like Amazon, Etsy, and Wish. However, the right approach to developing a mobile application plays an important part in establishing your business.

In this blog, you will learn

• Growth of online marketplace apps
• The complete process of marketplace app development
• Cost of building a marketplace app
• Timeline to build a marketplace app
• Types of monetization strategies
• Technology stack for development

So, let’s get started.

Before learning the process of building marketplace apps, first, let’s know the opportunity and growth of the online marketplace.

Continuous Growth of Online Marketplace Apps

Here is a list of statistics on online marketplace apps as well as on MCommerce to help you understand the current market scenario.

• According to a report by InsiderIntelligence, the US market of eCommerce sales is estimated to reach $468.29 billion by 2024 compared to $357.26 billion in 2022.
• According to a survey by DigitalCommerce360, a total of $3.23 trillion was spent globally on the top marketplaces in 2021.
• Online marketplace payments are estimated to reach $8.7 trillion by 2025, as per a survey of Finextra.
• By 2026, MCommerce sales in the USA are estimated to increase by 8.7% of total retail sales from 6.5% in 2023, according to InsiderIntelligence.

These statistics show a positive sign to investing in marketplace app development for your business. As online shopping via mobile applications increases in the future, the opportunity to establish your business in the online marketplace industry seems to be beneficial. Let’s now learn the type of marketplace applications available for development.

8 Different Types of Online Marketplace Applications

There are multiple types of online marketplace applications available in the market. Depending on your business, choose the right types of marketplace application development. If you are not sure in which categories your business falls, here is a table that explains the types of marketplace applications with examples of applications.

These are the core types of marketplace apps currently available in the market. In whichever category your business falls, create your marketplace application. Choosing a type of marketplace is essential as it impacts the whole process of development. That’s why selecting the type of marketplace application or deciding which type of marketplace application you want to create is very important.

Moreover, you can contact an experienced mobile application development company like Space-O. Consulting such an app development company helps to build a foundation for your mobile application and clear your doubts.

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Now, let’s learn the process of developing a marketplace application for your business.

How to Create a Marketplace Application from Scratch: 6 Steps Process

Follow these 6 steps for your online marketplace app development.

1. Conduct Market Research for Your Marketplace Application

   Before developing your marketplace, you need to identify your target audience, learn about market trends, and understand the preferences of your target audience. To make a successful marketplace application, you must have the following information:

   • Identify your niche and determine the services or products you will offer
   • Find the right business model to meet your revenue goals
   • Knowing your target audience and their requirements and preferences
   • Choose the right mobile app platform for your marketplace app development
   • Find the pain points that you will resolve in your mobile marketplace app
   • Learn what type of user experience and user interface with proper navigation

   In short, having a clear idea of what type of application you want to build makes the entire development process easier.

   But, how do you find out all the details for your marketplace application development? Here are some tips to help you out.

   • Perform market surveys and gather data based on your user preferences, demographics, and behaviour to identify your target audience.
   • Analyze your competitors and know about their target audience as well as your competitor’s weaknesses and strengths
   • Create a user persona by making a detailed profile of your ideal customer with information, such as age, gender, occupation, interests, and pain points
   • Define your unique selling point to advertise and establish your application in the market
   • Use social media tools for identifying your target audience by collecting data on user behaviour, preferences, and demographics

   As much as you are clear about the type of mobile application you want to have for your business, it would reduce the cost and timeline of your development. Next, you need to decide the business model you want to include in your custom marketplace application development.

2. Choose the Right Business Model for Your Marketplace App

   Multiple types of business models are available in the marketplace application. Check the following table to learn about the different types of business models. Learn about each business model and choose the best suitable for your marketplace application.

   Business Model	Definition	Examples
   Commission-based	The marketplace takes a percentage of each transaction made through the platform	Airbnb Uber Etsy
   Subscription-based	Customers to pay a certain amount to gain access to the marketplace, usually, on a monthly or yearly basis	Amazon Prime Spotify
   Freemium	The basic version of the platform is free, but users can pay for premium features or services	Dropbox Canva Hootsuite
   Pay-Per-Use	Users pay for each transaction or service they use on the platform	TaskRabbit Fiverr Upwork
   Advertising-based	The marketplace generates revenue by displaying ads to users	Facebook Google LinkedIn
   Listing-based	The marketplace charges a fee for listing items or services on the platform	eBay Craigslist Letgo

   Depending on your type of marketplace mobile app development. You can choose the right business model for your business. However, modern marketplace applications implement multiple monetization models in their business to generate revenue. For example, the Amazon application uses two business models, such as the subscription-based model and the advertising model.

   However, if you are unable to decide on the right or most suitable business model for your marketplace application, here are key tips to help you.

   • Analyze your competitors to find out their monetization strategies
   • Understand the demographics of your audience and choose the right business model
   • Evaluate the revenue streams to find the best ROI-providing business model
   • Contact an experienced mobile application development for consultation

   Moving further, let’s decide the features for your marketplace application.

3. Choose Features You Want to Integrate into Your Marketplace Application

   At this stage, decide the features you want to include in your marketplace application. Whether you are creating a B2B, C2C, or B2C marketplace application, choosing the right features is important. Depending on the type of your marketplace application, integration features and functionalities within your marketplace are the right decision.

   To give you a basic idea of features that you should include in your marketplace application, here is the list to help you.

   Features	Admin	Sellers App	Buyers App
   Authentication	Manage user authentication	Manage seller authentication	Manage user authentication
   User Management	Manage user accounts and permissions	Manage seller accounts and permissions	Manage user profiles and account settings
   Product Listing	Manage product listings	Create and manage product listings	Browse and search for products
   Order Management	Manage orders and payments	View and manage orders and payments	Place and track orders
   Shipping	Manage shipping options and tracking information	Provide shipping options and tracking information	View shipping options and tracking information
   Messaging	Communicate with users and sellers	Communicate with buyers and admin	Communicate with sellers and admin
   Reviews	Monitor and moderate user reviews	Respond to user reviews and ratings	Read and provide product reviews and ratings
   Analytics	View and analyze user and sales data	View sales and performance metrics	View order and shipping details and history
   Support	Provide customer support and resolve disputes	Provide seller support and resolve disputes	Contact customer support and resolve issues
   Marketing	Manage marketing campaigns and promotions	Create and manage seller promotions and discounts	Receive marketing communications and promotions
   Notifications	Manage email and push notifications	Receive notifications for orders, sales, and messages	Receive notifications for orders, shipments, and more

   This is the list of basic or must-have features in a marketplace application. When you create your own marketplace application, you need to decide on advanced features for your mobile application.

   Making your application unique from your competitors helps to gain a competitive advantage. That’s why choosing the advanced features to integrate into your application is a must.

   As you decide on the features of your marketplace application, the next step is creating the design and user experience of your marketplace mobile application. Check the next step.

4. Design of Your Custom Marketplace Application

   A mobile app designers team creates the design for your marketplace application. To design your marketplace application, first of all, the wireframe of your marketplace platform is created. Wireframe is a visual representation of your marketplace mobile application that includes the layout and structure of your app’s UI. Creating a wireframe for a mobile application consists of several components, such as images, buttons, menus, input fields, and text.

   As the wireframe of your marketplace application is created, an interactive prototype of your mobile application is created. Here is an example image of a wireframe of a mobile app.

   

   Image Source: Dribble

   A prototype is a working model of your marketplace application that includes simple functionality and user experience.

   Creating a prototype of an application helps to test and refine your mobile application’s functionality, user interface, and user experience. This way, it becomes easy to identify potential bugs or issues during marketplace app development. Next, the development of your marketplace application gets started.

5. Development and Testing of Your Custom Marketplace Application

   Depending on the choice of your mobile app platform either native or cross-platform, the technology stack of your mobile application gets decided.

   Now, your hire mobile app development team starts coding the features and functionalities of your marketplace application. Mobile app developers build the server-side infrastructure of your mobile application which includes, database and API integration. These APIs are developed to communicate between the front-end and back-end of your mobile application.

   In addition, the development also includes the steps of setting up user authentication, data storage and retrieval, and payment processing integration. Once the development of your marketplace application gets complete, next the testing is carried out.

   The QA team prepares a complete strategy to test your own marketplace app. Tasks of the QA team include ensuring your application’s code compliance with the best practices of development, identifying the issues, and testing your mobile marketplace app on different devices.

   By following testing life, the QA team tests your mobile application from every aspect that includes functionality and performance. All the testing is done with the help of different types of software testing, such as functional, unit, usability, performance, security, compatibility, and user acceptance testing.

   If bugs are found during the testing of your mobile application, then developers fix the issues accordingly. Once your marketplace platform app is 100% bug-free, then only the QA team sends further to the team for the further deployment process.

6. Launch Your Marketplace Mobile App on the App Stores

   Once your marketplace app is ready for release, the app developers team deploy your mobile application on the different app stores according to your requirements. However, to deploy your marketplace app on the app stores, it needs to meet all the app store’s technical requirements and guidelines.

   Whether you want to deploy your mobile application Apple App Store or Google Play Store, the team of developers deploy your marketplace app accordingly.

   Generally, the time duration to get your approval on app stores like Apple App Store ranges from 2 – 5 business days and Google Play Store takes up to 7 business days. Certainly, the timeline varies depending on the workload of the app store team.

   As you are clear with the process of developing a marketplace app for your business, now you might wonder about the cost of mobile application development. Let’s check the next section.

How Much Does It Cost to Build a Custom Marketplace App?

The average cost to develop a custom marketplace app ranges from $15,000 to $50,000.

However, the cost of creating a custom marketplace application depends on several factors, such as the complexity of the app, features and functionalities, the platform you choose, the development team’s location and experience level, and the timeline for development.

Let’s learn about the cost of developing a marketplace app based on its complexity.

As you have learned the cost of marketplace apps, let’s now learn about the timeline for developing a marketplace application.

How Long Does It Take to Develop a Marketplace App?

The average timeline to develop a simple marketplace app ranges from 3 – 4 months.

Certainly, the timeline to create a marketplace app whether for small or large businesses depends on multiple factors. Those factors are as follows:

• The complexity of your marketplace application
• The marketplace app features and functionalities you integrate
• The platform you choose to develop your mobile app
• The technology stack used for developing marketplace apps
• The size of the development team and experience
• The number of change requirements before deployment
• The time requires to test and deploy your marketplace app

Get the general timeline of developing a complete marketplace app depending on the different complexity. Check the following table to learn about the timeline.

If you are looking to get an exact timeline to develop your own marketplace app, then get in touch with our experienced mobile app consultant. Our experienced marketplace app developers will validate your application idea and provide your complete roadmap with cost bifurcation.

In the next section, learn about the top online marketplaces available in the USA and Canada.

5 Top Online Marketplace Mobile Apps in the USA and Canada

Icon	Name	Total Funding	Google Play Store Ratings
	UpWork	$168.8 Million	4.0 131K reviews
	Fiverr	$111 Million	4.6 131K reviews
	Etsy	$97.3 Million	4.9 1.18M reviews
	Airbnb	$6.4 Billion	4.5 1.41M reviews
	TaskRabbit	$37.7 Million	3.9 12.1K reviews

If you still have questions regarding online marketplace apps, check the next section of FAQ.

Let’s Create Your Own Marketplace App

In this blog, you have learned about the complete process, features, timeline, and cost to create a marketplace app. Whether you have an idea to create a marketplace app for your small, medium-sized, or enterprise business, this process is followed.

Do you have an idea to create a unique marketplace app? Are you looking to validate your mobile app idea? Contact us. We are a leading mobile app development company in Canada, having experience in successfully developing 300+ custom software and mobile applications. Let’s connect and talk about your requirements.