Key requirements/ features for building an online marketplace
Online marketplaces, led by Amazon, take a significant share of the volume of online commerce, B2B and B2C, today. The top online marketplaces in the world sold nearly $3.23 trillion in 2021. This has led to expansive growth in the number of online marketplaces
Consider this: Digital Commerce 360 was following about 75 to 100 B2B marketplaces three years ago. Today, the list has grown to 400 commercial and vertical-industry marketplaces spread across 18 industries. In addition, according to another study, 75% of B2B companies are actively developing marketplaces.
Below are some key features required to launch a thriving online marketplace
Multi-Vendor Management
The functionality to add and manage multiple vendors, payments, and more. In addition, you need functionality to enable vendors to manage their listings easily.
Product Discovery
Powerful search, product comparison, cross-sell, up-sell, etc., functionalities are important to help customers find the right product quickly and easily.
Product Information Management
For a successful marketplace, managing and maintaining accurate product management is key to building trust and driving customer satisfaction.
Ratings & Reviews
The functionality to track, manage, and share ratings and reviews about products and vendors is critical in driving accountability with vendors and building trust with customers.
Managing Returns
Streamlined returns policy and processes are crucial in managing returns efficiently and managing expectations from vendors and customers effectively.
Streamlined Order Fulfillment
Do you fulfill orders on behalf of your customers or drop ship orders through vendors, a streamlined and frictionless order fulfillment process is key to marketplace success.
How i95Dev helping a leading electronic commerce company in the Middle East set up a state-of-the-art online marketplace?
i95Dev worked with the retailer to extend their eCommerce platform, Adobe Commerce, to build the marketplace. i95Dev added all the required features to manage and maintain an online marketplace from multi-vendor support, improved navigation, cross-sell & up-sell features, and more. i95Dev also leveraged Adobe Sensei to build a powerful AI-driven product recommendation and comparison engine.
The largest online retailer of electronic products in the middle east was looking to accelerate business growth by building a modern online marketplace for electronic products. The retailer aspired to bring together high-quality third-party sellers and become the Amazon or Best Buy of the Middle East.
Use cases when you need to build an online marketplace
You are a Manufacturer
looking to create a shopping portal for your distributors/ wholesalers to sell online. You want to take the pain and effort away of marketing and selling online and let them focus on fulfillment and customers.
You are a Distributor/ Retailer
of multiple products from various brands. Your strength is marketing, sales, and customer management, and you leverage drop shipping from your suppliers to fulfill orders.
You are an Aggregator
or a group purchasing platform looking to aggregate orders from multiple customers to negotiate a better deal from the suppliers, or an industry leader looking to deliver best practices by bringing different vendors onto a common platform.