Overcoming the difficulties of starting an E-marketplace
Mar 16th 2023
Today, marketplace solutions are highly useful to connect with the right customers and vendors. eCommerce development services help to eliminate the online business problems and solutions by providing a centralized place to sell products. Since many sellers use the marketplace for online selling and ecommerce, they are a trusted source to increase your sales.
Amazon is a prime example of an eCommerce marketplace. It allows sellers to register online and start selling their products. Marketplace takes care of the branding, promotion, shipping, and support. Sellers can just list down the products on the marketplace website and then start selling. However, there are several marketplace problems that they usually face while reaching more customers.
93% of online consumers shopped on a marketplace app in 2019. This number is increasing every day. Today, most people have purchased a product on Amazon. While marketplace business ideas are a good one to pursue for a specific niche, it has its own set of limitations.
Problems faced by Online sellers during the Pandemic
During covid times, many companies benefited from online selling. An ecommerce app development company that created online marketplace solutions was one of the best ways to generate revenue and stay relevant in the market.
However, there were a few challenges that online sellers faced during the pandemic, and marketplaces helped to solve them. Standalone ecommerce stores often didn’t have the logistics to deliver products to everyone on time. People were losing jobs, and therefore, a lot of them were facing the challenge of financial influx due to less spending. Since operational costs were still involved, certain ecommerce businesses shut down because they couldn’t spend money on managing it.
What are the Major Challenges in the E-Marketplace?
An ecommerce marketplace isn’t as flexible as an ecommerce business. Sellers do not have control over the product presentation, they have to compromise on the customer service, and pay hefty commissions and fees to the marketplace.
And one of the biggest challenges in the marketplace is that they sell on their own platforms. While it was a good thing for retailers to get online, they needed to overcome certain challenges ecommerce solution development that could lead to more business.
Here are a few of the common marketplace problems in 2023 and their solutions:
Choosing the Wrong Development Platform
When hiring an ecommerce website development company for their marketplace, sellers often select the wrong platform. One of the leading challenges of ecommerce marketplaces is that sellers have no idea where to begin. One should understand that a single solution doesn’t fulfill the needs of everyone.
There are multiple options to choose from. Companies can opt for open-source solutions for building their marketplace like Amazon. By adding the right plugins and features, the marketplace platform will be ready within weeks.
Focusing on Buyers or Sellers
One of the biggest marketplace model challenges is too much focus on attracting a single stakeholder. Sellers are essential because without their presence, no one would be available to purchase. On the other hand, buyers will lead to the success of the eCommerce platform.
Attracting sellers can be done by rewards and perks. Attracting buyers can be done by offering them coupons and discounts for early registration. However, companies can lose on one if they are too focused on the other. But online shopping problems and solutions for such aspects are recurring and manageable.
With the right strategy, companies can attract both buyers and sellers for their marketplace. Sellers can act as unique buyers and support each other. The focus should be on getting buyers and sellers simultaneously for maximum success.
Poor Promotion
Another marketplace issue that arises is low-branding and poor promotion of the platform. Without the right amount of awareness, the eCommerce marketplace will not be recognized by any seller or buyer in the first place.
Marketplaces are tricky to promote. Companies need to focus both on the B2C and B2B aspects of the marketplace business idea. There are multiple ways to improve marketing by doing activities that can align with the company’s objective.
Poor User Experience
The biggest marketplace problem any company could face is a poor user experience. The outcome of this is a high cart abandonment rate. Without the right elements in place, the buyers and sellers will not show any interest in the marketplace platform.
The marketplace growth depends on how many stakeholders register on the platform. There needs to be a simple checkout process. One-click checkout is the simplest way to attract most customers in the marketplace.
Low Retention Rate
Another of the major challenges of an online marketplace is a low retention rate. While companies focus on attracting new customers, they fail to retain their existing clientele. There is some or the other problem that arises while keeping existing sellers and buyers.
The best way to increase the retention rate for any marketplace business idea is to personalize the customer experience. Companies need to conduct customer surveys and identify the needs of both buyers and sellers. After that, they can focus on providing personal recommendations for different products.
IDM Products currently has a booming marketplace, and we are always growing our selection of products. Contact us to learn how we can work together on your upcoming project.