With the growth of technology and eCommerce platforms, all business enterprises have almost become necessary to take their business online. Even small scale businesses and individuals opt to sell their products on peer to peer marketplaces as these offer more exposure to a broader customer base.
P2P marketplaces allow you to reach out to a broader customer base making it easier for you to sell your products. You can reach out to customers you would not have otherwise had access to in the traditional sales format.
But with changing times and technology, you will have to build P2P marketplaces to stand out in the competition.
What is Peer-to-Peer Marketplace?
Peer-to-peer marketplaces are popular business models nowadays. It is an online platform that connects two types of people. Some need certain goods and services while offers products under certain conditions. People are buying online whatever they want.
The statistics report state that there is an 18-19% annual growth in the e-commerce market. This explicitly says eCommerce is becoming a more profitable and effective business in the online market. Online marketplaces allow users to sell different products. It can be classified according to who uses them;
- Only Businesses – B2B (business-to-business)
- Businesses and Consumers – B2C (business-to-consumer)
- Only Consumers or Individuals – P2P (peer-to-peer)
So, Want to build a P2P marketplace platform?
To become a good competitor, you should observe the successful peer-to-peer marketplaces like Amazon, Airbnb, Upwork, etc.
Basically, there are three options for you to build a powerful marketplace.
- Build from scratch
- Use open-source software
- Use SaaS
We’ll give you some useful tips and information about how to build a great peer-to-peer marketplace. Meanwhile, let’s define a P2P e-commerce platform and a typical online store.
P2P eCommerce Platform vs Online Store
The newcomers to the eCommerce industry are confused about this topic. For a better picture, let’s have a look at an example.
Let’s say you are a chandler. You love making candles with shapes and designs and you have a convenient small shop in the midtown. But you like to bring your business to the next level and to extent horizons. Here, without any doubt, we can say no better way than starting an online business. Now the question is What to choose?
A peer-to-peer marketplace platform or an online store from scratch?
Your choice depends on the type of business. Both options are potentially profitable. Do you know what’s the crucial difference between an online marketplace and a web store? It’s the number of potential buyers!
If you are opting for web store development then you have to invest time, money, effort, and always keep in mind that the cost of custom development will be high. Instead, online marketplaces are already built and only you have to do is adding your products.
In an eCommerce platform, the website owner will decide which products to sell and it is managed by a single vendor. Users can buy products but can’t add as a vendor. The functionalities that cannot offer by the eCommerce website is provided by an online marketplace. That’s why platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce are the best place to develop an online store.
While considering the marketplace, stop spending time checking on buyers, because they are already waiting for your products. The wide choices and option to compare every single product is the reason why they love the platform more. Sellers are more interested in peer-to-peer marketplace software because of the number of potential buyers they get to present their products.
Why P2P Business Models are Superior?
- Financial Advantages
- Convenience and Flexibility
- Hassle-free Development
- Feedback based Quality
While dividing the marketplaces according to industry, the most key players and commonly used marketplaces are:
- Travel – Airbnb, Booking.com
- Education – Coursera, Udemy
- Ecommerce – Amazon, eBay
- Healthcare – GoodRx, MyChart
- Freelance – TaskRabbit, Upwork
- Finance – Square, PayPal
Best Online Marketplace Websites
Let’s look at the best peer-to-peer marketplace examples. It may inspire you to build a similar marketplace website.
- Amazon
- eBay
- Etsy
- Craiglist
- Zibbet
- Airbnb
- Rakuten
- Uber
Factors to Build a Thriving P2P Marketplace
Some of the factors that you should consider to build a thriving P2P marketplace this year are as follows:
Create a website that is attractive to the client and the customer.
The present economic situation is such that it has become necessary to develop unique business models to attract more customers. For example, you should create a P2P marketplace that is SEO optimized. This will ensure that more web traffic is diverted to your company’s website.
You can hire the services of a company offering Software as a Service or SaaS to help you design and develop the website. This is necessary not just to ensure that you create an SEO optimized website but to simplify the onboarding process for the client. Clients must find it easy to register and log into your website.
Similarly, customers must also find it easy to identify suitable products and make purchases. You should have all more than one payment gateways in place to ensure that your customers face any issue while making any payments. Thus, creating a website that is easy to manage and attractive to both clients and customers is essential to stay ahead of the competition.
Decide the pricing strategy at the onset.
When you create a P2P marketplace, you must decide on the pricing strategy right at the onset. The pricing strategy is essential so that your clients know how they are supposed to pay you. You can decide on the payments to be in the form of commissions or fixed fees. Some of the premier P2P marketplaces offer a combination of pricing strategies.
You can even provide your clients the choice to pick a particular type of pricing strategy, which will prove helpful. If you are offering a service-based P2P marketplace, it is good to offer your clients the opportunity to pay based on the services. You can also set up a pricing model where payments are made once the services are hired and completed.
Offer your clients greater demographics
When you build a P2P marketplace, you must offer your clients broad demographics. In other words, your clients can reach out to a broader customer base across geographical boundaries. This will assure your clients that you will provide them with adequate support when it comes to selling their products in distant locations. Providing clients logistical support is necessary when it comes to developing a P2P marketplace that stays ahead of the competition.
In the present scenario, it is necessary to ensure that P2P marketplace owners provide clients with complete support right from providing clients with a platform to showcase their products and also providing them with the logistic support to ensure the deliveries are completed on schedule. All of these are necessary to build client trust and to ensure that your P2P marketplace stays ahead of the competition.
Ensure that your idea is validated.
Before you launch your final P2P marketplace, it is essential that you validate your idea. For that, you must create a Minimum Viable Product or MVP before you launch the marketplace. This is important to evaluate your clients’ responses and customers.
For example, if you come up with a unique idea for a service-based P2P marketplace, then it is a good idea first to launch a first iteration of the product before you launch the final product. Additionally, service-based P2P marketplaces need to understand customer requirements, and based on that; clients have to offer the services.
Hence, before you launch the marketplace, it is essential you create an MVP and evaluate the market and analyze customer response before you launch the actual marketplace.
Thus, before you build a P2P marketplace, you must keep in mind client requirements. Additionally, you must ensure that it offers your clients and your customers’ services that help you stay ahead of the competition.
Building an SEO optimized P2P marketplace can prove to be quite challenging. Hence, you should hire the services of a company offering SaaS. This will ensure that you have a P2P marketplace that is suitably designed and ideal for the present competitive market.
How to Make a Peer-to-Peer Marketplace Website?
Which option do you prefer?
Building a peer-to-peer marketplace from scratch, Building your P2P marketplace with a readymade platform, or Considering a software as a service marketplace?
Ask yourself what actually you want to create. You can opt for a Software as a Service marketplace to spend less time and effort on developing your website. With SaaS, you can start a P2P online marketplace in a matter of weeks.
In fact, as a p2p marketplace owner, all you do is providing space for the exchange of values and giving a place where supply meets demand. Other than this, you are not selling anything. Just making this place more comfortable as possible.
Ready to create your own peer-to-peer marketplace? We have built an open-source script of a multi-vendor marketplace that allows you to easily create an eCommerce platform.
To explore a free online demo of the standalone version of iScripts MultiCart.
The software supports multiple vendors with multiple products. iScripts MultiCart is easy to use and simple to manage for vendors on your website. iScripts MultiCart allows you to increase profit while managing time effectively. The software supports the most trusted payment gateways and can be multi-lingual. You can easily build a global e-commerce marketplace
If you feel like building a peer-to-peer marketplace with a reliable and experienced team, feel free to contact us and describe your business idea!
