After an appreciable growth of e-commerce, demand for marketplace apps has gained momentum. Like eCommerce, marketplace apps do the same job that is providing the right product to demanding consumers. There are a variety of apps in the marketplace category like the investment marketplace, business app marketplace, and more.
Moreover, among all marketplace apps, products/services based marketplace apps like Etsy, Amazon, and eBay are ruling the Internet. However, before we dive into the details of a marketplace app and the cost for market place business or its development, you should know about the various factors that affect it in-depth.
So let us get into an in-depth analysis of the Cost to Build a Marketplace App like Etsy:
What are Marketplace Apps?
Online store and marketplace apps are kind of two different things. Online store apps offer their own products/services in the price of their wish, keeping payment and delivery services on their own shoulders. On the other hand, a marketplace app gives exposure and ability to the independent sellers to sell their goods.
Marketplace allows retailers or multi-vendors to sell their products by listing them online. Nearly half of the products sold in the marketplace apps like Amazon and Etsy are provided by third-party sellers. On average, people use their smartphones to make a purchase in a gap of 6 months. Moreover, the cost of eCommerce apps development, on-demand app development, and marketplace apps development differ concerning functionality and features they have.
Types of Online Marketplace
E-Marketplace apps like Etsy and Amazon are designed to sell and purchase products from retailers. And hence, the online marketplace is of the following types:
Buyer-oriented marketplace
Supplier-oriented marketplace
Horizontal and vertical marketplace
Independent marketplace
And the target audience of such apps is divided as:
B2B (Business to Business)
B2C (Business to Customer)
C2C (Customer to Customer)
Must-Have Development Features of Marketplace Apps
Easy Registration/Login Process
A hassle-free registration or login process should be provided to the users. This keeps your users intact with you and attracts new users as well.
Multiple Payment modes
To avoid any payment issue, you are advised to provide multiple payment options by using multiple payment getaways. Your app must have options to make payment via debit card, credit card, cash on delivery, PayTM, etc.
Social Media Integration
These days, social media is the biggest platform to introduce your marketplace. To make the most out of it, you should provide a one-tap login. Users should be able to connect through their Twitter, Facebook or Gmail accounts with just one click. This social media integration feature not only promotes your app on social media but also allows users to share their products or referral coupons with their friends. Moreover, according to a report, 77% of the total customers prefer to log in via social media. The most popular social media platform used for signing is Facebook.
Push Notification
To keep your users hooked to your marketplace application, your app should come up with a push notification option. This reminds your users of what they are missing.
Add to Cart
Usually, customers don’t tend to but a product instantly. They want to save it for future purchases. To fulfill this wish, add to cart option should be incorporated to save the selected products.
Ratings and Reviews
The ratings and reviews feature adds an element of trust in your products. This helps consumers to check the authenticity of your services. 95% of the total customers read the reviews before purchasing any product in any online marketplace app.
Some additional features in order to make an app like Etsy may also include the following:
Multilingual
Subscription
Product Tracking
Google Map Integration
Multi-currency Support
Now that you know the must-have features of a marketplace app like Etsy, you should be aware of the fact that you are investing in features of not just one application but three- User, Admin, and Seller. Let us have a look at the main features that an app must have to support its all three elements.
Key Features for User Panel
Social & Sign-up, Login
Product listing with features and filters
Ratings and Reviews
Add to cart
Favorites list
Questions and Answers
Payment Modes
Shipping Address
Delivery Tracking
Log-out Option
History of Orders
Push Notifications
Recently Viewed Items
Key Features for Seller Panel
Social & Sign-up Login
Ratings & Reviews
Offers and Discounts
Management of product inventory and orders
Reports and Analytics
Feedback and Seller Support
Third-party payment getaways
Return Management
Key Features for Admin Panel
Admin and User Management
Product and Seller Management
Offers and Discount Management
Payment and Refund Management
Banner and Logistics Management
Feedback and Support
Reports and Analysis
Factors Affecting the Cost to Make a Market Place Application
Well, the exact cost of developing a marketplace app like Etsy cannot be calculated. The cost of development depends on the features you want to integrate into your app, the platform selected and the number of hours required by the developer to develop the application.
Majorly, the cost of development of such apps depends on three factors- Wireframing, Designing, and Development.
Wireframe
Wireframing is the process where the rough sketch of the mobile app is given to the developers and the client. This process helps the client to know how the app would turn out. On average, this process may cost around $800-$1,100.
Design
This is the most important feature to attract customers towards the app. The graphic user interface (GUI), versatility, and flexibility of your marketplace app decides its acceptance in the market.
To attract customers and draw their attention towards your app, it should have an attractive design. Depending on the designing elements used in the app, it may cost somewhere around $7,000-$10,000.
Marketplace App Development
This is the final step to implement your ideas and designing elements with coding to create a full-functioning mobile app. In this step, developers add the features you wanted to see in your app. The marketplace app development cost is dependent on two factors- the number of functional features and the number of resources allocated in the project.
Taking both the factors into consideration, the cost to develop market place app will come around $40,000 to $90,000. The cost of developing a marketplace app like Etsy also depends on the countries. The hourly rate of developers varies in different countries as follows:
In U.S. Based Company- $80-$250/hour
In Eastern-Europe Based Company- $50-150/hour
In India Based Company- $20-80/hour
The other department wise cost structure should also be taken into consideration such as,
Front-end and Back-end Development: $9,000-$12,000
UX/UI Design: $2,000-$3,000
QA and Testing: $4,000-$5,000
Moreover, it is not possible for a marketplace app like Etsy on a single platform. Thus, it should be made to run on different platforms like Android Windows, iOS, and Web.
In general, the greater the number of features you are integrating, the more will be its cost. The basic cost of development would come around $10,000-$20,000. On the other hand, incorporating all the above features, the development cost for a single platform would be approximately $25,000 to $50,000. Moreover, it is advised to analyze the market and introduce your app with a loyalty program.
Technologies Used to Develop a Marketplace Application
Technologies used to develop a smooth operating marketplace app are as follows:
Google Currency API
For Database: Mail Chimp Integration, Cassandra, HBase, Mongo
For Cloud Environment: AWS
Google Webmaster
For Email and SMS: Mandrill, SendinBlue
For Payment: PayPal, Braintree, Stripe
Mean Stack
For Push Notifications: Push.io, Twilio
For Phone, Voice and SMS verification- Twillo, Nexmo
Now that you are familiar with the marketplace app model, its features and its cost of development, you may quickly get into the workings. As per the stats, customers are purchasing items from online retailers in a large number.
In 2017, eCommerce sales have contributed about 10.2% of all retail sales taking place development. Moreover, this number is expected to reach 17.5% in the year 2021. This is how online marketplace applications play a crucial role in framing your business goals. In the case, if you take all the above-mentioned recommendations into account, you will surely be able to develop a cost-effective and efficient marketplace app.
Sanjay Kidecha
CMO
by Manav Patel
by Sagar Bagasariya
by Mihir Mistry
by Drashti Pandya
