But before we begin, let's outline what the marketplace is, why it is needed, and what benefits it brings to the business.
As the name implies, the marketplace is a kind of virtual platform for trading. Which allows some users to offer their services or products, while others receive these same services or purchase goods. In fact, there are a huge variety of all kinds of types and types of marketplaces, but all of them are united by the fact that this is a convenient and thoughtful service on which the entire IT business of the owner of the marketplace rests.
Now that we understand what is at stake, let's move on to how to actually create such a project. I want to say right away that with all the seeming simplicity and lightness of the idea itself, the process of creating, and the subsequent success of the marketplace, is by no means a trivial task. So, enough talk, let's go figure it out, what's what.
Business model
The very first and main moment of creating a marketplace is of course a business idea. You canāt just decide to build a marketplace without a detailed business model and strategy. No, in principle, of course you can, but the result will be very predictable and sad. Therefore, many entrepreneurs decide to create their own marketplace based on their existing business.
For example, a real estate agency (hereinafter referred to as AN) creates on the basis of its business an electronic platform for renting / selling real estate. I worked for many years in the field of building solutions for AN, so I know all the pitfalls and features. And I want to say boldly - this is a very complex and specific business, with a lot of all kinds of nuances and features. Therefore, when a market place is created on the basis of the Academy of Sciences, which has vast experience in this field, its own accumulated base of real estate and real customers, such a market place will definitely have financial success. Otherwise, it will end with a loss of time and money.
Another example is a project of a marketplace for the provision of cleaning services. When I began to immerse myself in the specifics and business model of the customer in order to build a powerful and flexible solution for the marketplace for him, then I realized that this specificity of the business is very different from my ideas about it. Firstly, the customer has vast experience in providing cleaning services in Europe, and that is why he decided to build a very flexible marketplace on the basis of his existing business in order to attract most of the market. As it turned out, in this simple idea there are so many all kinds of nuances and subtle moments that I was really shocked at how this topic is complex and multifaceted. And secondly, itās the fact that you donāt have to look for users for the marketplace from scratch, since all customers (those who offer services and receive) were migrated from the customerās CRM to the new marketplace, which allowed the project to start immediately from the first day of launch . A lively and working project immediately attracted new users to the marketplace.
Monetization
Such a moment for the marketplace, as monetization, is also important. There are many kinds of monetization models. For example, by subscription, a percentage of the transaction, payment for fixed packages and others. Therefore, a business should immediately think about how it plans to make money. It is not always possible to accurately and correctly determine which type of monetization is best for each particular project. That is why sometimes it happens that a business launches a new marketplace, and the chosen type of monetization did not bring the desired result. Then the business begins to change the type of monetization, and thus it turns out to choose the most effective way to make a profit. In fact, this is a rather complicated question, so it needs to be very well considered at the stage of creating business logic. If you immediately lose sight of this moment, then it can turn out to be very difficult to build the correct work of the marketplace so that it starts to make a profit.
Development team selection
This point is generally very difficult. Especially for a customer who can not always evaluate the qualifications of the company and developers. I must say right away that projects of this level, such as marketplaces, should be created only by teams. No loners and freelancers can be allowed into this area, since projects are usually very large and complex, as well as requiring vast experience not only in development, but also in the specifics of the customerās business.
Unfortunately, many customers believe that programmers are all the same and just write code. They say that itās difficult, they gave him a task and he will successfully complete it. But if you make an interesting comparison with surgeons, then I am more than sure that the customer would not want to go to the operating table with the surgeon in whom he will be the first patient to practice on. So when building complex computer systems, it is also very important to contact those companies that specialize in this and must have experience in this.
Why do programmers need experience in building marketplaces? The answer is pretty simple. The theme of marketplaces has begun to develop very rapidly in recent years, but the experience in building such systems is very small, both among customers and companies involved in development. And those who became at the source filled themselves with a lot of bumps on the first projects. Those technical tasks that were put forward by customers turned out to be ineffective for users of the marketplace in the final. As a result, together with the business, a lot of things had to be redone, modified and changed. This led to large financial and time costs. But nevertheless, the result was precisely those solutions that satisfied the users of the marketplace, customers who were starting to make a profit, and the developers themselves, who gained enormous experience. And this experience consists not only in understanding how to competently and efficiently develop a modern marketplace, but also in understanding many business processes. Which as a result helps future clients help with the business logic of the project and save a lot of time and finance.
Summing up, you can see that the creation of a competent marketplace is a very complex and time-consuming process, requiring great experience and high qualifications. Therefore, it is necessary to trust only those specialists who understand this issue and then you will not lose.
To be continuedā¦