8 key steps to launching your marketplace

Marketplaces have become essential in the digital age. They offer buyers a convenient online shopping experience, enabling sellers to offer their products or services to a wide audience.

Find out more about the 8 steps to setting up an online marketplace.

STEP 1 : Market analysis

Do some in-depth research into your market and potential competitors. It's important to understand the needs and expectations of your future customers and to determine the resources you need to put in place to face up to any competition.

STEP 2 : Creating a business model

The business model is a way of clarifying your business. It enables you to define the products or services you are going to sell, to what type of customers, in what way and for what profit.

STEP 3 : Define your budget

Evaluate possible costs by asking yourself the right questions. Look at the price of a software solution, hosting, payment (...) Budgeting for everything gives you better visibility of your project and your business model.

• Design of your marketplace
• Design of your site
• Solution for creating the marketplace
• Administrative and commercial management
• Visibility and marketing strategies to raise awareness of your platform

STEP 4 : Choosing the marketplace solution

It's important to build your platform simply and intuitively. 
You can choose different platforms to help you build your marketplace, such as Wordpress, Prestashop, Bubble (...); they don't require any knowledge of technical development. You can also use agencies that specialise in creating websites and marketplaces.

STEP 5 : Check the legal aspects

Check the legal consistency between the model you have defined and the strategy you have chosen. It is essential to protect your sellers and buyers.

STEP 6 : Select your payment provider

The buying process on a marketplace is different from that on a traditional e-commerce site. The fundamental difference lies in the payment solution. The security of your users' transactions is the key to the success of your business. 

There are many players offering suitable solutions. All you have to do is compare the prices on offer or choose to integrate a complete solution directly.

Obvy brings together all the services you need to manage all types of transaction, end-to-end and effortlessly.

STEP 7 : Define your launch plan

Draw up a timetable for putting your action plan into practice. 

Identify and list all the marketing levers you can use to help you with your actions.

For all the action plans you put in place, it will be important to analyse all your return on investment.

STEP 8 : Build your team

All your steps have been completed, you know what you're going to sell. Now it's time to to surround yourself with a good team (if you choose not to manage everything yourself) to bring your project to fruition.

Whether it's a B2B, B2C or C2C marketplace, there are a number of key profiles that need to be recruited:

• Finance Director : someone who will oversee your finances and financial strategy

• Account manager : to monitor customer accounts

• Marketing Manager : to define the actions to be taken to manage your reputation

Obvy, the all-in-one transactional solution

Creating an online marketplace requires careful planning and a solid strategy.

Obvy API brings together all the services needed to manage all types of transaction, end-to-end and effortlessly.

By natively integrating payment, delivery, and dozens of other features, Obvy API gives you everything you need via a single solution. For more information, please contact our sales department.