Programming an Online Marketplace: 10 Tips for Developing a Marketplace
An online marketplace is an extremely complex beast. There are many different tasks that need to be considered. To make matters even worse, the individual components of a platform are often interlinked, making it difficult to assign the individual elements.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- 1 Programming an Online Marketplace: 10 Tips for Developing a Marketplace
| Online Marktplatz programmieren – Übersicht | |
| ⭐ Vorgabe: | Programmierung eines Online Marktplatzes |
| 🏆 Dauer: | Ab 3 Monate |
| 💰 Kosten: | Projektspezifisch |
| ⚡ Technologien: | CMS- oder individuelle Programmierung |
| 📺 Anbieter: | PHP, Drupal, Laravel, Shopify und andere |
The Essentials at a Glance
The development of an online marketplace requires a high level of technical expertise
When developing an online marketplace, you choose between CMS systems, software such as Sharetribe, or programming languages and frameworks.
The higher the technical complexity of an online marketplace, the more beneficial it is to build it through custom development.
Which Online Marketplace Would You Like to Create?
UMFANG | BEWERTUNG | BESONDERHEITEN | WEITERE INFOS |
|---|---|---|---|
 Komplexer Online Marktplatz | BEWERTUNG: 9.8 |
| KOSTENLOSE BERATUNG |
 Erweiterter Online Marktplatz | BEWERTUNG: 8.2 |
| KOSTENLOSE BERATUNG |
 Einfacher Online Marktplatz | BEWERTUNG: 7.3 |
| KOSTENLOSE BERATUNG |
Individuelle Programmierung | Magento | WooCommerce | Shopify | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zielgruppe | | | | |
| Vorteile | | | | |
| Nachteile | | | | |
Development Options
How can you develop an online marketplace? It is crucial that the online marketplace is actively discussed and continually gains recognition. It does not matter which type of online marketplace it is or whether you plan to develop it as an e-commerce platform, auction house, B2B, or C2C marketplace. To achieve the desired success, various tools should be provided during development and the available options optimally utilized. This way, you can have a custom online marketplace developed.
Over the past few years, the number of online marketplaces has practically exploded. To develop an online marketplace, you have three options available:
- Program your own online marketplace and develop an MVP platform with an experienced web developer or IT agency that fully optimizes your project. Unfortunately, this option may be time-consuming, as the development of the online marketplace also depends on the programming language used. Some programming languages can increase the required development time.
- Buy an existing standard version of a platform, if available. It can be modified according to your own ideas and can be brought to market much faster than if an entirely new platform had to be created. Additionally, it makes it easier to attract customers later on.
- Use an existing, open system to provide customers with an optimal e-commerce solution. This way, you can develop your online marketplace according to your ideas. There are various solutions for these cases. We will showcase some of them to present you with all possibilities.
Fokus | Einfacher Marktplatz | Komplexer Marktplatz |
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| | Auf Anfrage | Auf Anfrage |
It is best to start with an existing open system. There are numerous online marketplaces with open systems and pre-built platforms, so you only need to choose a suitable template. Afterwards, you can reprogram the existing framework for the online marketplace using Mayocat, Spree, WordPress, Near Me, Yo-kart, Magento, or WooCommerce. All of these programs have their advantages and disadvantages, so you should first verify which one best fits your requirements.
Sharetribe is an open source platform that enables users to develop their own online marketplace. You can achieve this with various platforms. However, Sharetribe is a perfect solution, especially for smaller businesses or companies that want to enter the market quickly. The suitable browsers for an online marketplace created with Sharetribe are Quiver or Cycle-land. In fact, when you consider the available facts, Sharetribe is better suited for programming P2P online marketplaces than multi-vendor marketplaces or other types of organized trading websites.
The Possibilities for Marketplace Development
- The Magento marketplace allows you to create customized templates and program functionality according to your needs. The community version is free for both small and large platform users. The Magento service offering costs 18,000 EUR per year for enterprise management. In addition, this marketplace requires a specific server, and standard hosting platforms cannot replace it. Even having a flexible architecture does not help in this case, and adjustments remain difficult when the loading speed is distributed across different platforms.
- Shopify apps can be created using programming languages such as Ruby on Rails, Python, or similarly coded languages. Usually, the platform operator provides a language like Ruby on Rails to help customers gain an advantage over the competition by developing their app with Ruby on Rails. Programming becomes much easier since Ruby includes sample code that can be used for an app and is embedded in the app SDK. You can develop a customer-oriented online marketplace, although a pre-configured platform is not always the best choice.
- WooCommerce is the eCommerce plug-in for WordPress, which is used to power around 28% of online stores worldwide. Many of its extensions, themes, and plugins are free to use and can be distributed. In addition, there are thousands of purchasable extensions of all kinds. The main advantage of this platform is data security and control. The downside is that you need to hire experienced developers, as updates for WordPress, along with its plugins and extensions, are constantly required. All features are difficult to adapt to new requirements, and customizations can be expensive with potential hidden costs on this host.
Bereich | Entwicklungstage | Budget |
|---|---|---|
| Kernfunktionalitäten | Ab 20 Entwicklungstage | Ab 12.500 € |
| Erweiterte Funktionalitäten | Ab 10 Entwicklungstage | Ab 5.000 € |
| Komplexe Funktionalitäten | Ab 10 Entwicklungstage | Ab 5.000 € |
Functionalities
Make sure that you can implement all these functionalities in your online marketplace and test them thoroughly before launch.
- Order Management – utilizing orders on the platform in a way that allows many people or areas to collaborate.
- Platform Infrastructure & Monitoring & Recovery – monitoring and indexing actions, troubleshooting errors, and executing guidelines for manual and automatic recovery.
• Email & SMS Marketing – the use of email and SMS APIs in the marketing channels
• Payments & Invoices – various payment options, recurring payments, and invoicing operations
• Customer Service – creating email campaigns for customer onboarding, support, and case management
• Tracking market channels and online users, including A/B testing
• Collecting logs and current data
• Promotion to generate more traffic and convert existing customers into loyal customers
• Automate dispatch
• Sign-up/Sign-in via email or popular social media such as Google and Facebook
• Account settings (name, address, email, password settings, etc.)
• Announcements
• User Dashboard
Some Important Buyer Features
• Create a personal profile
• Filter search (location, price, item type, options, etc.)
• Send messages to the sellers
• Discounts and review items
• Maintain favorite lists
• Provide various payment options
• Place orders
• Review transactions
Development
A website consists of diverse areas of your business, and the development of the corresponding pages must be tailored accordingly. In this stage, test data is used to design the marketplace’s navigation model as well as other important aspects such as page templates, advertisement templates, and the optimized framework.
These are the points the developer must consider:
• Marketplace loading time must not exceed 3 seconds
• Navigation must be simple
• The website must function correctly
• The user interface (UI & UX) must be proper and operate according to user requirements.
In response to a search query for the catalog, images, or videos, a very detailed output is desired that precisely describes the location of the requested data.
This step ensures that the audience visiting the marketplace receives the requested information and can handle it as desired. You know that customers are busy, so you can ensure that inquiries are handled quickly.
The Presentation
When everything on your online marketplace functions well and deliveries are properly assembled and transported, it is time for the testing phases to eliminate the final minor inconsistencies. You should test the following:
• Overall functionality
• Proper optimization that displays correctly in every browser version
• Mobile app responsiveness
• Correct content management system (CMS)
The marketplace is tested through integration testing, emphasis testing, scalability testing, load testing, cross-browser compatibility testing, user acceptance testing, and broader internal review assessments. Verify whether your website complies with current standards for website design and development, and engage an SEO expert who can optimize your site for search engines.
Conclusion
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