A powerful online marketplace is an enormous source of revenue. Whenever hesitations appear, just remember that Amazon net revenue grows steadily since 2006. And in the first quarter of 2019, the sum reached more than $3.5 billion. A quite inspiring example, isn’t it?
Along with that, one should remember that it is not so easy to reach the success demonstrated by Amazon marketplace. So today, we are going to discuss the top factors that influence marketplace’s popularity. According to the site we have recently discovered, you can reach the desired goals if you follow the hottest trends.
The foundation of your powerful online marketplace
Typically, there are 3 cornerstones of a prosperous eCommerce solution:
Uniqueness
In the era of innovations, no one likes copies. At least, when you copying an idea you need to interpret it in your own way and add some special features. Sill, on your path to success, develop your own unique idea and make sure you heal particular customers’ pain point. This rule is fair not for eCommerce only: it works the same for any industry.
Quality
A great idea will remain in your head forever unless you start the collaboration with skilled and experienced engineers. Here, we emphasize the words of “skilled” and “experienced”. There are too many potential competitors around you, so you have to deliver the solution of the highest quality in order to keep your head above the water, and to save your business from a smash.
Trend
Trends are significant elements of successful businesses. Constantly chasing them in the right way, you add competitive advantages to your business. Besides, keeping a hand on the pulse of trends, you are aware of all the things that have led one or another company to higher sales. Or, on the contrary, to fail.
In future, you will get a chance to become a trendsetter. But now, you need to be familiar with modern trends and develop a vision of how to implement them in your eCommerce products.
5 trends to follow to reach your goals
Establishing a viable business, you may need an expert piece of advice and a helping hand with key principles implementation. Market changes rapidly; however, we have managed to collect these 6 key trends to follow in 2019:
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Online + Offline businesses
In the battle of eshop vs traditional offline shop, the online business is the obvious winner. However, we can’t say for sure that offline stores will die: people got used to them, they provide the needed products and services, and they present a sort of satisfaction for numerous consumers. Thus, it is very unlikely that we’ll lose them in the near future.
At the same time, you cannot ignore the potential and power of the online world. Online purchases are a way to save time and efforts. Besides, there is always a possibility to buy the same goods for the lower price online. So, a great number of your potential customers would prefer to shop online.
Fortunately, with the right business plan and proper management, you can combine these 2 approaches for your own success. Open a tiny shop in the local area and run an online marketplace simultaneously: this will widen your opportunities and increase the number of potential customers.
2. Components of IoT
Now when you see the necessity of running both offline and online businesses, we can dive deeper and guide you through one of the most innovative technologies of our times.
According to the IoT concept, all devices and gadgets may be connected with special software in order to minimize manual human actions and provide a seamless experience in any field. IoT app as a component of your business will serve you with the following tasks:
- Communication with customers and partners;
- Processes optimization;
- Orders systematization;
- Automated products selection;
- Financial transactions processing and accounting;
- Shipping etc.
As a result, you will get a chance to sell more and focus on business improvement instead of taking care of routine tasks.
3. Mobile experience matters
Can you imagine people spend several hours daily browsing their smartphones? How great would it be to attract them with your marketplace and make them spend some of their mobile time on your website? Thus, building an online marketplace keep in mind mobile experience.
Your prosperous marketplace must look impeccable on any browser. Pixel and iPhone owners, as well as any other smartphone users, should enjoy mobile UI/UX you present. Put cross-browsability on the first place. Take care of proper testing and make sure no issues appear when users switch from web to mobile.
4. AR techniques
First, we thought that AR/VR will blow up the gaming industry. And it did. After that, the innovations have spread all over other niches and industries. Special advancements it has brought to eCommerce: with AR app, a customer now can try apparel, shoes, jewelry etc without leaving their houses. Besides, AR helps a lot with external or internal design: a customer just installs an app, turns the camera on and gets an opportunity to see how a room will look like with a certain piece of furniture.
Applying AR techniques to your online marketplace, you come to remarkable improvements. You get better than most of your competitors and provide online customers with the convenience they have always been looking for. Don’t miss your chance to impress them with the right app!
5. Focus on particular products
A huge catalogue of 500,000+ products for different purposes may look attractive: the more you sell, the more you earn. However, it doesn’t look like this lately.
As we have analyzed the market and customers’ preferences, nowadays, online shoppers trust more to narrow-focused businesses and believe them to provide a higher level of quality of comparison to online hypermarkets.
With a narrow focus, you:
- Decrease the number of potential competitors;
- Define the target audience in a more precise way;
- Gain trust.
Final thoughts
With all this in mind, a question appears about how to find a team to implement the latest trends in the software you’d like to build. Although it seems like there are myriads of development companies in the market, only some of them are able to provide you with the expected level of professionalism and quality.
If you need an extra piece of advice on how to build a lucrative marketplace, just contact us. If you are looking for a team to help you with engineering, just drop us a line. Let’s contribute to your business development together!
Nicola Holder 