How To Create A Successful Marketplace App Like Letgo in 2022?

You must be an aspiring entrepreneur who is extensively concerned about starting your online marketplace. And, that’s the reason you’ve landed here. A renowned marketplace must be what you desire.

Amidst the covid crisis, there are a few top online marketplaces such as Letgo, Olx, Quikr, etc that continue to be the forerunners in the classifieds industry. To be even more specific, fashion products, and day-to-day essential accessories, are some popular areas where online marketplaces have made their mark in 2022.

Thus, this shows that though the virus outbreak has turned the normal into a nightmare, and with every passing day the popularity of online marketplaces keeps increasing. 

I am assuming that you’re inspired by the success stories of the big players in the market and stand solidly on the idea of creating an online marketplace application that will not only replicate but outweigh their success.

It’s prevalent to have doubts and queries when you plan to start one such classifieds marketplace. Worry no more! This blog will answer all your questions like, What is an online marketplace? What is the scope of the online marketplace in 2022? How do few marketplace apps work? The best approach to build a buy and sell used item marketplace app, How do you develop an online marketplace? and so on.

What is an online marketplace?

It’s important to realize that a local marketplace app is a mediator, an online bridge between sellers and buyers. The main rule of the modern marketplace is to sell so that the consumer can buy without even thinking about it.

Another vital aspect of a marketplace platform is transactions. A marketplace should provide the possibility to pay for goods and services safely and easily. It’s the owner of the marketplace which is fully liable for the safety of users’ data and the overall stability of the system.

Ultimately, the objective of any marketplace is marketing. Making it quite obvious because, to make money on transactions, real purchases are needed. For this, you need to draw in buyers, who want a good deal, and sellers, who wish to bring home the bacon.

Now, you may wonder if it is the right time for you to set foot in the classifieds industry and be successful. Let me explain to you in detail the scope of this online marketplace in recent times.

What’s the scope of an online marketplace in 2022?

The truth is, an online marketplace in 2021 has a massive scope. And, the recent classifieds statistics also suggest that the scope of the online marketplace is huge and the graph will keep moving uphill in the times to come.

As we all know, with the increase in internet and smartphone usage, people across the globe are opting for online shopping to meet their everyday requirements. Therefore, it’s evident that online marketplaces have evolved a lot over the years.

The statistics state that almost 40% of internet users are shopping online. Thereby, the classifieds retail sales are expected to grow at 20.2% CAGR by the end of the year 2023 worldwide. 

So, this is the exact time to start your online marketplace. Beginning your online marketplace at this hour will help you establish your online presence as well as access a much larger customer base.

Now, without wasting any time let’s get to the main thesis of this article: How does a marketplace app like Letgo, OLX, or Quikr work?

How does an online marketplace app like Letgo and Olx work?

Market research starts with studying big players in the domain, which are your main business rivals. For example, let’s consider big marketplaces like Letgo and OLX.

Letgo

Founded by a former CEO of OLX, Alec Oxenford, Letgo was launched in 2015. Letgo is solely a mobile application, so you can’t use it on a desktop device as you do with other classifieds apps like Craigslist. Letgo is a free person-to-person mobile application allowing users to buy from, sell to, and chat with other users nearby.

How does Letgo work?

Letgo is a mobile classified service where people can buy and sell stuff without any inconvenience. It’s intended for people looking to buy and sell used and old things near to them.

1. All you need to do to start buying or selling through Letgo is download the app and sign up (either via email or via Facebook)
2. Click a photo of the item
3. Quote a price
4. Write a title, description, category, and upload additional photos (if you want)
5. Tap Done

*The company claims that it takes just 10 seconds to post an item for sale

How does Letgo make money?

Letgo did not earn money until they introduced a premium feature called Bump. The essence of this feature is that you pay $2 to place an item in the spotlight above the organic results to draw more attention to it for 24 hours.

Highlights

1. Easiest classified app
2. No fees for using the app
3. Chat lets you communicate effectively with potential buyers/sellers
4. AI and image recognition technology making the app more comfortable
5. A transparent environment for closing safe deals

OLX

Founded in 2006 by Fabrice Grinda and Alec Oxenford, the online marketplace OLX has its roots in Argentina. The company today functions in over 40 countries, of which it has emerged out as a stronghold in countries like India, Pakistan, Brazil, Portugal, Poland, Ukraine, Nigeria, Philippines, and Kenya.

A major part of the company was taken over by Naspers, a South African media group, who succeeded in procuring the then investors. OLX had a standing of $30 million before being purchased by Naspers.

How does OLX work?

As with any classifieds, they manage 2 sides platform where people and businesses can buy & sell items.

Highlights

1. Personal or business can publish items, uploading some pictures, with a title, description, and price.
2. They will post an item for sale, and will wait for their potential buyers to contact them.
3. Sellers can contact by phone or private message and ask for items. Also can negotiate prices.

How does OLX make money?

Unlike other online marketplaces where the website acts as an affiliate to sellers’ products, OLX has a different ball game altogether.

1. Google Adsense Monetising
2. Google Custom Search Engine
3. Sponsored Links and
4. Sponsored Listings

With the brief description of the above-mentioned popular apps and their function, you would have realized the rapid growth of the classifieds marketplace. Next, it’s time to get your hands dirty with real tech stuff. 

The best approach to build a buy and sell used items marketplace app

The one most important aspect that you must know is establishing priorities and performance indicators. By defining the top performance indicators, you can outline the design and major features of your application.

The two key pillars to focus on when defining your top indicators are UI and UX, and branding.

UI and UX

A tailored user experience job is about helping your users identify the features and functions they’re looking for without any inconvenience. This means that even such a minor detail as text alignment or color selection will play a big role.

Correct image alignment, branded color selection, etc. draws attention by guiding users throughout the app and helps to retain their focus on searching and buying.

Branding

This is an aspect that’s frequently brushed off. Every business has its face – an identifiable brand name and logo. Your product, i.e. a marketplace app like Letgo or OLX, must resonate with your brand. And, at the same time, it mustn’t hurt the end-user.

How do you develop an online marketplace?

Starting an online marketplace is no more a herculean task. As seen in the above sections there are online marketplace websites like Letgo, Olx, etc. These are leading the way into the industry.

Therefore the smart way is to make use of the available eminent clone solutions in the market such as a Letgo clone or an ebay clone solution. But, a perfect strategy and proper planning are always irreplaceable and it needs to be done to start an online shopping marketplace like a pro.

Let’s look at the stages involved in getting your desired online marketplace built.

Do a thorough research

When you’ve decided to start building your online marketplace, you have to research to find ways of earning your niche. At the same time be smart to choose the one criteria that work for you. This will be of so much help in both while starting a business as well as for a new product launch.

Thus, picking your niche, and then working to attain it lets you understand the buyer’s persona in a much better way. And, for an online marketplace to emerge successfully, prior research helps a lot.

Prototyping and creating a marketplace app

Every professional prototyping stage involves polishing up your product functionality and building a map of your user behavior.

Designing the UI/UX is about developing the application prototype. When designing the UI/UX for your business, your design developers must implement all of the functions described in

1. The product specification
2. Determine both application and end-user behavior, and
3. Think out the location of buttons and the functionality of each screen

Creating a design concept 

To create a good design concept, it’s enough if your open source development partner renders a few (oftentimes up to five) elaborated screens proceeding from the goals, target audience, and functionality.

As a rule, the designers you are partnering with should be able to provide the concept in several styles to help you choose from. When the design concept is approved, the rest of the screens should be rendered in compliance with it.

Implement this best practice

As a best practice, every online app business should start with a minimum viable product or MVP. An MVP is the first version of your app with just enough core features to satisfy early customers and get feedback for future product development.

The major purpose of an MVP is to test your product in the real user environment and evaluate if it solves the initial problem or meets the initial goal of your business.

Consistent feedback will help you to revise the present version of the product, gather information on bugs, to find and address your customers’ pain points and usability index.

Testing and debugging

It’s quite hard to foresee how your local ads app will be used in practice while developing it on a computer. All apps should be treated as unique individuals and fix the unavoidable bugs from the very first version of the app.

It is advisable to compile a list of bugs and improvements to polish the basic functionality of your product before introducing new features and add-ons.

Updates

As soon as the first version of your app is revised and debugged, the MVP will be ready to withstand any new features and add-ons.

Following the update phase, you’ll have the iterative implementation of both major and minor features to the Letgo like app’s core functionality.

Conduct a second and final round of testing after deploying updates. During this process, the QA engineer will search for bugs and compare the results with the project requirements. 

So, you’ve seen the stages involved in building your online marketplace in detail. And, That’s it! You have reached the end of this blog. Undoubtedly you must have made up your mind to start your online marketplace now. Yet there are just two more things that you need to know.

Summing up

Yes! building a new local ads marketplace app isn’t a big deal. The big deal is elaborating the right idea for your product. The cost of a dull or poor custom development starts at $30,000 leaving you bankrupt. Which on many times exceeds the given timeline.

And that’s why I suggested you opt for a pre-developed letgo clone that’s flexible for customization and further development. Appkodes is the best choice for ambitious entrepreneurs like you. They have a skilled development team and will also provide you well-informed technical assistance.

Therefore without much ado, get connected with the Apkodes team. Get a meticulously crafted classifieds marketplace as per your online business specifications. Be quick! it’s time to release your flawless marketplace app like Letgo and show immense results on the market. What else is holding you behind? Are you in search of best letgo clone script in the market?

Then, connect with the team to know about such specific aspects of a buy and sell used ads marketplace platform and app development. Appkodes’ team of professionals will be ready to guide you. So, Schedule your free consultation now.

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