5 Steps to Start an Online Marketplace #shortsfeed #online #marketplace #business

47% of digital purchases worldwide, happen via online marketplace platforms
89% of buyers said they were more likely to buy from Amazon than any other ecommerce retailer for it’s fast delivery, free shipping and easy return policy
People trust marketplaces over exclusive brand websites for shopping
Amazon.com is the 5th Most-visited Website Globally, with an average of over 5.2 billion visitors per month

If you are planning to launch your marketplace, then this video is for you.

“5 steps to start an online marketplace”

1st Step is Niche Evaluation
In order to succeed, Having a niche is extremely important.
It is extremely difficult as well as competitive to replicate to Amazon, where you get everything, as the logo says: A to Z

04 steps to decide your NICHE are:
Deciding your Business Model
Your Industry
Your Category
And lastly, your Target Group & brand positioning

Starting with Marketplace Business Model, there are various types of business models like B2B, B2C, P2P, or even Service-based models.
Example of a B2B Marketplace could be Amazon Business, industrybuying.com, Alibaba, eworld trade
B2C Marketplaces like Amazon , ebay , walmart , sephora
P2P Marketplaces like OLX , Airbnb , Etsy etc.
And service-based marketplaces like Urban Company , Upwork, Fiverr

Moving on to the next parameter for deciding your niche is the Industry:
You must decide on the industry you wish to cater to: Example: it could be fashion (i.e. apparels, shoes, jewellery, accessories, etc), Furniture, Grocery/ Consumer Packaged Goods, Beauty, Home Services etc..

Next is the Category:
Decide the product or service categories you wish to sell.
Example: In case of fashion: it could be footwear category with further niche of only sports shoes. In case of furniture: it can be home furniture with a niche in Sofas,
In case of beauty, niche can be personalised beauty services at home and this list can be endless.

And finally, your Target Group & brand positioning: finalise the demographics you wish to cater to, your brand positioning:
Are you offering value-based products & services or premium ones?
Are you targeting millennials, Gen X, Y or GenZ or Boomers?
Which are the Geographies you wish to start with, and later expand to?

2nd Step is Validating your idea with Market Research
Market Research can help you understand how the other players in your category are performing? Are they profitable? Have they raised investments? What is their marketing strategy? Are they growing ? How many visitors do they have on their website?
What is the bounce rate on their website?
Market Research can also help you understand the product categories and its demand. After you have listed down the categories you wish to sell on your marketplace, you can identify the overall demand for these products within the geographical regions you wish to sell, At what price are the other players selling? Top selling products within the category
Market research acts like an insurance to your business. It can save you from major losses by helping you take data-driven decisions

3rd Step is Business Plan:
As it is said: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail
Business Plan’s major objective is to forecast the inflow and outflow thus preparing you for the cash flow requirement, over a period of next 3 to 5 years.
To plan, what exactly would be required to make this model successful.
To Plan for the worst case scenario, wherein what you may have to forego, if it does not fall as per our plan.
If you are planning to take investors on-board, then Business Plan becomes inevitable.

4th Step is Business Operations Strategy
It starts with people strategy i.e. how many team members are required?
Which activities need to be outsourced?
Next is your IT strategy i.e. what softwares would you require to build your marketplace? Here it's advised to avoid to re-inventing the wheel and use platforms which can help to plug and play
Next is Supply chain strategy i.e how would the last mile delivery happen to the end consumers? Do you also plan to fulfil on behalf of the sellers listed on your platform? and several such critical areas of your business operations to be finalised.
Building SOPs for your business operations and robust IT systems will act as a key differentiator in comparison to the other startup competitors

5th Step is Carving out a Critical Pathway & begin your Implementation
List down all the activities, all the tasks right from inception to launch and build a milestone structure
Appoint a Project Lead who shall ensure all the tasks until launch are followed-up and executed.
“Getting things done” GTD shall be the responsibility of the Project Lead
Ensure you have an organised approach while executing these task, failing which,
Do not be surprised if your project is delayed by a few months!