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Enhancing User Experience in an Online Children’s Products Store: UX Designer’s Tips

Ksenia Cheburova — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 12:27:51 +0000

Quality User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) play a crucial role in shaping the initial impression of a store, retaining customers, and ensuring their satisfaction with the service. An intuitive and user-friendly interface helps users easily find desired products and complete purchases, while a positive user experience influences whether they return and recommend the online store to friends.

We interviewed our UX/UI designer, Sergey Rogov, about making an online store for children’s products more convenient and appealing to customers. Sergey has over 10 years of experience in IT, specializing in UX/UI design since 2018. Below, we’ve compiled 7 key aspects for a positive user experience along with practical tips from our UX/UI designer.

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1. Convenient Navigation and Site Structure

A Homepage

The homepage serves as the storefront of the online store and is crucial for making a strong first impression on users. For a children’s products store, it’s essential that the homepage is both visually appealing and functional. It should feature an intuitive menu with main categories prominently displayed. This enables visitors to quickly locate their desired sections and begin searching for specific products.

The homepage should feature attractive banners showcasing promotions and popular items. These banners are vital for capturing users’ attention and encouraging them to explore and make purchases.

Categories and Subcategories

A logical division of products into categories and subcategories helps users quickly find the items they need. This is especially important in an online store for children’s products, as parents often search for items based on their child’s age or gender. Main categories may include “Clothing,” “Toys,” “Furniture,” with subcategories providing further detail, such as “Newborn Clothing,” “Toys for Girls,” “Children’s Room Furniture.”

Convenient filters by age, gender, and product type significantly streamline the search process. For example, if a parent needs to buy a toy for a 3-year-old child, they can quickly filter available options by age category, reducing search time. Additional filters like color, material, and brand can also be useful, allowing users to more precisely find the desired product.

Navigation

Convenient navigation and a well-thought-out site structure are critically important for retaining users and increasing conversions. If visitors cannot quickly find what they are looking for, they are likely to leave the site and switch to competitors.

UX/UI Designer Lifehack: Conduct user experience testing (UX testing) with real users to identify problem areas in navigation and site structure. Based on this feedback, make changes and redesign accordingly.

2. Adaptive Design

It’s crucial for an online store selling children’s products to be optimized for various devices: mobile phones, tablets, and computers. Adaptive design allows the website to automatically adjust to different screens, ensuring usability and simplicity regardless of the device.

Important Elements in the Mobile Version

When developing the mobile version of an online store, the following elements are crucial:

Large and Convenient Buttons: Buttons should be large enough for users to easily tap with their fingers without accidentally hitting adjacent elements.
Simple and Intuitive Navigation: The menu should be easily accessible and immediately understandable to users at first glance.
Optimized Image Formats: It’s best to use lightweight image formats like WebP and implement lazy loading to speed up page load times for the online store.
Single Column Layout: Design should be adapted for vertical scrolling, ensuring a seamless experience as users navigate through the content.
Clear and Concise Information: Avoid lengthy blocks of text. Instead, use brief and informative descriptions for products and promotions to convey information effectively.

These elements ensure that the mobile version of the online store is user-friendly, easy to navigate, and optimized for quick loading and interaction on mobile devices.

3. Fast and Simple Checkout Process

Minimalist Basket

It is important for the basket in an online store for children’s products to be not only functional but also aesthetically pleasing. It should be minimalist and intuitive for users.

Convenient Adding and Removing of Items from the Basket

Users often add and remove items from the basket. This process should be as simple and intuitive as possible.

Displaying All Necessary Data

When placing an order, it’s important for users to see all necessary data: price, quantity of items, and the total amount.

Simple Checkout Form

The fewer steps and mandatory fields there are in the checkout form, the better. This significantly simplifies the purchasing process for users.

UX/UI Designer Lifehack: To reduce the number of fields, use autofill and input recommendations. Place the checkout button at the bottom of the screen or in a fixed panel so that users can easily complete their purchase, even when scrolling through long pages.

Ordering Without Registration

For greater convenience for shoppers, provide the option to place an order without requiring registration.

UX/UI Designer Lifehack: Create a simple guest checkout form and offer users the option to save their information for future purchases if they choose to. Use clear prompts and motivational messages to ensure customers feel confident in their choices.

Variety of Payment and Delivery Methods

Having a choice of payment and delivery methods makes the purchasing process more convenient for different user groups.

4. Informative Product Cards

Product Descriptions

One of the key aspects of a successful online store for children’s products is high-quality and detailed product descriptions. This helps parents make informed choices in favor of the most suitable products for their children.

We explain how to extract maximum benefit from a product card without getting lost in the details in the article The Perfect Product Page: 12 Must-Have Elements And Rules For Mobile Devices.

High-Quality Images

Product photos should be high-quality and show all important details that are crucial for parents when choosing products for their children.

Reviews and Ratings

The system of reviews and ratings helps parents gather real feedback from other users about products, which significantly influences their purchasing decisions.

5. Personal User Account

Order Management

For an online store with multiple categories, it’s important to provide users with the ability to easily track and manage their orders, especially if there are many. For regularly consumed items such as diapers, care products, and baby food, users would find it convenient to repeat purchases through their order history without unnecessary searching through the catalog.

The personal user account allows flexible management of orders by navigating to the respective sections.

UX/UI Designer Lifehack: Develop a user interface for the personal account with clear separation into order history and current orders. Use a color scheme that helps users quickly orient themselves (e.g., green for fulfilled orders, orange for pending, red for canceled). Provide quick access to details of each order, such as status and delivery date.

Saving Preferences

To enhance convenience, offer a feature to save favorite items and account settings, allowing users to save time on future purchases.

Loyalty Program

A loyalty program helps attract and retain customers in an online store for children’s products. It includes a system of bonuses and discounts that stimulate repeat purchases and strengthen brand loyalty.

6. Convenient Customer Service

Online Consultant

For successful interaction with customers in an online store for children’s products, it’s important to provide prompt support and answers to all arising questions.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Including a FAQ section in an online store for children’s products helps parents quickly find answers to common questions related to purchasing items for their children.

UX/UI Designer Lifehack: Organize the FAQ section by categories, considering the specifics of purchasing children’s products (e.g., safety, care instructions, age restrictions). Use accordion-style layouts to hide/show answers, making navigation through the section more intuitive. Place a link to the FAQ section in a prominent location so that users can easily access the information they need.

Order Tracking

For parents’ peace of mind, it is important to provide the ability to track the delivery status in real-time.

UX/UI Designer’s Lifehack: Integrate the order tracking feature into the user’s personal account. Ensure users can view the current delivery status on the main page of their account, with details on the location of the order and the expected delivery date. Use clear statuses (e.g., “processing,” “in transit,” “delivered”) and send notifications about changes in delivery status via email or the mobile app.

7. Personalization and Recommendations

Personalized Offers

Offers should be tailored to the interests and needs of each shopper to increase conversions.

UX/UI Designer’s Lifehack: Use machine learning algorithms to analyze users’ browsing and purchase histories. Based on this data, provide personalized recommendations that reflect their preferences. Place blocks with personalized offers on the homepage and product pages, ensuring easy access and visibility.

Email Marketing

Personalized emails with relevant promotions and new products help maintain customer attention and stimulate repeat purchases in the online store for children’s goods.

UX/UI Designer’s Lifehack: Design your emails to reflect your brand and be easily recognizable. Include personalized elements such as the customer’s name and product recommendations based on their previous actions. Use clear and attractive Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons for promotions and new products so customers can easily navigate to the website and make purchases.

Our clients

Owners of online stores often focus on technical aspects or beautiful design, but they forget that it’s the user experience and perception that make your brand attractive and memorable.

UX/UI Designer Lifehack: When designing, we always try to see the store through the eyes of the shopper. We assess how easy it is to find the desired product, how quickly customers can make a purchase, and how pleasant and secure they feel on the website. We recommend adhering to the principle of minimalism to simplify the purchasing process to the minimum number of steps. The less effort required from the user, the higher the likelihood that they will successfully complete the purchase.

Labebe Boutique

We developed a custom design for an online store specializing in children’s products. Now, the online store has become a tool that:

Reflects all the advantages of shopping at Labebe Boutique’s website.
Helps users find and choose quality children’s products.
Makes the purchasing process simple and comfortable on any device.
Assists young parents in finding answers and getting help with pressing issues.

Podguznikoff

Modern, effective design for an online store specializing in children’s products.

UI/UX Design Development

Your customers will want to come back
and make a purchase again.

Get in touch

Successful design for an online store specializing in children’s products is not just about a beautiful interface, but also about a deep understanding of customers’ needs and the ability to adapt functionality to meet their expectations. The key in this process is to provide easy access to products, clear information about them, and a secure environment for making purchases.

To make your online store more convenient and attractive, turn to our company. We offer professional services for developing and enhancing online stores, incorporating the best UX/UI practices. Our specialists will help you create a children’s products store that meets your customers’ needs and enhances your business success.

The post Enhancing User Experience in an Online Children’s Products Store: UX Designer’s Tips first appeared on Cart-Power.

How to Boost Sales in Your Online Children’s Store: A Comprehensive SEO Guide

Ksenia Cheburova — Fri, 05 Jul 2024 12:39:38 +0000

In a highly competitive market, offering high-quality products is only half the battle. Effectively promoting them online is equally important. Many owners of online children’s stores face a common challenge: their websites exist, but their search engine rankings are too low, causing potential customers to miss out on their products. This results in decreased website traffic and, consequently, lost sales.
Proper SEO optimization helps improve your website’s visibility in search engines, directly influencing the influx of new customers and sales.

Our expert, Svetlana Sapunova, has prepared practical recommendations for internal and external SEO optimization tailored specifically for an online children’s store. Svetlana has been working in the SEO field since 2015. She is currently a project manager, responsible for analytics and managing a team of SEO specialists. She’s also a mom of two daughters and knows exactly how to capture parents’ attention when it comes to children’s products online.

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Internal SEO Optimization

Internal SEO optimization involves measures you can take directly on your website to improve its search engine rankings. This is a critical aspect of successful promotion, as it helps search engines better understand and index your content. Internal SEO optimization includes semantic work, content optimization, and technical optimization.

Semantic Optimization

Keyword research involves identifying the keywords and phrases people use in search engines to find products like yours. Proper keyword research helps your store appear in search results and attract users who are likely to become customers.

Steps for Keyword Research:

Step 1: Understanding Your Target Audience. First, you need to understand who your customers are. They could be young parents, grandparents, or people looking for gifts for children. Think about the questions and needs they might have. For example, parents might search for safe toys for newborns, educational games for toddlers, or back-to-school supplies.

Step 2: Creating an Initial List of Keywords. Start with brainstorming and create a list of all the keywords you think are relevant to your store. For example, if you sell toys, your keywords might include "children's toys," "educational toys," "newborn toys," "gifts for kids," etc.

Step 3: Using Keyword Research Tools. There are many online tools that can help you expand your list of keywords. Tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMrush, and others can suggest additional keywords that users frequently search for. For instance, entering "children's toys" into these tools might yield suggestions like "best children's toys 2024," "educational games for toddlers," "safe toys for babies," and many more.

Step 4: Competitor Analysis. Look at what keywords your competitors are using. Tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush can show you the keywords your competitors rank for. This will give you ideas for new keywords and show which ones are most effective in your niche.

Step 5: Keyword Clustering. Once you have an extensive list of keywords, you need to structure and group them. This is called clustering. Keywords can be grouped by topics and categories. For example, if you have a category for "educational toys," it might include keywords like "educational toys for toddlers," "learning toys," "logic development games." This helps you create structured content for your site and improve navigation.

Here’s how the keyword research process might look for an online toy store:

Identify that your main customers are parents of children aged 0 to 10 years.
Create an initial list of keywords: "children's toys," "newborn toys," "toddler toys," "educational games," "children's building sets."
Use Google Keyword Planner to find additional keywords: "best toys for newborns," "educational games for toddlers," "top toys for kids 2024."
Analyze competitors and find they also use keywords like "early development toys," "learning toys," "safe toys for children."
Cluster keywords and create groups: "newborn toys," "educational toys," "learning toys," "outdoor toys."

Now you have a structured list of keywords to use for content creation and page optimization.

** As you can see, collecting semantics is a long and meticulous task that takes a lot of time. Indexing the changes made can take up to 3 months. To ensure that your site starts ranking for the collected keywords as soon as possible, I recommend collecting semantics in the following manner. Prioritize your product categories in a list. Organize the semantic collection in stages based on these priority categories. That is, collect semantics for one category, create meta tags, write the text (if necessary), and send the page for re-indexing. Then move on to the next category. And the main rule: one group of key queries corresponds to one product category.

Content Optimization

Proper content optimization is an integral part of internal SEO. It includes the use of meta tags (title, H1, and description), creating a clear and understandable URL structure, and optimizing images. Let’s take a closer look at each of these aspects.

Title Tags

The title tag is the headline that appears in search results and on the browser tab, helping search engines and users understand what your page is about.

For example, “Buy Educational Toys for Kids – YourStore Online.”

Header Tags (H1-H3)

Header tags structure your content and help search engines understand its hierarchy and content. The main header (H1) should be unique and include the main keyword.

H1: The main header of the page, accurately reflecting the content. For a page with educational toys, the H1 could be “Educational Toys for Kids of All Ages.”
H2 and H3: These help break the text into logical blocks and can also contain keywords and their synonyms. For example, H2 might be “Best Educational Toys for Toddlers,” and H3 could be “Toys for Motor Skill Development.”

Meta Description

The meta description is a brief description of the page that appears in search results under the title. It should be attractive and include main keywords.

Example: “Buy the best educational toys for kids in our online store. Large selection, high quality, and affordable prices!”

URL Structure

Clear and understandable URLs make the site more user-friendly and search engine-friendly. URLs should be short, logical, and contain keywords. Using keywords in the URL helps search engines better understand the page content and improves its ranking.

Example of a good URL: www.yourstore.com/educational-toys
Example of a bad URL: www.yourstore.com/product?id=12345

Image Optimization

Alt and title attributes help search engines understand the content of images and improve accessibility for users with visual impairments.

Alt Text: Should briefly describe the image and include a keyword. For an educational toy image, the alt text might be “educational toy for kids.”
Title Text: Can be similar to the alt text but more detailed. For example, “Educational toy for kids – buy in our online store.”

Assume you have a page with educational toys. Here’s how you can optimize it:

H1: "Educational Toys for Kids of All Ages."
H2: "Best Educational Toys for Toddlers."
H3: "Toys for Motor Skill Development."
Title: "Buy Educational Toys for Kids of All Ages – YourStore Online."
Description: "Buy the best educational toys for kids in our online store. Large selection, high quality, and affordable prices!"
URL: www.yourstore.com/educational-toys
Images: Alt text: "educational toy for kids," title text: "Educational toy for kids – buy in our online store."

** Be sure to add upsell blocks to the product card: similar products, recently viewed, purchased with this item, sets. For example, on the diaper product card, include a "Customers also bought" block and add wet wipes, baby powder, baby cream, etc. These blocks provide an opportunity to increase the average order value and add additional internal linking to the site's products.

Technical Optimization

Technical optimization of the website plays a crucial role in its successful promotion. Key aspects include optimizing page load speed by compressing images, using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for fast content delivery, and caching, which improves user experience and reduces bounce rates.

It’s also important to ensure a responsive design that displays correctly on all devices, including mobile phones and tablets. Creating an XML Sitemap and configuring robots.txt helps search engines effectively index the site and manage access to its pages. These measures not only improve the site’s SEO performance but also enhance its visibility and appeal to users.

** Correcting all technical errors on the website (404 errors, duplicate meta tags, last modification header errors, redirects, etc.) is crucial as they directly impact the site's ranking in search results. I recommend keeping track and conducting a technical audit monthly to promptly fix any errors. If you encounter issues with loading speed, ideally, it's best to order a comprehensive site speed audit. This audit will identify errors and vulnerabilities that hinder the site's stable operation and impede its development. The audit results are compiled into a detailed technical specification (TS), which is convenient to use. For instance, when we conduct a technical audit, we prepare a detailed report outlining the issues, prioritizing them, explaining their significance to the web resource, and providing advice on how to fix them. Essentially, the client receives a ready-to-use guide for further actions.

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External SEO Optimization

External SEO optimization involves actions aimed at increasing the authority and visibility of your website beyond its borders. The main goal of external SEO is to create and improve your site’s reputation on the internet, helping it achieve higher positions in search engines.

Backlinks

Obtaining high-quality external links from other authoritative websites is crucial. The more quality backlinks you have, the higher your site will rank in search engines.

For example, you can partner with popular parenting blogs and websites to publish articles or reviews with links to your store. A popular parenting blog might publish a review of your educational toys with a link to your site.

Social Media

Activity and mentions of your site on social media also impact its visibility. Likes, shares, and comments can serve as positive signals for search engines.

Maintain pages for your store on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and regularly publish engaging content that users will want to share. For example, you can run a contest for the best photo with your toys and ask participants to share posts with your hashtag.

Reviews

Positive reviews on external platforms and product review sites also improve your site’s reputation.

Encourage customers to leave reviews by offering discounts on their next purchase in exchange for a review.

Mentions in Media and Blogs

Publications about your online store in news resources, blogs, and forums help increase brand recognition and attract more traffic.

Collaborate with editors of popular parenting magazines and online resources to publish articles about your products. For example, an article in a well-known parenting magazine discussing the benefits of your educational toys and including a link to your online store.

Content Marketing

Creating valuable articles, video reviews, and guides helps attract attention and makes your store more well-known. When you create content with the right keywords and include links to your products, it helps your site rank higher in search engines. This way, customers can easily find the products they need and are more likely to make purchases.

Articles, Guides, Selections

Regularly publishing articles on your site on topics related to children’s products and parenting is an effective content marketing tool. For example, you can write about choosing developmental toys or what games foster creative development in children.

To improve search engine visibility, include keywords in titles, subtitles, and the main text of articles. For example, if you write an article on “The Best Educational Toys for Toddlers,” make sure to include this phrase in the title and throughout the article. This will help your site appear in search results when users search for “educational toys for toddlers.”

Video Reviews

Creating video reviews of your products is a great way to attract more customers. In video reviews, you can demonstrate the benefits and features of your products, answer common questions, and provide useful tips for parents. Publish video reviews on your website, YouTube channel, and social media to reach a larger audience.

Internal Links

Internal linking helps distribute the weight of pages within your site and improves navigation. Linking related articles, product pages, and categories can help users find the information they need and encourage them to stay on your site longer.

** For example, if you write an article on "The Best Educational Toys for Toddlers," you can link to product pages within your article. This helps users easily navigate to the relevant products and increases the likelihood of purchases. Linking categories and tags also helps users find related products and articles on your site. For example, if you have a category for "educational toys," you can link it in relevant articles and product descriptions.

Successful promotion of an online store for children’s products requires a comprehensive approach. This includes creating valuable content, optimizing the site for search engines, regularly updating it, and analyzing the results.

** Regularly check your website for technical errors and correct them. Conduct usability, competitor, and commercial ranking factor analyses every six months. Work on semantics and create landing pages for low-frequency queries. However, it's best to trust a team of professionals who can responsibly manage your project, optimize and analyze the site in all aspects, and implement necessary changes. Allocate time for your business and interaction with the team.

Contact our team for professional assistance in promoting and SEO optimizing your online store for children’s products. We are ready not only to develop effective strategies but also to conduct a comprehensive analysis of your site, improve its usability, and speed. Trust the experience of our specialists in SEO, development, design, and analytics to ensure successful growth of your business.

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The post How to Boost Sales in Your Online Children’s Store: A Comprehensive SEO Guide first appeared on Cart-Power.

Which Is Better To Sell On Marketplaces Or On Your Website?

Cart-Power Team — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 05:39:59 +0000

According to Forbes and Statista, the sales and orders of the largest marketplaces continue to increase year on year. Producers continue to go online. The number of sellers on marketplaces is growing. Marketplaces continue to be a simple and fast way to start selling online.
But today we will talk about why you need your own online store if you can sell on marketplaces. How much does it cost to create an online store and why is it important.

Most marketplace sellers are manufacturers and distributors. At the same time, in addition to the marketplace, many sellers have their own online and offline store. As additional sales channels, sellers choose social networks, instant messengers, aggregators and classifiers.

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Choose the license for your online store

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At the same time, 46% of sellers noted an increase in sales in 2022 in their online store, in addition to growth on the marketplace.
That is, if you have your own online store, then with a general increase in sales, your benefit will be doubled.

Risks of doing business only on marketplaces

Everyone has long known about the advantages of selling on the markets. Their main advantages are:

Quick access to online. Registration on the marketplace and placement of goods can take from one day to a week.
Ready search promotion. Marketplaces “mothballed” the top positions in the search results, since the assortment on them is wider than in the online store.
For stable operation, programmers are not needed. You use the services of a platform that is itself interested in constant work.
Entry on a global market. Depending on the region, you can find universal or niche ones.

But if you look from the other side, selling only through marketplaces, you face the following disadvantages and risks:

High competition. Marketplaces strive to attract as many sellers as possible. The products are often the same, and the top lines are the cheapest, most popular and with the fastest delivery. There are very few tools to win in the competition.
Commission and unfavorable terms of cooperation. Depending on the type of goods, storage and delivery conditions, the commission can reach up to 50%. For example, Lamoda does not disclose the size of the commission before the conclusion of the contract. It will depend on the popularity of the brand, the cost at which goods will be sold or are already being sold. But, according to sellers, the commission can vary from 30 to 70%.
Fines, sanctions. On most marketplaces, there are fines for incorrect registration of the product card, for indicating direct contacts with the seller, for the lack of necessary documents, for prices above the market average, for refusals and returns. Penalties can be expressed both in monetary terms and in restrictive measures on the part of the marketplace (blocking some goods or completely blocking the seller on the marketplace).
Forced actions. Marketplaces may require mandatory participation in promotions and discounts. Perhaps the most scandalous in forced actions is Wildberries. On the Internet you can find many stories about voluntary-compulsory actions on the WB, where penalties followed in case of refusal.
It is difficult to work with repeat sales and upsells. Due to the fact that the competition between sellers is high, it is difficult to win the loyalty of the audience. Direct contacts are not allowed. So, most likely, you simply will not be remembered. The next time the customer buys the same toothpaste from another seller, not from you.
Competition with the marketplace itself. Many sites sell goods under their own brand, setting a more attractive price, like Amazon.
Changing the conditions of the platform. The marketplace can change the working conditions in its favor. And often you can not even guess about the changes. The new version of the agreement is loaded automatically in your personal account, and you must familiarize yourself with the new terms of the agreement.

Alternative sales channels

In order not to be a hostage of one platform, many sellers use different sales channels: several marketplaces, social networks, offline sales. On average, each seller uses 2 marketplaces. Most often it is Amazon and eBay.
According to Statista’s data the most popular social media platforms are: Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp.

Many people think that creating and developing their own online store is expensive and difficult. In addition to choosing a platform, designing the structure of pages, sections, categories, you need to think about search promotion, advertising settings, ways to attract and retain an audience.

However, about 40% of sellers use their online store as a separate sales channel. Most experienced sellers will say that marketplaces are good for starting and testing a hypothesis with selling a product. But in the long run, staying only on marketplaces is unprofitable.

How much does it cost to create your own online store?

To find out how much it will take to create your online store, we will analyze step by step what is needed for this.

1. License for an online store

When choosing a CMS for your store, functionality plays an important role. It should provide convenient management of orders, products, a storefront, and also be suitable for small extensions in the future.

On the basis of CS-Cart, you can open a store that meets all the necessary functions: Ready storefront, Unlimited number of products and categories, Flexible product import, Membership levels and access permission rules. A clear and intuitive admin panel will allow anyone to figure it out, even without programming experience. CS-Cart is already optimized for search engines and contains SEO tools for additional customization.

For a store on CS-Cart, you can find many extensions and ready-made solutions. Only on our website there are more than 140 add-ons for any task – from design to additional control functions.
Due to the prevalence of the platform, it will not be difficult to find programmers for support and updates.

The cost of a CS-Cart Store Builder Plus license for an online store is $1,350. It is suitable for a simple online store with one domain name.
The cost of the CS-Cart Store Builder Ultimate license for an online store is $4,500. Its functionality is enough to open several online stores with different content or domain names. At the same time, they are managed from one admin panel.

2. Hosting, domain

The cost of a domain name starts from $2 per year. Depending on the national, international or thematic area, you may need different domain names. The most famous registrars are godaddy.com, domain.com.

Hosting for commercial projects must be reliable, provide stable operation and cope with high server loads. It can be a cloud solution specialized for a specific CMS. On average, the price can start from $7 per month, with the possibility of scaling in the future.

3. Design theme and add uniqueness to the appearance of the store

To make your online store stand out from your competitors, you can choose a suitable design theme. It will allow you to customize the store pages for your niche, add beautiful banners, change the appearance of the menu, sections, and so on. Each theme contains different styles that you can customize.
The minimum price per theme is from $156 (the price is indicated at the time of publication of the article).

If a ready-made theme is not enough to emphasize the individuality of an online store, you can order a custom revision of individual design elements. In this case, the services of a designer and front-end developer will be required to implement changes to the site.

The cost of an hour of a designer's work starts from $40 per hour, the cost of an hour of work of a frontend developer starts from $45 per hour. For example, a client wants to develop a logo, as well as adapt the site to his corporate identity and brand book. In terms of time, the development of a logo can take from 7 hours, and to implement all the changes to the site - from 2 to 5 hours.

4. Individual modifications or modular solutions

The easiest way to expand the functionality of an online store is to use add-ons or modules. Compared to custom modifications, it is cheaper and much faster, and you can find a module for any task: tools to increase sales, increase the speed of the store, integrate with external services, and much more.
If ready-made solutions are not suitable, but the functionality of the site needs to be adapted to business goals, you will have to use the services of developers.

The cost of an hour for a backend developer starts from $50 per hour. For example, to add additional fields to the unloading of goods coming from ERP, it may take 8 hours of development. Connect the chat widget to the site - 1-3 hours. Add the “Write to Whatsapp” button to the product page – 5-6 hours.

If custom development is not required, but you want to expand the functionality, the cost of add-on solutions starts from $30. Add-ons are aimed at solving a specific problem. For example, “Live Search” makes searching for products on the site functional, fast and convenient. This is an alternative to cloud search services, only without a subscription fee. “Advanced Email Marketing” contains all the necessary tools for remarketing via email newsletters: customizable notification templates, subscription management, coupons and promotions for newsletters with analytics.

Conclusion

As a result, according to rough preliminary calculations, the cost of developing an online store starts from $2,142. As a result, you get an independent sales tool. You can:

build a sales system;
use customer retention tools;
stand out so that your brand is remembered and customers come back again;
fully manage the pricing policy;
manage promotions, sales, discounts at your own discretion;
test sales and promotion strategies, choose the right one for you.

At the same time, while continuing to sell on the marketplace, but reducing the risk of loss of profit.

In our experience, quick launches of online stores, even with modifications, fit into the budget from $2,200 to $3,000

Nikita Bogoutdinov, lead project manager Cart-Power

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More information about marketplaces in Northern Europe.

The post Which Is Better To Sell On Marketplaces Or On Your Website? first appeared on Cart-Power.

All You Wanted to Know About Marketplaces: Part 2. Why CS-Cart For Marketplaces is the Best Solution For Multi-Vendor Stores

Ksenia Cheburova — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 07:08:15 +0000

In the previous article , we talked about what a marketplace is, what types there are, and most importantly, how to make money on a marketplace. Recall that a marketplace is a trading platform where anyone can register to sell or buy any goods or services. Examples of marketplaces are known all over the world – these are Amazon, Alibaba, Aliexpress, eBay, as well as the Uber taxi service, Airbnb accommodation search, TripAdvisor travel website and others.

Today we will talk about the CS-Cart platform for marketplaces and why it is the best option for launching a marketplace.

The CS-Cart platform has been known on the international market of e-commerce solutions for 15 years. There are several versions of the platform: for a classic online store (CS-Cart Russian version), for a multi-store store (CS-Cart Ultimate) and a special solution for marketplaces (formerly called CS-Cart Multi-Vendor, and now CS-Cart for marketplaces). ). More than 35,000 companies around the world have trusted in the high level of technology and experience of developers and have chosen CS-Cart for their online business.

How does CS-Cart for marketplaces work?

The CS-Cart platform for marketplaces will allow you to create a marketplace where several sellers (also called vendors) can work at once. A common marketplace catalog is formed from the goods of all sellers: the buyer can switch between categories, sort goods by filters or use a general search.

Here is what the general product catalog looks like on the MODE marketplace:

At the same time, each seller inside the marketplace has a separate mini-shop (seller’s showcase) with its own logo, description, products, filters and internal search. The buyer will be able to enter the showcase of the seller he likes through the card of his product or through the main menu.

Let’s see how vendors store looks on the MODE example:

Sellers themselves will be engaged in order processing, delivery, communication with the buyer. On your part, you need to develop a marketplace, engage in promotion and advertising to attract customers.

A simplified scheme of how CS-Cart works for marketplaces consists of six steps:

Sellers fill out an application form to join the marketplace.
The marketplace owner decides whether to approve or reject the application.
Sellers load their goods, indicate the terms of delivery.
The marketplace administrator checks the products, publishes or rejects them.
The buyer selects the goods in the window, places an order, pays for it.
The money is distributed between the seller and the marketplace depending on the chosen monetization model. You can do this manually or automatically. We will tell you more about this in the section “Management of financial flows”.

Why you will like CS-Cart for marketplaces?

It is convenient to distribute payments.

Managing cash flow manually requires a lot of your time and attention. The more orders and sellers you have, the more difficult it is to remember to whom and how much money you should transfer. In CS-Cart for marketplaces, you can automate payments to sellers. For overseas sellers, you can use PayPal for Marketplaces or Stripe Connect. For Russian – there are several modules, you can choose the most convenient scheme of work.

It has the ability to automatically distribute money between the owner and sellers using Yandex.Checkout. So far, CS-Cart for marketplaces is the only marketplace solution in Russia integrated with Yandex.Checkout.

Merchant plans are easy to set up.

In the last article, we talked about different models of profit monetization. So, it is with the help of tariff plans in CS-Cart that you can set up a hybrid monetization model: for example, combine commissions from each order and a subscription fee for the right to place products on your marketplace.

There is another option for setting tariffs depending on the size of the seller’s business. For example, for small businesses, you can set a tariff with a commission for each order, and offer large partners a tariff with a subscription fee for placing a catalog. That is, in CS-Cart for marketplaces, it is possible not only to create and configure tariff plans, but also to offer each seller the most convenient tariff for him.

The seller can get their own mini-shop with a unique design inside the marketplace.

In CS-Cart for marketplaces, sellers can not only display their products on a common showcase, but also organize their own mini-store, making it different from others. It fully works in the editions of CS-Cart for Plus marketplaces and CS-Cart for Ultimate marketplaces and depends on the seller’s tariff plan. If the tariff allows, the seller will have access to the theme and layout editor: they will be able to change the logo, colors, fonts, background and arrangement of elements of their mini-store, even if its style differs from the general style of the marketplace. The ability to make the design of the store unique will attract more sellers.

You can create an unlimited number of administrators and give them different levels of access.

You can be sure that, for example, a content manager or accountant will not “break” the marketplace with incorrect actions. With configured rights, each user will have access to only those elements that he can edit. In the versions of CS-Cart for marketplaces Plus and CS-Cart for marketplaces Ultimate, you can set up different levels of access rights, even for seller administrators.

Buyers and sellers can work directly with each other.

Visitors will be able to contact the seller directly through the product page. If it is possible to ask about the product directly from the seller and get a quick answer, visitors trust such a marketplace more and become more willing to become buyers. This is also a plus for you: you do not have to delve into the features of the posted goods and spend time advising visitors.

Import / export of goods can be automated.

Sellers can create products not only manually, but also upload them in bulk using a CSV or XML catalog. This will make it as easy as possible for sellers to manage goods. It will be easy and pleasant to work with the marketplace, which means it will become even more attractive for sellers to enter.

Detailed reports and statistics are available.

It is impossible to manage a marketplace without a convenient tool for data analysis. For the marketplace administrator, CS-Cart for marketplaces has Google Analytics integrated, interaction with Yandex.Metrica is supported, and a detailed sales report is automatically generated.

Each seller can create their own promotions.

Each seller will independently manage their promotions, which means they will receive a powerful marketing tool to stimulate sales. The more sales, the more attractive the platform for sellers and the greater the profit of the marketplace.

Promotions for sellers work in the editions of CS-Cart for Plus marketplaces and CS-Cart for Ultimate marketplaces, subject to separate ordering.

The buyer can place orders separately for sellers.

This is good in two cases:

Customers on the shopping cart page will see which of the items they have selected belong to which merchants. They will be able to choose whether to place an order with one seller and delay the purchase of other goods or pay all at once.
If, for example, one of your merchants prefers to receive payments through Sberbank, and the second one prefers through Qiwi, then they will be able to create their preferred payment methods. If the buyer places an order separately, he will choose the payment method created by this seller, and if he orders all at once, he will choose one of the payment methods configured for the entire store.

In CS-Cart for marketplaces, this function can be enabled using the “Checkout by vendor” add-on. In the editions of CS-Cart for Plus marketplaces and CS-Cart for Ultimate marketplaces, separate checkout is included in the box, the add-on is not needed.

You can give sellers access to a single product catalog.

By default, each seller must add their own products to the site and fill in their description. To unify the filling of product cards and facilitate the work of sellers, CS-Cart for marketplaces has the “Common products for sellers” function. It allows sellers to select products from a general catalog. When setting them up, you will only need to specify the price, quantity, and delivery options. “Common Products for Vendors” adds a comparison table to the product card. If the product is available from several sellers, the buyer can choose the most advantageous offer without extra clicks.

“Common Products for Vendors” is also convenient for standardized products. For example, you are a manufacturer of goods and you have distributors in different cities. You create your marketplace, upload a catalog of products, and distributors simply add them from the catalog to their showcase. Another example is when there are many stores with a similar assortment and identical articles on the marketplace. This is typical for electronics: goods are purchased at the same warehouses, sellers differ from each other only in prices and delivery terms. And since the sellers have the same products, it makes no sense for each of them to waste time and upload their own catalog.

“Common Products for Vendors” works in the editions of CS-Cart for Plus marketplaces and CS-Cart for Ultimate marketplaces.

You can set a different commission for different categories of goods.

Popular product categories (household chemicals, cleaning products, food, toys) have low margins. You can attract sellers who sell such products by setting a low commission on orders. And on categories with high margins, you can set up an increased commission and get more profit from them. This feature works in the editions of CS-Cart for Plus marketplaces and CS-Cart for Ultimate marketplaces.

You can change the seller control panel based on your needs.

Hide unnecessary interface elements from the seller panel (vendor panel), leaving only those that the seller often uses. For example, a seller of digital goods can disable shipping settings to avoid loading the panel with unnecessary items.

We have listed only the main useful features of CS-Cart for marketplaces. Even in the boxed version of the platform (without modifications) there are many more interesting features. You can learn more about them at a personal consultation with Cart-Power managers.

Before moving on to the most interesting part – how to distribute profits – let’s outline the main idea: CS-Cart for marketplaces has everything you need to launch your own marketplace as quickly and easily as possible and make a profit.

Financial flow management

There are various ways to manage finances in CS-Cart for marketplaces.

Accounting

By default, all money in CS-Cart for marketplaces first goes to the marketplace owner, after which he must transfer it to sellers in any convenient way. The “Accounting” page helps to track the balance of sellers and manage money.

CS-Cart for marketplaces has standard add-ons with which you can more flexibly configure cash flow management. They are free and are already included in the boxed version of the platform: all that remains is to enable and configure the features you need. Let’s take a closer look at these add-ons.

To set the size of the marketplace commission, you will need the Vendor Plans add-on.

Vendor Plans add-on

It allows you to set up a marketplace monetization scheme: for example, a monthly fee for sellers (a fixed payment once a month or a year) or a commission for each order (a flat rate in the marketplace currency or a percentage of the sale amount), or a hybrid model.

Each tariff can be linked to certain categories (or storefronts in the CS-Cart edition for Ultimate marketplaces). This will allow the administrator to set a different commission for different categories of goods, depending on their marginality.

By itself, the “Tariff Plans for Merchants” module does not automate the distribution of money. It simplifies accounting by automatically adding records of one-time and recurring payments, as well as commissions from orders.If you want to automate the distribution of money between sellers, then two more standard add-ons will help: Vendor Debt Payout and Direct Customer-to-Vendor Payments.

Direct Customer-to-Vendor Payments add-on

Remember, we wrote that by default, all the money for orders goes to the marketplace, and from there it is distributed among the sellers? So this module offers another way to distribute finance from buyers: money for orders first goes to sellers. From the commission due to the marketplace, sellers’ debts are formed, which they are obliged to repay. To insure against non-payment of debts, the add-on Vendor Debt Payout will help. If sellers do not pay, they will lose access to their vendor panel completely.

Vendor Debt Payout add-on

It allows you to automate the collection of debts from sellers. The seller pays the debt in the same way as the buyer pays for any order: you can use any payment method available on the marketplace. This add-on is convenient because you do not need to keep track of sellers’ balances and remember which of them paid and who did not. If the seller does not pay, then he simply will not be able to use the vendor panel: manage the catalog, view orders, etc.

Payments directly to vendors work best with all the modules listed above: in this way, each module will have its own area of responsibility, and you will get an automated and convenient cash flow management tool in the marketplace. Both you and the vendors are guaranteed to receive their money for orders.

What else do you need to know about CS-Cart for marketplaces?

CS-Cart for marketplaces is a universal solution that will allow you to launch almost any online business. But there are a few limitations that are important to keep in mind.

The universality of the platform leads to the fact that improvements will be required to implement non-standard ideas, and unnecessary functions will have to be disabled. The situation is similar with external services. The boxed version of CS-Cart for marketplaces already includes integration with the most popular payment systems, delivery services, ERP and CRM systems. But if you use any external service that is not available in the standard CS-Cart, you will need to order custom development.

Introduction

CS-Cart is a popular ecommerce platform that can be utilized to build a website selling demo access to cash gambling games. Some popular cash gambling games that can be offered include:

Aviator – This is a crash-type game where players bet on how long a virtual airplane will fly before it crashes. The longer the flight, the higher the potential payout.
Space XY – A spaceship flying game where players cash out before the spaceship crashes. This game has a space exploration theme and multiplying payouts.
Aviatrix – A medium volatility crash game featuring an aviation theme and NFT integration, allowing players to customize planes.
Magnify Man – A superhero-themed gambling game featuring expanding symbols and focusing on instant wins.
JetX – A fast-paced crash game featuring a jet plane theme and elements of skill-based gambling.

Steps to Create the Gambling Games Website

Install CS-Cart and activate a gaming demo data addon which contains base templates for a gambling site.
Create product categories for each type of cash gambling game offered. Configure category settings.
Add each gambling game as a digital product within the appropriate categories. Enter product descriptions, pricing plans, demo access details, and media.
Setup online payment methods to allow visitors to purchase demo access or play money for the games.
Design the frontend of the site through templates and skins to have a gambling aesthetic.
Add dynamic blocks and widgets to promote top games and new additions.
Configure shipping and order management rules for digital fulfillment.
Launch the site and continue adding new cash gambling games over time to expand the offerings.

The next thing to keep in mind is hosting resources. At the start of a project, you may not feel any restrictions. But with the growth of the marketplace (when there are thousands of sellers and tens of thousands of products on the site), you will need more hosting resources and will have to optimize the speed of the site so that it does not freeze and lose customers.

You must understand the work of the marketplace, have a development plan and clear requirements for the project. You should define the rules for monetization and interaction with sellers in advance. If necessary, we will help you formulate this at the stage of pre-project analytics.

Examples of marketplaces that we launched on CS-Cart for marketplaces

GOWHOLESALE

The marketplace presents products and operates on a business-to-business model, where vendors are manufacturers and wholesalers, and buyers are retail companies and resellers.
The site presents more than 300K products of a wide range. See case.

Krasnostop

A marketplace with a system for booking and paying for orders, which takes into account both the specifics of the wine market and the legislation of the Russian Federation. See case.

Avocado

Belarusian marketplace for the sale of consumer goods: environmental friendliness of goods and ease of sales management. See case.

The CS-Cart platform for marketplaces is used by 1300 marketplaces around the world. Do you want the same? Leave a request, we will call you back, clarify the details of the project and offer a suitable solution. We have been developing marketplaces and online stores on the CS-Cart for 10 years, so we know how to make the project bring you maximum profit.

Do you have an idea? We have a solution!

Start your business with Cart-Power

Find out more

The post All You Wanted to Know About Marketplaces: Part 2. Why CS-Cart For Marketplaces is the Best Solution For Multi-Vendor Stores first appeared on Cart-Power.

All You Wanted To Know About Marketplaces: Part 1. What Is a Marketplace And How You Can Make Money On It

Ksenia Cheburova — Fri, 24 Jul 2020 05:58:13 +0000

Marketplaces are booming. According to Statista revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate 11,35%, and will reach US$6.10tn by 2027. The main reason why marketplaces are growing so rapidly is that the owners do not need to have the actual product (product or service) in order to launch. For example, Amazon does not have its own products, but the company is considered the largest marketplace in the world by capitalization. Airbnb doesn’t have its own hotels or apartments to rent out, but it’s one of the most popular companies in the short-term rental niche.

Looks promising, doesn’t it? If you are thinking about launching your own marketplace or want to transfer your existing business to this model, our article will come in handy. In it, we have collected all our knowledge about marketplaces: we will talk about the main features of this method of e-commerce; let’s break down all possible classifications of marketplaces; show how you can earn money and organize sellers; and in the end, we will discuss whether it is so easy to enter the market and compete with Ozon and Aliexpress.

What is a marketplace

Marketplace is a trading platform that helps sellers and potential buyers find each other online and interact with each other. The marketplace resembles a shopping center: there are different sellers on the same square, and buyers can shop in any department without leaving the building. The marketplace model is used, for example, by international companies Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, Airbnb, Uber. The marketplace model is suitable for many industries (we will look at this in the Types of marketplaces section).

The marketplace acts as an intermediary between the buyer and the seller. Its goal is to ensure effective interaction between them, make the search for goods or services convenient for users and increase sales of sellers. The marketplace is also a guarantor of the security of the transaction: the buyer is sure that he will receive his goods, and the seller that he will receive money for the order.

This form of e-commerce is beneficial for all participants:

1.Beneficial to the buyer.
It is convenient for him that you can choose the most advantageous offer of a product or service. No need to go to different online stores and compare prices – a wide range of products is already collected on one site. You can order goods from different sellers, but pay for shipping only once. The seller can be selected based on the rating and reviews of real buyers, which gives confidence in the safety of the purchase.

2. Beneficial to the seller.
Sellers save on attracting traffic, maintaining an online store and employees.

3. Beneficial for the marketplace.
The marketplace makes money: the more sellers came to it, the more buyers bought the goods, the greater the profit of the marketplace owner.

Types of marketplaces

In any marketplace, in addition to its owner, there are at least two more parties involved: a buyer and a seller. The scale and specifics of this interaction may vary depending on the relationship of the parties, the product being sold and the status of the participants.

By type of participants

Each marketplace is based on one of three basic models:

1.C2C. Both parties are individuals who interact with each other on an equal footing. They are united by common interests, they cooperate on mutually beneficial terms and can easily change roles: today you are a buyer, and tomorrow you are a seller. Examples: Etsy, Airbnb.

2. B2C. The buyers are individuals and the sellers are companies. Examples: AliExpress, Wallmart, Amazon.
Sometimes B2C and C2C models are mixed on the same site. For example, Airbnb presents offers for rental housing not only from individuals, but also from individual entrepreneurs or agencies. Some of them started cooperation with the marketplace as an individual, but then decided to turn additional income into a full-fledged business.

3. B2B. Such a marketplace connects entrepreneurs on one trading platform and helps them find successful business solutions. For example, there are buyers who are looking for wholesale suppliers or large contractors, and sellers who need new markets. Examples: Alibaba, BookingB2B, Capterra. There are also many niche B2B marketplaces focused on a narrow market segment such as trade in industrial equipment, seafood, paint and varnish products, etc.

By product type

Marketplaces can be divided into several types depending on what type of product they provide:

Products. Such a marketplace looks like a set of online stores united on one site. The buyer can shop from different sellers. Examples: AliExpress, Wallmart, Etsy.
Services. Companies that provide the same service are collected on one site. Examples: taxi ordering services (Uber, Gett) or hotel booking services (Booking, Trivago).
Investments. These are platforms where users receive collective funding for creative, scientific, social and entrepreneurial projects and reward the most active investors. Examples: Russian Boomstarter and Planeta or foreign Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
Information. The main function of such a site is to provide users with important information for them. Examples: TripAdvisor, Craiglist, freelance exchanges (Freelance, Upwork and others).

By appointment

There are three types of marketplaces depending on the variety of product categories presented:

1.Niche
On such sites, goods of the same segment are presented, but from different sellers. For example, the TrueFacet marketplace sells watches and jewelry. Each product comes with an individual number confirming its authenticity.

An example of a pharma niche marketplace is the Pipelinepharma, which sells only pharmaceutical products.

2. Industry.

Such a site hosts different goods or services that have a common global characteristic. For example, “Fair of Masters” or Etsy. These marketplaces sell different products, but what they have in common is that they are all handmade. On the platform, you can not only sell and buy, but also communicate and read useful articles on needlework.

Another example is the Kwork exchange. The services of various sellers (programmers, advertisers, designers, etc.) are collected here, but all of them are united by freelancing.

3. Multicategory.

Such marketplaces sell goods from various categories: from food to electronics. Amazon, eBay, Aliexpress, Wallmart and many others work on this principle.

Working with sellers

Another of the parameters by which marketplaces differ from each other is the type of relationship with sellers. The ease of scaling the business, the ability to set your own rules and the degree of responsibility to customers depends on it.

1.The marketplace provides a showcase and fulfillment.

What does it mean? The marketplace has its own warehouse where the seller delivers the goods. The marketplace stores goods in this warehouse, forms orders, packs, delivers – everything is done on its own behalf. This is called fulfillment – when the marketplace is engaged in full support of the product from the moment it is issued to the issuance.

This is how Amazon works according to the FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) scheme.

Read more about fulfillment in the article “Fulfilment for marketplaces: how it works, who will suit, how to make“.

2. The marketplace provides a showcase and organizes delivery.

The seller stores the goods in his own warehouse. After receiving the order, it prepares it for shipment, packs the goods and transfers them to the sorting center of the marketplace. Delivery is further handled by the marketplace on its own behalf.

This is FBS (Fulfillment by Seller) scheme.

3. Combination of schemes of work.

Let’s analyze this model on the example of Amazon.

Amazon has three options for working with sellers: Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM), and Seller-Fulfilled Prime (SFM). That is, some small goods that the seller does not want to deal with due to labor intensity can be sent to the Ozon warehouse. Something more expensive and voluminous – leave it in your warehouse and trade on FBM. This combination is beneficial for the seller: it allows you to optimize the place in the warehouse, since part of the goods is in the warehouse of the marketplace. And it is beneficial for the marketplace: you can flexibly manage stocks in your warehouse and not clutter up those goods that are more convenient to send immediately from the seller’s warehouse.

4. The site provides only a showcase.

In this case, marketplaces do not have their own warehouse and delivery service. Orders are received by the seller, who sends the goods from his warehouse and on his own behalf. He can do this on his own or through delivery services connected to the marketplace. Marketplaces act as arbitrators in case of conflicts between the seller and the buyer, all responsibility for low-quality goods or delivery lies with the seller.

This is how, for example, Aliexpress and the VKontakte Store work.

5. The platform is an aggregator of offers

The marketplace only collects offers from sellers on its showcase. The buyer compares them, clicks on the offer of interest. Then either goes to the seller’s website, where he makes a purchase, or receives the contact details of the seller and communicates with him personally. Such sites can grow rapidly, adding more and more new members, but they do not have the ability to control the activities of each seller or freelancer.

This is how C2C platforms and product aggregators like YouTube work.

How to make money: monetization models

To create a sustainable and successful marketplace, you need to find a business model that will be profitable. The marketplace owner has different monetization options.

1. Commission

The most popular business model for modern marketplaces is to charge a commission on every order. The buyer on the marketplace pays for the order, and the platform takes either a fixed fee or a percentage for mediation from this cost.

This scheme is convenient for both marketplace owners and sellers. The seller pays the service only at the moment when it is guaranteed to receive a profit, and the marketplace controls all payments that go through the platform.

This model is used by most marketplaces on the market. Among them: Airbnb, eBay, Fiverr, Etsy, TaskRabbit and Uber.

However, there are conditions in which this monetization model will be difficult to implement:

If complex schemes of mutual settlements with sellers are used. Especially if they are conducted in third-party services (for example, through 1C). Then the commission is not deducted immediately when paying for the order, but later through a third-party service (manually or automatically).
If orders are not paid online, but upon receipt or at pickup.
If payment is made through bank accounts. This is typical for B2B marketplaces and for some B2Cs.

Under these conditions, it is not clear how the marketplace will eventually receive money from the seller for paying for the transaction outside the site. You will have to choose a different monetization model.

2. Subscription fee

This model means that all or some users regularly pay a fixed amount to access the marketplace. Unlike the commission model, the monthly fee will suit those who sell luxury goods or services. And for buyers, the subscription fee will be beneficial if they regularly use the same marketplace.

The Traderb2b trading platform operates on a monthly fee . Moreover, the subscription is paid for both buyers and sellers. The organization of the auction is similar to the tender. The buyer places a request for the purchase of goods, and the sellers report within 8 hours how much they are ready to sell it for. Of these, the buyer chooses the best offer.

Among C2C marketplaces, such an example is the Home Exchange home exchange service , where, for a separate subscription fee, the user receives advanced options for finding housing.

In the B2C sphere, the personnel search site hh.ru uses a monthly fee , where employers pay to gain access to job seekers.

The subscription fee, as a marketplace monetization model, has a problem: sellers will not pay for placement on a marketplace where there are no visitors, and those who do not come to shop in a marketplace where there are few sellers. There is a way to overcome this vicious circle. When launching a marketplace, you can offer discounts to the first participants or completely cancel the subscription fee. It will be possible to enter it later, when the marketplace collects a sufficient base of sellers.

For example, the Russian B2B service Sdelki.ru first allowed free placement of goods. Sellers only paid if they wanted to boost their listing in search results. When the service became popular, its owners launched several tariffs with a monthly subscription fee.

3. Payment for accommodation

This is a fee from sellers for publishing new positions. For example, a seller can place ten products on your site for free. For an additional fee, he will be able to expand the range, as well as increase the position of the store or a specific product in the search results.

When a seller doesn’t need your marketplace all the time, they’ll be more willing to choose to pay for hosting rather than a subscription fee. He will sell certain goods and leave without spending any extra money. Therefore, this model is most often used by bulletin boards. For example, on Avito, paid ads are added to a separate block marked VIP or placed at the top of the feed.

The first problem with placement fees is that they do not guarantee the seller that he will be able to sell his product. This means that in order for the seller to want to be placed on your marketplace, the amount of this payment cannot be too high. The second problem is that the pay-per-placement model requires a large stream of new ads. Otherwise, you simply will not be able to recoup the costs of the marketplace.

4. Pay per lead

The marketplace can also earn on lead generation, that is, sellers will pay the owner of the site for each new client. The pay-per-lead model only works when the cost per lead is high. Therefore, it is not common on C2C marketplaces. Most often, this model is used in B2C or B2B markets, where each new sale builds a long-term relationship with the buyer. Using this model (as in the case of the commission), you need to think about control options so that the supplier and the buyer do not start making transactions bypassing the platform.

This is how Thumbtack implemented this model, a B2C service that collects offers of all types of professional services, from foreign language teachers to locksmiths. At the beginning, when the flow of new customers was active, the service made good money on lead generation. But then contractors built relationships with clients outside of the platform and began to use it less frequently. Now Thumbtack is developing tools to control its participants: invoicing and payment only through the service, hiding customer contact details, etc. Most likely, in order to benefit more from the transactions that the marketplace helps to make, its owners will move to a commission monetization model.

5. Freemium

Freemium means that there is a free basic plan for marketplace users, but after the seller finds a buyer, you offer them additional features for a fee (VIP status, premium service, free shipping, insurance, etc.).

The problem is that these paid features should be useful to the majority of users. If only 1% of users are interested in a premium offer, and everyone else is using the site for free, this will not be enough for a stable profit.

Here’s how the Peerby marketplace works. It is a C2C platform where people can borrow things from each other. The basic tariff is free for all users of the platform. To monetize a business, the marketplace offers users additional services:

Insurance. The owner of the item may require the customer to pay an insurance premium that guarantees the replacement of the item if it is damaged or stolen;
Delivery. In the basic tariff, the client had to personally pick up the item from the owner. For a fee, you can order delivery to your door.

Coming up with value-added or premium services that appeal to a wide audience can be tricky. Therefore, freemium is most often used as an additional source of marketplace income.

6. Hybrid model

Sometimes it can be useful to have multiple business models on the same site.

For example, take a commission for the sale of goods, and provide VIP status with additional services for a monthly fee. For example, Amazon has an Amazon Prime program for shoppers. By paying a subscription fee, you get free US shipping on all items in this program. Etsy also works on a hybrid model: sellers pay a commission on sales and for posting ads. This is beneficial because the marketplace receives income from both popular and not very popular products.

Which model to choose

In our experience, the best option for most marketplaces is a commission-based monetization model. By charging a fee for each order, you can flexibly manage your business and scale it easily. If payment for orders occurs outside the marketplace and cannot be calculated, test alternative business models and you will definitely find a suitable one. Over time, as the marketplace expands, it’s best to combine multiple sources of income. Remember that a marketplace, like most sites, can also make money from advertising and selling traffic.

Why the marketplace is not for beginners

You should always remember that a marketplace is primarily a service. For sellers, this is a service to attract buyers. For buyers, this is a convenient search for the best deals. It is extremely high risk to waste money and not recoup the invested costs if the owner of the marketplace does not know:

how to make this service convenient for participants;
how to attract sellers and buyers;
how he will earn.

Before starting to develop a marketplace, these questions must be clearly answered.

Another difficulty is if you want a marketplace “like Ozon or Aliexpress”. Even an experienced businessman will find it difficult to compete with such large market players without investment. These giants firmly hold their market segment, occupy the top of the search results and squeeze out weaker players due to the huge assortment, free shipping and user coverage. Instead of unsuccessfully competing with such giant retailers, you can focus on a narrow niche: for example, unite manufacturers of industrial machine tools, auto parts, etc. on the site.

We want to inspire you with this example: if you have developed the right marketing strategy, if you are ready to invest in the development of the project both financially and in time, then you can try to move Amazon off the pedestal. The path will not be easy, but anything is possible. If you are not sure that you can competently conduct preliminary analytics or draw up a promotion strategy for the marketplace, contact Cart-Power.

We have been designing and developing marketplaces on the CS-Cart for 10 years. Our biggest projects:

Gowholesale. A high-load marketplace with a wide range of products available for resellers.
Krasnostop. Our case “Development of the marketplace of Russian wines “Krasnostop”” received the Tagline Awards in the nomination “Best Marketplace” .

Do you want to launch a marketplace? Leave a request, we will call you back, clarify the details of the project and offer a suitable solution.

In the second part of the article “All you wanted to know about marketplaces”, we will talk about the capabilities and limitations of CS-Cart for marketplaces and prove with examples that this is the most convenient platform for developing a marketplace.

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The post All You Wanted To Know About Marketplaces: Part 1. What Is a Marketplace And How You Can Make Money On It first appeared on Cart-Power.