Are you someone who wants to tap into the booming world of e-commerce? Well, for this, you need to create an online marketplace like Amazon. If you also want the same, you have come to the right place, as this blog will help you gain knowledge for successful online marketplace development.

Nowadays, online shopping has become a daily routine for millions of people, which shows how developing an e-commerce marketplace can be a golden opportunity for businesses. Online shopping is not just a trend; it’s a revolution that offers limitless opportunities to connect sellers and buyers across the globe.

As per a study, In 2022, consumers spent more than $3.25 trillion on online marketplaces (Source). Amazon, eBay, and Walmart are the three largest US marketplaces (Source) By 2024, it’s anticipated that 20.1% of retail sales will happen online (Source).

By leveraging cutting-edge technologies and understanding market trends, businesses can build a market that stands out in today’s competitive field.

So, let’s create an online marketplace like Amazon with this blog. Read it to the end for a deep understanding.

Quick Summary: Learn to build an online marketplace like Amazon, what significant features make it unique, what its development cost is, and how it could benefit or grow your business more.

What is Amazon – An Online Marketplace?

You might already know “What is Amazon and how it works”. Still, to know in more detail, here is it’s a brief description:

Amazon is a leading online marketplace that has changed the way people shop. The platform offers a range of products and services worldwide. Users can purchase items like electronics, books, groceries, clothing, and more directly from Amazon or third-party sellers.

What makes Amazon special is its user-friendly interface, which makes it easy for customers to browse, search, and find products.

The app also provides convenient payment options and excellent customer service. For instance, if someone buys a new phone, they can easily search for it on Amazon, compare different models and prices, and after reading the reviews, they can make a purchase.

Overall, Amazon’s innovative approach to online shopping has changed consumer behavior, making it a powerful tool in the retail industry and a significant resource for people looking for variety and convenience.

Market Analysis of Online Marketplace

• In 2024, the eCommerce market is expected to generate $4,117.00 billion in revenue.
• Revenue is predicted to expand at a 9.49% annual rate (CAGR 2024–2029) by 2029, translating into a projected market volume of US$6,478.00 billion.
• It is anticipated that there will be 3.6 billion consumers in the eCommerce market by 2029.
• The percentage of users is expected to reach 40.5% by 2024 and 49.1% by 2029.
• The average revenue per user (ARPU) is anticipated to be $1,620.00.

Top 5 Online Marketplaces

As you are considering ecommerce website development services, you must be familiar with the relevant landscape. For you, you can study your competitors to understand what users’ demands, what competitors are offering, and what different you must offer. Hence, here are 5 competitors that you must study for market understanding:

• eBay
• ETSY
• Walmart
• Shoppee
• AliExpress

 

1. eBay

The app offers a variety of products. This global online auction and marketing has gained huge popularity because of its user-friendly interface. Using the app, users can find anything from electronic to collectible.

To build an auction website like eBay, you must focus on making a user-friendly interface, supporting bidding, and providing purchasing options.

 

2. ETSY

Etsy is a unique online marketplace specializing in vintage, handmade, and craft items. It is the best place to go if you want one-of-a-kind products. To develop marketplace apps like ETSY, private features highlight seller profiles and product customization options to enhance user engagement.

 

3. Walmart

As one of the leading retailers, this online marketplace offers a large selection of products that include electronics, groceries, and clothes, making it the user’s first choice. To create an app like Walmart, integrate the most efficient delivery tracking feature and inventory management system to enhance customer satisfaction.

 

4. Shoppee

Shoppee is a popular online marketplace. This mobile-first marketplace is focused on electronics, fashion, and home goods. To develop an online shoping app like shopee, engage marketing strategies, such as loyalty rewards and flash sales, to attract users.

 

5. AliExpress

This e-commerce platform is known for its wide range of products and adorable prices, often sourced directly from manufacturers. To develop a website like AliExpress, you need to focus on establishing a reliable seller verification process and robust customer support to create trust.

 

 

How Do Online Marketplaces Work?

You have made the right decision to invest in eCommerce marketplace development. However, before investing, you must be aware of how it works. This will help you know your app’s scalability and the value of network effects. So let’s understand:

• Download and Sign Up
• Browse and search
• Add to Cart and Checkout
• Receive and Review

 

1. Download and Sign Up

First, users visit the website or download the app to access an online marketplace. After installing the app, users create a very straightforward account. Here, users need to enter basic information like their name, email address, and password to access further activities.

2. Browse and search

The marketplace’s interface allows users to easily explore and find what they are looking for. They can browse through various categories or search quickly. Users can also use filters to narrow the options based on brand and price.

3. Add to Cart and Checkout

Once users find something they want, they can add the product to their virtual shopping cart. After this, they can continue to browse. During checkout, users will be asked to provide the payment information and shipping address process ahead of time.

4. Receive and Review

After making purchases, users receive an order confirmation tracking information. When the product arrives, users can check it for accuracy or quality. If users are satisfied with the product, they can be encouraged to leave reviews so that other shoppers can make informed decisions.

Benefits of Developing the Online Marketplaces

It is no secret that investing in the service marketplace development offers immense potential for growth and profitability. Apart from this, there are numerous benefits you can enjoy with an online marketplace, as mentioned below:

• Increased Revenue Streams
• Brand Visibility
• Data-driven Insights
• Low Inventory Costs
• Scalability

 

1. Increased Revenue Streams

If you create an online marketplace like Amazon, you can generate revenue through different models, such as advertising, commissions, or listing fees. These diverse income streams provide a steady flow of revenue, making it a profitable business model.

2. Brand Visibility

Online marketplace solutions enable businesses to gain exposure through SEO and user engagement, which increases their brand visibility. As an increasing number of buyers and sellers join an online marketplace like Amazon, its reputation strengthens, attracting more users.

3. Data-driven Insights

Using advanced analytics tools, you can collect valuable data on buyer behavior, preferences, and trends. Then, you can use this data to make informed decisions to improve the platform, optimize marketing efforts, and enhance the customer experience.

4. Low Inventory Costs

Lowering inventory cost is one of the key benefits of marketplace models. Unlike old retail, you do not need to maintain an inventory that reduces overhead costs. Sellers manage their stock, while the app provides the digital transaction infrastructure.

5. Scalability

If you develop an online marketplace like Amazon, you can scale your business like Amazon by connecting multiple buyers and sellers in one platform. If you have the right infrastructure, you can expand your business operation worldwide without requiring additional physical locations.

 

How to Create a Marketplace Website?

You might be wondering how to create an online marketplace like Amazon​. If so, this blog section will help you understand how you can build a successful online marketplace with strategic planning and the right tech stack.

So, let’s begin the process to create an online marketplace:

• Extensive Market Research
• Make UI/UX Design
• Application Development
• Testing and Quality Assurance
• Deployment and Maintenance

 

1. Extensive Market Research

First, know the market landscape. You need to conduct in-depth market research to understand your target audience, what they are looking for, and how you can meet their unmet requirements.

After examining your competitors, what makes them strong, and where are they lacking in serving users better? Hence, this understanding and knowledge about market gaps will help you build a unique app that exceeds the users’ requirements.

2. Make UI/UX Design

You must know that a user-friendly interface is key to the marketplace platform’s success. To create an online marketplace like Amazon, You need to ensure your app’s design is intuitive, making it easy for users to browse, purchase, and sell.

If necessary, you can get assistance from an online marketplace development company and create a seamless experience where navigation feels enjoyable and natural.

3. Application Development

Now that you have finalized your app’s design, you can bring your marketplace to life through development. You must carefully choose the tech stack that aligns with your scalability.

You can hire dedicated developers to choose the tech stack that best suits your app. For successful app development, ensure to incorporate critical features like product listings, secure transactions, rating, and reviewing.

4. Testing and Quality Assurance

This is a non-negotiable stage, during which you need to conduct testing to ensure your app is error-free and you can use it without any disturbance. Ask the ecommerce website development company to conduct functional testing, unit testing, and user acceptance testing to identify bugs and issues and adjust necessary improvements for a seamless user experience.

5. Deployment and Maintenance

As everything has been done, you can launch your marketplace platform. But remember, your work needs to be done here. Still, you are responsible for monitoring your platform and maintaining it so that it can be relevant and fit in the market. You are advised to stay up-to-date with new trends and technologies in the market to keep your app fresh and keep users engaged.

Must-have Features of an Online Marketplace

Only having a great idea is not enough for successful online marketing. To make your app stand out in the market, incorporate unique yet significant features. For your help, here is a list of significant features you must consider for your marketplace development services:

Features For Buyers

• Login/Signup
• Advance Search
• Messaging
• Payment Solutions
• Ratings and Reviews

1. Login/Signup

Ensure a user-friendly registration process for users to create accounts and access the marketplace features.

2. Advance Search

With this feature, users and buyers can refine their searches based on certain criteria, such as category, brand, price, or keywords that enhance their ability to find desired products.

3. Messaging

Create an online marketplace like Amazon that enables direct communication between sellers and buyers as it facilitates negotiations, inquiries, and post-purchase support.

4. Payment Solutions

Provide users with several secure payment options, including debit cards, credit cards, digital wallets, and net banking, to accommodate diverse preferences.

5. Ratings and Reviews

This system enables buyers to give their feedback for your products, and sellers foster transparency and trust, helping other buyers make informed decisions.

Features For Sellers

• Login/Signup
• Listing
• Order Management
• Shipping Management
• Data Analysis and Report Generation

 

1. Login/Signup

Create an online marketplace like Amazon that includes a simple registration process allowing sellers to build online stores and sell their products and services.

2. Listing

User-friendly interface lets sellers list their products, including images, pricing, detailed descriptions, and inventory management.

3. Order Management

The robust order management system in the online marketplace helps users effectively manage shipping labels, monitor shipments, and calculate shipping costs.

4. Shipping Management

Integration with shipping carriers enable sellers to manage shipping labels, track shipments, and calculate shipping costs.

5. Data Analysis and Report Generation

With a comprehensive analytics tool, salespeople can gain valuable insights into their sales performance, market trends, and customer behavior.

 

Cost to Create an Online Marketplace Like Amazon

Now, let’s determine the cost of building an online marketplace like Amazon. We tell you that nobody can estimate the cost of extract app development because various factors impact the cost.

These factors include apps’ features, design, development team, and more. However, for a general estimation, you can estimate $8000 to $27000 as the cost of app development.

Moreover, if you have an idea to make your app unique, then it requires additional cost because it increases the app’s complexity. Hence, based on the app’s complexity, the costs are specified in the table below:

 

Online Marketplace Development	Estimated Cost	Time Frame
Simple Online Marketplace Development	$8000 – $13000	3 to 6 Months
Medium-Complex Online Marketplace Development	$13000 – $21000	6 to 9 Months
High-Complex Online Marketplace Development	$27000+	10+ Months

Why Ongoing Updates Are Significant to Effective Online Marketplace?

Let’s understand how ongoing updates are significant to effective online marketplaces:

• Ongoing updates ensure an enhanced user experience by providing an intuitive and smoother interface that makes navigation easy.
• Regular updates are useful in improving security measures, protecting user data, and maintaining a reputation and trust in the marketplace.
• Continuous updates help keep the platform fresh and competitive by adding new features attracting and retaining users.
• Ongoing updates incorporate user feedback, enabling the platform to adapt to users’ changing preferences and needs.
• Updates ensure compatibility with the latest technologies, allowing the platform to remain innovative and relevant in today’s rapidly changing industry.

Factors Affecting the Cost to Create an Online Marketplace Like Amazon

Starting an online marketplace involves different elements that can influence the website development services. If you are curious to know about these factors, have a look:

• Features and Functionality
• Design and User Experience
• Development Team
• Platform Development
• Marketing and Advertising

 

1. Features and Functionality

Your marketplace’s complexity and scope directly affect the overall development cost. Advanced features like payment gateways, product reviews, shipping integration, and personalized tools require more resources and time, increasing the cost of creating an online marketplace like Amazon.

 

Features and Functionality	Cost Range (USD)
Basic features	$15,000 – $35,00
Medium	$35,000 – $5,000
Advanced	$5,000 – $9,000

2. Design and User Experience

If you want to attract customers with an intuitive and visually appealing user interface, you must spend heavily on this. A well-designed marketplace requires talented developers to build a seamless user experience.

 

Design and UX	Cost Range (USD)
Basic	$9,000 – $17,000
Medium	$25,000 – $5500
Advanced	$5500,000 – $7000

3. Development Team

The development team’s experience and location also inflate the online marketplace’s cost. If you hire an MVP app development company from the US or Western Europe, they will charge high fees because of their living costs.

 

Location	Cost Range	Explanation
US or Western Europe	$4,0000+	Higher labor rates cause higher development costs.
Eastern Europe or India	$25,000+	Lower development costs because of lower labor rates.

4. Platform Development

Creating an online marketplace for Android and iOS increases the experience because of separate coding and testing needs. Hence, you can balance quality and quality if you prefer cross-platform solutions as they optimize resources.

 

Platform Choice	Cost Range (USD)
iOS Only	$27,000
Android Only	$23,000
iOS and Android	$30,000

5. Marketing and Advertising

If you want to acquire initial customers and generate traffic, you need to develop effective marketing and advertising strategies. Hence, this includes social media marketing, app store optimization, content creation, paid advertising, and many more that require spending money.

 

Cost Factor	Estimated Cost Range
Social Media Advertising	$400 – $9,000/month
Paid Advertising	$9,000 – $14,000/month
App Store Optimization (ASO)	$450 – $25,00

5 Strategies to Reduce the Cost to Create an Online Marketplace Like Amazon

You might be worrying about increased costs for your multi-vendor ecommerce marketplace. However, you do not need to take any stress as the 5 most effective cost-reduction strategies mentioned here enable you to bring your app to life. So, let’s explore these techniques:

• Prioritise Core Features
• Adopt Agile Methodology
• MVP Approach
• Open Source Solutions
• Marketing Strategies

 

1. Prioritise Core Features

You need to focus on core features like user registration, product listing, payment gateways, and reviews. You should avoid incorporation of every possible feature as these can be added later when required. This will help in reducing the marketplace development cost and time.

 

2. Adopt Agile Methodology

You are advised to adopt an agile approach that allows for incremental development, where feedback is collected regularly, and improvements is adjusted along with optimum utilization of resources. This technique helps in refining the platform without exceeding the budget,

3. MVP Approach

If you create a multi vendor marketplace website like Amazon​, it would be better for you to create a minimum viable product (MVP) to launch with significant features. This will enable you to test the market with a basic version before investing a lot in additional features.

4. Open Source Solutions

Using a pre-built, open-source framework and tool can reduce the cost of online marketplace development. Open-source platforms offer a reliable foundation without licensing fees.

5. Marketing Strategies

You must consider cost-effective digital marketing strategies rather than have upfront spending on marketing. You can use influencer marketing, social media outreach, and SEO to generate organic traffic at low costs.

 

 

Tech Stack For Online Marketplace Development

You must understand that the development of an online marketplace, requires the most suitable tech stack that can ensure success. When choosing technologies, you must consider your app’s security, performance, and scalability.

However, if you want to know more, the table of tech stack will help you understand which technologies you must use for successful iOS or Android app development services:

 

Component	Technologies
Frontend	React Native, Flutter, Swift, Kotlin
Backend	Node.js,  Java (Spring Boot) Python (Django/Flask),
API Integration	GraphQL, RESTful APIs, SOAP
Database	SQLite, PostgreSQL,MySQL, MongoDB, Firebase
Analytics	Google Analytics, Firebase Analytics
Authentication	OAuth, JWT
Push Notifications	Apple Push Notification Service, Firebase Cloud Messaging
Version Control	Git, GitHub, Bitbucket
Deployment	Apple App Store, Google Play Store, TestFlight, Firebase App Distribution

How Can You Generate Huge Revenue Through Amazon or Any Marketplace of Your Choice?

The key to gaining revenue lies in a silent but effective market strategy. Here are a few options which can give the return of every buck you spend, similarly available in other eCommerce stores such as grocery delivery app development.

 

1. Selling Fee

The marketplace is a multivendor platform; therefore vendors are the key partner of the eCommerce platform. Sales over the platform make up the major part of revenue. There is the following variety of selling fees:

1. Per-Item Fee: This fee is received over the sales of each item. It may vary as per different platforms.
2. Referral Fee: This type of fee is charged for the products sold. It is charged over vendors.
3. Shipping Fee: This kind of fee is charged over the shipping of any item. It is applied to products sold by vendors and individual sellers.
4. Closing Fee: This fee is applied over the sold media item.

2. High-Volume Listing Fee

For vendors with a high volume of products uploaded on the website, the listing fee is charged at different rates. Sellers need to pay a particular amount every month. The peer-to-peer marketplace charges suppliers whose number of items is above one lakh.

 

3. Advertising

Owners can earn revenue by placing advertisements on the website. As a user clicks over the product and makes a purchase, a different commission is charged, depending upon the decided terms.

 

4. Subscription Fee

Buyers are given the prime option for earning the advantage. Buyers get faster delivery options, unlimited movie streaming, and a number of special offers. The eCommerce platform also gives students discounts for purchasing Amazon prime membership.

 

Wrapping Up!

We hope this blog might help you understand how investment in Amazon like marketplace​ development can be a lucrative business opportunity. If you want to cater to the increasing demand for convenient online shopping, it’s the right time to invest in the online marketplace.

With e-commerce and mobile technology, you can tap into diverse revenue streams by making a scalable, user-friendly, and secure online marketplace.

So, if you want to create an online marketplace like amazon, what are you waiting for? Share your project requirements with Dev Technosys, a reputed mobile app development company with years of experience in the field. We offer cutting-edge solutions, expert guidance, and ongoing support to ensure that the online marketplace thrives in today’s competitive market.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

1. How Much Does It Cost to Create an Online Marketplace Like Amazon?

The cost to make an online marketplace like Amazon ranges from $8000 to $27000, depending on the app’s size, features, and complexity. Remember that custom-built solutions tend to be more costly than ready-made solutions.

 

2. How Long Does It Take to Create an Online Marketplace Like Amazon?

The online sites similar to Amazon development time varies based on its features, complexity, and customization. For a basic marketplace, it takes around 3 to 7 months, while a feature-rich marketplace takes 7 to 10 months.

 

3. What Ongoing Maintenance is Required for the Online Store Like Amazon?

If you create an online marketplace like Amazon, the following ongoing maintenance is required:

• Regular updates
• Security maintenance
• Monitoring and fixing bugs
• Payment gateway updates
• Server and hosting management

4. Why are E-commerce Websites like Amazon Popular?

The following things make the Amazon type website popular:

• Wide product range
• User-friendly interface
• Competitive pricing model
• Fast and reliable delivery
• Secure payment option
• Robust customer support
• Customer reviews and ratings

5. What are the Legal Considerations for Launching an Online Marketplace?

If you create an online marketplace like Amazon, consider the legal considerations mentioned below:

• Business registration
• Data protection compliance
• Licensing and permits
• Payment processing compliance
• Intellectual property rights