Expert advice: start your own online marketplace!

It's no secret that with the rise of digital, it's becoming increasingly difficult for physical stores to meet new customers, not least in smaller towns. The solution? A digital marketplace, of course! Abicart's own expert Raoul Hess tells us more about how it works.

Pandemitism and requests from businesses who wanted to reach out online gave birth to the idea of Your Marketplace. Many businesses either want to get started with some form of e-commerce or online shop, or gain greater visibility online to reach out better. Often they may not have the ability to run the line on their own, or it may just feel very scary to take the plunge. That's where Your Marketplace comes in, where businesses can come together and form a common platform that benefits everyone involved.

What is a digital marketplace?

Just as shops can sometimes and buy an ad page in the local paper to make a joint effort where each gets to showcase their current offerings ahead of the weekend's window display Sunday, the digital marketplace works in much the same way. The difference is that it's online, you can reach many more potential customers and you can sell your products and services directly online. You can think of it as a shared web shop where everyone shares the space, plain and simple. Sort of like a mini-Blocket!

"All it takes is a product"

So what does it take to get started? Well, first and foremost, of course, you need commitment - both from local traders and vendors, but also from some kind of coordinating force that can push it forward. It could be a business person within the municipality, a business network or even a private actor.

For the trader who wants to be part of the marketplace, all that is really required is a product. In fact, it doesn't have to be more difficult than that. You can choose whether you want to sell your product directly from the digital marketplace, i.e. as an e-retailer, or whether you just want to use the platform as a shop window to attract visitors to your physical store.

How do you start a marketplace? Let's go through the steps!

We play with the idea that you have a good collaboration between a number of businesses in your locality. You might even have a couple of networking meetings a year where you get together and share experiences with each other. You agree that a digital marketplace where you can share space to attract more customers would be a great solution. So, how do you do it?

1. It is very important that you have a good coordinator for the collaboration. You need someone who knows a bit about e-commerce and has the commitment to drive the process. For the sake of simplicity, let's call the coordinator Anna in this case.
2. Anna will be responsible for the platform and then also its owner. She will decide, in consultation with the retailers, on the forms of cooperation around the marketplace, what payment solutions will be available, how you will share costs, what it will cost for the retailers to be involved, etcetera. Should she get stuck, we at Abicart are of course just a phone call away!
3. Anna coordinates the merchants and sellers who want to be part of the cooperation and together we approve Anna's proposal for the set-up, cost sharing, etc. Anna then contacts us at Abicart to set up the marketplace.
4. We help Anna get started, known as "boarding". All the features are put in place, the look and feel is adapted to the preferences and all merchants get their own logins and profile pages. Because the platform is so easy to use, the merchants themselves don't need to have any previous e-commerce experience.
   1. We play with the idea that one of the merchants runs an electronics store, we call him Hakim. Hakim gets a login to the marketplace where he can post his products. He prices the goods, enters current promotions, fills in stock balances and tidies up his profile page. Pling! Suddenly a customer has bought a wireless bluetooth speaker, half an hour later the customer picks up the speaker in Hakim's shop - the payment has already been made online!
   2. Maj-Lis on the other hand doesn't sell electronics, she runs a hairdressing salon. Like Hakim and all the others, she has a login to her profile page, where she lists the services offered in the salon. Just as Hakim has just sold a speaker, Maj-Lis has got a booking for the next day, what a cut!
5. When you are up and running with your marketplace, it is very important to think about marketing it. Contact the local press, get involved in social media and put up signs in the shops that are participating. With the right digital marketing, you can also reach even more customers, such as visitors to the city who are passing through. If you need help with, for example, search engine optimisation of the marketplace, we are here for you.

Your Marketplace is constantly improving

Your Marketplace is our latest addition here at Abicart and was launched in autumn 2020. Today we have around ten marketplaces up and running and we are constantly working to make the platform as easy to use and functional as possible. We listen to our customers to meet their needs. Please get in touch if you have any questions or concerns!

How do others do it?
The first place to start a marketplace with us was Torsby. At the time of writing, a dozen shops have joined their platform. Customers can easily see the full range, sort by product or store and shop from the stores online. A great example of why Your Marketplace really makes a difference was recently when a passing party wanted a coffee, found the local patisserie via the marketplace, ordered and paid online and picked up the pastry shortly afterwards. How easy would it have been for the patisserie to reach the potential customer without the marketplace?
Please visit Handla i Torsby and take a look!

Three quick tips to get started with your marketplace

If you're thinking of starting your own digital marketplace, here's a list of the three most important things to consider:

1. Make it simple, start small. It's better to start small and then scale up than to start too big and not be able to handle the whole thing!
2. Have a driven person/player, preferably with an understanding of e-commerce, who can drive the project and coordinate.
3. Tut and go! Dare to take the plunge - and when you have, spread the word about your new marketplace. Market it!