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Online selling and buying products is a great lucrative marketplace in today’s modern world. You must have heard about apps like OfferUp or LetGo, these are the most buzzing words in the online marketplace. Modern technologies make things much easier for businesses or people who are into selling and buying products online.
The industry of online marketplace is growing all over the world at the speed of light. You may also have heard about Amazon or Flipkart, they are also an online eCommerce marketplace similar to OfferUp. In this busy world, selling and buying products on an online marketplace has become one of the biggest trends of all time.
The market of online selling and buying items is increasing day by day. Apps like OfferUp are allowing people to sell their items as well as buy from them locally. These apps also help businesses in many ways which we are going to discuss in this post. If you already know the profitability of these online marketplaces and want to develop an app like OfferUp then you have come to the right place.
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In this blog, we will explore the cost to build an app like OfferUp and how an app like OfferUp can benefit your business.
OfferUp app is an online C2C marketplace for people who are looking to buy and sell their products locally. OfferUp is a local eCommerce marketplace where users can sell their home furniture, sofa, mobile phones, and even cars. Similarly, users can buy those products by bargaining with sellers, no third-party included. This is a complete local marketplace solution driven by growth and business opportunities. Users can message sellers to know more insight details about the specific item, negotiate prices, and set up a time to meet. The OfferUp app offers tons of deals on nearby items regularly.
Additionally, the app is a great platform for business as it has so many lucrative advantages that will drive your attention to building such an app for your business. Let’s explore the great advantages of having a local eCommerce app like OfferUp for your business.
Building an eCommerce marketplace app is always beneficial for businesses and users. The potential area for entrepreneurs' eCommerce marketplace apps is remarkably profitable. No matter what sort of products and services you want to sell or buy you can do that on this app without any problem. If your app is well-maintained, reliable, and offers everything that an eCommerce marketplace app should provide then people will prefer your app over others.
Here are some of the potential advantages of an eCommerce marketplace app for your business.
No Inventory Required - An eCommerce marketplace app like OfferUp doesn’t require so many financial risks or investments. You don’t need to maintain the inventory investment like an eCommerce Store. The advantage of having an eCommerce marketplace app is that you don’t actually sell or buy products, instead, you connect two people to allow them to sell and buy their local products such as their old furniture or sofa. You don’t need to manage and refill the inventory again and again.
Customer Engagement - An eCommerce marketplace app is a free-to-use service that allows users to use it like it’s theirs. Users themselves bring all the offers that they want to add to their product such as discounts or buy one get one free. As a result, buyers have the option to directly deal with sellers and ask them to negotiate the prices of products. Direct contact increases customer engagement as they don’t have to wait for the big deals to come.
Vast Role of Sellers - The next big advantage of developing an eCommerce marketplace app like OfferUp is that you don’t need to always find sellers or buyers. There will be one-time app promotion to gain the attention of users and that’s it. The platform is free for all; anyone can create a profile and start selling their products easily.
Revenue Opportunities - The investment is low but the growth opportunity is high. Since your only work is maintaining and making your app fully functional for your customers, you only need to focus on earning revenue. OfferUp takes charges from each sale; for example, if a user wants to sell his/her old couch for $1,500 then the app will charge a certain percent for the service and the remaining will take the other user. And similarly, there are many ways that a business can earn revenue from the app.
These are the few advantages of developing an eCommerce marketplace app like OfferUp. Furthermore, we will discuss its features and the budget you will require to develop such an app for your business.
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Nowadays, there are a lot of online eCommerce marketplaces that allow users to trade items and products. The main advantage of these platforms is that they make the buying process easy and convenient. You can buy an item or sell it without stepping foot in the physical store.
Let's explore the monetization models of popular marketplace apps like OfferUp below.
Subscription Model
Most of the eCommerce marketplace apps are using this type of revenue model. These platforms charge commissions from their listed items or products. People using the app in general may need to buy a subscription package to use it frequently. Through this revenue model, app owners can earn a good amount of money by taking a percentage or commission from their users whenever they sell or buy an item or product.
Transaction Fee
Some apps charge users a fee for each transaction, but you have to buy them before you can use the app. For example, when you buy any product from eBay it takes a 5% fee on each sale or purchase. Some eCommerce marketplace apps also include delivery charges. Similarly there are amazon, flipkart, and many more that use these revenue models to grow their business.
Merchant Fee
Merchant fees are paid to the company or platform that lists your items and products for sale on their system. They take a percentage (depending on the type of product you are purchasing) of what you earn from each transaction, which is another form of payment fee.
Advertisement
eCommerce marketplace platforms and shopping apps like OfferUp are using promotional ads to increase their revenue to sustain their business. The sellers of such apps pay a certain amount to the website administrators to run ads on their platform and increase their business visibility.
Membership Fee
This is another popular revenue model that provides premium or limited services at a cost. You can easily register for an account or get a subscription through your app to access the upgraded feature and earn better profits.
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To make an app effective, you should never ignore that uniqueness is essential and your eCommerce marketplace app should contain all the basic to advanced features that are not there in any app so far. It’s an absolute necessity that your app should offer what your customers need.
Firstly, you need to research your competitors' app drawbacks and analyze if there is room for any critical improvements. After that, you can launch and promote your app. Below mentioned are some of the key features that you should integrate into your app to find an extensive user base.
User Registration/Login
Even though it sounds a lot easier to accomplish, many inexperienced developers fail to accomplish a simple thing, and user login is one of them. This is the step where users get frustrated when they won’t be able to login in the app.
A User Login feature might look very easy to create but making it simple yet attractive is no easy task. A mobile app developer should know the basic rules of creating a user login. But thanks to social media integration, login becomes much easier.
They can simply enter the application by choosing a social media login option. The bottom line is to make the whole login process much easier and fast as possible so that users don't have to wait to get into your eCommerce marketplace to sell their own item or to buy.
Advance Search
Users will need to search for their desired products to buy them. In the advanced search option, users can implement custom filters; for example, you can show custom categories to filter the item that users are looking to buy. This way user will not face any uncategorized items that will waste their time.
Built-in Camera
If you are building a clone app like OfferUp, then you should integrate built-in camera options for users. Built-in camera feature allows users to take the item pictures which they want to sell. They can edit pictures, crop them, and adjust the lighting. It helps sellers showcase their products more vividly so that buyers can easily get attracted to their products. If you are thinking of building an eCommerce marketplace app similar to the OfferUp clone, you need to optimize your app for the best high-quality camera output.
Virtual Try-on
In the past couple of years, virtual and augmented technologies have gained a profound place in the app and software development industry. The virtual try-on feature allows users to try on the products and items before they purchase them. They will get a comprehensive look at what item they are purchasing, genuine or fake. This feature enables users to clear their doubts about the product which they are buying. This feature will help you increase your sales and purchase if designed carefully.
Push Notification
Keeping users engaged is no easy task; many startups have failed to maintain it. A simple notification to remind your users what they are missing today is enough to drive them crazy. When they will see this notification and then they will open the app and check out the fresh deals coming out shortly, it will drive them to “WoW let’s buy”.
In-App Payments
With this feature, users can pay online for the item or products instantly. To streamline this process, implement a strong framework to integrate high-end security and fast payment processing. Remember, the payment section is one of the areas in your app that needs to be great. Most of the users can tolerate some glitches but when it comes to the final payment page, they need a system that makes their purchasing experience fluent.
Fraud Protection System
In today’s high-tech world everything is possible and even hacking or fraudulent is increasing day by day. We have all heard news about how scammers are frauding people online or through apps. Therefore, if you want to earn the trust and loyalty of users, ensure that you do your best to protect your users from any sort of fraud.
OfferUp is already investing in user protection and support to remove fraud. They are using various types of fraud detection algorithms in their application.
Collaborating with vendors and mobile network service providers is a well-considered approach to reducing fraud from your app. Therefore, the more you will invest in the fraud protection system for your app the more your customers will trust your app.
Moreover, there are many other features that you can integrate into your Clone app like OfferUp to make a strong presence in the market. However, it is also notable that the more features you will add to your app the more the cost will keep increasing. Therefore, identify your profound needs and gather all the needs to create an app that will allow your business to grow sustainably.
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The cost to develop an application completely depends on its features, complexity, functionality, and UI/UX design. Additionally, the app development team's location and experience also play a crucial role in the cost. Telling the accurate cost of OfferUp clone app development is not possible as it all depends on your requirements. However, to give you a cost estimation of building an app like OfferUp, then here are the cost estimations:
The cost of eCommerce marketplace app development can range from $5,000 to $25,000. And if developing a more complex feature and functionality app like OfferUp including website design, promotion, and app store optimization and so on, then the cost can range from $10,000 to $50,000. But with us, you can save 40 to 60 percent on cost and time.
Orion InfoSolutions is a leading and the best app development company holding its eternal presence for more than 8+ years. We are a professional-level development team and have the ability to create apps and software that helps you grows more visionary.
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We don’t just build; we cater your app with our top high-end technology integration to make it successful till the end. Our vision is not just to deliver solutions; we help startups or well-established entrepreneurs to expand their business on a large scale. Our goal is to help every type of industry with modern technologies to help ease and automate their business workforce so that they can focus on their other core business requirements.
If you have a project feel free to contact us anytime you feel like. We are always available to support you with the best possible solutions. Don’t believe words, hire us and see what we can do for you.
DC Kumawat is the CEO of Orion InfoSolutions, a leading provider of IT solutions to businesses of all sizes. He has over 14+ years of experience in the IT industry. He is a passionate advocate for the use of technology to improve business performance.