Top marketplace features to make users happy

During the covid-19 pandemic, customers were forced to change their habits from offline to online shopping. A recent Peak to Recovery study surveyed more than 13500 users around the world to find out that 39% of them made their first online purchase during the pandemic.

Besides, 85% of the respondents indicated they intended to continue buying from the shops they learned about during the lockdown. The number of people choosing to buy online increased significantly over the last few years. According to Bigcommerce.com, around 75% of people shop online at least once a month.

Looking at these statistics, it is clear that online shopping is gaining momentum. Launching a marketplace may be a chance to use the hype of online shopping without investing in the development of a large, heavy, and resource-consuming e-commerce platform and optimizing it.

Top features for a marketplace that make users happy

Your marketplace should work as seamless as possible and deliver the best user experience to keep your sellers and customers coming back for more. I suggest considering the following options to improve the usability of your marketplace:

1. One-click login

One-click authorization with Google, Facebook, Apple ID, or any other social networks is no longer a luxury but a real necessity to make sure your users are comfortable with the first steps on your platform. You need to understand what they use more often and provide them exactly these logging in/authorization options.

1. Advanced search & filters

A large and well-structured search and filter system working correctly helps users find the right item or service faster and may significantly increase the conversion rate. Filtering is somewhat similar to a sales assistant who interactively helps you select a product or service based on an individual request.

So, it’s essential to make sure your users can find what they need quickly and efficiently. The most interesting features for the user are the relevant characteristics such as cost, brand, size, color, and so on. Depending on the marketplace vertical, these filters will differ, of course. Your task is to find out exactly what your users would like to find and how exactly it is most convenient for them to do so. Understand the basic search criteria in order to add appropriate filters.

1. Price comparison

An opportunity to compare prices for a product/service by analyzing offers from all sellers on the platform would be a good option for a customer.

1. Personalized recommendations

As personalisation remains a huge trend, the data that is collected should work and bring value to both customers and sellers. The concept of personalisation uses analytics, data channels, tools, and services to guess and satisfy customer needs.

The more accurate the personalisation is, the shorter the time and the higher the percentage of sales are. At this stage, AI can be used to select the most accurate recommendations and improve the existing ones.

There are so much competition on the market that the only way to go is to provide the customized offers to a customer by personalising marketing.

1. Hassle-free payment

Remember the emotions you get if the payment page freezes during transferring money for a product or service. Remember how irritating is it when you've paid for a product or service and no changes are displayed on the transaction page. This is probably the most frustrating experience for a user to avoid.

When introducing a payment system, it is necessary to optimize the payment process and provide the customer with the most convenient way of making a purchase.

1. Guest checkout

One of the biggest mistakes is forcing users to sign in or register to make a purchase. According to the statistics given in a study “The $30,000,000 button”, 75% of shoppers who forgot their password and used the password recovery feature did not return to make a purchase.

Customers may perceive registration being equal to signing up for a marketing spam. The guest checkout will allow visitors to buy products without the registration and, if they wish, create their own accounts right at checkout.

Once clients make a purchase using the guest checkout method, they would be more likely to register afterwards and agree to receive emails from you.

1. Real-time messaging and notifications

Whenever additional information is required about a product or service, a messenger is a must. Messages must come with lightning speed. Therefore, it is worth building a chat room on WebSockets or a similar technology that allows users to get instant notifications on a new chat message/chat request received.

1. Chatbot

A chatbot is a tool that allows you to automate a conversation with a user. They can be programmed to give different responses depending on what a user chooses or requests. For example, a chatbot might ask the user which of the company's services they want to know more about and give an answer or give more information to a user depending on their choice.

To a certain point, this digital marketing strategy helps automate communication with customers before they are directed to a real person for a consultation.

1. Ability to share the product/service link on social networks

Often when choosing something, we want to get advice or just share it with friends and family. It's always easier to click on a single button to generate the shareable link ((like on YouTube videos) instead of copying and pasting a full website link. In addition, both marketplace admins and sellers will be able to keep statistics on the most popular products.

1. Mobile app

One of the key components of a well-functioning marketplace is a mobile app to enable a user to shop at any convenient time from anywhere in the world. And the simple, responsive, and pleasant-to-use apps will be appreciated by customers.

If you wonder how much will the marketplace development cost you, I have prepared a rough estimation of the MVP for marketplace.

Wrap up

For every marketplace website, a balance is important: you have to think not only about the monetization ways, but also make your marketplace user-friendly and deliver a smooth experience for the customers who will buy and sell on your platform.