Learn about the salient features and cost to build e-commerce marketplace app like Amazon!
Amazon is America’s second biggest company and the most valuable brand in the world with a market cap of approximately $921 billion. With customers in mind, Jeff Bezos aligned his efforts to achieve satisfaction, and make the products available and easily accessible in any case. The focus was to build a B2B customer experience measurement and reporting, responsible for all end-to-end customer experience across all touch-points. Amazon is one of the best examples of the customer experience driven through proactive and customer focused behavior and actions. Their goal is to create an exceptional shopping experience by specialty product knowledge, assessing customer’s needs by actively listening and providing solutions that are tough.
Some of the very basic, crucial requirements for building an enterprise marketplace like Amazon were:
- A business marketplace is defined by what they charge for. If they compete solely on the basis of price, then they will get commoditized, offering little or no true differentiation.
- It is important to determine what the customers really value.
- Incorporation of new data and analytics into CX analysis like social listening, text, photos, location-based data, and video analytics) to further understand CX and the customer journey.
- Integrating intelligent virtual assistants to improve online customer service experience and increase sales. But they must also be determined that what character would suit their business?
- Their strategic managers worked hard to improve the process resulting in better customer experience, loyalty, and profits.
- Checking if the corresponding challenges ring true for the business.
- They have to be upright with the key attributes of the customer base, customer experience, customer needs and customer challenges and how these affect the need for a culture of customer-centricity at your organization?
- In the way, they have to determine the challenges that are observed or experienced in getting a customer inquiry to the correct individual who is able to get a question/inquiry answered, addressed, or resolved?
- With automation of the backend system and increasing use of mobile payment systems, is the online e-commerce business destined to grow?
- How did they make use of digital to deliver a better guest experience (with more customer loyalty and engagement) and hopefully, drive greater differentiation and more profitability for your business?
- They were focused to perform, to align their values, build trust and deliver a remarkable customer experience by putting humanity at the center of business.
- They perceived the requirement to plan for the coming years, according to what they experienced in the market in the last few years (5 years in particular). This was majorly done to analyze customer experience (CX).
What features do the customers appreciate while they buy online?
Although it is easy but is never enough to just close the sale for an online business to be successful. Businesses need to make their customers fall in love with the brands, products or services they offer. Every marketing effort has become customer oriented. This has given the agile brand the chance to outshine the competition and achieve even higher levels of success.
Businesses follow these points to make their customers fall in love with their offerings:
(1) Word of mouth marketing (WOMM), (2) all in one SEO (which includes – recommendations from people they know, branded websites, consumer opinions posted online, editorial content such as newspaper articles, advertisements on TV, ads in newspapers, brand sponsorship, ads in magazines, billboards and other outdoor advertising). (3) Besides this, it is important to understand consumer psychology, who they are, what they are looking for, what products they usually browse, and what offers will attract them to the app again? (4) Create profile, qualify leads, design customer experience, manage customer expectations, and be authentic in customer interactions (with actions, beliefs, understanding and awareness), (5) blogging (authentic, real and nice), treat the customers like royalty, (6) practice active listening via customer feedback and follow through. Surveys, Focus Groups, Observation, Point of Sale, Customer Service, Social Media, Communities and Groups, Email and Web Forms and CRM software – are some ways of fetching customer feedback. (7) Create a scalable support system.
Recommended Features in an E-Commerce App
It is important to determine and analyze the following features before creating an e-commerce marketplace app:
- Proper customization
- Advanced search options
- Trouble-free registration process
- Loading speed
- Feedback system
- Indelible user experience
- Push notifications
- Relevant and Authoritative App Content
- Ratings and Reviews
- Wish List Button
- Log in via Social Media
- Featured product
- Quick checkout
- Multi-currency payment options
- Accurate Analytics
Key Features in Marketplace App (User Interface)
- Social Login
- Signup/Login
- Product Listing with Filters
- Favorites Listing
- Sharing
- Ratings and Reviews
- Question & Answers
- Delivery Status
- Add to Cart
- Payments (Card/Net Banking/Cash on Delivery)
- Checkout Page
- Billing & Shipping Addresses
- Recently Viewed
- Order History
- Track Order
- User Profile
- Confirmation Email after successful order completion
Key Features in Marketplace App (Admin Interface)
- User Management
- Admin User Management
- Seller Management
- Product Management
- Logistic Management
- Banner Management
- Category Management
- Reports & Analytics
- Feedback & Support
- Offers & Discount Management
- Payments & Refund Management
Key Features in Marketplace App (Seller Interface)
- Social Login
- Signup/Login
- Product Management
- Inventory Mangement
- Offers & Discounts
- Order Management
- Ratings and Reviews
- Reports & Analytics
- Feedback & Seller Support
- Settlement Module
- Payments
- Return Management
- Notifications
Amazon’s Business Model
Amazon’s business model is incontrovertible. Until last year (2018), online stores alone contributed nearly 52% of Amazon’s revenues, followed by physical stores, third party seller services, Subscription services, AWS, and advertising revenues.
It started as an online bookstore and expanded further to accommodate many more categories like (1) Echo &Alexa, (2) Fire TV Stick, (3) Kindle E-Readers & eBooks, (4) Amazon Prime Video, (5) Amazon Prime Music, (6) Mobiles, Computers, (7) TV, Appliances, Electronics, (8) Men’s Fashion, (9) Women’s Fashion, (10) Home, Kitchen, Pets, Furniture, (11) Grocery, (12) Beauty, Health, (13) Sports, Fitness, Bags, Luggage, (14) Toys, Baby Products, Kid’s Fashion, (15) Car, Motorbike, Industrial, (16) Books & Audible, (17) Music, Movies, Gaming, Software, (18) Recharges & Bill Payments, (19) Flight Tickets, (20) Gift Cards, (21) Art, Handicrafts, Collectibles.
It can aptly be called an umbrella concern that has a huge cloud infrastructure, advertising business, subscription service that makes the shopping experience even more relevant. Its success can be measured via customer experience, obsession, lowering prices, stable technology infrastructure and free cash flow generation.
Fascinating Facts about Amazon’s E-Commerce Business
- 9 out of 10 consumers check product prices on Amazon App/website before going for the actual purchase.
- 2% of Echo owners purchase via Amazon’s voice assistant – Alexa.
- Amazon has a gamut of more than 12 million products.
- Over 95 million people have over 1.1 million Amazon Prime membership in the US.
- Every Amazon Prime member spends approximately $1.4K each year.
- More than 50% of all the Amazon sales come from third-party sellers.
Cost of Creating an App like Amazon
Affiliate revenue and transaction fees revenue are the two ways in which revenue model can be created. The marketplace app earns profit in the form of commission once the customers are referred to other apps. Transaction fees revenue can be of three types:
- Product Listing Fees
- Sponsored/ Promotional Product Fees
- Commission Fees payable by Seller after Auction
A local marketplace app is developed in three phases: Blueprint or wireframe creation, wireframes converted into .psd images (static), design converted into forms/webpages (dynamic). While the cost of wire-framing can go around $800-$1000; designing and development can go around $7000-$10,000; therefore the total cost of the marketplace app can be estimated at $30,000-$80,000.
Approximation
The cost of a marketplace app like Amazon can be estimated by combining various factors like technologies, tools, platform, availability of developers (in-house or outsourced), location preferences, implementation of features and modules and additional client’s expectations. Top mobile app development companies need to consider these factors and implement some more like high-end images, promotional notifications, loyalty points, advanced search, product comparison charts, special deals and discounts, live chat integration, product recommendations, social media sharing options, wish-lists, sort and filter, guest check out options, inclusive of all possible payment options in order to succeed in current scenario. App development companies India have enabled their apps with AI, VR, and AR and make them future ready. Voice-enabled search, implemented with iOS app marketplace or marketplace app for Android has tracked customer’s sentiments and made their shopping experience hassle-free.