Absolute Must-Have Features on your Online Marketplace App

Ever wonder why even bother investing in a marketplace app when you are already getting a steady order flow through your mobile website??

If you do, well you are at the exact right place.?

We do have a lot of reasons to back your decision up. Starting with your customer journeys, which are no longer linear, you need to look at the other side of the table. Selling only through a multi vendor marketplace website is not enough, you need to put your brand on at least 4 to 5 other channels loved by your customers. With a multi-channel approach, you stay connected to the new-age buyers that are your target audience. You will be surprised to know that buyers who shop omnichannel have 30% higher lifetime value and 91% greater Y-o-Y customer retention rates.?

With the new trend settling in, buyers love the idea of shopping online and mobile apps are their favourite shopping channel.?

Surprised??

Check these numbers out:

• 72.9 of total ecommerce sales come via mobile commerce
• 70% of mcommerce sales are made through mobile apps
• 66% of e-commerce traffic directly comes from mobile apps?
• 89% of the users are happy to place orders via mobile apps?
• $79 is the average value of an order completed via smartphone
• 145.2 million users monthly? for Amazon’s app?
• 66 million users worldwide for eBay’s app

Source: Statista, Google

Now numbers don’t lie! Do they? A mobile app combined with a marketplace website is your recipe for a successful brand.

6 Absolute must-have features on your online marketplace app

To keep your customers satisfied is a daunting task. With minor setback issues like extra space and battery life, they uninstall the app quicker than they install it. It thus becomes imperative for marketplace brands to offer the utmost engaging and seamless buying experience on apps.?

Let us present to you the tried and tested features that are absolute must-haves for your marketplace app -

1. Personalized shopping experience

Personalization improves marketing ROI? and ROI is equivalent to high customer engagement, more purchases, and higher revenue on the marketplace app.?

How to go about personalization?

The first step would be to gather all the data about customers’ preferences, demographics, location, and purchase history. Your app will automatically trace the customers’ behaviour to give custom recommendations and updates on their devices.?

What should be personalized?

Anything and everything that matters to your customers can and should be personalized. Say, mobile application content, paid media messages, discount offers, sales alerts etc.?

What are the tactics that can be used to offer a personalized experience -?

• Push notification - With push notifications attract customers and convince them to take action. You can also try making your notifications urgent and compelling, which motivates your marketplace app users to buy more frequently.?
• Automatic emails - You can use automatic emails to retrieve abandoned carts. Including FOMO elements, you can also drive immediate actions.?
• Personal shopping feed - Have you heard of Artificial Intelligence in ecommerce? The AI-driven platform makes customization easy and prepares a custom feed for each buyer based on their preference, wishlist, order details etc.

?2. Easy search and navigations

To accelerate maximum checkouts and time spent on site, your marketplace app should necessarily be easy to navigate. Users should not scuffle in going from product A to product B. Here are the steps you need to implement for a smooth buyer journey:

Stage 1

The user while surfing your marketplace wants a responsive design, a comprehensive menu, and an informative homepage. These factors are the deciding parameters for a user to continue shopping.

Steps to take -? For the first step, link your marketplace app’s homepage with multiple product categories. Your homepage design should be responsive on all devices, say, it should fit the screen. A comprehensive menu can help your products to get discovered.?

Stage 2

Once your user is on your multi vendor marketplace, they search for the desired products and compares them with similar items from different vendors.?

Steps to take - To make an impact, first make your marketplace app’s products easy to read and navigate. Quick-to-use elements like Add to Cart, Wishlist, Buy Now, detailed product specifications, etc help your users in making fast decisions.?

Step 3?

After your user has browsed the products and added them to the cart, they proceed to checkout. It is here that the user has to fill in details like delivery address and payment methods. After this, the user becomes a customer.?

Steps to take - A user gets frustrated and irritated when the checkout process is lengthy - so shorten it. Create an easy 3-step checkout process, namely, delivery address - payment - place order. For faster payment processing, choose reliable payment gateways and give a variety to choose from. Also, save your customer’s time and reduce repeat manual tasks by capturing data like address and payment.?

To sum this up, users get attracted to a fast and effortless navigation experience throughout their personal journeys in your marketplace app. You will lose potential buyers if you're missing these important steps.?

Steps to take -? For the first step, link your marketplace app’s homepage with multiple product categories. Your homepage design should be responsive on all devices, say, it should fit the screen. A comprehensive menu can help your products to get discovered.

3. Informative product pages to convince buyers

Do you wonder what makes Amazon product pages so compelling? After a deep analysis, you will find that Amazon’s pages are buyer-friendly because it provides its customers with all the information, unbiased. It is the details that convince your buyers to buy more.?

Best qualities of the high-performing product page

• Honest reviews and ratings by customers?
• Effectively displaying prices with discounts and coupon codes?
• An informative product description that has an emotional hook
• Product image and videos that are clear and fast loading. It is highly recommended to have 1 video 3 pictures

Looking to create beautiful pages with no design experience??

Are you an amateur in designing? Well, no problem! StoreHippo multi vendor marketplace platform provides you with ready-to-launch themes and pre-designed templates that can be edited according to your niche. The drag and drop feature lets you create pages by editing existing templates.?

4. Easy wishlist and save for later options?

Do you know the importance of an easy wishlist and saving for later options in your marketplace app? It helps to improve the customer experience and lower the shopping cart abandonments. There are other reasons as well why customers love the features -?

• Helps them compare products from different brand
• Helps them purchase items during a sale at lower prices
• Helps them make the right decision

The inbuilt wishlist feature from the StoreHippo marketplace platform helps you gather detailed information on customers' interests and purchases. When your marketing strategies are combined with data-driven insights, your multi vendor marketplace is set for success.?

5. Simplified checkouts process?

A simplified checkout process is a direct roadway to achieving your sales target. Don't you agree? A long checkout process is something that annoys the impatient user. The sole reason they are on your online marketplace is that they looking for convenience and fast service.?

It, therefore, makes sense to optimize the checkout processes for your long-term success. Here’s what you can do -?

• Shorter delivery address and checkout forms (18% of online buyers abandon the cart due to long, complex checkout processes)
• Let there be no distractions during the checkouts, like pop-ups, ads, etc
• Offer multiple payment options
• Give your customer product recommendations similar to cart/wishlist items
• Be clear with taxes, shipping charges etch just at the first step (49% of people abandon the cart due to high taxes or delivery charges)

A marketplace platform like StoreHippo allows you to optimize the checkout processes right from the dashboard. With a simplified checkout on all devices, StoreHippo lets you accelerated checkouts to make ordering smooth and easy.

Also, along with this, StoreHippo’s multi-currency feature automatically shows your product's prices in the user’s currency for your international customers.

6. Comprehensive dashboard for customers?

Customers dashboard is a sum of your customer’s orders - current or past, earned coupons, rewards, etc. But, every customer has a unique dashboard with an overview of orders, deliveries, and transactions with a multi vendor marketplace.

It also helps personalize the shopping experience as the ecommerce store owners have an insight into their customer’s preferences. On the other hand, with a comprehensive dashboard, customers can track orders, view their saved addresses, payment details, wishlist items, etc.?

You, therefore, give your customer complete transparency and increase customer loyalty.?

StoreHippo offers a detailed customer dashboard for its marketplace platforms and apps.

Key takeaways?

While building a successful marketplace app it is essential to include these must-have features. If you are still sceptical about apps, it's time to cross the bridge.?

With StoreHippo, you build mobile apps right from your dashboard at no additional cost. It allows brands to quickly design and launch apps without wasting any time on coding. And just if this wasn't enough, you get the power, agility, and speed of MACH architecture along with 300+ features in StoreHippo marketplace software. Along with this, you can also easily set up your marketplace and build a store-specific marketplace.

Register a growth like never before by offering a complete ecosystem for enterprise brands with StoreHippo marketplace software and apps. Start the 14-day free trial to build an online marketplace app and take it to the pinnacle of success in no time.?