Different Types of E-marketplace: Comparisons with Examples

E-marketplaces connect buyers and sellers together on a single platform for commercial activity. When you talk about marketplaces, you definitely hear terms like B2C, B2B, C2C or peer-to-peer. So, what are they and how they differ from each other?

The way how they are connected and how the services or products are being sold on the platform categories the marketplace into different types. These marketplaces are also often defined under the term multi-vendor marketplace and sharing economy platforms. Here are some marketplace basics to help you decide what kind of multi-vendor store is the right business model for you.

5 Types of E-marketplace

1. Product Online Marketplace

This type is what we typically call as an ecommerce marketplace, where people buy and sell products. The platform brings together all types of sellers into a one-stop-shop that is convenient for consumers to not only check prices for the best deals but do so all under one electronic roof. Also, with features like auction and fixed price sale, the seller lists a product and sets a deadline; buyer with the highest bid gets the item.

Usually, this type of marketplace is owned by an operator who enables third-party sellers to sell products alongside the marketplace owner's regular offerings. Examples include Amazon, Flipkart, eBay, etc. Here, the vendor business model plays a major role that determines the profit for marketplace owners. Hence, it is wise to choose the right multi-vendor software that has a flexible model and suits your requirements.

2. Online Service Marketplace

The online marketplace is no longer restricted to just selling products. You can even cater to the service industry. For a startup business that wants to launch a marketplace with minimal input, it is good to offer different services that people search for.

In a services marketplace, the discovery of services forms the basis of its offering to customers and opportunities for paid work form the basis of its offering to freelancers. Platforms like Fiverr, Upwork are freelance services marketplaces.

With the service business, all you have to do is to offer a robust & reliable online platform to connect service seekers with service providers. The platform acts as a bridge connecting both these ends. You can earn a commission on each successful transaction.

3. Online Rental Marketplace

When it comes to online rental marketplace, the transportation and fashion industry are popular among investors and aspiring entrepreneurs. However, in the past few years, the rental marketplace for home appliances, electronic accessories, gears, is not too far behind to become famous.

Mobile apps like Uber, Ola are fantastic examples of this model, which are giving a huge rise to peer-to-peer marketplaces that are renting through online mediums. As an aspiring entrepreneur, you can focus on niche-based online rental marketplaces such as vacation rental, car rental, bike rental and equipment rental with the help of rental ecommerce platform.

4. Hybrid Model in Ecommerce

There can be two types of hybrid online marketplaces. One category is where people expect to sell and buy both services and products on the same platform. The online marketplace like Olx fits into this category.

Another one is where people want to get the combined benefits of buying from the online and offline stores. In this model, the customer first books the products online. After that, they walk down to the nearby physical store to buy those products. Currently, ticket booking websites like BookMyShow works based on this model.

As per the latest update, big retailers like Reliance Trends and Myntra foray into the ecommerce segment with a hybrid online-offline model. This model creates shared profitability by integrating offline stores via the online platform. As such you can launch hybrid online marketplaces to bring local merchants to sell their products through its website.

5. Hyperlocal Marketplace

The concept of hyperlocal came into the picture when people start to look for the nearby options while searching for shops, restaurants, etc. through search engines. In this marketplace model, the aim is to provide facilities and services within the shortest possible time from local vendors.

The hyperlocal ecommerce marketplace is quite similar to marketplaces like Amazon. The main difference is that the customers will be only able to buy products from vendors who can ensure delivery within 24 hours. Examples for this marketplace model includes Urbanclap, Bigbasket, ClickYourMed, etc. Also, the food delivery marketplaces like Zomato and Swiggy comes under this category with little bit tweaks in their workflow.

Want to launch a scalable and flexible e-marketplace?

The e-marketplaces have witnessed tremendous growth potential in recent years. They are here to stay for a long time. The only thing that might change will be the model and the workflow of the platform. As such, if you are planning to start your e-marketplace venture, it becomes necessary to choose a flexible marketplace software that adapts to the changing requirements in the market. Purchase Commerce is one of the advanced multi-vendor marketplace software that is built keeping in mind the future requirements of marketplace models. It enables you to create a scalable and flexible marketplace website as per the demand in the market.