Post by lizaseo11 on Nov 9, 2024 5:18:58 GMT
The number of online purchases is growing at a fantastic rate. The pandemic has become a growth driver for the e-commerce market: in 2020, people made 830 million orders worth more than 2,520 billion rubles. More than half of them were on large marketplaces. Quarantine measures forced a wide variety of product segments to go online for sale. This is where a new trend in retail was born - niche marketplaces.
What is a niche marketplace
A niche marketplace is focused on one category of goods or services. A classic example is Amazon at the beginning of its journey. The business began as a platform for selling books. Another example is Etsy, which sells vintage and handmade goods. A popular representative of the niche in the CIS is the online clothing and footwear store Lamoda. The last two examples prove that a business in a niche can be extremely profitable. Lamoda's net turnover in 2020 was 57.1 billion rubles, Etsy's was $2.63 billion.
Etsy marketplace
Nicheization of the e-commerce market is shopify website design a logical process. There is a lot of information on the Internet. It is increasingly difficult to find specifics. Niche business structures a particular segment. Allows new entrepreneurs to serve customers taking into account their unique needs, for example, cultural or geographical. Niche marketplaces have an ideal business model with an inexhaustible number of ideas, both locally and globally. You can open a diamond marketplace in Yakutia, or a marketplace for numismatists.
For example, the aim team launched a marketplace for special equipment Heavy Fair. Even in such a complex niche, the business managed to achieve good results following the launch of the marketplace.
Advantages of niche marketplaces
As a rule, universal marketplaces do not have enough time for quality customer service. And the huge amount of assortment and poorly working search technologies create difficulties with the choice. In addition, a large marketplace simply does not have the opportunity to become an expert in the category.
It is easier for a niche business to win a loyal audience due to expertise and the ability to personalize the service.
The main advantages of a niche marketplace for a retailer are high survivability and high customer LTV. If you launch a specialized store of tableware and accessories for coffee shops, you are guaranteed to get regular customers.
Your own marketplace is an additional sales channel for the brand. At the expense of suppliers, the business expands the product vertical, increases the market capacity. It also reduces cash gaps, which are inevitable, for example, in a classic online store. And the lack of need to negotiate with suppliers greatly simplifies business processes. Often such negotiations take a lot of time with legal and accounting red tape.
Well, and a banal advantage - search engines love marketplaces. For several years now, the first positions in the search results for product queries have been occupied by them. Niche marketplaces manage to increase traffic quite quickly due to content optimization and the purchase of advertising traffic.
Reason for growth
Digitalization of business. The RuNet audience is 96.7 million people, 90% go online every day. Russians change their consumer preferences faster than others and more easily switch to using digital technologies: in 2020, 90% began to buy more online (in the world - 76%).
The pandemic has further driven the formation of a new user experience of online shopping, both for sellers and for their customers. Further, digital competencies, services, and developments will only increase. This is why digitalization of business is a necessity for a retailer, not a choice.
New solutions in logistics. Quarantine has shown how quickly logistics companies adapt to customer needs. Delivery has become cheaper and faster. Express solutions have appeared: a parcel from Moscow to St. Petersburg can be received on the same day, and Samokat will deliver groceries in 15 minutes.
Technical capabilities. Previously, to create a marketplace, it was necessary to assemble a large team of technical specialists and invest tens of millions of rubles. Today, a marketplace can be created in a short time using ready-made boxed solutions, or order development from an agency.
New online buyers. The first three months of quarantine brought at least 10 million buyers to online trading. Most of them continue to buy online, the number of users is growing, and people's behavior patterns have shifted even more towards online shopping over the past couple of years.
Transition to remote work. Many companies have left their employees working remotely, despite the lifting of restrictions. Some of them are moving to the suburbs and small towns, where the offline assortment is very limited.
Is it worth making a niche marketplace?
Russian consumers know that marketplaces offer a wider selection and lower prices. There is no need to go to shopping malls, waste time and money on travel. Plus, a marketplace always acts as a guarantor of product availability and quality.
Universal marketplaces are constantly fighting for customers because the only difference is price. It is easier for a niche business to stand out from the crowd because it knows what its consumer needs. Imagine that you are looking for specialty coffee (beans with high flavor potential). Where would you go: Wildberries or a marketplace with products from coffee roasters. Most will prefer a business that specializes in their specific problem.
Niche businesses have different pricing. If a universal player tries to attract an audience due to low prices, then a niche focuses on experience and expertise. In the long term, this is the most profitable.
Solving a specific consumer problem shortens the sales cycle. Universal players need to attract a lot of irrelevant traffic while the client chooses the lowest price. A niche player knows where his client lives.
Moreover, narrowing the niche at the first launch does not mean that it will not be possible to expand it in the future. An example is Yandex.Taxi. Today, the application offers not only taxis, but also grocery delivery, courier delivery, food ordering, and cargo transportation.
By occupying a unique niche, sellers become a reliable source of information for buyers and a place of positive emotions associated with their social affiliation. A niche marketplace is a strategy that allows you to charge a premium for expertise and value.
How to open a marketplace
Based on aim's experience, we identified the basic stages for launch. However, the launch process may not be limited to these steps.
Choosing a niche
There are countless profitable niches in the Russian market. The main thing is to identify one that you can master and that has a viable audience of customers.
Determining the type of marketplace and monetization model
Customer-to-customer model. Both parties are individuals and carry out purchase and sale on equal terms. Example: Avito, Airbnb.
Avito marketplace
Business-to-customer model. Buyers are individuals, and sellers are entrepreneurs. Example: Ozon, Lamoda.
Lamoda marketplace
Business-to-business model. A model that brings together entrepreneurs on one platform and helps them find solutions for their business. Example: "On_the_Shelf".
marketplace Na_polke
At this stage, you need to decide how you will monetize the marketplace. Hypothesis testing and analytics will help you here.
Preparing the technical base for launching MVP
A marketplace requires a special platform that can solve the problems of interaction between all parties and will comply with the laws on distance trading. The basic functional set will depend on the type of your marketplace and the monetization model. It is worth including a catalog for placing goods or services, personal accounts for partners, an administrative panel, and a payment module.
To test hypotheses, you can use a simplified version or even use value proposition builder services.
Search for partners
To launch a marketplace, you may need partners in various areas. Determine in which areas you need services and find partners. In addition to the partners participating in the platform, you will definitely need a design, development, and marketing team.
Building operational processes
Once you have figured out the basic things needed to launch a marketplace, you can start building processes.
If we talk about basic processes, then we need to provide for interaction with the platform’s partners, collection of all necessary data, conclusion of contracts, formats and processes for working with payment acceptance, logistics, and more.
Discuss the pro
What is a niche marketplace
A niche marketplace is focused on one category of goods or services. A classic example is Amazon at the beginning of its journey. The business began as a platform for selling books. Another example is Etsy, which sells vintage and handmade goods. A popular representative of the niche in the CIS is the online clothing and footwear store Lamoda. The last two examples prove that a business in a niche can be extremely profitable. Lamoda's net turnover in 2020 was 57.1 billion rubles, Etsy's was $2.63 billion.
Etsy marketplace
Nicheization of the e-commerce market is shopify website design a logical process. There is a lot of information on the Internet. It is increasingly difficult to find specifics. Niche business structures a particular segment. Allows new entrepreneurs to serve customers taking into account their unique needs, for example, cultural or geographical. Niche marketplaces have an ideal business model with an inexhaustible number of ideas, both locally and globally. You can open a diamond marketplace in Yakutia, or a marketplace for numismatists.
For example, the aim team launched a marketplace for special equipment Heavy Fair. Even in such a complex niche, the business managed to achieve good results following the launch of the marketplace.
Advantages of niche marketplaces
As a rule, universal marketplaces do not have enough time for quality customer service. And the huge amount of assortment and poorly working search technologies create difficulties with the choice. In addition, a large marketplace simply does not have the opportunity to become an expert in the category.
It is easier for a niche business to win a loyal audience due to expertise and the ability to personalize the service.
The main advantages of a niche marketplace for a retailer are high survivability and high customer LTV. If you launch a specialized store of tableware and accessories for coffee shops, you are guaranteed to get regular customers.
Your own marketplace is an additional sales channel for the brand. At the expense of suppliers, the business expands the product vertical, increases the market capacity. It also reduces cash gaps, which are inevitable, for example, in a classic online store. And the lack of need to negotiate with suppliers greatly simplifies business processes. Often such negotiations take a lot of time with legal and accounting red tape.
Well, and a banal advantage - search engines love marketplaces. For several years now, the first positions in the search results for product queries have been occupied by them. Niche marketplaces manage to increase traffic quite quickly due to content optimization and the purchase of advertising traffic.
Reason for growth
Digitalization of business. The RuNet audience is 96.7 million people, 90% go online every day. Russians change their consumer preferences faster than others and more easily switch to using digital technologies: in 2020, 90% began to buy more online (in the world - 76%).
The pandemic has further driven the formation of a new user experience of online shopping, both for sellers and for their customers. Further, digital competencies, services, and developments will only increase. This is why digitalization of business is a necessity for a retailer, not a choice.
New solutions in logistics. Quarantine has shown how quickly logistics companies adapt to customer needs. Delivery has become cheaper and faster. Express solutions have appeared: a parcel from Moscow to St. Petersburg can be received on the same day, and Samokat will deliver groceries in 15 minutes.
Technical capabilities. Previously, to create a marketplace, it was necessary to assemble a large team of technical specialists and invest tens of millions of rubles. Today, a marketplace can be created in a short time using ready-made boxed solutions, or order development from an agency.
New online buyers. The first three months of quarantine brought at least 10 million buyers to online trading. Most of them continue to buy online, the number of users is growing, and people's behavior patterns have shifted even more towards online shopping over the past couple of years.
Transition to remote work. Many companies have left their employees working remotely, despite the lifting of restrictions. Some of them are moving to the suburbs and small towns, where the offline assortment is very limited.
Is it worth making a niche marketplace?
Russian consumers know that marketplaces offer a wider selection and lower prices. There is no need to go to shopping malls, waste time and money on travel. Plus, a marketplace always acts as a guarantor of product availability and quality.
Universal marketplaces are constantly fighting for customers because the only difference is price. It is easier for a niche business to stand out from the crowd because it knows what its consumer needs. Imagine that you are looking for specialty coffee (beans with high flavor potential). Where would you go: Wildberries or a marketplace with products from coffee roasters. Most will prefer a business that specializes in their specific problem.
Niche businesses have different pricing. If a universal player tries to attract an audience due to low prices, then a niche focuses on experience and expertise. In the long term, this is the most profitable.
Solving a specific consumer problem shortens the sales cycle. Universal players need to attract a lot of irrelevant traffic while the client chooses the lowest price. A niche player knows where his client lives.
Moreover, narrowing the niche at the first launch does not mean that it will not be possible to expand it in the future. An example is Yandex.Taxi. Today, the application offers not only taxis, but also grocery delivery, courier delivery, food ordering, and cargo transportation.
By occupying a unique niche, sellers become a reliable source of information for buyers and a place of positive emotions associated with their social affiliation. A niche marketplace is a strategy that allows you to charge a premium for expertise and value.
How to open a marketplace
Based on aim's experience, we identified the basic stages for launch. However, the launch process may not be limited to these steps.
Choosing a niche
There are countless profitable niches in the Russian market. The main thing is to identify one that you can master and that has a viable audience of customers.
Determining the type of marketplace and monetization model
Customer-to-customer model. Both parties are individuals and carry out purchase and sale on equal terms. Example: Avito, Airbnb.
Avito marketplace
Business-to-customer model. Buyers are individuals, and sellers are entrepreneurs. Example: Ozon, Lamoda.
Lamoda marketplace
Business-to-business model. A model that brings together entrepreneurs on one platform and helps them find solutions for their business. Example: "On_the_Shelf".
marketplace Na_polke
At this stage, you need to decide how you will monetize the marketplace. Hypothesis testing and analytics will help you here.
Preparing the technical base for launching MVP
A marketplace requires a special platform that can solve the problems of interaction between all parties and will comply with the laws on distance trading. The basic functional set will depend on the type of your marketplace and the monetization model. It is worth including a catalog for placing goods or services, personal accounts for partners, an administrative panel, and a payment module.
To test hypotheses, you can use a simplified version or even use value proposition builder services.
Search for partners
To launch a marketplace, you may need partners in various areas. Determine in which areas you need services and find partners. In addition to the partners participating in the platform, you will definitely need a design, development, and marketing team.
Building operational processes
Once you have figured out the basic things needed to launch a marketplace, you can start building processes.
If we talk about basic processes, then we need to provide for interaction with the platform’s partners, collection of all necessary data, conclusion of contracts, formats and processes for working with payment acceptance, logistics, and more.
Discuss the pro