With the digitization and arrival of advanced technologies, people have become more tech-savvy and try to do every possible task online. In this queue, buying and selling of goods also have been added as people have adopted this super easy & new way to trade their things a few years back. With time, this trend has come to the front place and now, more businesses are trying to invest in this sector to earn extra money.
In the extensive list of popular Classified apps, OLX & Quikr are doing an excellent job and customers are preferring them to have the needed things or to sell something that is non-usable to them, be it their furniture, books, electronic gadgets, vehicles, or even property. By using these global classified platforms, users can deal with other users easily and quickly. Not only users, if we talk about businesses, they are also getting multiple benefits and high revenue via investing in this industry.
Ventures who are interested to develop classified apps like OLX can get knowledge regarding its development process and estimated cost from the below guide. Entrepreneurs can take app development planning to the next level by knowing what is essential for building online marketplace apps like Quikr, OLX, and Expat.
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What Do You Understand by Marketplace Apps?
Online marketplace apps that are also known as classified mobile applications are used by people who have something to sell or need to buy something. Items on these apps are usually second-handed but customers can purchase them after trying and contacting the owner. These marketplaces generate a wide range of product listing, acquire ranks, provide ratings and feedbacks.
OLX, Quikr, and others are a common platform that connects both owners and customers to buy & sell services and products. These apps also provide secure online transactions between both parties but in the end, the way of the transaction depends upon buyer and purchaser.
How Does Marketplace App Work?
Before you hire mobile app developers to create an efficient classified app, it will be good to know how does an online marketplace app works. Online marketplace app like OLX has an amazingly simple and quick working to make the trade process uncomplicated for users. Check out the below points-
- Users must sign-up or login in to the app after downloading it. They can submit their details such as name, email, or phone number to sign-up. Then, they can use the created credentials to log into the app.
- If you have any product to sell, then enter the information about it like description, photos, price, etc. with authenticity proof. If the product is negotiable, you can mention it too.
- If you are a buyer instead of a purchaser, then go through the product categories and choose according to the product you want to buy. Then, read out the description and price, if you find it suitable, contact the owner.
- In case, you are unable to find the appropriate product or service, you can post it with your specific requirements on your account feed. A similar process applies when you want to sell something, you can post it on the feed. If anyone matches your requirement, he or she will contact you.
- You can also have a chat or voice call with the other person if needed. After fixing the deal, there can be online or cash payment depending on both parties.
Benefits To Get from Classified App Like OLX
A classified app like OLX doesn’t only provide benefits to businesses but is beneficial to app users as well. As we know online marketplaces are one of the fastest-growing sectors in the current time and like other mobile apps, it also provides never-ending benefits. Have a look at the following to know about them-
For Buyers & Purchasers
Here are some of the benefits provided to app users to attract them and make them use your online marketplace, check out these-
1. Better App Efficiency
The app works smoothly, whether it is about posting the ads of goods, buying something, or making the payment process. Users only have to do is to click some pictures of the products and post them with the proper description & price. The app dashboard will include all the product categories and listings along with the contact details of the owner.
2. Improved Convenience
These classified apps help users to satisfy their selling or purchasing experience by providing them with what they need, quickly. Both the parties can talk over the call or through a chat system as the users are not required to go anywhere until it is about the payment or finalizing the deal. They can do the entire process by sitting at their home.
3. Enhanced Customer’s Interest
These online marketplaces are able to grab the customer’s attention due to the broad variety of services and products provided by different individuals. These applications also offer lucrative deals, and discounts to make customers use the app. Along with unlimited options & choices, apps like OLX, Quikr, etc. give users the freedom to choose their preferred product that enhances the app’s customer base.
For Business Owners
Following are the benefits gained by app owners through having online classified apps. They must know about these before knowing “How to create an app like OLX”? Get to know about them here-
1. Static Revenue Opportunities
There are a lot of opportunities to get high revenue through these buy-sell online classified applications. However, several apps still use the standard method to earn money that is to apply commission-based models but some of them are applying new techniques comprising in-app ads, subscriptions, and many more. All these ways to earn money are effective, businesses just need to implement them in the right way.
2. Dynamic Business Model
An effective business model is much required for the success of a business. It doesn’t consume a lot of investment and has fewer inventory needs. There is a minimum risk while doing business with this model. App owners can do a little investment later to make the app better and including advanced features in it.
Different Challenges Encountered by Classified Apps
No business doesn’t face challenges while being in the market. And a business that knows how to overcome these challenges can make it to the end and taste the success. In this reference, it is also recommended that businesses should have mobile app development services from professionals who have rich experience in the development field. Let’s get to know about the challenges faced by online classified apps like Quikr, OLX, and others, and what are their solutions?
Less Product Information
Sometimes, it is seen that some products listed on the classified apps don’t have enough description or details that can be a cause for the problem or misunderstanding between the product owner and buyer. As a solution, the app needs to be aware of such products and shouldn’t verify them or listed them on the app dashboard so that users don’t have any kind of inconvenience.
Sync Between Sellers & Buyers
For the success of an app, it needs to provide the appropriate synchronization between the sellers and buyers so that they can have a smooth deal without any interruption and get an amazing user experience via the app. To face this primary challenge, apps can have in-built chat or voice calls that can help the users to have proper communication while maintaining their privacy.
Integrity & Trust Issues
Although it is a primary issue with all kinds of apps, still it needs to be resolve soon. In classified apps, users have authenticity issues while contacting the other parties and with the refund & return policies of the apps. Here classified apps are required to increase the app integrity by providing users the option to cover their details like mobile number and to be clear with all their policies.
Revenue Model Problem
Owners of online classified apps have the issue as they doubt the monetization model that will it be able to cover the overall cost of developing the app or earn maximum profit. For this, app owners need to apply an effective revenue model that is already tried and evaluated with a similar kind of business.
Market Situation and Growth of Online Classified App Market
Businesses hire a top-notch classified app development company to have scalable marketplace solutions and earn great revenue through them. But before hiring them, would not it be good to know about the latest market growth of the industry you are going to invest in-
As per the sources, the global online classified market is growing at a rapid speed at present. Increased internet penetration and users are the prime reason behind it. Based on the report of ITU (International Telecommunications Union), overall individuals using the internet worldwide turned 1.93 times more including 3924 million users in 2018 that was about 2035 million in 2010.
The global online classified market is expected to have around 4% CAGR throughout its forecasted period between 2020 to 2028. The entire market is divided into distinct categories such as mobile, social media, website, search engine marketing, banners, and others. These categories hold the largest market currently as there is an increasing number of users in this industry. The below data shows significant growth in the global online classified market around the world as a verdict of innovations in mobile technology.
Key Features Used in Online Classified Applications
Including unique features in the app is the first step towards success. Be careful while choosing features for online classified apps as it will have a direct impact on the cost to develop an app like Quikr. Let’s find out these features to comprise in different panels-
User Panel
It is important to incorporate salient features into the user panel to grab their interest. Features must be included as per the user’s preference. These are as following-
Simple Signup or Login
New people need to sign-up to use the app and get additional benefits from the app. They can do it via submitting the required details or using their existing social media account. After that, they can log in to the app with the provided credentials.
Post Ads
After creating the account, users can post advertisements about the available products with their descriptions and price. Post must have a verified mobile number so that buyer can contact the owner.
Buy or Sell the Product
Users do not only sell the products; they can buy the required product as well. It includes a wide range of products and services including job portals, electronic items, real estate, furniture, vehicle, clothing, etc.
Search and Filters
To find a product from a specific category, users can apply multiple filters to find it out easily. They can also search their preferred seller or buyers using the filter.
Real-time Notifications
It helps to alert or notify the users about important updates such as nearby sellers or buyers, profitable deals, discounts & offers.
Saving the Products or Ads
Users can save the ads or products in which they are interested. Through this, they can buy it later if it is available in the future.
Admin Panel
Features included in the admin panel provide a kind of control to the admin, hence these must be very impressive and useful. Check out below-
User Management
Admin manages all the users on the app, it is his responsibility to verify all the new users and ensure to not have any suspicious or fraudulent person.
Product Management
Products and services are overseen by the admin. Through product management, products are listed under various categories. It has all the records including sold, in-stock, or excessive items on the app.
Managing Service Providers
This feature helps the admin to manage product owners or service providers. Admin verifies all the service providers and keeps all their records related to their listed items. Via admin dashboard, they can easily navigate and can manage service providers along with users.
Order Tracking
This feature permits the admin to collect data, handle sales & orders, track inventory, generate orders, and buy orders. Admin has full control over the order tracking until it reaches the customer.
Spam Prevention Tools
If the admin suspects anyone, be it a user or a service provider, he can take the help of these spam prevention tools to detect them. The use of spam prevention tools is beneficial to enhance web security.
Payment Management
All the payments made by users are analyzed by the app admin. He knows all the payment transactions done between the buyer or seller, mode of the payment transaction, product price, etc.
Manage Categories
Admin manages varied product categories displayed on the dashboard. Which product lies under which category, is decided by the admin.
Generate Reports
These generated reports by the admin comprise precise details about visitors, app users, revenue, products, order value, and many more.
Advanced Features
Involving advanced features into the classified app makes the app more compatible to get a place in the market among the existing competitors. Ventures require a well-experienced eCommerce app development company to integrate these below-mentioned features into the app-
In-app Chat & Call
This feature is used to provide convenience to users as they contact each other. Users can have seamless communication regarding the product, discount, address, etc. with the seller with these features.
Phone Number Masking
This feature enables sellers and buyers to contact each other without revealing their phone number or any kind of contact details. It is done to maintain the confidentiality of users’ data so that they can interact freely.
Multi-lingual Support
The marketplace app is not only used in one region, but also by people worldwide. Therefore, it is necessary to add a multi-lingual support feature so that every user from any region or country can understand the app to use it. This feature will be helpful to increase the user base of the app.
Efficient CRM
It will be more beneficial to integrate an effective customer relationship management system into on-demand app development services. CRM helps businesses to create an easy and unified channel with their customers and use the customer’s data competently to make decisions in the future.
Real-time Analytics
Admin can monitor every activity that happened within the app through this feature. He gets detailed data & analytical reports for analyzing and tracking metrics such as user retention & acquisition rate, customer satisfaction rate, and more. All this information is helpful in crucial decision-making.
Monetization Opportunities You Will Get Through Apps like OLX
Every businessperson looks for monetization techniques before getting the answer to How to build an app like OLX.
Following are some of the monetization opportunities that can increase the business revenue, check out these below-
1. Showing Ads
It is the most used technique to make money by displaying advertisements of other businesses and their products on your app. You will get a good amount of money in return for showing the ads.
2. Top Feature-listing
Classified apps can charge the amount to display a business in their top feature list that ensures the enhanced visibility of that particular service.
3. Transaction Commission
Every time, a user makes a transaction, the marketplace app will apply a certain fee on that transaction. The amount of the fee will depend upon the transactional amount. This popular tactic in the revenue model helps a lot to get high profit.
Development Process to Create an App Like OLX Or Quikr
If you get successful in having a feature-rich marketplace app like Quikr, OLX, or Expat, you have covered the halfway to success. Before having Ecommerce marketplace development services, it is important to do proper research about the market and demand of users. Let’s get to know about the development steps that must be followed to have a scalable app solution-
1. Identifying the User’s Demands
Demands and choices of users change with time, hence businesses need to focus on them if they want to get succeed in the market. It would be easy to build a classified app after knowing the user’s requirements. Study your target audiences and have a broad exploration of the current trends of the market.
2. Project Planning
Before beginning the development process, create an appropriate plan about the user’s needs, challenges to face and their solutions, features to add, essential things to consider such as team structure & technology stack, and many more. This plan should be followed step-by-step to ensure to development of the best-classified app.
3. Design of the App
An app must be attractive enough to steal the attention of users. And it can be done by developing the app with structural design and impressive features. App designers need to use CSS in a way that can enhance the app visibility; they can also use various designing tools for this.
4. App Development
For the development stage, you need to have an experienced classified app development company with knowledgeable professionals who can help you to create the app implementing the right technology stack. They will integrate must-have and advanced features into the app to make it stand apart from other competitors.
5. App Testing & Launching
In this stage, App will go through the testing and testers will find out the issue within. If there is any, it will be resolved, and the process will continue until it gets error-free. After successful testing, the app is ready to launch in the market.
Required Team Structure and Tech Stack
To develop a classified app like OLX, you are required to have a proficient team of designers, developers, and others. Hire classified app developers who know the latest technology stack and can implement it to the app. Get to know about the appropriate team structure below-
1. Team Structure
Businesses that need to build a feature-packed and premium-quality classified application like OLX must opt for a professional and expert team, it should include-
- Project Supervisor
- iOS App Developers
- Android App Developers
- UI/UX Designers
- Back-end Developers
- QA Analysts
2. Technology Stack
Picking up the right set of the technology stack is very significant while developing an online marketplace app like Quikr, OLX, and Expat. If you want to be ahead of your competitors, go for a leading mobile app development company that has expertise in the following tools & technologies-
- Real-time Notifications: Twilio and Push.io
- Real-time Analytics: Apple Flink, Hadoop, Spark, IBM, and Big Data
- Database: Hbase and MongoDB
- Web Framework: .NET, PHP, and JavaScript
- Cloud Environment: Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google
- Mobile Platforms: Android, iOS
- Voice, SMS, and Verification Process: Twilio, Nexmo
- Payment Gateways: e-wallets, PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe
Cost Evaluation of Developing an App Like OLX
It is not easy to evaluate the exact cost of creating a buy-sell classified mobile app. You need to get an understanding of the cost-affecting factors to determine it. These factors include the chosen app development platform, app design, comprised features, size, team structure, and tech stack, location, and experience of the hired company, and most importantly, the hourly rate charged by different firms in different regions.
Considering these factors mentioned in the above paragraph, we can estimate that the overall cost to develop an app like OLX would range between $10,000 to $40,000 with all the required features. To create an app with advanced features that would be compatible with the different platforms and devices, you have to bear the increased cost.
Closing Thoughts
With this above article, we hope you got all your queries solved about the development and cost of a marketplace app like OLX. The buy/sell classified app market is one of the fastest expanding industries worldwide with minimum risk, therefore, it would be a great deal and a perfect opportunity for businesses investing in this sector. Apps like OLX, Quikr and Expat already have a good grip on the market by offering lucrative shopping deals to customers.
Thus, if you are also in search of a profitable idea for a start-up or expanding your business, it is an ideal time to get into it and launching your own classified app with impressive and appealing features. It will be best if you get mobile app development services from a top-notch firm like SemiDot Infotech as we have a skilled team of app designers & developers that will help you to get a full understanding of How to build a website like OLX or how to build an app like OLX? Get in touch with us to have all types of scalable solutions.
