How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Marketplace App Like Amazon?

With 300+ million active customer accounts and over 1.9 million selling partners globally, Amazon rules the world of the online marketplace. Other players that closely follow the marketplace giant include eBay with 138 million active users and Etsy with 90+ million active buyers on its platform.

All these statistics show the immense popularity of online marketplace apps, which has led to the rise in demand for bespoke marketplace app development. Businesses of every genre and type are looking for marketplace app development as they don’t want to lag behind.

When talking about Gumtree  or Amazon-like online marketplace development, the most common question that comes to mind is, ‘How much does it cost to develop a marketplace app like Amazon?’. The expenses include keeping the app not only up and running but also secure and appealing to its users.

Well, coming straight to the answer, an Amazon-like marketplace app development cost can vary greatly from $40,000 to $300,000, or more, depending on the complexity of the project.

In the following article, we will discuss all the factors that contribute to the Amazon-like app development cost along with quickly talking about the development process and the various ways to earn the invested money back.

So, let’s get started!

How to Determine the Cost of Developing a Marketplace App?

As revealed earlier, on average, the overall marketplace development cost can vary between $40,000 and $300,000, depending on the complexity of the app. Several factors contribute to the complexity of the app including its feature list, UI/UX design, hours required to write the code, location of the development agency, and so on.

Based on the overall complexity of your mobile marketplace app development project and the total number of development hours required to build and deploy the product, you can estimate the cost by using the following formula:

The total development hours include everything from a wireframe, design, and code writing to the app’s maintenance and quality assurance.

Now, while this formula can help you figure out a rough cost estimate for your project, let us make it a bit easy for you by giving an overview of the app’s price as per its different complexity levels and time frames.

Now, let’s move on to the factors that affect the cost of the marketplace apps.

Factors that affect the marketplace app development cost

Several factors impact the cost of marketplace app development, including the wireframe, UI/UX design, app platform, features, tech stack, and more. Let’s take a look at each of the factors in detail below.

A. Wireframe

Wireframing of an app is the process where the rough template of the mobile app is made to give an idea of the app’s outlook to the client. The cost estimate of the wireframe typically turns out to be around $800-$1000.

B. UI/UX Design

When building an app for the marketplace, the flexibility and versatility of the app design ultimately set the tone for its mass adoption in the market. Seeing how crucial and intricate the design element has to be, the cost to design a mobile app development marketplace would be around $7,000 to $20,000.

C. Development

This is where the magic happens, and everything from your ideas to your design is coded into a fully-functioning mobile app. The marketplace app development cost depends on many factors – the number of resources working on your project, the range of functionalities to be added to it, hourly rates of the marketplace app developers, total development time frame, etc.

Considering all the points, the coding cost to build an app like Amazon would come somewhere around $30,000 to $100,000.

Also Read: How Much Does it Cost to Build a Mobile App Like Best Buy

D. Team Size

Team size is another factor that impacts the overall cost of marketplace app development. For instance, when you choose a freelancer for a project, the overall cost of your app would be comparatively less compared to a fully-fledged development team. Even though the latter increases the overall cost, the team’s professionalism and expertise are all worth it when it comes to a guaranteed ROI.

A standard team for Amazon-like app development includes the following:

• 1 Project Manager
• 2-3 Backend Developers
• 2-3 iOS/Android Developers
• 1-2 Designer
• 1-2 Quality Analysts

E. App Platform

The underlying app platform will ultimately affect your overall app budget. Even though choosing between Android or iOS applications only has a negligible effect on your app budget, starting with a single platform is usually preferred at first. As the app progresses in the market, you can then switch to cross-platform app development.

Also, to keep the budget in check, you can start with an MVP development for your product. Once the app gains traction in the market, switching to a full-fledged application is then recommended.

F. App Maintenance

App maintenance costs can sneak up and increase your overall app development budget anytime. From working around new technologies to implementing new features to support the market analysis and implementing app upgrades, the app’s maintenance costs are a few of the most vital things to keep in check if you wish to guarantee your app’s success in the competitive market.

For your convenience, we have created an insightful guide to the app’s maintenance cost that you can read to gain a thorough perspective on the various factors that can increase or reduce your app costs.

G. Tech Stack

The technology stack of the app affects the overall marketplace mobile app development costs greatly. The more robust and modern the technology implemented in the app, the more the chances of its gaining traction in the market, and the more it affects the overall cost. In addition to increasing the overall app scalability, a robust tech stack also improves the app’s speed, helps retain the users, and ensures better navigation and engagement.

[Also Read: How to Choose Mobile App Technology Stack (Comprehensive Guide)]

Tech-Stack for marketplace app development:

H. Location of the Development Organization

The location of the app development organization you have hired ultimately affects your overall app’s cost. The hourly rates for an app development organization vary across various parts of the world. For instance, if you wish to hire a development organization in the US or UK, the total development cost will increase manyfold when compared to choosing an organization in the Asian or African regions.

Features

The feature-list of the app is one of the main factors that affect the overall budget of app development. A basic marketplace app with less features will cost you less as compared to a complex app with a highly extensive feature-list. Simply put, the more the number of features integrated in the app, more is the overall app budget.

Now, let’s see what all features you must include in your Amazon-like app in our next section.

Must-Have Features of Marketplace Apps

Deciding on features for your marketplace app is an essential step that you need to carefully consider as it will determine the future scope of the application. To develop a marketplace app like Amazon successfully, ensure to add the below-given features:

Hassle-Free registration process

Although it sounds extremely easy to achieve, not every marketplace app knows how to design their registration page. Nowadays, with the ease of social media integration by your side, you no longer have to make your app users fill in loads of personal data for registration. All they have to do is enter the app with a few clicks using Facebook or Twitter, or any other social media platform.

The whole idea is to create a marketplace app where the whole registration process is as simple and easy as possible.

Multiple payment options

With different customers come different payment choices. While it is tempting to only have a debit/credit card option, it is important to add multiple payment gateways integrations in the app and offer your customers a range of different payment options so that they feel more empowered to make a choice.

So, if you are opting for Amazon-like app development, apart from cash on delivery and debit and credit card options, here is a list of payment choices you can offer to your customers.

Push notification

Push Notifications, as your marketplace app builder would have told you, might be your only way (that actually works) to keep the users hooked on to your marketplace application. The power that comes with reminding the users of what they are missing, when timed right by applying the right push notification strategies, can help define the success of your application. So, it is important to invest in a proper push notification system that would keep users from abandoning your app.

Social media integration

Marketplace apps and social media have been walking hand-in-hand for a very long time now. When we talk about social media integration, we don’t just talk about it from the perspective of one-tap login, but we also include social media in all your marketing processes. This allows the customers to promote their buy and share the referral coupon and discounts to their network for it to then enter into an extended network and eventually in the whole social media domain.

[Also Read: What makes social networking apps successful?]

Add to cart

More often than not, the customers are not ready to purchase a product instantly but wish to save it for future purchases. In a scenario like this, they prefer the add to cart option wherein they can save the product for future buying.

Ratings and reviews

Reviews and ratings are a must-have when you head for marketplace app development, even if you are just starting with the domain. The feature doesn’t just add an element of trust in the authenticity of your services but also helps the customers make an informed decision while giving you direct insight into things that you have to work upon.

Augmented reality view

The augmented reality feature will allow customers to virtually try products before they make their final decision to buy. Buyers can visualize and try the end number of products and get the final look with AR features. This, in turn, leads to enhanced customer experience and an increase in the customer retention rate. Know how else augmented reality is transforming the retail industry.

Live chat support

With this feature, users can easily get connected with the support team and ensure hassle-free communication in case any issue arises. Most first-time buyers face issues with online payments or processing orders, therefore, it’s crucial to add live chat on the app.

Now that we have looked into the must-have features, it is time to take a deep dive and explore the actuality that when you invest in a marketplace app, you don’t invest in one application but three – User, admin, and seller.

Let us look at what each of those app versions entails –

Now before looking into the ways you can recover and grow the amount of money you are going to invest with the app monetization, let us first understand how to build marketplace apps like Amazon.

Also Read: How Much Does it Cost to Develop an App like Adidas?

How to Build a Marketplace App?

The process of mobile marketplace app development rests in a ton of material gathering and examination. It is necessary to assess all risks prior to beginning any project. Getting a hold of or understanding the cycle requests is fundamental to making an effective mobile app.

The expenses related to marketplace app development are principally reliant upon the features you need in the application. Nonetheless, if you want to build a mobile app marketplace like Amazon or eBay, it will require a ton of time, effort, and resources. The good thing is that it is not impossible, you can do it if the correct way is known and understood.

The first thing to do before starting to develop a marketplace is to have a proper structure. The next step is knowing your audience and consumers and based on this information the third step comes up of offering different services. And the fourth step is choosing the right monetization model.

Techniques that Amazon uses in its app

• Amazon app marketplace runs on Linux-based technology with the world’s largest database capacity.
• Customer tracking is one of the significant fortes of Amazon to offer a customized shopping experience to its users.
• Its multi-leveled business procedure allows nearly anybody to sell anything utilizing this platform.
• You should know that the main data warehouse of Amazon consists of 28 HPS.
• Since a great number of users used to enter their paying card details to this application, thus, Amazon utilizes Netscape Secure Commerce Server with the SSL convention to offer incredible security.

Now that we have looked into how to build marketplace apps and important techniques used by Amazon, it is time to look into various ways you can monetize your marketplace app.

[Also Read: What Is The Cost To Develop A Marketplace App Like Craigslist?]

How Does a Marketplace App Make Money?

When it comes to designing your revenue model, there are two options – A. Affiliate revenue and B. Transaction fees revenue.

In the affiliate model, after you have built a marketplace app, you can earn by receiving a commission for referring the customers to other apps. And, the second and more popular monetization model is the transaction fees revenue.

Transaction fees revenue can either be very simple like the charge is drawn on enabling a transaction between the user and the seller or it can be of these types:

• Product listing fees
• Promotional/sponsored product fees

Commission fees that the seller has to pay after an auction.

Another one of the monetization techniques that can increase your overall business revenue is Ads. You can charge an amount of money for posting ads to your marketplace app. This revenue stream is used by the marketplace apps that have an extended client base and a sufficient audience.

Apart from these revenue sources, some other factors that highly influence the purchase decision of customers, thereby affecting revenue earned include:

Final thoughts!

Well, we really hope that now you’re actually prepared for marketplace app development and know how much it costs to build a marketplace app. So, now is the time to build your marketplace app and create a community of promising consumers and service providers by hiring a dedicated ecommerce application development organization.

In case you need any assistance, contact our experts. As a leading ecommerce app development company, we have the experience of working for multiple brands, including giants such as Adidas and IKEA. Our professional experts will guide you through the entire process and help you get started with your app development journey.

FAQs

Q. How much does it cost to build an app like Amazon?

A. On average, the cost to build an app like Amazon varies from around $40,000 to $300,000. The price is affected by factors like feature lists, complexity, UI/UX design, the hourly rate of marketplace app developers, etc.

Q. What are the various kinds of marketplace apps offered by Appinventiv?

A. Appinventiv can offer three kinds of marketplace apps: Vertical, Horizontal, and Global. Vertical marketplace apps are designed for a particular niche. They offer similar items on the website/mobile app but from multiple sellers. One perfect example of a vertical marketplace app is Zillow.

Horizontal marketplace apps have a secondary character in common. They sell multiple goods or services but all have similar characteristics. For instance, DogVacay is a marketplace app that offers multiple pet products only to pet owners.

Lastly, global marketplaces have multiple categories for which they offer various services. Few examples of global marketplaces include Amazon, eBay, etc.

Q. How to build a marketplace app?

A. Creating a marketplace app from scratch requires gathering the overall app requirements. Then, after identifying your target audience, it is time to decide on a feature list for the app and define the comprehensive app’s budget. The next development step includes choosing the required app platform and hiring a dedicated app development organization for your marketplace app. The last stage of development includes app deployment and maintenance.

THE AUTHOR

Sudeep Srivastava

Co-Founder and Director