More than 2 trillion dollars were spent by customers in 2019 only on the top 100 online marketplaces. And this number is growing on a year-to-year basis.
There is a problem, however, for new marketplaces — a significant number of customers prefer to buy products using a website they have already used. How can new players overcome this? How can they encourage customers to buy and sell using specifically their marketplace?
The key is technology and a great design. These two combined, if taken care of by true specialists, build the credibility of an online marketplace and initiate word-of-mouth growth that can quickly turn into a snowball effect.
But how to assemble a team that can deliver great marketplace development services and take you to the top? Which IT professionals you need to avoid mistakes and work within an optimized budget? Read our ultimate guide to marketplace development below to find out answers to all the most important questions that you might have.
What marketplace development experts your team needs?
- Developers
The core of the technical side of a marketplace development team. You will most likely need a separate group of front-end and back-end devs. The first ones will take care of coding everything that a customer sees, while the latter will handle all server-side operations, including the transmission of data between you and the users. If you also want to build a mobile app, you will need developers specialized either in iOS or Android native technologies or in cross-platform mobile development.
- Designers
According to a Stanford University’s study, the design of a website highly influences its credibility — 46.1% of comments left by the respondents related to the design look and 28.5% to the design and structure of information. This means that a great design is hugely important when you want to make a significant impact with your online marketplace.
For the best results, your design team should include multiple different specialists. Web designers will take care of your web version, mobile designers of the mobile one, and UX/UI designers will make sure the information and content flow on your marketplace improve conversion.
- IT Project Manager
An IT PM is there to make sure that your product is launched according to the previously planned deadlines and that your budget is not overrun. They are overseeing all aspects of the development process in order to deliver a marketplace that really answers the customers’ needs and that represents the highest quality of an online product.
- Product Owner and (or) Scrum Master
Along with the dev team, Product Owner and Scrum Master form a Scrum team. Introducing Scrum into your company provides you with a well-planned development process that delivers clear results on a very regular basis. This happens thanks to Scrum Sprints — time-boxed periods (most often taking 2-4 weeks) in which the team is supposed to deliver specific functionalities or products. Scrum is used by more than 60% of professional developers worldwide.
While the responsibilities of a dev team are clear, what is the job of a Product Owner and Scrum Master? The first one defines the product's vision, manages the product backlog, and translates the needs of customers into specific tasks for developers. Scrum Master, on the other hand, focuses on making sure Scrum is implemented correctly in the team, manages daily stand-ups and other team events, as well as supports the Product Owner when needed.
- Data scientists
Your data team should include both data engineers and data analysts. The first ones will build pipelines regularly delivering fresh data according to the needs of different teams within the company. The latter will focus on analyzing the data according to the current needs — you don’t only have to measure what your customers want, but also how your online marketplace’s performance can be improved.
- AI developers
One of the most popular uses of AI in online marketplace development is building algorithms that recommend users products they might like to order. The more complex the AI is, the better product matches your customers will receive and the higher will be the conversion rate. AI, however, can also be used for other features useful for online marketplaces, such as customer service chatbots and fraud detection tools improving your cybersecurity measures.
What technologies does your marketplace development team need to know?
Depending on the role, the members of your e-commerce marketplace development team will be specializing in different technologies and tools. Front-end developers will have to be experts in JavaScript, back-end developers in a back-end language of your choice (e.g. Java, PHP, Ruby), while designers will spend most of their time with tools like Adobe XD, Figma, or InVision Studio.
However, some technologies will make the whole team connected. Many online marketplaces decide to base their product on a pre-built software that makes the development easier. These pre-built solutions include platforms like Magento, WooCommerce, Shopify, Cocorico, or Yo!Kart. Using these platforms allows to deliver a functioning marketplace faster and make the content management system easy to access for anyone in the team. For the best results, if you decide to use any of these systems, you should remember to look for developers who have previously also worked with them.
But many companies decide to build their own marketplace from scratch. It takes more time and it’s most often more costly, but it allows for flexibility that no pre-built software can guarantee. If you decide to move forward with this solution, you should look for developers who have previously worked on a custom marketplace system and are knowledgable in frameworks and libraries that speed up the process.
A team that fits your business
When you start looking for members of your marketplace development team, the first thing you should focus on is finding the people with previous experience with e-commerce products. This constitutes a product fit that guarantees you have the experts with the knowledge of solutions that already proved to be successful.
But the effectiveness of your team can be improved even more.
First, think about the industry fit. In some cases, it might matter even more than the product fit. Imagine that you’ve just hired a few developers and designers — all from companies working on quite general marketplaces, selling all types of products, from tech gadgets to canned food. You, however, want to focus strictly on healthcare. Or banking. Or education. Or any other industry. In this case, when considering a hire of an IT project manager, it would be wiser to hire someone with previous experience in this specific field. This will provide you will an additional perspective on your product and more in-depth knowledge of the industry you want to innovate with your marketplace.
Additional advantages can be gained from a company culture fit. Consider the values your business is or will be operating on. Think of the approach to diverse and inclusive environments, focus on local/global, the management style. And then, look for people who also share these values to assemble a team of like-minded professionals who can cooperate with each other effectively.
Assembling an e-commerce marketplace development team
No time to put together a whole marketplace development team? We can help.
At Ideamotive, we run a network of top IT professionals looking for new career opportunities. Whether you are in need of talented developers, creative designers, or experienced IT Project Managers, we can connect you with the best people on the market. We always take into consideration your company profile, product specification, and any other requirements you might have, so the candidates you get connected to are perfectly fitted to your project.
Reach out to us today and start building a great online marketplace with a tailored marketplace development team.
