Launching an eCommerce Marketplace Under $2000

With advancing technologies and increasing competition, the eCommerce industry is constantly evolving. The future of this robust and flourishing sector is bright and promising, particularly after the success of various eCommerce marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. These marketplaces allow traditional retailers to tap into the eCommerce channels without any investment making the ease of entry in the online market viable for everyone.

Considering all these factors, this is the right time to invest in the lucrative idea of building an eCommerce marketplace. But the question is – how much does it cost to build an eCommerce platform? The cost varies according to the features, functionalities, customizations, and integrations incorporated into the platform.

Factors Influencing the Cost of Building an eCommerce Platform

Let’s have a look at some of the influential factors that affect the cost of building an eCommerce platform.

Requirements: The eCommerce marketplace building cost depends majorly on the requirements of your business. The regular features which include product listing, payment gateways, marketing features, shipping & delivery, etc. present in currently functioning platforms in the market can be fulfilled readily by leveraging readymade eCommerce software.

However, if the requirements are unique, that are not present in any popular marketplace, additional modules, plugins, and add-ons might be required to meet those needs.

Business Model: The business model selected also affects the cost of building the eCommerce marketplace. A simple B2B or B2C eCommerce platform has multiple options like free, premium, and open-source, etc. available at the disposal, whereas a complex business model requires the development of the marketplace from scratch.

Upfront Investment or In Parts: Investing upfront or in parts also plays a crucial role in influencing the cost of building an eCommerce platform. Going for open source will require upfront investments for purchasing the source code and customizing the modules. However, if one cannot invest a heavy upfront amount, readymade eCommerce software is a great alternative.

Features: Features and functionality are also the key factors highly influencing the cost of building the eCommerce marketplace. UI/UX design, security & authorization, product pages, payment integrations, admin panel, user profiles, sellers functionality, filters & advanced search, notifications, and many others affect the overall cost of the eCommerce marketplace.

Development Approach: The development approach signifies the actual cost of the development. The off-the-shelf development approach is ideal for businesses that wish to build and launch eCommerce stores as soon as possible. Moreover, leveraging already-built products is cost-effective as steps like wireframing, developing, and testing are not required.

On the contrary, developing from scratch is focused on building the marketplace with a personalized business model and requirements. Besides, it also requires testing the platform for all the possible use cases to make sure it is error-free.

Key Features of an eCommerce Marketplace for Different User Types

Tech Stack Required for eCommerce Marketplace Development

Tech stack is the necessary tools required for the development of an eCommerce marketplace. It constitutes a significant part of marketplace development cost. An adequately chosen tech stack allows for incorporating desired functionality while keeping the development costs to a minimum. Let’s have a look at the main technologies required to develop an eCommerce platform.

Back-End

• Linux
• Apache
• MySQL
• PHP
• Node.js
• EC2
• Ruby on Rails
• ElasticSearch
• Redis

Front-End

• HTML5
• CSS3
• JavaScript
• React
• Vue.js

Tools & Integrations

• AWS S3
• PayPal
• GitLab
• Stripe
• GitHub

That being said, it is not possible to estimate the accurate cost of the platform without proper details. The cost may vary based on the design and features incorporated.

Don’t Reinvent the Wheel & Use a Readymade Solution

Spending thousands of dollars on developing features that are already available in the market is definitely not a wise decision. The best alternative is to go for ready-made software and invest your time and efforts in building an eCommerce marketplace out of it.

Unless your marketplace will work on a completely unique business model, readymade software can build a successful eCommerce marketplace in a fraction of what will be spent in development from scratch.

How Yo!Kart Can Prove Helpful Here?

Yo!Kart is a multi vendor eCommerce marketplace software that can be used to build a robust and feature-packed eCommerce platform under $2000. Entrepreneurs who require B2B-specific features to launch a B2B eCommerce platform can also build and launch their business for under $1500. With complete ownership of the source code, Yo!Kart comes with the freedom to customize the online marketplace as per business requirements.

This self-hosted software comes with all the standard features required to run an online marketplace. In addition, the software comes pre-integrated with several business APIs like ShipStation, Stripe, MSN Translator, MailChimp, Fixer, Twilio, Google Analytics, and many more to ensure interoperability. To help business owners and vendors for a smooth onboarding, the software comes with guides and manuals.

Free technical support is also offered, in case there is any technical issue/error. To date, Yo!Kart has been used to develop online marketplaces for multi-sized clients ranging from startups to enterprises. It saves time for business owners and delivers an eCommerce marketplace for their venture to meet their expectations.

The major focal point of Yo!Kart remains that it folds the business growth proving a legit asset for the business while being extremely affordable. So if you wish to start small or simply want to test the waters in this ever-growing industry, Yo!Kart is the ideal option with packages starting from $999.