How to Kickstart an Online Marketplace: The Foundations for Success

Do you want to start a successful marketplace business?How to Kickstart an Online Marketplace: The Foundations for Success is a book that brims with actionable tips for anyone wanting to start and grow a new online marketplace. All tips are illustrated by examples from some of the most successful online marketplaces in the world. The success stories come from companies such as Amazon, Airbnb, Indeed, Eventbrite, Thumbtack, OpenTable, Udemy, Facebook, Uber, and many more. And chances are that if the strategies and tactics described in the book worked for them, some of them can work for you, too!The term “online marketplaces” stands for any platform that has one or more customer groups whose needs are satisfied by the transactions on the platform. The book covers one-sided (e.g. Match.com), two-sided (e.g. Uber), three-sided (e.g. Fitmob), n-sided marketplaces (e.g. Houzz), and networks (e.g. Facebook). It ventures into differentiating between non-managed (e.g. Craigslist), lightly managed (e.g. Grubhub), and managed marketplaces (e.g. TheRealReal). Online labor marketplaces are also highlighted in the book – regardless of whether they facilitate fully remote work (e.g. UpWork) or match the employers and job-seekers for the purpose of an in-person or a hybrid work arrangement (e.g. Monster).Finally, the book lays out the trends in the realm of online marketplace businesses, makes predictions about the future of online marketplaces, and suggests several profitable niches and business models for new marketplace founders.
Praise for “How to Kickstart an Online Marketplace: The Foundations for Success””A timely book that provides hands-on advice for founders based on real-life examples. If you want to start your own online business, this is a must-read!“

~ Prof. Dr. Stefan Diemer, professor of International Business Communication and Digital Business at Trier University of Applied Sciences & Director of the Institute of International and Digital Business

„A competently written book full of actionable advice for any new marketplace founder who needs to understand the ‘tactics of the giants’ like Amazon, Airbnb or Uber. Entrepreneurs profit immediately from the knowledge from the early beginning and founding of their marketplace to a performing company.”

~ Prof. Dr. Klaus Rick, Professor of Corporate Governance, Trier University of Applied Sciences

Table of contents:

1 Introduction
1.1 Online shopping
1.2 Where online shopping takes place
2 Definition of an online marketplace
2.1 The key feature of every online marketplace
2.2 Types of online marketplaces
2.3 Online labor marketplaces
3 Specific success factors
3.1 A standalone product for one side of the marketplace
3.2 Massive creation of profiles for the supply side
3.3 Restricting the market
3.4 Targeting the subgroup that is most likely to sign up
3.5 Subsidizing one side of the marketplace
3.6 Overlaps between the supply and demand
3.9 Visibility of marketplace activity
3.10 Preventing disintermediation and multi-tenanting
3.11 Offering an economic advantage
4 General success factors
4.1 Time
4.2 Driving traffic to the marketplace website
4.3 Great first customer experience to encourage the word of mouth
4.4 Understanding human psychology
5 Conclusions and outlook