Organizing the listings on your online marketplace: How to avoid expensive mistakes
The main purpose of your marketplace is to connect people through an exchange of goods or services. To facilitate this exchange, you must organize the offers available on your platform. One way to classify listings in your marketplace is to organize them by category.
By defining relevant categories on your marketplace, you make it easier for vendors to create their offers, but also for buyers to find their needs.
The key here is to keep it SIM-PLE!
The fewer categories, the better.
Indeed, keep in mind that optimization comes along with volume. If you have few offers (which is normal at an early stage) favor a few but relevant categories. This will allow you to :
- optimize search results on your marketplace
- provide faster navigation in your marketplace catalog
There nothing more frustrating for a user to have no result for a search or just one or two offers by categories.
Acting as if you already have the Amazon catalog could actually work against you and damage your credibility.
You don’t have to automate everything…
Did you know that most marketplace businesses start with a simple directory with actual human responding to the incoming demands?
One of the common expensive mistake marketplace owners do is to try to automate everything from the first day. By doing this you not only prevent yourself from discovering what your users really need but you also make your customer journey more complex.
- You have less occasion to talk to your users (vendors and suppliers).
- You will invest in features even before having feedback from your community.
So this maybe is a surprising tip to give but don’t neglect your phone during the early stage of your marketplace. Try to talk with as many users as you can. And if it means calling each one of the suppliers listed on your platform to find the perfect match with one of the demands of your seekers, do it! Remember that as a new player, one of the key successes of your business should be the quality and the exclusiveness of your providers and not the quantity.
You may be one call away from success.
