Today, the ability to purchase in just 1 click is nothing short of extraordinary. In 1999, however, it was an astonishing thing. This experience was created by Jeff Bezos and his website, Amazon, is now loved by millions of buyers and suppliers. Wondering how to build a multi-vendor marketplace like Amazon? In this article, Tech Town will guide you.

Why Amazon Succeeds

Four principles at work

Amazon creates a trusted platform because they follow four key principles:

•     Focus on customer problems rather than competitors.
•     Passion for invention.
•     Committed to operational excellence.
•     Long-term thinking.

 

“We’ve focused like a laser on the customer experience and that’s really important.” – Jeff Bezos – Founder, CEO and chairman of the multinational technology company Amazon.

 

How to build a multi-vendor marketplace like Amazon? Such a marketplace serves customers through both online and physical stores offering a wide variety of hot-selling items. Since then, more and more shoppers have been able to purchase desired products at reasonable prices on Amazon.

 

Like other major platforms, this one also analyzes customer behavior and collects statistics. That way, Amazon makes their buying experience as smooth as possible.

User-friendly web design

Amazon designed the site not with innovation or bright colors, but with a focus on ease of use. The focus of the company is on providing maximum value to the visitors, helping them to focus only on searching and purchasing and not being distracted by other things.

 

Here are some of the approaches they used when building a multi-vendor market:

High-quality images and videos: Create a real buying atmosphere, help customers see the desired product from different angles realistically.

Detailed description: Give users all the information about the product that interests them: Specifications, item overview, and key key features.

Mobile-friendly: Increasing the number of purchases made via smartphones.

Convenient payment method

Amazon provides users with multiple payment gateways, making their shopping experience more seamless. The platform joins credit and debit cards, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, Diners Club and JCB.

 

Besides, users can use gift cards to purchase goods with different denominations and can only be applied to certain items. There is one more payment option available on the platform, which is the FSA and the HSA. Like gift cards, this portal allows customers to purchase only qualifying products and services.

 

The Amazon.com Store Card and Amazon Prime Store Card are used for most items available on the platform, some physical stores, and purchases from merchants who use these cards as payment gateways.

 

Along with special attention to its customers, Amazon also encrypts all their personal information, debit/credit cards and bank accounts, keeping all transactions safe. .

How does Amazon make a profit?

Amazon is one of the most profitable companies in the world. According to a Statista report, the brand’s net sales growth rate increased from $3.02 billion in 2007 to $70 billion in the third quarter of 2019.

 

The key to their success is choosing the right business models and implementing them the right way. Below, Tech Town has gathered the most effective and widely used revenue monetization strategies by Amazon.

1.   Sales fee

This is the largest contributor to Amazon’s revenue. Vendors are the main partners of this platform, Amazon charges different sales fees depending on the package. Fees will include:

•     Fee per item: The fee charged for each item sold. The fee is $0.99 for the individual plan.
•     Referral Fee: Charged from multiple vendors on a single product sold. This fee varies by type.
•     Shipping fee: Charged depending on the type of item. Amazon applies professional package shipping rates to vehicle products sold by vendors, and to all merchandise sold by individuals.
•     Closing Fee: Charged for each media product sold, e.g. books, software, DVDs, video games, etc.

2.   Bulk listing fee

For each ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) listed on the site, the seller must pay $0.005 per month. An online peer-to-peer marketplace that charges suppliers with a quantity of goods over 100,000.

3.   Advertise fee

Retailers have a strict advertising policy. With the help of such policies, vendors can increase their revenue by placing ads about their stores and products on the platform.

4.   Registration fee

When signing up for Amazon Prime, shoppers pay $119 per year and get a lot of benefits. Examples: They get free 2-day shipping on most items listed on the site, unlimited movie streaming, and special offers. In addition, the e-commerce platform offers students discounts for being an Amazon Prime member.

5.   Amazon Kindle

Kindle e-books help generate profits in two ways. The first is to buy its products and content, including Audible. The second one is buying Amazon Prime. Kindle comes with a free 30-day Amazon Prime trial. It makes Kindle owners familiar with the service and decide to buy it.

6.   Amazon Web Services

Currently, Amazon’s web services are their main source of income, the company is occupying the top position in the cloud market. According to Statista’s Q2 2019 survey, AWS generated nearly $8.4 billion in profit income.

How to build a platform like Amazon

Surely you already understand how the retail giant Amazon works. It’s time to dive into the process of building a website like Amazon

Technical stack

First, you need to choose the right technology for long-term development. The difference between different programming tools lies in the performance of the platform, the loading time of the website, and the stability of the web. All of these factors directly affect the UX of your visitors, making them stay longer or leave your site. The right technology is critical to the success of your platform, which can dramatically reduce time and budget when building a multi-vendor marketplace like Amazon.

 

As a rule, technologies are divided into two groups: Server-side media and client-side media. Tech Town recommends that you consider the following technology systems.

 

Client-side or front-end technology:

•     Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) make the browser display the content of the web page.
•     JavaScript (JS) allows users to interact with your platform. For this purpose, Tech Town has made and recommend you the most advanced technology like React.js.

 

Server-side or back-end technology

•     A programming language and framework: Used to build the underlying logic for your market. We usually do with Ruby and Ruby on Rails. From there build scalable, fast-loading, and secure online platforms. Besides, we also apply automation frameworks like RSpec and Capybara for testing.
•     Database: Used to store information needed for your website. We usually choose PostgreSQL (SQL data storage), Redis, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) because they are reliable.
•     Server: Handles incoming requests from client devices. We often use Nginx and Puma because they are combined perfectly with Ruby on Rails.

 

We believe that with the above technologies, you will surely successfully build a website that loads as fast, user-friendly, reliable and secure as Amazon.

Core features for a marketplace like Amazon

The marketplace function is anything that meets certain needs of the users who visit your website. Amazon is a huge platform with tons of features, but of course you won’t need to implement everything in the first place. The following features we recommend are basic functions, making the buying process easier and increasing the seamlessness of the customer experience.

•     Profiles: Contains all necessary information of both supplier and buyer. Supplier information includes specific data such as shipping method, payment, product list, etc. Buyer accounts are mainly about personal information, order history and wishlist.
•     The administrator panel: Essential functionality for business owners. With its help, owners can customize individual settings for different groups of vendors, manage seller lists, filters, and categories.
•     Advanced Search: An important feature for any multi-vendor marketplace as it makes navigation easier and less time consuming.
•     Product Page: This page should provide customers with comprehensive information about each item for sale. Elements like high-quality photos and videos and detailed descriptions will help make your platform look more trustworthy.
•     Shopping Cart: This is where the selected products are stored. This is a space where buyers can change the quantity of goods they want to buy, delete, view payment methods, shipping prices, and more.
•     Payment methods: Allows buyers to transact through many different cards and gateways. With multiple payment options, you’ll provide your customers with a variety of payment options that work best for them.
•     Ratings and Reviews: Helps buyers reach purchasing decisions faster in a multi-vendor marketplace. Besides, this function makes the website more trustworthy as you rate both the product and the supplier.
•     Wishlist: A good marketing strategy as this feature allows buyers to save products they are likely to buy. When they share this list with their friends or relatives, it sends free traffic to your marketplace. So let the vendors make additional improvements to drive interaction with the platform.
•     Announcement: Allows buyers and sellers to access a certain website as quickly as possible. The way it works is pretty simple: The customer receives a notification, clicks on it, and is immediately directed to a certain page. It greatly enhances the user experience and helps speed up many processes.
•     Shipping: A must-have function to help users choose the most suitable and convenient delivery option set by the seller.

Conclude

Amazon is a perfect example of a successful e-commerce site transforming from a narrow bookselling platform into the most complex and most visited marketplace in the US. It won’t be easy to build a website like Amazon and repeat the success of the company that has dominated the market for 25 years.

 

However, you can still be successful in building and launching the platform. Follow the guidelines and guidelines mentioned above, then customize your product to make it unique and stand out from the crowd.

 

Hope the information Tech Town brings will be useful to you.

 

Contact us if you have any technological challenges.