FATbit Blog https://www.fatbit.com/fab Results-Driven Web Design & Online Marketing Agency- Blog. FATbit Blog offers everything going on in the world of web design, web development, digital marketing and ecommerce. Read well-researched articles and get expert insights. Every blog sparks an idea, are you curious enough to know? Thu, 11 Jul 2024 06:42:42 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.9 Create an Online Micro Job Marketplace like Fiverr https://www.fatbit.com/fab/create-an-online-microjob-websitemarketplace-like-fiverr/ https://www.fatbit.com/fab/create-an-online-microjob-websitemarketplace-like-fiverr/#respond Thu, 13 Jun 2024 12:37:00 +0000 https://www.fatbit.com/fab/?p=35947

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the global workforce has shown an increased preference for independent jobs. Earlier individual freelancers only accepted contractual work because of reasons such as unemployment and inflation. But today they favor doing them over conventional career paths because of benefits such as better work-life balance and more autonomy in the job. This change in work preferences led to the rise of micro job websites and marketplaces.

A micro job marketplace is a platform where service seekers can find thousands of freelancers for doing small gigs or micro-jobs such as graphic designing, programming, marketing, or even home services like plumbing, electrician, cleaning, roofing, and HVAC. Once the micro job ends, the freelancer can select another micro-job and adjust it in their work schedule.

The micro-job industry is also expected to flourish in the upcoming years. If we consider the freelance market, its estimated market size is expected to grow from $4.9 billion to $11.7 billion in the projected period 2022-2028. On the other hand, the handyman services market is also doing well with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.5% in the forecast period 2023-2028. Considering the ease of finding jobs that micro-job marketplaces bring, it is safe to say that the industry holds lucrative opportunities for entrepreneurship.

This article will guide you through how you build your micro-job marketplace and enter the industry most efficiently.

Table Of Contents

Market Overview

The growth statistics of the micro-job industry are quite astonishing and highlight the profitability of launching a micro-job marketplace very affirmingly. There are also a few incumbents in the industry to take inspiration from. These incumbents are mentioned in the following table.

Apps Launch Year Estimated Revenue
Agni 1995 $1.6 billion
Bark.com 2014 $455 million
Thumbtrack 2008 $300 million
TaskRabbit 2008 $245 million
Handy 2012 $216 million
Fiverr 2010 $367 million
Toptal 2010 $167 million
UpWork 2013 $780 million
Freelancer 2009 $34.4 million

 

For exploring the freelance market of different geographic regions or planning a cross-border operations marketplace, you should have a look at the following growth rates:

Country Wise Microjob Market Growth Rates (2023)
USA 78% (Estimated)
Canada 71%
Australia 86%
Spain 66%
Argentina 66%
Mexico 72%
Japan 87%
India 160%
Philippines 208%
Hong Kong 79%
Pakistan 69%

Business Models of Micro-Job Marketplaces

To build a micro-job marketplace, it is essential to select a feasible business model that you can easily promote and follow for years. Additionally, the model should be easy to incorporate into your website. At the same time, you need to ensure that the business model is market-fit, which can also be a hybrid model – one of the three feasible models mentioned below. 

1. Direct Hiring Model

In the direct hiring model, service seekers visit your micro-job website and browse freelancer profiles. When selecting a freelancer, they can directly invite them for a job. 

Workflow Reference for the Direct Hiring Model

  • Step 1: Multiple freelancers sign up on the marketplace and create detailed freelancer profiles. 
  • Step 2: Customers browse freelancer profiles and select a freelancer.
  • Step 3: To book a freelancer, they pay their hourly charges on the marketplace.
  • Step 4: The freelancer delivers the job.

2. Job Posting and Bidding Model

In the second model, service seekers upload jobs, gigs, or tasks on the platform and freelancers place their bids after reviewing those jobs. If a bid gets selected, that freelancer gets hired for the job. 

Workflow Reference for the Job Posting and Bidding Model

  • Step 1: Customers upload detailed job listings on the marketplace.
  • Step 2: Service seekers browse those listings and send a proposal inclusive of the bid.
  • Step 3: After reviewing different proposals, customers select a freelancer and pay the fees on the platform.
  • Step 4: The freelancer delivers the job.

3. The Hybrid Model

Due to consumer preferences and market trends, it becomes essential to provide both direct hiring and job posting models on a single platform. Not only doing so will help you meet user expectations, but will also provide you with a competitive edge. 

Workflow Reference for the Hybrid Model

  • Step 1: Customers upload detailed job listings on the marketplace.
  • Step 2: They wait to receive proposals on those jobs and in the meanwhile, can also browse freelancer profiles for direct hiring.
  • Step 3: In case of direct hiring, they invite the freelancer to the uploaded job, who then sends their own proposal.
  • Step 4: The service seeker can compare this proposal with other proposals or directly hire the freelancer

Microjob Marketplace Software with Job Posting and Direct Hiring Support

Developing a Microjob Marketplace

After selecting your preferred business model, you can articulate clear and concise documentation for all your requirements. This will help you further shortlist a software that encompasses your vision for the micro-job marketplace. Once selected, you can deploy and promote the marketplace to get started with business operations.

Step 1: Select a Micro-job Marketplace Software

The modern approach to software development, i.e., using a readymade software has made the entire development process considerably easier and cost-efficient for all entrepreneurs. In the freelancing industry, there are a few no-code and low-code solutions available that you can use to create and deploy your marketplace. To find the most reliable micro-job marketplace software, look out for the following core features:

Core Features of Microjob Marketplace Software

  • Detailed Profile Creation: Your micro-job marketplace software should allow users to create detailed freelancer profiles inclusive of their skills, spoken languages, experience, portfolio, and more. 
  • Multiple Job Types: Customers on a micro-job marketplace tend to upload jobs in various types and categories, some of them are:
  • Public Jobs: These are visible to everyone
  • Private Jobs: Only visible to a few selected or shortlisted freelancers
  • Fixed Price Jobs: The service charges are fixed in this type of job (mostly used for getting the market price-match)
  • Biddable Jobs: Where multiple freelancers place their bids on a single job

Thus, to cater to all such requirements, your micro-job software should support all these job types.

  • Direct Hiring: In the direct hiring module, customers are able to hire freelancers directly after viewing their profiles. This saves the trouble of waiting for bids and reviewing them.
  • Service Packages: To simplify direct hiring operations without exploiting freelancers’ privacy by integrating a time tracker, the marketplace software should allow freelancers to create different service packages. These packages will include several options such as the service delivered, tasks covered, number of revisions, pricing, and more. Based on their requirements, clients can select the package most suitable for them. 
  • Bidding Module: In contrast to direct hiring, the bidding module is immensely helpful in starting a screening process for a job. The freelancer that best matches the customer’s requirements and provides the best value for money gets selected for the job.
  • Custom Task Categories: The micro-job marketplace software should allow you to create multiple task categories that freelancers can use to register. Although the software will have many pre-built categories, this option gives the marketplace owner the flexibility to accommodate the marketplace with any future trends and in-demand skills.
  • Dynamic Registration Forms: For successful registration, the registration form should collect different information from varying professions. E.g., portfolios from graphic designers, writing samples for writers, traffic generation reports from digital marketers, and equipment details from photographers. This can be easily implemented with the help of dynamic registration forms that allow the marketplace owner to personalize the form for different trade professions. 
  • Job Cancellation Window: If a customer cancels a job after the freelancer has started working on the project, this may lead to several losses for the freelancer. To prevent any such instances, the marketplace software requires a job cancellation window. This window will be defined by the admin and once the window is over, the customer cannot cancel the job. Another benefit of having the cancellation window option is that it will prevent all external communications and dealings between the client and the freelancer.
  • Order Management: The order management option will help the marketplace owner receive real-time updates on all orders. The owner can also see the total invoice, selected freelancer, customer, and job details. Additionally, the owner will have access to all completed, in-progress and pending orders.
  • Company Listing: To diversify your freelance marketplace operations, you can also let private companies and businesses register themselves on the marketplace. Those companies can further create freelancer profiles and bid on project-level jobs.
  • Commission Settings: Commission charges are the primary source of earning for micro-job marketplace owners. The marketplace software that you select should allow you to set your own commission rate.
  • Payment Withdrawal Settings: To maintain a healthy cashflow on the marketplace and balance to initiate refunds, you need the necessary earnings withdrawal features like minimum withdrawal threshold and minimum withdrawal interval. 
  • Multi-Lingual Support: Multilingual support will allow your freelancers to add multiple spoken languages on your platform. Doing so will help you provide better service experience to customers and target a diverse audience.

Our Recommendation: Yo!Gigs

Yo!Gigs is a future-ready solution that is made to launch robust marketplaces like Fiverr, UpWork, Toptal and Thumbtack. Its new version was launched in the year 2024, making it the most advanced micro-job marketplace software with industry leading features including all the ones mentioned above. As Yo!Gigs is meticulously developed to help you with numerous marketplace use cases, it can be easily used to deliver, manage and enhance freelancer and handyman services.

For long-term business operations, Yo!Gigs comes with a lifetime usage license at one-time cost. It also supports unlimited listings, transactions and profile creations. For ensuring uninterrupted business operations, 12 months free technical support and onboarding support hours are available with Yo!Gigs.

Book a Personalized One-on-One Demo to Verify Yo!Gigs’ Functionalities

Readymade Software vs Bespoke Development: Time and Cost Analysis

A micro-job marketplace is a complex software that includes various interfaces and numerous webpages. On the top of it, the marketplace requies vast functions to operate. Thus, the overall timeframe to custom develop the software can take up to 1000 hours or even more. On the other hand, a no-code solution that comes with all essential features and webpages pre-built into the software. As the marketplace owner, you only need to configure them. Because of this, readymade no-code solutions can help you get started with your business operations within 2-4 business days.

For cost estimate, we performed an evaluation of all traditional and modern development methods. To provide a close estimate for custom or bespoke development, we have taken the aforementioned timeframe of 100 hours. The country-wise pricing also varies because of their varying hourly development charges.

US  Canada  UK  Australia  India  Philippines
Bespoke Development $80,000 – $180,000 $75,000 – $150,000 $70,000 – $120,000 $70,000 – $120,000 $60,000 – $100,000 $60,000 – $100,000
Self-Hosted Software $20,000 – $40,000
SaaS Software Lifetime Recurring Costs with Limited Scalability 
Yo!Gigs (Our Recommendation) $2,000 – $6,000 (Depending on the type of license you select. Additional charges may apply for adding more functionalities and features)

Step 2: Deploy the Marketplace Software

After developing the micro-job marketplace, host it on the server of your choice. The bespoke development approach or self-hosted solutions like Yo!Gigs will give the freedom to select your own hosting server. This can either be an on-premise server installed in your work premises or a reliable third-party server like Amazon Web Services or Bluehost. Our best recommendation is to to select a fast server with high security to ensure quick load times, 100% uptime and invulerability to cyber attacks. 

On the other hand, if you select a SaaS software, the software will be deployed on the software provider’s own servers. There also may be several restrictions on the number of transactions, listings and user profiles based on the subscription package that you select. To gain access to all features, unlimited listings and transactions, you will need to subscribe to the SaaS software’s most premium package.

Step 3: Set Up Payment Gateways

The next step in deploying your micro-job marketplace is to configure the payment gateways. Some payment gateways may be pre-integrated in your software solution. Depending on the software, the software provider may allow you to add more payment gateways. If you feel the need for the same, then you can select a payment gateway based on the following criteria:

  • Localization: Local payment gateways that are every well known in your target region hold an unmatched trust factor. It is safe to assume that your target audience will always prefer them over foreign or international payment gateways.
  • Uptime: Reliable payment gateways ensure a 24/7 uptime. This immensely reduces transaction failures on any type of eCommerce platform while also ensuring a positive customer experience. 
  • Payment Processing Time: Payment gateways have varying payment processing time. While some can process payments within 2-4 days, others take up to a week. Some payment gateways also provide bulk payment processing at an additional cost, which processes all transactions within 12 hours. To maintain a healthy cash flow, integrating a gateway with minimum processing time is recommended.
  • Security: To ensure safe and secure transactions, global organizations have released several standards, protocols, regulations, and compliances. A few such security standards that should be present in your payment gateways are PCI DSS compliance for card payments, SSL encryption, TLS encryption, 3D secure, tokenization, and Secure Electronic Transaction (SET).
  • Transaction Fee: Lastly, to process payments, each gateway charges a transaction fee. This fee can vary from gateway to gateway. This transaction fee along with the aforementioned criteria can help you find a cost-effective payment gateway for your micro-job marketplace business. 

Step 4: Setup Website Content

Your micro-job marketplace content will help users receive a thorough understanding of your services. Additionally, it will help in establishing a brand image and secure high SEO rankings on search engines. As per evaluation, there are few primary webpages whose content you need to set up:

  • Home Page
  • Micro-Jobs Listing Page
  • Freelancers Profiles Page 
  • Sign-up/Login Page
  • Freelancer Registration Page
  • Post a Job
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • How It Works
  • Services Offered
  • Help/FAQ
  • Cart/Checkout Page
  • Blog
  • Resources
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy
  • Testimonials
  • Newsletter Signup

While creating content for the marketplace, ensure consistency in branding, writing style, tone and voice all across the platform. You may also need to integrate search terms or keywords (look at step 6) for search engine optimization.

Step 5: Test the Marketplace

Test the marketplace to verify whether all features are functioning as intended. Your micro-job marketplace will have 4 interfaces, which are:

  • User Front-End
  • Admin Dashboard
  • Freelancer Dashboard
  • Client Dashboard

To effectively check out the various features and functionalities in these interfaces along with the user experience, create a testing account and register yourself as the admin, customer, and client. Place an order on the user front-end while analyzing various sections of the interface, such as content blocks, buttons, scrolling, payment gateways, payment methods, transactions, cart, notifications, and more.

After placing an order from the user front end, log in to the freelancer dashboard and mark status updates. These updates should be visible in the admin dashboard. Also test other features such as chat messenger, payment withdrawal settings, and more. You can also log in to the admin dashboard to see the placement of a new order. The same should be reflected in your earnings.

Lastly, test the interlinking on the platform including navigation, social media handles, and external links. See whether all the forms are working as intended and as the customer or freelancer, you are easily able to fill-in and submit the forms.

Note: Selecting a tried and tested solution that has already been evaluated on the diverse use cases by the software provider can vastly reduce your testing efforts. Thus, it is wiser to carefully select your micro-job marketplace solution.

Step 6: Promote and Grow

To start business operations, you need to onboard some freelancers. This can be done by providing various incentives to the first freelancers, such as zero commission rates and featured listing spaces on the marketplace. At the same time, you need to promote the microjob marketplace to attract customers. SEO will be beneficial in fulfilling this purpose. With accurate search terms (example: hire graphic designer online), you can compete with other players in this space.

Additionally, launch various markdown strategies to draw customers. These can either be discounts on the first three jobs or a referral bonus strategy. After customers find out the convenience of finding freelancers on your microjob marketplace, you can expect them to become repeat customers and increase their customer lifetime value.

As your marketplace will be comparatively new, you will need to focus your marketing efforts on paid campaigning as well. When your organic SEO presence grows strong, you can reduce your expenditure on paid campaigns. Doing so will help you stabilize your overall customer accusation costs and reach the breakeven point faster.

Readymade Software with In-Built Marketing Features & SEO-Friendly Site Structure

Conclusion

During times of adversity when unemployment increases, micro-job marketplaces emerge as the only solution to help talented professionals survive. The great economic recession of 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic are evidence to that. However, once professionals get used to working on these marketplaces, they don’t want switch back to traditional 9-5 jobs because of several benefits such as higher profit margins and work autonomy. Additionally, the change in the modern workforce mindset remains to be a strong growth factor for the marketplace industry.

FAQs

Q 1: How Much Does It Cost to Start a Micro Job Website?

The cost of developing a micro job website depends on the selected software technology and development approach. Via the traditional development approach that is charged on a per hour basis, the overall cost can range between $60,000-$150,000. Via the no code or low code development method, you can easily drop this cost to $3,000 – $40,000. 

Q 2: What are Some Common Challenges Faced by Micro Job Website Owners?

Onboarding freelancers is the primary challenge that micro job website owners face. Secondly, they also have to ensure a smooth browsing experience and secure payments. Along with these, ensuring job satisfaction via timely delivery and quality of the work is must. All such problems can be easily dealt with by investing in a tried and tested readymade software. To discuss the challenges that FATbit’s Yo!Gigs helps micro job website owners deal with, get in touch with our industry experts.

Q 3: Can You Develop a Micro-job Marketplace for my Requirements?

Yes, at FATbit, we have a readymade micro job marketplace solution – Yo!Gigs. Revamped in the year 2024, Yo!Gigs is the most advanced job marketplace software that helps you deal with numerous use cases. It comes with next-gen features, supports 24/7 payments and can help you seamlessly connect freelancers with customers. For more information or to get a price quote, contact our experts.

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How To Build A Freelance Marketplace Like Toptal? https://www.fatbit.com/fab/build-marketplace-like-toptal/ https://www.fatbit.com/fab/build-marketplace-like-toptal/#respond Thu, 30 May 2024 12:24:50 +0000 https://www.fatbit.com/fab/?p=35858

The global job market is undergoing a major transition. The growing awareness of work-life balance and the increasing preference for remote work have led to a significant rise in the number of freelancers.

People are leaving their full-time jobs to provide freelancing services to clients across the globe and increase their scope of earning, all from the comfort of their homes. Startups and big corporations benefit the most from this trend as they get to access freelancers with skills that are generally not available in their local job markets.

Due to this changing mindset of companies and the traditional workforce, freelance marketplaces are witnessing significant growth. One of the leading websites in this industry is Toptal, which currently holds around 80.56% market share of the freelance engineering industry.

Let us now discuss what Toptal is, its operational model and revenue model, what features it provides and how you can build a freelance marketplace like Toptal.

About Toptal

Toptal is a freelance marketplace website that connects highly skilled freelancing talent including software designers, developers, product managers, and financial experts with clients from all over the world. It was founded by Taso Du Val and Breanden Beneschott in November 2010. The platform was officially launched in the year 2011.

Within four years of its launch, Toptal became one of the fastest-growing freelancing companies with a 2,861% annual growth and was featured in Deloitte’s 2015 Technology Fast 500™ list. In 2022, Toptal expanded its geographic footprint to 140+ countries, serving over 25,000+ clients. Currently, it is one of the top freelancer marketplaces with an estimated annual revenue of $1.3 Billion.

How Toptal Freelance Marketplace Works

Finding the right freelancer among the plethora of options is quite a cumbersome and time-consuming process. Toptal makes it easier by connecting customers with only highly skilled professionals who meet all their job requirements. Let us discuss the business model of Toptal in detail:

  • The clients can post a job with all the necessary details like the type of freelancer required, specific skill etc.
  • Toptal searches for the best-suited candidates that match the job requirements, and provides a list of available freelancers to the client.
  • The clients can interact with these freelancers to find the most appropriate freelancer to do the job.
  • After choosing the right freelancer, the client can pay the initial booking amount. Then the freelancer connects with the client and starts working on the job.
  • The client is billed for the time the freelancer has spent on the job.

Toptal also offers a free trial period of two weeks, in which the client can assess the freelancer’s work and decide to continue with the same freelancer or find another one.

Offering the Best Freelancers – The screening process of Toptal

Toptal has a rigorous screening process that filters out most of the applications and allows only highly skilled freelancers to register on the platform. This process consists of the following steps:-

  • Toptal conducts a timed evaluation that assesses the core skills of the freelancer. It is a rigorous test that only highly skilled freelancers can clear.
  • The freelancers who pass the skill test are shortlisted for a personal interview where their communication and soft skills are evaluated.
  • After the personal interview round, the freelancer is given a real-world project to complete within 40 working hours. Toptal requires the freelancers to share their screens during this round.
  • The freelancers who clear the above rounds are onboarded on the platform.

Must-Have Features in a Website like Toptal

Every freelance marketplace has some distinct features depending on the niche, target audience, and budget of the marketplace. However, some crucial features are common in almost all marketplaces.

  • Multiple Job Types – You can enable clients to post different types of jobs as per their requirements. These job types can include public jobs, private jobs, fixed-price jobs, and biddable jobs.
  • Admin Approval – The admin approval feature enables the admin to either accept or reject a freelancer registration. This decision is generally based on the qualifications and skillset mentioned by the freelancer. Toptal uses this feature to ensure that only highly skilled professionals can join its platform.
  • Social Sign-up – To simplify the sign-up process, you can provide users with the option to sign up using their existing social media accounts.
  • Freelancer Recommendations – You can incorporate a freelancer recommendation process on your platform to provide freelancer suggestions to customers.
  • Direct Invitation – You can allow the customers to visit freelancer profiles and send them a direct invitation for the job posting.
  • Multiple Payment Gateways – To facilitate financial transactions through your marketplace, you need to integrate various payment gateways according to the requirements of target regions.
  • Advanced Job Posting – The advanced job posting module can enable customers to provide details about the job, including images, required skill sets, and any other attachments.
  • Multi-Currency Support – Providing multi-currency support is essential for expanding your business and targeting a diverse audience. Toptal has also incorporated this feature on its platform to simplify financial transactions.
  • Featured Listings – Including a featured listing section in your platform to highlight the top-performing freelancers will help you to build customers’ trust while boosting the morale of the freelancers.
  • Private Messaging – An in-built messaging facility will help the customers easily interact with freelancers and share attachments related to the job posting without leaving your platform. Toptal also enables clients to message freelancers before, during, and after the job completion.
  • Reviews and Ratings – You can increase the credibility of your freelancers and your marketplace by adding the ratings and reviews feature. It can help clients assess the work ethics, quality of work, and the overall behavior of freelancers.
  • Issue Resolution – An issue resolution feature is useful in cases where there is a dispute between the freelancer and the client after job completion. 

Create a Feature-rich Freelance Marketplace like Toptal

Revenue Generation Model Of A Freelance Website like Toptal

You must incorporate some revenue streams into your freelance website to diversify your income. Some of the common revenue streams of freelance marketplaces include.:- 

  • Commission Charges – You can set your commission on each financial transaction that takes place through your platform. This is the exact model that Toptal uses to generate revenue.
  • Membership Charges – A membership plan can be a great source of recurring income. You can offer different membership packages to customers and freelancers which can provide them with some special privileges and benefits.
  • Featured Listing Spaces – Featured listings are likely to get more customer attention. Therefore, you can charge freelancers to display their profiles in the featured listing space. 
  • Display Ads – The graphics advertisements in the form of banners, images, gifs, videos, etc. are known as display ads. You can generate revenue by displaying third-party ads on your freelance website and charging the advertisers for displaying these ads.  

How To Create A Freelance Marketplace Like Toptal

Building a successful freelancing marketplace like Toptal requires a lot of planning, research, and marketing. Let us have a detailed look at the process of creating a freelance website:-

1. Market Research – Before developing your freelance website, you must assess your target audience and their pain points. You should be familiar with the current trends in the industry. You should also study your competitors’ business models, revenue models, sales, and the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. These insights will help you in the next stages of the development process.

2. Developing your Freelance Platform – There are two different methods/approaches that you can use for creating your freelance marketplace- the traditional approach and the modern approach. Let us understand what these approaches are:-

a. The Traditional Approach – The traditional approach involves hiring a team of software developers to create your freelance platform. You can also outsource this task to a bespoke software development company. The benefits of using the traditional approach are:

  • Complete Control Over The Source Code
  • High Scalability 

Although the traditional approach is beneficial for creating scalable solutions. it comes with its own set of disadvantages, including:-

  • Huge Development Cost
  • More Time-Consuming 
  • Not Tried And Tested

b. Using a low-code/no-code solution – A low-code/no-code software allows you to build a scalable marketplace using its intuitive user interface, eliminating the requirement of having vast coding knowledge. This software is already created as per the industry standards and can be customized according to your requirements. Some of the major advantages of a low-code/no-code software are:

  • Low Development Cost
  • Time-Efficient
  • Tried And Tested
  • Feature-Loaded Solution

While the no-code solutions are gaining huge popularity because of the benefits that they provide, there are a few downsides to using these solutions. These include:-

  • Limited Control of The Source Code
  • Low Scalability

3. Deploying The Software – After building your freelance platform, you can deploy it on a server based on your choice. Then you can set up and personalize the landing pages per your needs.

4. Freelancer Onboarding – In order to get customers on your freelancing website, you need to onboard some talented freelancers. To attract talented freelancers to your platform, you can offer various benefits to the first few freelancers such as lower commission rates, free featured listings, etc.

5. Marketing – The final step after launching your marketplace software is marketing and promotion. Initially, you may have to rely on paid marketing techniques to increase awareness about your marketplace. In the later stages, you can use the built-in features of your marketplace software such as discounts, offers, and SEO optimization features to promote and market your platform.

How Yogigs Can Help In Creating A Freelance Website Like Toptal?

Yo!Gigs is a fully customizable freelance marketplace software that can help you create a freelance marketplace like Toptal. It is highly scalable and can manage unlimited listings and financial transactions. It is a feature-rich solution that can be used as a base to provide essential features similar to Toptal, including:-

  • Skill Assessment
  • Advanced Job Posting
  • Freelancer Matching
  • Risk-Free Trial Period
  • Multi-Currency Support
  • Reviews and Ratings
  • Personal Messaging
  • Issue Resolution

Unlike SaaS-based software solutions asking for monthly subscription charges, Yo!Gigs can be purchased with a lifetime usage license. It comes with free technical support for up to 1 year. 

How to get started with Yo!Gigs?

Launching a freelance platform with the help of Yo!Gigs is very easy. In just four simple steps, your website will be ready to launch in the market. Let us have a look at these steps:-

1. Get A Usage License – The first step to building your freelance marketplace is to purchase a lifetime usage license of Yo!Gigs.

2. Set Up And Install – After purchasing the license, you can share details of your selected hosting server with us. We will install Yo!Gigs on your server.

3. Configure The Marketplace – After installation, you can configure your freelance website and set up the primary landing pages. You can also choose your country/region of operation, payment gateways to include, email and SMS templates, and the terms and conditions of your platform.

4. Manage Your Marketplace – Now your freelance marketplace is ready to launch. You can manage and market it using the in-built tools provided by Yo!Gigs, including task management tab, advanced analytics and reports, SEO Optimization, etc.

Book a Free Personalized Demo of YoGigs Freelance Marketplace Software

Conclusion

The freelance marketplace industry is booming, and Toptal’s recent success proves the tremendous growth potential for online freelance marketplaces. However, building a freelance platform from scratch requires a lot of time, effort, and resources, and is quite expensive. This is where Yo!Gigs comes into the picture. It can help you easily launch your freelance marketplace at a significantly lower cost. Yo!Gigs is a fully customizable service marketplace solution and can be used as a base to build a successful freelance website like Toptal. Get in touch with our experts for a free software consultation.

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The Startup Guide to Build an Airbnb for Car Rental https://www.fatbit.com/fab/build-airbnb-for-car-rental/ https://www.fatbit.com/fab/build-airbnb-for-car-rental/#respond Tue, 21 May 2024 11:33:39 +0000 https://www.fatbit.com/fab/?p=35839

The sharing economy which promotes a sustainable way of living by providing peers quick access to shared resources is anticipated to achieve remarkable growth in the upcoming years. As per statistics, the sharing economy’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is also amongst the highest (28.96% in the forecast period 2023-2028). While Airbnb has been a leading contributor to the sharing economy since 2007, it mostly deals with homestays and real estate rentals. Meaning, that the opportunities to launch P2P marketplaces in other sectors are still wide open

One such P2P rental niche is car rentals. In our recent research, we found out that the overall market size of the car rental industry is an estimated $102 billion in 2024. The car rental industry is also expected to grow at an impressive CAGR of 3.1% in the next five years. Thus, for entrepreneurs aspiring to set foot in the sharing economy, launching a Peer-to-Peer marketplace like Airbnb for car rentals is a lucrative business proposition. Below are some insights you should look into for launching an AirBnb for cars.

Benefits of Renting Cars from Peers

The car rental industry is fragmented into both small-size and large-size car rental businesses. However, the experience of renting from a car rental company and a peer differs a lot. Renting from peers can provide customers with a more personalized rental experience. Some key benefits of renting cars from peers are:

  • Cost Effectiveness: Individual car owners rent out their spare vehicles as a means of generating a side income and preventing their cars from deteriorating over time. Due to this, they are able to rent out their cars at much more affordable prices than private car rental companies.
  • More Sustainable: While renting in itself is considered sustainable, renting out from peers is an even more eco-friendly practice. This is because car rental companies invest in a proper fleet of commercial vehicles whereas peers utilize their spare cars.
  • Scope of Negotiation in Terms: In P2P car rentals, the rental terms and conditions can be negotiated with the car owners. On the other hand, there is no scope for negotiation in the rental agreements of car rental firms. 
  • Feedback Acceptance: P2P rental car owners often rely on repeat customers. Due to this, they are more willing to accept and work on customer feedback.
  • Unique Cars: Car rental companies often have a very similar fleet of cars selected on the basis of market demand. On the other hand, peers can provide you with unique and rare cars as well that you may not find in any rental company’s fleet.

Why Launch an Airbnb for Cars?

Car rental industry insights indicate the increasing demand for car rentals and highlight the rising business opportunities. Along with insights, there are still a few other reasons to invest in a Peer-to-Peer Airbnb-like business model for car rentals.

1. Asset-Light Business Model

Launching an Airbnb for cars is highly asset-light. The term “asset-light business model” refers to those businesses where the business owner is only required to invest in the bare minimum capital. On a P2P car rental marketplace, the marketplace owner is only required to invest in platform costs and business registrations, whereas independent car owners list their own cars. 

Workflow of Airbnb like Car Rental Marketplace 

For a better understanding, look at the following workflow of P2P car rental marketplaces.

  1. Multiple car owners register and list their cars on the marketplace
  2. Customers browse those cars and select the car they prefer
  3. To book a car, customers enter the rental date inputs in the booking calendar and proceed to checkout
  4. During checkout, customers pay the rental fee and submit a security deposit
  5. The car owner handovers the car to the customer via the selected method (pickup or delivery)
  6. On the return of the car, the car owner inspects the car for any damages
  7. In case of any damages, reimbursements are deducted from the customer’s security deposit, and the remaining amount is returned to the customer
  8. On reaching a minimum withdrawal amount, car owners can withdraw their earnings to their bank accounts.

Revenue Generation on P2P Car Rental Business

A P2P car rental marketplace owner can generate revenue via the following ways:

  1. Rental Commission
  2. Featured Listings
  3. Display Ads
  4. Subscription Packages

2. Low Competition

While a majority of websites and marketplaces exist for car rentals, such as Enterprise, Budget, Avis, Alamo and Hertz, they operate predominantly in the B2C sector. For example, nine of the top 10 car rental companies only do B2C car rental operations where independent car owners cannot list their cars. The market scenario is quite similar in almost all parts of the world. This leaves an opportunity to launch a P2P car rental marketplace like Turo and scale up to the level of top players. 

Some P2P car rental players you can take inspiration from are:

  • Turo (the only P2P player in the top 10 car rental companies)
  • Getaround
  • Snappcar
  • GoMore

3. Increase in Car Ownership Rates

Car ownership rates have also increased globally with New Zealand and the US having the maximum number of car registrations. These countries are followed by Poland, Italy, Australia, Canada, and France. In the 90s, consumers used to have one car per house but now this number has increased to multiple cars. In many developed cities, each family member has a personal car and it is also not rare to see an individual own 3-4 cars. 

In such scenarios where a family or person owns multiple cars, the chances of a car being left idle in the garage are very high. Thus, to help car owners monetize such vehicles, entrepreneurs can launch a P2P car rental marketplace. 

4. Inflation

According to the International Monetary Fund, the global inflation rate in 2024 is 5.8%. Due to high inflation rates, many consumers have resorted to doing additional jobs in order to make ends meet. This gave rise to the side hustle mentality. In the US, around 93% of the working population seems to have indulged in a side hustle. 

However, when speaking of car rental, it is not only a side hustle for many people but also a passive income stream where car owners aren’t required to actively participate in business. To cater to the requirements of such car owners, launching an Airbnb for car rentals is a highly profitable business proposition. 

5. All Seasons Business

Another reason to launch a P2P car rental marketplace is that it is a year-round business. Regardless of the season – spring, summer, fall or winters, the demand for car rentals remains consistent. Even during the holidays when other businesses witness a drop, car rental businesses witness an incline. Thus, by investing in a P2P car rental marketplace, you can ensure stable returns throughout the year and create a highly resilient business. 

Leverage All These Benefits by Launching your own Airbnb for Cars

How to Create Airbnb for Cars

After understanding the market statistics, user behavior and opportunities, we can proceed to the technical aspects of creating an Airbnb for car rentals. Here, it is essential to understand the technology you can use to build your marketplace and the features that are required to help you manage P2P car rental operations. 

Step 1: Shortlist the Key Features

To create a P2P rental marketplace for cars, you need to look for certain rent-centric features. These features will also encompass the various use cases of the car rental industry and help you manage an Airbnb for cars. In case of non-availability of these features, look for alternate software or opt for the ones that are fully customizable. 

  • Rental Booking Calendar: An in-built calendar to display car availability to customers and accept rental date inputs. This calendar also prevents double booking and helps in invoicing. 
  • Map View Filter: With the help of a map view search filter, customers can easily search for nearby vehicles. This may help you in increasing your conversion rates and providing a better service to customers.
  • Agreement Management & eSign: For renting out a car, every car owner has different terms and conditions. For example, some may prefer pets in their cars while others don’t. Thus, to sanction any such terms and conditions, you require an agreement management module along with the eSign option. 
  • Rental Security Management: To reimburse any damages to car owners, you can collect rental security deposits from customers. The security deposit amount can also be used to deduct any other charges and the remaining amount remains refundable.
  • Tiered Pricing: To target diverse customer cohorts, it is important to have a tiered pricing module that will help car owners set and levy daily, weekly and monthly rental pricing. Furthermore, an hourly rental system on your marketplace can also be very useful.
  • Request for Quote (RFQ module): Car owners who don’t want to define any fixed pricing for their vehicles can use the RFQ module. This module will help give and negotiate custom price quotes on the P2P car rental platform.
  • Vehicle Comparison: Finding a rental car for trips or daily commuting is difficult. You can simplify the decision-making process for your customers by providing them with a vehicle comparison feature. This feature creates automated comparison tables for selected cars and helps customers find the right cars as per their preferences.
  • Late Cancellations Management: Late cancellations often cause car owners losses in terms of order processing costs, which can include cleaning, servicing, or refueling of the vehicles. To prevent any such losses, you can define tiered cancellation periods and charges. 
  • Late Returns Management: By reserving a car for longer than the booked period, late returns lead to loss in terms of lost opportunity costs for the car owners. Thus, you can also define custom late return periods and applicable charges.
  • Rental Add-ons:  By providing complementary services products and services, such as child seats, WiFi, car fresheners, window shades, etc., car owners can increase their overall ticket size and conversion rates. Thus, a rental add-ons feature is also important for your AirBnb for cars.
  • Maintenance Buffer Period: The selected rental software should allow you to define a maintenance buffer period. This period will start automatically after a customer returns the car and can be used to perform any necessary checks and inspections. Once the maintenance period is over, the car will be automatically synced with the online inventory.
  • Inventory Management: The inventory management system on your car rental software should allow you to track all inventory in real-time. It should alert you on a low fleet count, help manage vehicle unavailability, and provide complete inventory reports.
  • User Management: For managing multiple users, the software should have essential user management features that allow you to check their order history, listed cars, ratings & reviews, and other account-related details. 
  • Commissions Management: For managing your earnings, the software needs a commission management module. This will allow you to set and levy your commission rates on all transactions.
  • Withdrawal Settings: The software should allow you to define the withdrawal threshold amount and minimum withdrawal interval period. It is only after meeting these requirements that car owners should be able to withdraw their earnings to their bank accounts. 
  • Multilingual and Multi-Currency Support: As discussed earlier, multilingual and multi-currency support help you target a diverse audience and simplify business expansion.

Get the Most Versatile Car Rental Software for All your Requirements

Step 2: Select a Software Technology

Based on the selected features, you can move forward to select the right software technology to build your Airbnb for cars. There are multiple software development methods available today. Let’s go through them one by one to understand which method is the most suitable and has all the features required.

1. Bespoke Development

The traditional approach to building any software is bespoke development. It was highly in practice in the 90’s and 2000’s but has lost its prominence today because of newer methods of development. For developing a P2P car rental marketplace, bespoke development may not be the right approach because of the following reasons:

  • It involves finding a development team and paying them hourly development rates. This inflates the overall  cost of development by thousands of dollars
  • As all workflows, features, modules and interfaces are developed from scratch, the overall development timeframe ranges between 2 to 5 years
  • You will also need personnel to coordinate and manage the team of developers and track the progress of the entire project

2. SaaS Software

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), as the name suggests refers to readymade software that are hosted on the software providers’ own servers and provided as a monthly recurring service. 

SaaS software are also not recommended to create a full-fledged marketplace because of their limited scalability. 

  • Due to their never-ending recurring costs, SaaS solutions are very costly in the long run. To get access to their complete features, you will also need to upgrade to their premium package
  • SaaS software come with limited scalability options. In order to increase the number of listings, transactions and users, you are again required to pay more
  • The majority of SaaS software available in the market either support rental operations or multi-vendor operations but not both

3. Self-Hosted Software

Self-hosted software are also readymade solutions with dedicated features to support rental operations. They are tried and tested for multiple business use cases and because of their vast support and long-term affordability, can be used to develop your Airbnb for car rental.

Some reasons to select self-hosted solutions are:

  • Self-hosted solutions are available at one-time costs and unlike SaaS solutions, have no recurrent pricing
  • There are no restrictions on the number of listings, transactions and user profiles
  • You get access to all features of the software right from the beginning
  • Highly cost-effective in the long term
  • Provide you complete flexibility to select your own hosting server

Step 3: Deploy and Market

Self-hosted and other readymade software can be quickly deployed on your hosting server. Once deployed, do some primary configurations such as setting the marketplace logo, social media handles, contact us page, about us page, homepage banners, footer section, and more. You can also change the theme color and font and make sure that the entire marketplace is ready to onboard car owners. 

After full system-wide configuration, promote your Airbnb for cars for both car owners and customers. To onboard car owners, you can provide them with various incentives. Take a look at this blog to get some idea about the marketing strategies you can implement to attract and onboard car owners. 

For lead generation purposes, initially, you will need to simultaneously invest in paid campaigning and organic marketing. After developing a strong SEO base, you can decrease the expenditure on paid campaigns and rely on word of mouth, social proofing, and SEO rankings. Likewise, you will also need to come up with a markdown strategy to gain traction in the market.

Recommended Car Rental Software- YoRent

Yo!Rent car rental software is meticulously developed after taking into account the minute requirements of car rental businesses. Being a multi-vendor software, it is the industry’s finest marketplace solution for P2P car rental operations. In-built with all essential tools and features that can help you facilitate, manage, and grow your car rental business, Yo!Rent simplifies P2P operations like no other software. Furthermore, due to its unlimited listings, transactions, and user profiles, you can scale and grow your business as much as you want. 

Some reasons to select YoRent are:

  • Comes with all the essential features for car rental operations
  • Rental industry’s leading marketplace solution
  • Pre-integrated with 25+ payment gateways
  • Comes with a lifetime license at a one-time cost
  • Fully scalable and customizable
  • One year of free technical support
  • Highly cost-effective in the long term

Book a One-on-One Personalized Demo for Yo!Rent

Conclusion

The primary areas of attention in launching a P2P car rental startup are selecting the right software technology and timely onboarding of users in lucrative business regions. As more people find out about the benefits of renting out cars from peers, you can expect the entire P2P car rental marketplace model to grow. Due to this and limited competition in numerous regions, it is the right time to capitalize on a P2P car rental marketplace business. Furthermore, because of their asset-light nature, running an Airbnb for car rentals is also highly cost-effective.

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How To Market Your Online Tutoring Business https://www.fatbit.com/fab/how-to-market-your-online-tutoring-business/ https://www.fatbit.com/fab/how-to-market-your-online-tutoring-business/#respond Wed, 01 May 2024 11:43:37 +0000 https://www.fatbit.com/fab/?p=35623

The online tutoring market is expected to reach $196.35 billion growing at a CAGR of 15.38% during the forecast period 2023-27, and the industry looks profitable. Considering the scenario, the number of online tutoring platforms are increasing tremendously because of the convenience and accessibility they offer. However, with growing competition, you need to effectively market and boost your online tutoring business.

To achieve this, there are two pivotal methods that you can follow. First, by leveraging various marketing strategies to promote your online tutoring business. Second, by enhancing the user experience, and engagement on your platform, which eventually boosts user satisfaction, improving your business’ reputation. 

By following these methods you can effectively boost your online tutoring business and reach out to the right audience. However, if you are not sure where to begin, we provide all the important information about different strategies and other considerations to boost your online tutoring business successfully. 

Table Of Contents

Different Strategies To Market Your Online Tutoring Business

Every business is unique and needs specific marketing strategies to market it. Gain insights about different strategies and implement them in your eLearning platform as per your business goals and requirements.

Following are the marketing strategies you can consider to market your online tutoring business:

  1. Reference-based Marketing
  2. Content Marketing 
  3. Affiliate Marketing
  4. Social Media Marketing 
  5. Search Engine Optimization
  6. Email Marketing
  7. Multilingual Content Marketing
  8. Discount Marketing

1. Reference-Based Marketing

This marketing strategy enables you to take advantage of your existing client base by encouraging them to refer your online tutoring platform in their social network. It is a word-of-mouth marketing tactic to promote your business cost effectively. To implement this strategy, you must have a refer and earn module in your platform through which users can share their referral links. 

Upon successful user registration or first successful purchase through these links, the admin can reward both the referee and the referrer. This can significantly boost your client base and can help you reach out to a wider audience. 

2. Content Marketing

Content marketing is a marketing strategy used to attract, and engage your target audience by creating and sharing relevant content such as blogs, newsletters, white papers, case studies, podcasts, and more on your platform. Content marketing strategy benefits businesses by increasing online visibility, generating more leads, boosting loyalty, and improving trust and brand authority. 

To incorporate this strategy with ease, your platform should consist of a robust content management system (CMS) and blog management module. A robust CMS can assist you in creating, and managing content across various channels. Additionally, you can publish, update, and edit blogs and other content assets through a blog management module easily.

3. Affiliate Marketing

According to research, 8 out of every 10 companies use affiliate marketing programs to market their business. It is a very popular strategy to market your online tutoring business and build brand awareness. With affiliate marketing features, you can allow the users to register as affiliates and share their personalized affiliate links through various channels to promote your platform. In return for generating sales, the affiliate can earn a commission or reward. 

Moreover, you can also partner with popular influencers to promote your platform to their audience, eventually, increasing sales. An effective affiliate marketing module in your platform can help you easily implement this strategy to promote your online tutoring business. 

4. Social Media Marketing

For many people, social media is the first thing that they check when they wake up in the morning and the last thing before they go to bed. It is a popular and powerful tool to reach out to your target audience, generate new leads, and boost your brand visibility in the industry. Utilize different social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and more to make people aware of your online tutoring website and the services it offers. 

To execute this strategy, a social media marketing module in your platform can help tutors directly promote their upcoming courses and sessions on their social media. You can also encourage your students to share their learning experiences on social media platforms and recommend your platform to their social media network. This strategy will help you spread the word about your online tutoring platform. 

5. Search Engine Optimization

Nowadays, the majority of learners look for information on the internet, and search engines play an important role in providing that information. A well-optimized tutoring website will rank higher in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page), ultimately increasing its reach and attracting more organic traffic.

To implement this strategy, a platform equipped with an SEO management module can make this process easy for you. By leveraging pre-built marketing features, you can optimize title tags, meta descriptions, meta tags, meta keywords, and other meta content for web pages. This will improve the ranking of your website, eventually, attracting potential learners who are actively searching for online tutoring platforms. 

6. Email Marketing

For an online tutoring business, email marketing is a super effective way to engage with your audience, and promote it. By utilizing email marketing you can send targeted emails with relevant content, exclusive discounts, or helpful resources to engage subscribers and drive conversions. 

Integration of automatic email marketing tools such as Mailchimp on your platform makes it easy to implement this marketing strategy. You can easily segment your audience, personalize communication, and automate email campaigns. Therefore, ensure your platform is pre-integrated with email marketing tools such as Mailchimp. 

Looking For Tutoring Software Offering Inbuilt Marketing Features?

7. Multilingual Content Marketing

This marketing strategy helps you in reaching to a wider audience base by offering content in multiple languages to cater to diverse demographics and reach new markets across the globe. This marketing strategy can be implemented by publishing your content in multiple languages to target your audience in their respective languages. 

Ensure your platform offers multilingual functionality providing convenience to users by showing website content in their language. Additionally, utilize the feature of auto translate while publishing your blog which makes it easy to publish blogs in different languages. 

8. Discount Pricing Strategy

A discount pricing strategy can be a highly effective strategy for an online tutoring business. The strategy includes the use of discounts and offers to attract and convert potential prospects. The ultimate goal of this strategy is to boost sales, attract new users to the platform, stimulate users’ interest, reward loyal customers, and increase order values. 

However, to implement this strategy effectively, an offer and discount management module in your platform can be extremely helpful. By utilizing its functionality you can create and manage various offers, such as introductory discounts, referral bonuses, seasonal promotions, and more with ease. 

Now that you have gained knowledge about popular marketing strategies that you can implement to market your online tutoring business, here are a few other aspects that you can consider to ensure success.

Other Considerations To Boost Your Online Tutoring Business

Since the online tutoring industry is highly competitive, implementing only the above-mentioned marketing strategies won’t be enough. You can consider the following aspects, which have the potential to significantly enhance the success of your marketing efforts and to increase user engagement. 

  1. Reviews & Feedback
  2. Diverse Session Types 
  3. Unparalleled User Experience 
  4. High Security
  5. Multi-Currency Payment Options

1. Reviews & Feedback

Reviews and feedback play a crucial role in building the credibility and trust of your online tutoring business in the industry. This also provides insights into learners’ needs, preferences, and experiences, eventually, helping you in improving your services. Reviews and testimonials displayed prominently on your online tutoring platform can help in retaining existing learners and attracting potential new users.

With a review and feedback module in your platform, learners can easily add reviews about their experiences. However, with the auditing capabilities, the admin can ensure that only authentic reviews are published. 

2. Diverse Session Types

Every individual has a unique learning need and prefers sessions that suit them best. Offering a diverse range of sessions on your platform can help you cater to different learning preferences and needs of the learners. By offering different session types you can provide variety to learners, ensuring user satisfaction and, eventually, increasing the chances of positive reviews and referrals about your business. 

A platform with the capability to conduct a variety of sessions can streamline the process of offering different sessions and helps you in meeting the demand of the market. Whether it is live, group, course-based, or offline tutoring sessions, with this functionality you can easily conduct these sessions on the platform. 

3. Unparalleled User Experience

A seamless and intuitive user experience plays a pivotal role in ensuring learners’ engagement and retention on the platform. By offering comprehensive student and teacher dashboards on your platform you can appeal to a wider audience. These dashboards should streamline the user experience and offer ease of use to the learners and tutors. 

Additionally, with intuitive navigation, you can improve learning outcomes and satisfy the students, eventually increasing the credibility and popularity of your online tutoring platform in the market. 

Want To Launch An Online Tutoring Platform Offering Best UX/UI Experience?

4. High Security

In this digital age, data security, and privacy hold paramount importance, especially for an online tutoring business. Learners these days are very concerned about their data and privacy, hence, providing a secure online tutoring platform can prove to be a good marketing strategy. You can attract more users to your platform by ensuring that all security measures are implemented on your website. 

Moreover, as an online tutoring platform accumulates vast amounts of data and personal information of users, it becomes the platform’s ethical responsibility to protect this data. It is important to consider that your online tutoring platform is secure and complies with industry-specific standards and regulations such as GDPR, SSL, PCI, and others.

5. Multi-Currency Payment Options

Accepting payments in multiple currencies is crucial for expanding your reach and catering to learners from around the world. By allowing the learners to pay in their preferred currency, you can increase sales and get a competitive advantage. The ability to accept payments in multiple currencies on your platform also enables you to eliminate the barriers that often deter global learners from registering on the platform.

Moreover, offering multiple payment options such as credit cards, debit cards, eWallet, mobile banking, and others can increase accessibility and convenience of the users, eventually increasing user satisfaction and popularity. Considering this, ensure your platform is pre-built with such functionality so that offering multi-currency payment options becomes hassle-free. 

These are some of the popular marketing strategies that can help you promote your online tutoring business effectively. However, to successfully implement all the marketing strategies stated above you need to have all the mentioned modules, features, and functionality in your online tutoring platform. 

In case, your platform doesn’t have the above-mentioned features and functionality to implement different marketing strategies, you can consider adding these features to your platform. And, one of the effective and popular ways to do that is through replatforming. Now, what is replatforming? Let’s answer this question in the next section. 

What is Replatforming?

Replatforming is a process that involves migrating your platform from one technology to another that better aligns with your needs. It is a cost-effective way to upgrade your technology stack to leverage the advantage of latest technologies offering new features, improving performance, scalability, security, and more.

How Yo!Coach Can Be The Best Option For Replatforming your eLearning Platform?

Yo!Coach is a popular software solution available in the market that comes pre-built with all the functionalities required to build and launch your online tutoring business. This software offers the latest industry-specific features and is pre-integrated with many popular APIs. Moreover, this software is packed with marketing features that can help in promoting your online tutoring business hassle-free. 

Launch an Exceptional Online Tutoring Platform With Yo!Coach

Other benefits offered by Yo!Coach include:

  • Lifetime ownership 
  • Highly scalable
  • Fully customizable 
  • GDPR compliant
  • Years of industry experience
  • Personalized demo
  • Global clientele

Advanced tutoring-specific features offered by Yo!Coach are:

  • Intuitive UX/UI
  • Video conferencing for seamless communication
  • File sharing and screen sharing
  • Screen recording
  • Group chat
  • Multiple payment options
  • Multilingual
  • Reviews and ratings 
  • Robust reporting and analytics features 
  • Cutting-edge admin features 
  • Marketing features 
  • 10+ pre-integrated APIs
  • User management

Moreover, Yo!Coach team has helped many entrepreneurs in launching their online tutoring platforms and has facilitated the successful migration of many platforms to Yo!Coach. Let’s have a look at some of the popular clients of Yo!Coach:

Following are the popular online tutoring platforms built with Yo!Coach that are growing tremendously and successfully catering to the learners in the industry. 

W Tutors

Country– Hong Kong

This Hong Kong-based online tutoring platform connects learners seeking skill improvement with experts across the globe. Since its launch, W Tutors has onboarded 20,000+ learners and 600+ tutors on its platform. 

IntellaTutor 

Country– U.S

IntellaTutor is a US-based online tutoring platform connecting learners with experts to fulfill their academic and language learning tutoring needs in one place. Till now, IntellaTutor has helped 190+ tutors with several learners successfully. 

Edge Tutor

Country– Singapore

Edge Tutors is an online tutoring platform that connects trained tutors with learners across Singapore. Since its inception, this online tutoring platform has on-boarded more than 1000 tutors and provides enriching learning experiences to students. 

These are some of the online tutoring platforms that were successfully built by Yo!Coach. Gain more insights about our global clientele here

Want To Know How Yo!Coach Works ?

Conclusion

The importance of effectively marketing your online tutoring platform will only grow in the coming years. Marketing your online tutoring business requires a strategic approach and with the right features, modules, and functionalities you can efficiently reach and engage your target audience. By implementing the marketing strategies mentioned in this blog you can position your online tutoring business for success and achieve sustainable growth in this highly competitive online tutoring industry.

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How to Build a Sauna Rental Website With Readymade Rental Software https://www.fatbit.com/fab/rental-software-to-build-sauna-rental-website/ https://www.fatbit.com/fab/rental-software-to-build-sauna-rental-website/#respond Thu, 28 Mar 2024 08:08:17 +0000 https://www.fatbit.com/fab/?p=35318

Saunas are an essential part of Scandinavian culture with a wide range of health benefits, including increased blood circulation, body detoxification, stress management, pain relief, and improved cardiovascular health. However, in modern times, the application of saunas has also extended to leisure and recreational purposes. For this reason, the need for sauna rentals is witnessing a notable incline. 

In contrast to European countries, saunas are considered a luxury amenity in North American countries. Due to this, the rental prices for saunas are very high, ranging between $100-$500 per day. Adding to the prosperity of the business idea, currently, there are no market giants present in the sauna rental market. This opens a wide opportunity for new entrants to enter the market and establish their name. 

For capitalizing on the industry, let’s take a look at types of saunas, top markets, business models, revenue models, and the software technology required to build your platform.

Table Of Contents

Types of Rental Saunas

Rental saunas can be classified on both mobility and the mechanism used for heating. Based on the market viability, you can select to invest in any of these saunas.

  • Tent Saunas

Tent saunas are highly portable saunas that can be set up in both indoor and outdoor settings. They provide all the benefits of traditional saunas and mostly burn wood for heating purposes. Additionally, they are also highly cost-effective. The only downside to them is their small size and low durability. 

  • Trailer Saunas

These are high-quality saunas built to last long. As the name suggests, they can be towed away to any outdoor location and are mostly used in public and private events. Due to their strong build, they can be heated up via both wood burning and electrical mechanisms. However, trailer saunas also require heavy maintenance for which the business owner may need to hire additional personnel.

  • Electric Saunas

In comparison to traditional saunas that burn wood, electric saunas use electric stoves for heating purposes. They also provide precise temperature control and can be heated up very quickly without increasing the overall humidity. Just like trailer saunas, electric saunas are also strong and made to last long with high power efficiency. 

  • Infrared Saunas 

These are mild heat saunas that instead of steam, use infrared lamps to provide heat to the body. Because of no hot temperatures, infrared saunas are very safe to use. They are highly preferred by audiences who cannot tolerate high temperatures but look forward to receiving the other benefits of saunas.

  • Hot Tubs

Similar to saunas, the hot tub rental niche is also on the rise. Hot tubs provide a familiar experience to saunas and are used for recreational purposes. They are usually cheaper than saunas but require frequent cleaning and maintenance.

Top Countries Where Sauna Rental is a Normal

The spa and sauna industry is proliferating rapidly with a CAGR of 7.43% in the projection period 2024-2029 and is expected to reach a market share of $194.5 billion. With increasing preference for rentals, we can expect the sauna rental market to become one of the primary contributors to the industry. 

As per our reports, the following regions and their neighboring countries are the top markets to start your sauna rental business. 

  • Finland
  • Norway
  • Sweden
  • Denmark
  • Iceland 
  • USA
  • Japan
  • Canada
  • Russia 
  • Turkey

Expand your Sauna Rental Business Anywhere in the World

How the Sauna Rental Business Model Works?

There are two possible business models in the sauna rental industry. Both of them vary based on vendors and required investment.

  • The P2P Sauna Rental Business Model

Under this business model, various sauna owners sign up on the P2P marketplace and list their saunas. When customers rent those saunas, the marketplace owner gets to keep a commission as their earnings. A key benefit of this business model is that it is highly asset-light, you only need to provide and manage the rental marketplace. A private fleet is not required.

Workflow of the P2P sauna rental business model:

  • Sauna owners sign up on the marketplace and list their saunas
  • Customers browse those saunas and enter their preferred rental dates 
  • To place an order, customers submit a rental security amount along with the rental fee
  • The stored rental fee and security amount are stored in the sauna owner’s eWallet
  • The sauna owner fulfills the order as per the selected fulfillment method
  • On return, the sauna owner inspects the sauna for any unexpected damages and reports them to the marketplace owner
  • The marketplace owner reimburses the damages and returns the rental security amount to the customers.
  • Single Vendor Sauna Rental Store

In contrast to the P2P model, in the single-vendor sauna rental model, there’s only one vendor, which is also the store owner. This business model is highly suitable for those entrepreneurs who want to start their own sauna services, or are already in the industry and want to make the digital leap. A key benefit is that the store owner gets to keep the entire rental fee.

Workflow of a single vendor sauna rental store:

  • The store owner uploads detailed sauna listings on the platform
  • Customers browse those listings and enter their preferred rental dates 
  • To place an order, customers submit a rental security amount along with the rental fee
  • The store owner fulfills the order via the selected order fulfillment method
  • On return, the store owner inspects the sauna for any damages and reimburses the same from the rental security
  • The remaining rental security is returned to the customer

How to Generate Revenue on an Online Sauna Rental Marketplace

Being online comes with the advantages of utilizing multiple revenue generation streams for your business. These streams vary as per the business model, market trends, and business preferences. On an online sauna rental marketplace, you can consider using the following revenue generation streams:

  • Rental fees: When renting out your own saunas (or in a single vendor sauna rental model), you can keep the entire rental fee as your earnings.
  • Rental commission: On a sauna rental marketplace model, where different vendors rent out their saunas, you can keep a portion of their earnings as your marketplace commission.
  • Featured Listings: In the marketplace business model, you can also charge small fees from top-performing vendors to display their listings in the featured collections of your website.
  • Subscription packages: You can provide subscription-based sauna services on your rental marketplace. These work similarly to gym subscriptions. Customers can buy a sauna subscription for a month and use saunas as per the inclusions of their subscription. Likewise, the subscription model can be used for renting out saunas to event managers and concierge managers for months.
  • Rental add-ons: In countries where saunas are a cultural tradition, consumers also like to rent out add-ons such as chairs, tents, barbecues, cold tubs, etc.
  • Display ads: You can charge other businesses to display their ads on your website.
  • Gift cards: Saunas are very popular in various regions. In those regions, you can sell gift cards to help customers provide quality relaxation time to their loved ones.

Top Features Required on a Sauna Rental Marketplace

Considering the massive business opportunity in launching a sauna rental marketplace along with the comprehensive workflows of the multi-vendor model, it has become important to ensure that your marketplace has all the essential features. Below, we have briefed some must-have features for your sauna rental platform. For more guidance, you can consult our business analysts who recommend you readymade solutions or help you find out the complete scope of work in your sauna rental project.

  • Map View Filter

In terms of providing a superior user experience, GPS-enabled search results or a map view filter do a better job. They display nearby saunas to customers, which are in their close vicinity or can be delivered or picked up in a very short time frame. The map view filter also helps build the authenticity of your platform.

  • Tiered Pricing Module

Different customer segments rent out saunas for different durations. For example, where tourists and residents may rent saunas for a few days, event managers can require them for a few weeks to months. Thus, to cater to the rental requirements of all customer segments, a tiered pricing module can help you set daily, weekly, and monthly rental fees for saunas.

  • Rental Booking Calendar

Rental operations are a bit complex than sales operations. This is because their workflows and algorithms are different. In rental operations, you require a rental booking calendar that can display available dates to customers and accept rental date inputs. These rental date inputs from the booking calendar are then used to do invoicing for the rental orders, which is also inclusive of any rental add-ons and security deposits.

  • Rental Add-ons

Rental add-ons are the complementary products and services that are often required along with saunas. As briefly described in the revenue generation section, these can be chairs, tables, barbeques, music systems, and even bath towels and cleaning supplies. In the case of wood-burning saunas, extra wood for heating the sauna is often required. Having add-ons on your sauna rental marketplace can immensely assist you with upselling and cross-selling.

  • Document Verification

As a standard practice, it is safer to verify customer documents before renting them out saunas. These documents can either be identity proofs, address proofs, business ID cards, etc. For document verification purposes, your marketplace can simply ask customers to upload their documents at checkout. While processing the order, you can verify those documents.

  • Rental Agreement Management

On a sauna rental marketplace, every vendor can have different terms and conditions for renting out their saunas. For example, some of those conditions can be no jewelry, electronics, or inflammable objects inside, or they can also mention the minimum required age for renting. Thus, to sanction these terms and conditions, your sauna rental marketplace requires rental agreement management and eSign features.

  • Late Cancellations Management

Late cancellations can be detrimental to your business in many ways. They lead to losses in terms of order processing costs (be it cleaning costs, labor costs, and delivery costs) and also reserve your inventory unnecessarily to impact your order fulfillment rate, which incurs additional lost opportunity costs. Thus, to encourage timely returns and evade the aforementioned problems, it is better to have a late cancellations management module.

  • Order Management

Order management is one of the most essential modules in any eCommerce business. On your rental website, the order management module should keep you updated on all orders and send real-time notifications. Additionally, it should also provide you access to various order details such as customer name, payment details, etc., and with certain options including order cancellation. 

  • Vendor Management

On a multi-vendor sauna rental marketplace, vendor management features are required to perform administrative actions on vendor profiles. For adequate management, your marketplace should have features to verify vendor profiles, manually approve listings, and set minimum withdrawal thresholds and withdrawal interval periods. Lastly, the marketplace should also provide you with access to vendor performance and other related details. 

  • Rental Maintenance Period

After every rental order, your sauna may require inspection and maintenance. During this period, it cannot be added back to the inventory for renting. Thus, the rental maintenance period is required to sync under-maintenance saunas with the online inventory. You can pre-define the maintenance period on your system and it will sync the inventory accordingly. 

  • Discounts and Promotions

To accelerate business growth, you will need to deploy various discounts and promotion campaigns as well. The discount features can include percentage and fixed-price markdowns or duration-based discounts. Similarly, promotional features such as SEO optimization and homepage banners will help you attract new customers as well. 

  • Reports and Analytics

Analytical features are essential for all eCommerce platforms. They help you make data-driven decisions to turbocharge growth and overcome challenges. On your sauna rental platform, you should have proper analytical features to provide you with accurate insights on revenue generation, most rented saunas, most purchased add-ons, top paying customers, and more.

Explore Next-Gen Rental Software Functionalities

Creating your Sauna Rental Platform with Readymade Solutions

Although a sauna rental marketplace can be developed with multiple approaches, including both custom development and readymade software, using a readymade software remains the safest. This is because of three primary reasons, which are:

  1. Readymade solutions are tried and tested
  2. They are highly cost-effective
  3. Reduce the overall Time-to-Market

Thus, instead of paying hourly development charges for a software, it is wiser to opt for the readymade solutions on which the existing rental industry relies. There are basically two types of readymade rental solutions:

  • SaaS Rental Software

SaaS rental software refer to the solutions that are hosted on the software provider’s own servers and provided as a monthly service. Thus, the name Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). SaaS solutions are primarily useful for small businesses and solopreneurs who want to validate their market ideas. Key benefits of using a SaaS rental software are:

  • These are tried and tested solutions
  • Are very easy to set up

However, while selecting SaaS, it must be taken into account that the software provider gets complete control over the hosting server. For this reason, there can be some restrictions on the number of listings and transactions on your platform. To overcome those restrictions, you will need to frequently upgrade your package, which may result in a monthly increase in costs.

  • Self-Hosted Rental Software

A solution to the SaaS recurring costs and scalability problem is self-hosted rental software. These types of rental software provide complete freedom to business owners in selecting the hosting server, which can either be a third-party hosting service provider or an on-premise server. The top benefits of using a self-hosted rental software are:

  • One-time costs for a lifetime license
  • As these are hosted on your choice of servers, there are no limitations on the number of  listings and transactions
  • Self-hosted solutions are highly cost-effective in the long run. Any changes in the price of the software do not affect existing customers.

Moreover, as self-hosted software come with a lifetime usage license, founders can easily migrate to any other software without worrying about any reinvestment costs.

Get Lifetime Licensed Rental Software for your Sauna Business

Conclusion

With rental saunas emerging as a leisure trend in the North American market and their cultural significance in various other parts of the world, investing in a sauna rental marketplace can be a profitable business decision. However, to streamline operations, you need a readymade solution with advanced features and intuitive workflows. This is where YoRent rental software helps. Being a highly reliable and fully scalable rental software with advanced rent-centric features, YoRent supports all sauna rental use cases right out of the box. For a personalized one-or-one demo or software consultation, feel free to get in touch with YoRent experts.

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How to Launch An Online Marketplace for Selling Building Materials https://www.fatbit.com/fab/how-to-launch-online-marketplace-to-sell-building-materials/ https://www.fatbit.com/fab/how-to-launch-online-marketplace-to-sell-building-materials/#respond Mon, 18 Mar 2024 10:36:04 +0000 https://www.fatbit.com/fab/?p=35278

The building materials industry has consistently proven to be an economically viable business option for entrepreneurs. With a global market share of a whopping $1.7 trillion in 2024, the industry has exhibited immense potential in all geographical regions. To begin with, we can take the example of the North American region, which is flourishing with the latest recorded market share of $319 billion, followed by Europe with $210 billion. 

Furthermore, the industry is estimated to expand by another $159 billion in the next 5 years, indicating the long-term value of timely investing in a building materials startup. In the digitally-abled era of today where technology is redefining traditional business models, launching a hyperlocal building materials marketplace emerges to be a lucrative venture. 

Not only is the hyperlocal marketplace model asset-light, which means it does not require you to own any inventory, but it also helps you grow the entire hyperlocal market as a whole. Let’s take a closer look at everything you require to launch your own multi-vendor building materials marketplace, including its primary benefits, top players, business model, software technology, and more.

Table of contents

Benefits of Launching a Hyperlocal Building Materials Marketplace

Online building materials marketplaces bring efficiency of scale with multiple vendors and a widespread product catalog. Due to this, they are able to provide the following benefits: 

  • Provide customers with quick access to a diverse range of building materials and supplies
  • Display product availability at multiple local stores
  • Are highly reliable in case of providing emergency substitutes, for example in case of shortage and wastage of materials
  • Provide customers with multiple discounts and promotional offers
  • Help local vendors increase online presence
  • Are more transparent and reliable in terms of invoicing, returns, and accountability

Leading Building Material Businesses in the Digital Era

The building materials industry is fragmented into various players. When analyzed on the basis of their digital capabilities, the following are the industry’s leading players:

Home Depot

Home Depot is the world’s largest home improvement retailer with a wide range of building materials and supplies. It operates via both online and offline channels and has local stores all across the US. In terms of hyperlocal operations, Home Depot provides same-day delivery and also has a returns policy. 

Estimated Revenue:  $153.7 billion

Value Proposition: Same-day delivery, next-day delivery, both self-pick-up and delivery options, return options 

Lowe’s

Lowe’s is another digital building material and supplies provider in the US. With over 2000 local stores, it provides same-day delivery services in all 50 states. Lowe’s product catalog ranges from home accessories, power tools, and HVAC to lawn & garden supplies, bathroom supplies, and flooring. 

Estimated Revenue: $86.3 billion

Value Proposition: Same-day delivery, bulk order discounts, return options, buy now pay later, credit programs

Menards

Menards is a big player in the building materials industry with over 300 stores in 15 states of the US. It also provides hyperlocal building materials delivery and has a wide catalog of hardware tools, paint supplies, garden equipment, bath fittings, plumbing, and flooring products. 

Estimated Revenue: $13.4 billion

Value Proposition: Same-day delivery, credit programs, self-pick-up, and delivery options

Materials Market

As the name suggests, Materials Market is a complete marketplace for building materials suppliers. It helps them sell their products to thousands of customers and expand business operations. The product catalog of Materials Market is also very wide as it sources its products from an array of suppliers. 

Estimated Revenue: NA

Value Proposition: Sources building materials from multiple suppliers, helps local businesses expand business operations, bulk deals and discounts

AMAST

In comparison to Home Depot and Lowe’s, AMAST is a relatively newer player that provides online access to over 200,000 building materials and products. With multiple vendors, AMAST is an online building materials marketplace that specializes in B2B sourcing operations.

Estimated Revenue: $4.9 million

Value Proposition: Community of over 400 vendors, provides custom price quotations, provides vendor name in listings

Launch a Building Materials Marketplace like the Aforementioned Businesses

Exemplary Workflow of a Hyperlocal Building Materials Marketplace

Usually, four user types are involved in online building materials marketplace operations. These user types are:

  1. The Admin: The marketplace owner and their subordinates who oversee and manage the overall platform. The admin is not necessarily required to own any of the listed products.
  2. Vendors: Local building material suppliers and manufacturers wanting to sell their products on the marketplace. Vendors also have to maintain inventory and timely dispatch orders.
  3. Delivery Staff: The on-field delivery personnel that take care of the delivery.
  4. Customers: The hyperlocal target audience, which can be local contractors, homeowners, private offices, and concierges.

These four user types interact on the marketplace platform in the following manner: 

  1. The admin configures the marketplace including webpages, logos, payment gateways, commission rate, withdrawal settings, and the master catalog.
  2. Multiple vendors sign up on the marketplace and list their products
  3. Customers select their preferred products, delivery slots, and complete the checkout process.
  4. The admin commission is deducted from the order payment and the remaining amount is stored in the vendor’s eWallet.
  5. Vendors fulfill the order as per the selected order fulfillment method, ie., delivery or self-pick-up.– In case of delivery, the admin or seller assigns the order to a delivery staff. Alternatively, the system can also broadcast delivery to all nearby delivery personnel.
  6. Upon reaching the minimum withdrawal threshold amount, vendors can transfer their earnings from their eWallets to their bank accounts.

Necessary Features Required in Your Hyperlocal Building Materials Marketplace

Based on the aforementioned business workflow, your online building materials marketplace requires the following features:

  • Delivery Time Slots: Ensure convenience to your customers by providing multiple delivery time slots.
  • Self-pick-up Module: Allow customers to pick up building materials as per urgency or from nearby stores. Alternatively, this option can also be used as BOPIS payment method.
  • Single Item Cancellation: Allow customers to cancel single items from already placed orders.
  • Order Adjustment: Ensure a higher customer satisfaction rate by providing substitute products in case of out-of-stock or unavailable items.
  • Order Management: Track orders in real-time including delivery status, vendor details, customer details, etc. You can also edit the status updates of in-progress orders.
  • Subscription Packages for Vendors: Provide vendors with a satisfying selling experience by creating premium subscription packages.
  • Vendor Catalog: Allow vendors to import, create, or request their own custom product catalog.
  • Vendor Management: Get comprehensive vendor management options including registration request approval, sales history, order history, product catalog access, and more.
  • Commission Settings: Set and charge your own commission rate and withdrawal settings, such as minimum withdrawal threshold and minimum withdrawal interval.
  • Delivery Management: Manage delivery staff profiles, set delivery charges, and assign or broadcast orders. 

Mobile Apps for Customers and Delivery Staff

Along with these features, your entire technology infrastructure will also require separate mobile apps for customers and delivery staff:

  • Customers Mobile App: Through the app, customers can conveniently browse all building materials and place orders. They can also access search filters, view order history, view rewards, and even track in-transit orders. For added convenience, they can create and access wishlists and save delivery addresses and payment details for quick checkouts.
  • Delivery Staff Mobile App: Via the mobile app, delivery staff can easily view all broadcasted and assigned orders. They can select their delivery radius, access GPS navigation, and keep a record of all earnings and deliveries. 

Get Cost Estimations for Your Building Materials Marketplace with Mobile Apps

Steps to Launch Your Online Building Materials Marketplace

Launching a new startup consumes substantial time and effort. It is highly recommended to invest those efforts in the right direction. For more efficiency, you should create a launch strategy for your building materials marketplace. To further help you out, we have outlined the major steps required to launch your hyperlocal business.

Step 1: Conduct Market Research

It is highly possible that statistical data for your target hyperlocal market may not be available. In such a situation, instead of statistical data, you rely on consumer surveys and feedback. Multiply the number of potential customers in the total number of respondents by the amount of money they are willing to spend on your online building marketplace. By scaling up this data to the target region’s actual population, you can estimate the market size. Additionally, focus your research on the pricing mechanics, key competitors, and consumer behavior.

Step 2: Prepare a Revenue Generation Model

For earning revenue, you need to solidify a working revenue generation model that you can easily set up on your online store. Your revenue generation model should focus on maximizing profit generation and diversifying the income streams. Some revenue streams that you can include in your hyperlocal marketplace are:

  • Sales Commission: Flat rate or percentage commission on every transaction that takes place on your marketplace.
  • Subscription Packages: To provide a superior experience to certain vendors, you can create and sell custom subscription packages with different offerings, such as lower commission rates and free featured listings.
  • Featured Listings: Similar to subscription packages, you can sell featured listing spaces to your vendors. These listings appear in the most viewed sections of the marketplace, such as the homepage banner, at the top of search results, etc.
  • Display Ads: You can also charge third-party businesses to display their ads on your marketplace platform
  • Delivery Commission: You can levy your commission charges on paid deliveries. 

Step 3:  Choosing the Development Approach

There are two development approaches to develop your hyperlocal marketplace. 

  • Using a Readymade Software:

Readymade software are tried and tested business solutions that are developed after thorough research of market scenarios and various use cases. Due to this, they come with all essential features to facilitate hyperlocal operations right out of the box. To provide a superior user experience, readymade hyperlocal delivery solutions also have shorter workflows. Some benefits of using a readymade solution to develop your building materials marketplace are:

  1. Coding or programming knowledge is not required
  2. Shorter time-to-market
  3. Come with all essential features right out of the box
  4. Already tried and tested
  5. Highly cost-effective
  • Bespoke Software Development

In the bespoke development approach, you need to develop the marketplace from scratch. Either you can write the source code yourself or hire a software developer. While bespoke software development is a feasible approach, it lacks the benefits provided by readymade software. For example, the development time frame in bespoke development can range from several months to years and you will also need to pay hourly development costs to the development firm. Some benefits of using bespoke software development are:

  • Can be used if you want your marketplace to be developed on a very specific technology, for example, Laravel and Koka
  • Can help you follow any business model
Using Readymade Software Bespoke Software Development
Comes with all essential
features in-built
Requires everything to be
developed from scratch
Already tried and tested
for market scenarios
Not tested for market scenarios
Shorter time-to-market Longer development
and deployment timeframe
More cost-effective Highly costly because of
hourly development payment
Has predefined workflows Workflows can be designed
as per business requirements

Step 4: Market the Platform

After developing and configuring the marketplace, you can start your hyperlocal building materials business operations. Prioritize local SEO to attract a hyperlocal audience and also connect with local contractors, engineers, plumbers, and other service professionals. To build your product catalog, you will need to onboard several vendors. There are multiple ways to do so including introducing lucrative offers, building a personal network, email marketing, paid campaigning, and more. For more assistance in attracting vendors to your hyperlocal building materials marketplace, check out this blog. 

Lastly, you also need a wide range of building materials to meet the diverse requirements of customers. Some building materials that you can sell on your marketplace are:

Building Materials:- 

How Growcer Can Help

Growcer is a readymade hyperlocal delivery solution that supports numerous marketplace operations including building materials. It has been carefully developed after years of research to help you with daily hyperlocal business use cases. Perfected with native Android and iOS mobile apps along with different admin, vendor, customer, and front-end interfaces, Growcer is fully equipped to power robust marketplaces. 

To further streamline your business, Growcer automates several operations such as inventory, invoicing, returns, cancellations, commissions, payments, taxes, discounts, promotions, user management, analytics, and even shares real-time order status with customers. With automated workflows, Growcer is also able to reduce your overall operational costs. 

Lastly, marketplaces built with Growcer are completely white-label and fully scalable. Meaning, that not only you can rebrand Growcer and promote your marketplace under your own brand name but also provide your vendors with unlimited listings and transactions for limitless growth. 

Reasons to select Growcer to build your online building material marketplace:

  • No coding required to launch your marketplace
  • Complete white-label software that you can rebrand 
  • No monthly or annually recurring charges
  • Free 12 months of technical support
  • Native Android and iOS mobile apps
  • Fully scalable and customizable
  • Comes with multilingual and multi-currency support
  • Complete source code ownership 
  • Thorough documentation and tutorials for easy onboarding

Book a One-on-One Personalized Demo of Growcer

ShortA: A Building Materials Marketplace Built with Growcer

ShortA is an online building materials marketplace with operations in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. With over 7000 delivery partners, ShortA delivers a wide range of construction supplies, including power tools, plumbing tools, electrical supplies, etc. With the help of Growcer, ShortA is able to simplify operations between vendors, customers, and delivery partners. Moreover, it also uses mobile apps to deliver superior service to contractors and homeowners.

Conclusion

The increasing convenience of online shopping apps is revolutionizing diverse industries. However, the revolution is still much awaited at the hyperlocal level in many states and cities. In the building materials industry, you can take the initiative and gain the first-mover advantage by launching your own hyperlocal building materials marketplace. To launch a reliable marketplace, you will need to focus on several factors such as market research, consumer behavior, software technology, and onboarding vendors. After launching your marketplace, build a strong supplier network and focus on local SEO to grow your business.

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How To Build An Online English Learning School https://www.fatbit.com/fab/how-to-build-an-online-english-learning-school/ https://www.fatbit.com/fab/how-to-build-an-online-english-learning-school/#respond Fri, 01 Mar 2024 07:59:50 +0000 https://www.fatbit.com/fab/?p=35190

Globalization has brought people from diverse linguistic backgrounds under one roof and has created the need to communicate in one common language. English, the most widely spoken language with 1.5 billion speakers worldwide, facilitates this communication. Learning English has become a norm for people to be competitive in the job market, to access educational opportunities in English-speaking countries, and for global networking.  

Considering the scenario, the demand for English language learning is at an all-time high, creating an array of lucrative opportunities for entrepreneurs aspiring to build an online English learning school. To help you fulfill your business goal and kick-start your entrepreneurial journey, we share all the essential information you need to successfully build your online English learning school like Verbling, Cambly, iTalki, and more through this blog. 

But first, let’s know about some of the key players in the industry.

Popular Online English Learning Platforms 

Knowing about the popular players serves as a powerful source of inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs. Let’s take a look at some of the popular online English learning platforms in the industry.

Verbling

Verbling is a popular online language-learning platform that connects students with tutors around the world. They offer learning through one-on-one classes and group sessions. Verbling has partnered with more than 10,000 expert tutors and is a popular choice among learners. Verbling’s estimated annual revenue is $135.1 million per year. 

Suggested Read: How To Build An Online Language Learning Website Like Verbling– Business Model & Key Features

iTalki

iTalki is a leading language learning platform that efficiently connects students and professional teachers worldwide. More than 30,000+ teachers from 180 countries offer their teaching services via this platform. The annual approximate revenue of iTalki is $328.5 million per year.

Cambly

Cambly is a leading English learning platform that enables learners to learn from native English speakers. This platform has more than 10,000 English tutors from all kinds of backgrounds and diverse countries. Verblings annual revenue is approximately $3 million. 

Lingoda

Lingoda is a popular online language learning platform that connects native-level teachers with learners from across the world. With 1500+ certified tutors and expertly designed learning materials, this platform creates an engaging learning environment. The estimated annual revenue of Lingoda is $22 million per year.

Now that, you have gained insights about some of the popular players in English learning industry, further, let’s move on to the steps to build an online English learning school Platform.

Steps To Build An Online English Learning School Platform 

Starting an online English learning school can be a bit challenging and time-consuming. However, with the right information, and strategy, this can be done effortlessly. Follow these steps to start a successful online English learning School. 

Step 1 – Define Your Niche and Target Audience

Defining your niche is not possible without knowing your target audience. In-depth research and analysis about the target audience provide comprehensive insights essential for defining your niche. Following are some of the popular niches among English learners, each tailored to cater to specific learning preferences and requirements: 

  • Business English
  • English exam preparation (IELTS, TOEFL, PTE, TESOL, TEFL, and others)
  • English learning for specific professions (Medical professionals, accountants, nursing, hospitality professionals, finance experts, etc.)
  • Pronunciation and accent tutoring
  • English language specializations (Grammar, vocabulary, creative writing, spelling, and more)  
  • ESL (English as Second Language) learning programs
  • Age-specific English Teaching (Kindergarten/preschool, teenager or adults)
  • English learning for special needs students

Step 2 – Do Market Research and Competitors Analysis

After knowing your target audience and defining your niche, the next crucial step is to do competitors analysis and market research. Analyze your competitors, know about their strengths and weaknesses, and implement those learnings into your business. Also, do market research about your industry by exploring government data, surveys, research papers, and more. 

Step 3 – Determine the Business Model

Further, determine the business model for your online English learning school. Following are some of the popular business models: 

One-on-One Learning: This business model connects teachers with learners in a personalized one-on-one environment during sessions. 

Group Learning: This business model works on the concept that a tutor teaches multiple learners in a single session simultaneously. 

Class Packages: A collection of multiple group classes is offered together as a single unit. This allows learners to enroll in multiple classes at one time without having to opt for separate registration for each class. 

Pre-recorded Courses: Teachers upload courses on the platform, and learners can avail of them anytime, anywhere as per their availability. These are self-paced courses that enable learners to pursue them at their own pace and convenience. 

Launch English Learning Platform In Business Model Of Your Choice

Step 4 – Implement Profitable Monetization Channels

Understanding the right monetization strategy is crucial for the sustainable growth of any business. Entrepreneurs should consider the revenue streams that align with their future business goals. Also note that the provided list of revenue streams is not exhaustive and trying a mix of different revenue channels is the most effective approach for some businesses. 

Following are some of the most common revenue channels:

Commissions: A commission is cut from the student’s fee they pay to the tutor. 

Subscriptions: Monthly or annual subscriptions are paid by the students to access the platform.

Advertisements: The platform owner runs banner ads on the platform in return charges a fee. 

Sponsored Listing: Tutors pay a certain amount of fee to feature themselves on the platform. 

Certifications: Certificates are provided to students on the completion of courses in return for a fee. 

Educational Products: Business owners can even sell e-books, educational material, how-to guides, and more. 

Step 5 – Plan Core Features and Functionalities For Your Online School

The success of any online English learning school depends significantly on its features. Incorporating the right set of features that promise a seamless learning experience is extremely important. When building your online English learning school, consider the following key features:

  • User-friendly and intuitive UX/UI
  • Easy Login/Registration
  • Interactive and collaborative tools like virtual whiteboard, screen sharing, recording, and more
  • Video conferencing
  • Real-time chat
  • Reports and Analytics 
  • Pre-integrated APIs
  • Powerful admin dashboard 
  • User Management
  • Multiple payment options
  • Notifications and alerts 
  • Multilingual functionality
  • Reviews and ratings
  • Discussion forum

These are some of the features that you must consider when establishing your online English learning school. 

Step 6 – Choose the Right Development Approach

After deciding on the must-have features for your platform, the next important step is to choose a suitable development approach. Majorly there are two ways to build an online English learning school platform.

Custom Development

This development approach includes creating an online platform from scratch. Custom development involves many steps to deliver the finished online platform, including, research, design, development, testing, and more. You have to hire a team of developers to develop the platform in-house or outsource the development services. Considering the effort required, this approach is costly and time-consuming. 

Ready-made Software

A ready-made software offers all the essential functionality required to launch a successful online platform. Such software offers rapid deployment, takes less time to launch, and needs no technical knowledge. Moreover, if required, ready-made software can be customized as per your requirements and business needs. 

The benefits and cost-effectiveness offered by readymade software make it a better option than developing it from scratch. 

Yo!Coach, a versatile eLearning software by FATbit Technologies is one such popular ready-made software that has already helped several entrepreneurs establish their online learning businesses. This software solution has been trusted by more than 1000 clients across 40+ countries.

It is a highly customizable software, and caters to diverse business needs. Additionally, this software offers all essential features and comes pre-integrated with 10+ APIs. 

Launch A Feature-Rich Online English Learning School With Yo!Coach

Step 7 – Promote Your Online English Learning School

After launching your online English learning school in the market, the next crucial step is to make your target audience aware of your platform. Make a plan defining your marketing goals and strategies as per your target audience.

Entrepreneurs can promote their online school by utilizing various channels such as:

  • Social media
  • Email marketing
  • Content marketing
  • Paid advertising

By carefully considering and implementing the above-mentioned steps, you can easily launch and market your online English learning school in the industry. 

Over To You!

This online learning industry presents enormous prospects for entrepreneurs. The increasing number of English language learners means an amazing opportunity for entrepreneurs looking to start their online English learning School. Comprehend all the steps mentioned above and make a well-informed strategy to build and launch a successful online English learning school.

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How to Create an Online Education Marketplace? https://www.fatbit.com/fab/how-to-create-an-online-education-marketplace/ https://www.fatbit.com/fab/how-to-create-an-online-education-marketplace/#respond Mon, 26 Feb 2024 11:45:51 +0000 https://www.fatbit.com/fab/?p=35110

In today’s world of digital advancements, online education marketplaces are gaining traction. They help in breaking down geographical barriers and in connecting education providers with students from all over the world. 

According to Statista, the online education market is estimated to reach USD 185.20 billion in 2024. Further, it is expected to experience an annual growth rate of 8.61% from 2024 to 2028, resulting in projected market growth of USD 257.70 billion by 2028, demonstrating the vast potential and profitability of this sector.

That being said, this post entails the roadmap to navigate the intricacies of creating an online education marketplace, regardless of whether you are an experienced entrepreneur or are just planning to begin your entrepreneurial journey.

Table of contents

What is an Online Education Marketplace?

An online education marketplace is a platform that brings together teachers, learners/peers, and real-world experts to provide a holistic learning experience to learners. It is a complete digital education ecosystem that supports learners with different personalities and needs.

Education Marketplace Niches and Types 

To keep pace with the shifting dynamics of learning and for better education delivery, many types of education marketplaces have come into existence. Mentioned below are some of them.

Online Tutoring Marketplace Platforms

Online tutoring platforms help education to evolve a step in the right direction by creating a collaborative environment between learners and tutors, facilitating personalized learning experiences beyond the classroom.

Examples: First Tutors, GoStudent

Online Course Marketplaces

Online course marketplaces provide various pre-recorded online courses on different subjects to individuals who are interested to acquire new knowledge, skills, and pursue professional or personal goals. 

Examples: Coursera, Thinkfic

Language Learning Marketplace Platforms

These platforms are redefining the language learning process by offering immersive language learning experiences to learners. Furthermore, they offer authentic pronunciation, idiomatic expressions that traditional setup of textbook and classroom learning fail to convey.

Examples: Preply, italki

K-12 Education Marketplaces 

Online K-12 education marketplaces are hubs that connect students, parents and teachers with a range of K-12 educational resources together in one-place. Moreover, teachers and parents can collaborate using these platforms to share insights in order to enhance learning outcomes.

Examples: Teachers Pay Teachers, K12

Higher Education Websites 

According to an article (Harvard Business Review), “universities are the gatekeepers of knowledge and stewards of human capital.”  Hence, by harnessing the power of digital technologies, higher education websites are empowering students at a global level by making university curricula more accessible to them. 

Example: FutureLearn

Online Career Coaching Marketplace Platforms

For a world that is being overturned by technology, people are forced to reexamine their career trajectory. It is getting increasingly difficult to chart a career path on the basis of existing skills and knowledge. Hence, online career coaching platforms play a crucial role in allowing individuals to cultivate career agility.

Examples: Koachee, Stay Nimble

Online Mentoring Marketplace Platforms 

Now more than ever, individuals need a supportive mentor who can assist them in finding their strengths and a learning-forward mindset. This is where online mentoring platforms play a pivotal role. 

Examples: Clarity.fm, GrowthMentor

Corporate Training Marketplaces

In response to disruption brought about by technological advancements, many corporate leaders and entrepreneurs are investing in their workforce by providing them corporate training through courses or resources available on corporate training marketplaces. 

Example: Udemy

Help Individuals Access Education Worldwide by Launching An Online Education Marketplace

The shift of learners to online education marketplaces is enthralling, with a few dominant players who are disrupting the space by offering flexible learning opportunities. Mentioned below, are a few of the famous education marketplace players.

Udemy 

A top online education marketplace that allows instructors to create and upload courses on their preferred topics and earn. Instructors can also interact with users via online discussion boards.

Coursera 

Coursera is another online education marketplace that was founded by Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng in 2012. The platform offers online courses and degrees from leading universities and companies. 

Preply 

Preply is a leading language learning platform that was founded in the United States by Serge Lukyanov, Dmytro Voloshyn, Kirill Bigai in 2012. The official website was made available in 2013. Currently, Preply has over 32,000 tutors who offer classes in 50 languages. 

Cambly 

Cambly is a California based education app that started its journey in 2012 as a simple iPad app. It is co-founded by Kevin and Sameer. The students can now either use its platform or app to connect with native English speakers to improve their speaking and listening skills.

Skooli 

Founded in August 2014 by Dave Frey and Rene Frey, Skooli is an online education platform that connects tutors with K-12 and college students. It provides one-on-one tutoring sessions that allows students to get personalized assistance for difficult to understand topics. 

Now that we have learned about the major players, let us discuss the features that give education marketplaces a distinct advantage over traditional educational delivery.

Features Giving Online Education Marketplaces an Edge Over Traditional Delivery

Education marketplaces are democratizing education. In addition, they focus on providing personalized learning experiences that enhance the effectiveness of education delivery, making it more student centric. Discussed below are a few features of education marketplaces.

Simple RegistrationThis feature allows user friendly registration to tutors and students.

Search and Filter: This feature allows students to search for courses/tutors according to their preferences.

Course ListingsUsing this feature, tutors can easily list courses with proper tags, detailed description including syllabus, duration and more.

Interactive Learning ToolsIncludes video chat, live chat, virtual interaction in real-time and more. Using these tools, students and tutors can interact with each other seamlessly.

Multiple Payment GatewaysThis feature enhances the success of an education marketplace as it allows students to make payments via payment gateways of their choice.

Multilingual/MulticurrencyThese are pivotal features as they let the platform operate in geographically different regions. Being multilingual allows the platform to support content in multiple languages, whereas multicurrency allows transactions in multiple currencies.

Reviews and RatingsThis feature allows students to view and give ratings and reviews to courses of tutors.

Progress TrackingUsing this feature, the students keep track of their progress.

Analytics and ReportsThis feature presents data in a structured format so that the admin can analyze and identify trends for better decision making.

Launch a Feature-Rich Online Education Marketplace

As mentioned, online education marketplaces are reshaping the educational landscape in the digital age. But for them to sustain and scale, having monetization strategies in place are critical and diversifying them can be a game changer. Mentioned below are popular monetization strategies.

Commission 

The admin of the education marketplace can make money by predefining the commission on every session or course.

Online Advertisements

This strategy can be used to display ads on the education marketplace as a way to earn money.

Course Fee

This strategy allows the admin to charge learners a fee to enroll in individual courses.

Subscription

This strategy allows learners to access premium content such as courses and other study material for as long as the subscription is active. 

Paid Certificates

This strategy allows learners to get a certificate after course completion, which they can add to their resumes. While the course could be free of cost, to get a verified certificate, a fee would be levied.

Drive Profitability by Launching an Online Education Marketplace

Starting an Online Education Marketplace

In a post-pandemic world, online education has become the new normal. Teachers and students across the globe are opting for online methods. Hence, to meet the rising demand, building an online education marketplace that has its own unique value proposition requires careful planning. Here are the steps:

  • Market and Competitor Research
  • Define your Value Proposition
  • Choose the Platform Type
  • Development of the Marketplace 
  • Testing and Deployment
  • Launch and Maintenance 

Market and Competitor Research 

This is the first and the most important step, where you need to deep dive to understand the market anatomy. Here, it is also important to note that conducting competitor analysis is also pivotal. This is because it will help you in identifying any gaps in the market, the strengths and weaknesses of players and their marketing strategies.

Define your Value Proposition

After understanding the pain points and gaps in the market, it is time for you to define your value proposition, i.e., determine what will set your education marketplace apart from the competition. 

Choose the Platform Niche

To attract a more engaged audience, in this step, you need to choose the type/niche for your online education marketplace. It can be a tutoring marketplace, language learning marketplace, K-12 marketplace, career coaching marketplace, and so on.

Development of Education Marketplace

In order to build an effective online education marketplace, in this step, the developers collaborate to turn your vision into reality. There are several stages that include UX/UI designing, frontend development, backend development, and so on. It is important to note that on the basis of the features described above, the development time can vary.

Testing and Deployment

Once the development is complete, the next step involves rigorous testing. This is a crucial step as here it checks whether the developed marketplace meets the intended requirements. The process also involves various types of testing such as user acceptance testing (UAT), functional testing, performance testing, and so on. If any bugs are found then the developers fix them until the marketplace is free from them. Then the marketplace is deployed to a production environment and is again monitored for any performance or security issues.

Launch the Online Education Marketplace 

Post deployment, the marketplace is made live for users. On the basis of user feedback, technological advancements and evolving industry trends, you can keep your marketplace updated.

That said, building a custom education marketplace entails following key considerations:

  • High Development Time 
  • High Development Cost 
  • Technical Knowledge Know-How

On the other hand, you can choose a readymade solution and launch your education marketplace hassle-free. Here are a few key benefits of opting for an off-the-shelf education marketplace solution:

  • Faster Time to Market
  • Lower Cost 
  • Industry-oriented Features 
  • Tested and Trusted by Global Clientele
  • Technical Support and Regular Updates
  • Documentation is Provided 
  • Free Walkthrough of the Solution
  • Module Specific Tutorials

How Can Yo!Coach Help in Launching an Online Education Marketplace?

Yo!Coach is a globally trusted readymade education marketplace solution that is meticulously designed to cater to the needs of tutors, learners and administrators. It comes with a user-friendly interface and encapsulates a rich suite of features. It is fully customizable and scalable. Additionally, mobile apps for learners are also available for both Android and iOS users. Using Yo!Coach entrepreneurs can quickly launch their education marketplace with ease and they do not need to have technical expertise. Moreover, 12 months of free technical support is also provided.

Key Highlights of Yo!Coach

  • GDPR Compliant 
  • Multilingual 
  • Multicurrency 
  • Customizable & Scalable 
  • Supports Multiple Payment Gateways 
  • 12 months Free Technical Support 
  • Mobile Apps for Learners (Android & iOS)

See why Yo!Coach is A Robust Solution to Launch an Online Education Marketplace

Conclusion 

Needless to say, online education has gone mainstream. Both students and teachers are now enjoying opportunities that weren’t previously available. Emerging technologies have transformed the education landscape, where online education marketplaces have taken education beyond the traditional classroom setting. Hence, if you are looking to create an online education marketplace, the time is ripe. For more information on how to get started, you can get in touch with us.

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Building Your Own Online Grocery Delivery Platform And App https://www.fatbit.com/fab/build-an-online-grocery-delivery-platform-and-app/ https://www.fatbit.com/fab/build-an-online-grocery-delivery-platform-and-app/#respond Fri, 19 Jan 2024 09:06:28 +0000 https://www.fatbit.com/fab/?p=35025

Last Updated: 02 April, 2024

The online grocery industry is on a robust upward trajectory and is further poised to grow considerably in the coming years. In a recent grocery shopper survey conducted by Mercatus and Incisiv, online grocery shopping will account for 20.5% of total grocery sales by 2026 or an estimated $263 Billion whether it will be doorstep delivery or curbside pickup.

This presents a golden opportunity for entrepreneurs to capitalize. The key lies in harnessing the power of technology to build a cutting-edge online grocery delivery platform and accompanying mobile application. As it takes a lot of effort to launch a grocery delivery eCommerce platform, in this post, we look into the intricacies of building a grocery delivery platform and app – illuminating the key components that will contribute to the future success.

Table of contents

Why Must You Launch an Online Grocery Delivery Platform and App?

There are a multitude of reasons that underscore the need for entrepreneurs/grocers to venture into the grocery eCommerce space by launching their own online grocery delivery platform and accompanying application. Listed below are some of them.

The Stronghold of eCommerce

The grocery industry is on the cusp of transformation with eCommerce penetration to be more than double in the coming three to five years. According to McKinsey research, consumers will continue to showcase a positive intent to buying groceries online even after the post-pandemic era. This is because eCommerce allows consumers to compare products, avail personalized promotions, get doorstep delivery and more.

Evolving Consumer Behaviour

Technological advancements have practically broken the shackles of geographical limitations catering to people from all walks of life like younger and elder generations, urban and affluent consumers. This has brought a global disruption in the grocery industry, where new and old players are changing customer expectations and behavior across propositions as they are increasingly seeking healthier and diverse range of products, convenience of doorstep delivery and value for money.

Expanding Business Reach

Online grocery delivery platforms and applications break geographical barriers, enabling entrepreneurs/grocers to tap into a wider customer base that might otherwise not be accessible through traditional brick and mortar stores.

Easy to Start & Time Efficient

Unlike traditional brick and mortar stores, you don’t need any physical space to start an online grocery business. It is easy to start and takes less time, i.e., you just need to  launch your online grocery business with an online grocery delivery solution that offers mobile apps.

Convenient for all Types of Users

An online grocery delivery platform is convenient for all users (admin, vendors, buyers). The admin can easily manage all the users, commission, go through reports and analytics for better decision making, and so on. Vendors, on the other hand, can easily list their products to reach a wider audience, keep a tab on the stock level, and more. For buyers, there is a wide range of products available, which they can buy just at the click of a button (as per convenience) and get the order delivered to their doorstep.

Building Brand Loyalty

A well architected grocery eCommerce platform and application can garner loyal customers and hence build brand loyalty with unparalleled customer support. This can lead to repeat business and can be a powerful driving force for sustainable growth in a competitive market.

Interested in Launching Your Own Online Grocery Marketplace

Top Players Delivering Value in the Grocery Delivery Industry

The grocery eCommerce competitive landscape is rapidly changing with new players springing up. However, there are some prominent players. A few of them are mentioned below:

Top Players Delivering Value in the Grocery Delivery Industry

1. FreshDirect

It is an online grocery marketplace that delivers groceries to the doorstep and offers same or next day delivery. FreshDirect offers fresh and high quality grocery products with a lot of discounts to buyers, encouraging them to buy through their website.

2. Instacart

Instacart offers grocery delivery and pickup services across the United States and Canada. Instacart lets you shop from grocery stores listed on its website or app, then sends a personal shopper who picks, packs, and delivers the order to you.

3. Shipt

Founded in 2014 and owned by Target Corporation, Shipt is known to offer access to a variety of stores and product categories such as groceries, household essentials, wellness products, and more. Shipt provides personal shopping and delivery services and is functional in more than 5,000 U.S. cities.

4. Walmart

Walmart enables shoppers to order groceries online and have them delivered to their doorstep. It also offers pickup options.

Important Things to Consider While Launching an Online Grocery Delivery Platform and Mobile App

Launching an online grocery delivery platform and app requires careful planning, i.e. a holistic approach considering both business and technical aspects. Here is a detailed breakdown of things to consider while launching an online grocery delivery platform and application.

Competitor Research

The initial steps towards launching an online grocery delivery platform or application is to conduct comprehensive competitive analysis. This includes identifying your competitors, their strengths and weaknesses, their offerings, and so on. This step basically aids you to understand the market and find ways to stand apart in terms of your offerings. Competitive research can be of two types:

  • Qualitative Research – Collects data that is non-numerical basically to understand customer behavior, opinion and attitudes. This can be done via conducting interviews.
  • Quantitative Research – Is collection of numerical data. This is done to measure market trends and can be done via evaluating sales data, measuring website traffic, using analytics and more.

Business Model and Revenue Model

The next step is to determine the type of business model that aligns with your business vision, customer expectations and market trends. Different types of business models include:

  • Inventory Based Business Model – The inventory is bought and stored by the grocery store that will provide online delivery services.
  • Multi-Vendor Business Model – Multiple sellers come together to sell their grocery products on a platform.
  • Hyperlocal Business Model – The delivery of grocery products is provided within a specified geographical area giving local retailers/grocers an edge to sell their grocery items.
  • BOPIS Business Model – Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store or Click and Collect allows customers to purchase groceries online and pick them in store.

Once the business model is decided, it is pivotal to narrow down the revenue model as it will contribute significantly to the grocery delivery platform and app’s sustainability and financial resilience. A few of the revenue streams include:

  • Commission – A common revenue stream to charge commission on every grocery delivery order or seller for each transaction through the platform.
  • Delivery Fees – Charging a flat fee on delivery or depending on the order value or distance.
  • Subscription – This is a recurring payment for premium services like exclusive deals, priority service or discounted deliveries.
  • Advertisements – Displaying targeted advertisements within the app or the website.

Robust and Reliable Tech Stack

Choosing the right tech stack is critical as it can make a significant difference in terms of the success of your grocery eCommerce website or application. A tech stack consists of two primary components:

  • Frontend Stack – This includes the technologies used to develop the user interface of the website or the application. HTML, CSS, JavaScript and so on come under this category.
  • Backend Stack – On the other hand, backend acts as the backbone of the platform or the application. The frontend takes the data request and the backend executes the request through data retrieval from the server. Programming languages like PHP, Ruby, Python, Java come under this category.
  • Database & Server – As the name suggests, databases store the data while servers deliver the data upon request. MongoDB (database) and Apache (server) are quite popular.

Flexible Framework

A proper framework is also needed to support programming languages and backend servers and a database to store the data. Choose a framework that can accommodate multiple niches apart from grocery such as dairy, pet food, supplements, online pharmacy and more.

Scalable and Customizable

Scalability and customization depends on the tech stack that has been chosen. Plan the platform and the application in a way that it is scalable and customizable so that the future feature additions and changes can be accommodated.

High System Performance

The platform or the application to be designed for grocery delivery needs to be responsive with quick load times and high performance, i.e. it should be capable of handling increased user loads. Thorough performance testing should be conducted to identify and resolve potential bottlenecks.

UAT and UX Testing

User Experience (UX) and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is vital as if an online grocery delivery website or an application is released to the public without testing then it can negatively affect the brand image and may result in loss of consumers if there are bugs or usability issues. Hence, prioritizing a simple and intuitive UX/UI to enhance user satisfaction is important.

Time to Launch the Platform

This is another critical factor, ultimately the time needed to launch an eGrocery platform and an application will determine its success. If the launch is too late it will result in competitive disadvantage. Hence, there are a few factors to consider like availability of resources, regulatory environment, competitive landscape to determine the time for launch.

Budget

The budget will basically depend on the site’s and app’s complexity in terms of features and functionality, integrations, design, further marketing and so on. So, thinking about the budget beforehand would be better and wise. You can determine a realistic budget for the entire process from development to launch, ongoing maintenance and potential contingencies.

Profit by Launching an Online Grocery Delivery Platform

Essential Features to Have in an Online Grocery Delivery Platform/App 

Admin Features

  • Commission Management
  • User Management
  • Delivery Management
  • Order Cancellation & Adjustment
  • Product Catalog System
  • Analytics and Reports
  • Tax Management
  • Multiple Level of Administrative Access
  • Subscription Packages Management

Seller Features

  • Registration
  • Reports
  • Pin Shop On the Map
  • Bulk Import/Export
  • Delivery Slots Management
  • Order Cancellation Management
  • Refund Order Management

Buyer Features

  • Easy Sign Up
  • Search Filters 
  • Auto-Detect the User Location
  • Easy Checkout
  • Real-Time Tracking & Updates
  • Progressive Web Apps (PWA)
  • Ratings & Reviews

Delivery Staff Features

  • Define Radius
  • Accept or Reject Order
  • Click & Call to Sellers & Buyers
  • Delivery Order Management
  • Push Notifications
  • Order Cancellation
  • Route Navigation

How to Launch an Online Grocery Delivery Platform and App?

An online grocery delivery platform and app can be launched by following different approaches. A few of them are listed below:

  • Custom Development
  • Using Open Source Platforms
  • Using an Off-the-Shelf Solution

Custom Development

This is a tailored approach to meet the specific needs of a business. The platform is built from scratch with custom features and functionality. The development time is longer and the cost is higher.

Using Open Source Solutions

There are certain open source solutions that are freely available to anybody, and can be modified with the help of people with technical expertise like developers. These can be cost effective solutions, but technical expertise is needed.

Using an Off-the-Shelf Solution

Choosing an off-the-shelf solution is a better approach as it is readymade and consists of industry tested features and functionality. It is cost effective and is quick to launch. You just need to buy, launch and get started.

How can Growcer Help to Launch Your Online Grocery Platform and Mobile App?

Developed by FATbit Technologies, Growcer is a readymade eGrocery solution that is designed for entrepreneurs and grocers who are looking to launch their own online grocery platform. It is a fully customizable solution that is 100% white-label. Additionally, Growcer also provides robust and intuitive mobile apps for buyers and delivery staff for both Android and iPhone users.

Furthermore, entrepreneurs can also use Growcer to build marketplaces that cater to several other niches apart from grocery. These include pharmacy, pet supplies, liquor/wine, dairy, construction materials, bakery goods and more. Moreover, Growcer also offers 1 year of free technical support and no additional cost installation.

Key Highlights of Growcer

  • Ready-made eGrocery Solution
  • 100% White-Label
  • Fully Customizable & Scalable
  • 1 Year of Free Technical Support
  • Offers Buyer & Delivery Partner Apps (Android & iOS)
  • Powerful Dashboards
  • Reports & Analytics
  • PCI Compliant for Secure Transactions
  • Real-time Inventory Management
  • Return & Refund Management

Growcer Powered Clients

ShopExpress

Powered by Growcer, ShopExpress is a Zimbabwe based online grocery delivery platform that provides quality grocery delivery products to the customers door. The platform is also supported by robust mobile apps for enhanced grocery delivery.

Superkiwi

A USA-based online grocery delivery platform that provides quick delivery of groceries is built using Growcer. There are several distinguishing features and integrations in the platform like CyberSource payment gateway for secure transactions, WhatsApp integration for customer support, and more.

Tap Retail

A tailor-made online grocery delivery platform that facilitates grocery delivery from local stores on the same-day within 2 hours. The platform is Ireland based and is built by customizing Growcer.

Dhalmart

A US-based grocery delivery platform that is dedicated to selling groceries, organic vegetables, and home-cooked food. Built using Growcer, the platform is equipped with several features that efficiently help with the management of delivery staff, inventory, and so on.

Use Growcer to Launch your Online Grocery Delivery Platform and App

Final Words

In today’s age where people trudge around to make ends meet, convenience and efficiency in terms of grocery delivery cannot be overshadowed. Furthermore, technology acceleration has indeed brought online grocery delivery platforms and applications to center stage. Hence, one must seize the opportunity and catch the wave of profitable growth by launching an online grocery delivery platform and accompanying application.

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Cost to Build A Language Learning Platform Like Preply https://www.fatbit.com/fab/cost-to-build-a-language-learning-platform-like-preply/ https://www.fatbit.com/fab/cost-to-build-a-language-learning-platform-like-preply/#respond Mon, 15 Jan 2024 11:47:41 +0000 https://www.fatbit.com/fab/?p=34967

Inspired by the success of platforms like Preply, many entrepreneurs are planning to develop their own similar language-learning platforms. Moreover, the growth of the online language learning industry is forecasted to reach USD 41.63 billion by 2030, making it the right time for entrepreneurs to enter this lucrative business space. However, in the journey to build and launch a successful language-learning platform, the first challenge is to define the cost of building such a platform.

This blog post will be helpful for those who want to know about building a language learning platform like Preply and get an idea of the overall development costs for their online platform. But before proceeding with cost, let’s know a bit more about Preply.

Table of contents

What is Preply?

Preply is a leading online language learning platform that connects language experts with learners worldwide. It was initially co-founded by three Ukrainian entrepreneurs: Kirill Bigai, Dmytro Voloshyn, and Serge Lukyanov. The company now operates in 180 countries teaching more than 50 languages to 800,000+ students that are assisted by over 32,000+ tutors. This platform offers one-on-one online lessons, personalized lesson plans, group lessons, corporate language training, and more.

The platform earned revenue of $50 Million in 2022, its revenue grew approximately 4X from the previous year. The total valuation of Preply stands at $395 Million in 2022.

Key Features Of Preply

One of the reasons behind the success of Preply is its comprehensive suite of features that offer a tremendous user experience on the platform. Following are some of the popular features offered by Preply.

  • User-friendly Interfaces: Preply offers intuitive interfaces to users providing easy navigation and ease of use.
  • One-on-One Sessions: Interactive one-on-one sessions are offered tailored to learners’ needs for a personalized experience.
  • Collaborative Features: Preply allows tutors to use different video conferencing tools to enable uninterrupted communication between students and tutors. Additionally, their Preply Classroom – a communication tool also has everything needed for seamless lesson conduction. Moreover, this platform also provides instant chat options for quick interactions.
  • Preply Calendar: It is an important feature that enables learners and tutors to efficiently manage their schedules. Tutors set their availability, and learners book sessions based on the available time slots.
  • Filtering and Sorting: This functionality allows the learners to find the most suitable tutors as per their preferences and requirements. Learners can filter and sort the tutors based on criteria such as language, price, country of origin, and availability. Additionally, the learners can even search the tutors by name or keywords.
  • Seamless Booking: The platform facilitates seamless booking, allowing students to easily schedule lessons with their selected tutors.
  • Secure Payments: Preply has a secure payment system in place and keeps users’ information highly protected. Multiple payment options such as credit/debit cards, eWallets, PayPal, and more are also available on the platform.
  • Tutor’s Profile: Users can easily create, edit, and update their tutor’s profiles on Preply, showcasing their expertise, qualifications, and other relevant information.

These are some of the popular features that make Preply stand out among its competitors. To achieve the same success and provide user satisfaction as Preply, you must consider incorporating these features on your platform.

Planning To Launch a Feature-Rich Language-Learning Platform?

After having a brief idea about the features, the next important step is to have a good understanding of the parameters that will define the cost of building an online language-learning platform. Let’s know about them in detail.

Factors that Determine the Cost of Building an Online Language Learning Platform Like Preply

The cost of building an online language learning platform like Preply depends on several factors and aspects. In this section, let’s touch upon those parameters in detail so that you can make a smart and informed decision.

Cost Of Development

Implementing User-Friendly UX/UI Design

No wonder UX/UI design is essential when determining the cost of building an online language learning platform. The complexity of your platform’s design is the most obvious factor affecting cost. A simple, minimal graphics and functionality would cost less as compared to a complex, visually appealing design with interactive features. Therefore, the complexity desired in the design directly correlates with the cost, time, and expertise required to build a platform.

Deciding On The Functionality And Features

The number of features you want to incorporate on your platform directly correlates to the cost of building an online language learning platform. The more advanced features you want to integrate on your platform the more time and resources will be needed to develop them, consequently, increasing the overall cost of development.

Evaluating Your Server Requirements

The required server space for hosting significantly impacts the cost of building and launching an online language learning platform. Numerous factors such as maintenance costs, security measures, upgrades, downtime, and more contribute to the overall cost of server management. Beyond this, you also have to bear miscellaneous costs associated with procuring, installing, and ongoing maintenance of the server space.

Choosing The Right Domain Name

Domain registration and web hosting are also some of the most important expenses that you have to bear while launching an online language learning platform. The overall cost of obtaining a domain name is decided based on numerous factors such as the popularity, availability, length, and type, of the domain name. Depending on these factors the cost of the domain name may vary and you have to bear the expenses as per your needs. 

Ensuring Security Of The Platform

Prioritizing the security of user’s data on your platform is very important to build trust and credibility. To protect your data and maintain the platform’s integrity in the long run you can obtain GDPR-compliance and must abide by other data protection laws as per your region. Implementing all these security measures may leads to additional investment. Moreover, additional expenses may be incurred for securing an SSL certificate for data encryption.

Managing Content Of The Platform

Content management is a necessary expense if you want to reach out to your target audience effectively. Curating, developing, and managing content involves costs related to content creation. For creating content including website content, webpage content, blogs, articles, and social media content, you need to invest in professional writing and pay the content curation team.

Choosing The Right And Advanced Technology Stack

The choice of technologies, programming languages, and frameworks directly affects the development cost. Additionally, the success of an online tutoring platform depends on the tech stack used. To maintain the system’s performance, scalability, and security, advanced tech stack implementation is recommended. However, implementing advanced technologies would require a skilled development team eventually contributing to more investment.

Want To Know More About The Right Tech-Stack For Your Online Learning Platform?

Deciding Your Team Size

To ensure that your platform is successfully built and launched, you need to hire a team of experts who will take the hassle for you. Experienced web developers and designers would implement your ideas and assist in launching your platform. The cost of platform development directly depends on the number of resources you need to hire to implement your business idea.

Considering The Location Of The Development Team

The geographical location of the development team also affects the overall cost of the platform. In general, platform development cost will be higher in the regions with higher labor costs, such as North America, as compared to regions with lower labor costs, such as Asia. Countries like India, China, the Philippines, and more generally have the lowest hourly rates for web developers and designers.

Integrating Essential Third-Party APIs

To enhance the functionality of your online platform and offer a seamless user experience you may need to integrate third-party APIs. Essential APIs for an eLearning platform include payment gateways, video conferencing systems, analytical tools, and more. These integrations come at an additional cost and require developmental efforts. You also have to incur costs related to licensing, customization, and more.

Setting Timeline Of The Development Project

Another important aspect on which the cost of development of an online language learning platform depends is the duration of building such a platform. When there is a need for rapid development within a constrained timeframe, the cost of hiring and aligning the manpower and resources would increase accordingly.

The total cost of developing an online learning platform depends on many things, as mentioned earlier. However, this is just an approximate estimate and while starting your entrepreneurial journey, you need to understand that these expenses may increase or decrease depending on your business idea and goals.

Unleashing the Potential of Ready-Made Software Solutions

If you want to optimize your expenses and want to go for a cost-effective option, ready-made software seems like an ideal choice. Ready-made software is the best alternative to custom development that allows you to launch your online language learning platform without any hassle. Let’s know more about ready-made software.

What are Ready-Made Software Solutions, And Why Choose Them?

Ready-made software solutions are pre-built with industry-specific features and can cater to the needs of online learning businesses effectively. These are built on proven technology, hence, eliminating the chances of any error or issues after the launch. Ready-made software solutions offer a plethora of benefits as compared to custom development.

These software solutions also stands out on all the parameters mentioned above and are proven to be an ideal choice for entrepreneurs looking to enter the industry in less time and cost-effectively. One such popular ready-made software available in the industry is Yo!Coach.

It is a cutting-edge software that has already helped several entrepreneurs establish their online language learning platforms across the world. This software comes pre-integrated with several essential APIs that are required for seamlessly running an online language-learning business. Yo!Coach’s comprehensive suite of features enables an intuitive experience for users on your platform. Other benefits offered by this software include:

  • White-Label software
  • No coding required
  • Source-code ownership
  • No recurring charges
  • Advanced and industry-specific features
  • Collaborative and interactive video conferencing tools
  • Multi-lingual and multicurrency
  • GDPR- compliant
  • Customizable and scalable
  • Commendable post-sales customer support

Launch Your Language Learning Platform Like Preply With Yo!Coach

When considering the suitability of the ready-made software solution for your business goals, the next important step is to understand how to choose the right software company and the team aligned with your needs. Let’s read about that in the next section.

How To Choose The Right Company/Team To Build Your Online Platform Like Preply?

Embarking on a new entrepreneurial journey can be exciting but intimidating at the same time. Choosing the right software company is no easy task. It may get overwhelming to choose one among many software development companies out there and feel uncertain about who to trust to get the job done.

Therefore, to help you out, we have compiled a list of things that you should consider while finalizing the software development company.

  • Company Size: Look for details about the company size and organization structure. This provides you insights about the company’s scale and how it operates.
  • Client Portfolio: Check the portfolio to have a look at their clients and the kind of projects the company has delivered successfully.
  • Technology: Assess the company’s profile, especially its proficiency in relevant technologies from your industry. Gain an in-depth understanding of the technology that the company uses and know if it aligns with your requirements. Also, get an idea of the system performance of the software you are considering.
  • Experience and Market Presence: This involves having a fair idea about the company’s presence in the industry. Have a look at their certifications, experience, and more to gain an idea about their reputation and authenticity in the market. It is always recommended to go for a company with good years of experience to avoid any hassle.
  • Client Testimonials and Reviews: Carefully assess the client testimonials and reviews on the company’s website and third-party review platforms like Clutch, G2, and more. Gain valuable insights about their reputation and performance by going through feedback from previous clients. Also, look for the following aspects to have a better understanding of the services you will be provided:
    Video Testimonials
    Client Reviews
    Success Stories
    Case Studies 
    Portfolio
  • Communication and Post-Sales Support: Clear communication channels are important for client satisfaction. Gain insights about the level of support they provide before and after-sales.

Consider the above-mentioned aspects carefully and choose the best software company as per your business goals and requirements. Get a clear and indepth understanding of the software companies before making a decision and then determine if they are the right fit for your business.

Looking For A Reputable Software Company To Implement Your Business Idea?

Final Thoughts

Considering the tremendous growth potential of the online language learning industry, investing in a well-designed and feature-rich online language learning platform can prove to be highly lucrative and can lead to significant returns in the long run. By considering the information mentioned in this blog you must have got a fair idea about the cost of developing such a platform. Remember, not to feel overwhelmed by the costs and expenses mentioned in this blog as these are just the estimated costs and may vary depending on your business needs, and goals.

FAQs

Q1: Which is a better option ready-made software or custom development from scratch?

Ans: Although both the options have their pros and cons but when all the factors are considered, ready-made software solutions usually are more cost-effective and less time consuming as compared to custom development. Ready-made software comes pre-built with latest features and requires less effort to launch your platform.

Q2: How long would it take to build an online language-learning platform?

Ans: Well, the time to build an online language learning platform depends on several factors such as development approach, design complexities, feature integration, customizations, and more. However, custom development takes more time(months or years) to complete, whereas, ready-made software allows you to launch your platform within a few days.

Q3: Which software can I choose to create an online language learning platform like Preply?

Ans: Yo!Coach is a popular ready-made software that can help you create your online language learning platform like Preply hassle-free. This software is pre-designed to cater to all the language learning business requirements and offers industry-specific features for a collaborative and interactive learning experience. Explore our demo to gain an in-depth understanding of the features and functionalities offered by Yo!Coach.

Q4: What kind of online learning platforms Yo!Coach can build?

Ans: Yo!Coach has been in the industry for a long time and has helped numerous entrepreneurs launch their online learning platforms in 15+niches. Yo!Coach with its capabilities can cater to diverse business models and can turn any elearning business idea into a successful business venture.

To name a few this software can launch platforms offering individual/group learning, course-based learning, live courses, enterprise eLearning and more. Also, this software can support diverse business models in different niches such as language learning, consultation, mentoring, tutoring, and more.

Q5: Why choose Yo!Coach to build your online language-learning platform?

Ans: Yo!Coach offers numerous industry-specific features and functionalities that can cater to all requirements of the online language learning business. Other capabilities of Yo!Coach include:

  • Ready-made white label software
  • No coding required
  • Years of experience in the industry
  • Global clientele
  • Experienced technical team
  • 1 year of free customer support

Q6: Any platforms build by Yo!Coach similar to Preply?

Ans: Yo!Coach has served global clientele around the world and helped numerous entrepreneurs successfully kick-start their online language learning businesses. Some of the popular online language learning platforms build by Yo!Coach include Language Explorer, Convrld, Weyakyak, That English Accent, Amalingua, Language Center of Congo, Langoli, Valingo, and many others.

Q7: What are the best alternatives to Preply? Can you build similar platforms?

Ans: Some of the best alternatives to Preply are Cambly, Verbling, italki, and more. Certainly, Yo!Coach can build all these platforms with its cutting-edge capabilities.

Q8: How Yo!Coach can help you in moving one step ahead of your competitors like Preply?

Ans: There are numerous features and specifications in Yo!Coach that can help you in staying ahead of the competition in the industry. Let’s have a look at them.

  • Yo!Coach is a ready-made software that lets you launch your online platform in very less time. Hence, reducing your time to market and enabling you to enter the competitive space quickly.
  • It’s a high performing software with a 100% success rate. The system is so robust that it can accommodate large number of users on the platform without compromising the performance, providing an edge among other competitors.
  • To enable user data security and privacy, the system is GDPR compliant.
  • Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) offered by Yo!Coach helps in providing a responsive and satisfactory user experience.
  • With mobile app, provide an intuitive and personalized learning experience to learners and let them conveniently attend sessions on the go.

Q9: Can I customize the platform as per my business needs?

Ans: Surely, Yo!Coach offers customizations and helps you transform your business idea into reality. Our team understands your requirements and further implements those customizations without causing you any hassle.

Q10: Does Yo!Coach offer any ready-made mobile applications?

Ans: Yes, Yo!Coach offers a very intuitive and user-friendly mobile application for learners. This feature-rich app provides a personalized learning environment to learners and provides convenience. The mobile application is engaging, user-friendly, and very intuitive making it easy for learners to book, schedule, and attend their sessions via this app.

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