Here are the most common revenue streams for online marketplaces:
- Commission:
Whenever a sale happens on your site, you charge either a percentage of the total size of the sale or a fixed fee. This is the most popular model for modern marketplaces and platforms like Airbnb, Etsy, eBay and Uber. I suggest you to use the other models only if this model doesn't fit your particular idea. - Membership/subscription fee:
If you can't act as a middleman of the transaction, you can consider charging your providers or all your users a monthly or a yearly fee. - Listing fee:
Instead of charging per transaction, you can charge your providers for listing on your site. Etsy uses this as an additional source of revenue.Lead fee. If your marketplace's main function is to generate leads for businesses, you might consider charging the providers for getting access to customers. Thumbtack uses this model - Freemium:You could have a free base offering for most of your users and some paid features for your power users. These could include things like delivery, insurance, or providing more visibility.
- Featured listings and ads:
The good old ads aren't the most common business model for marketplaces, as there are so many other potential revenue streams available, but in some cases they still make sense. A popular way to deal with marketplace ads is to allow the providers to pay to get their listings featured on your marketplace. Etsy uses this model as an additional source of income.
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