Master the marketplace business model
Building a marketplace means offering a service to two distinct user groups: the supply and the demand. These articles help you solve the challenges and unlock the opportunities of the marketplace business model.
The best marketplaces run on commission
Sharetribe studied how the top 100 marketplaces of 2021 make money. Our findings can help entrepreneurs determine the best strategies to monetize their platform.
Making money as a marketplace entrepreneur
One of the most common reasons why startups fail is that they choose a business model that doesn’t scale. So think carefully about how you’ll monetize your marketplace. These articles help you find a revenue model and a pricing level that supports your growth and keeps users on your platform.
Marketplace pricing: How to set the right take rate
The right marketplace pricing level depends on many different factors internal or external to your marketplace. Here's what you should consider to find the optimal pricing level for your marketplace.
Marketplace leakage: How to discourage people from going around your payment system
How to solve the most daunting challenge of the marketplace business model: platform leakage.
The marketplace business model – how to monetize your marketplace
Learn how the marketplace model works and how you can choose the right revenue strategy for your business.
Build supply, generate demand, and solve the chicken-or-egg problem
Building a marketplace presents you with a chicken-or-egg problem. You need high-quality supply to drive demand. To get high-quality supply, you need demand. These articles suggest strategies to help you balance your marketplace audience and grow a loyal user base.
Focus your marketplace on one city and one vertical
Tackle the chicken-or-egg problem with an extreme focus.
How to launch your marketplace
Strategies that bring demand to your freshly opened marketplace platform.
How to build your marketplace supply
How to bring in the first, quality providers before your platform has any customers.
Build and maintain your marketplace community
The most successful marketplaces are more than businesses. They’re an active community where users can meet, interact, and transact. Investing in community-building can pay off tremendously and boost your growth and defensibility against competitors. Here’s everything you need to know about building a marketplace community.
PaulCamper’s community-building playbook for marketplaces
PaulCamper's COO Julia Wadehn shares her best marketplace community-building strategies and explains how they have helped boost PaulCamper's growth.
How to turn your marketplace into a community
Engage your best providers by turning them from users into community members.
How to build trust in your marketplace
Tactics to increase trust between your providers and customers – and to boost transactions.
More on the marketplace model
More expert insights on the opportunities, challenges, and strategies around the marketplace model.
DAC7: What the new EU tax directive means for online marketplaces
The tax directive DAC7 extends EU tax transparency rules to online marketplaces and requires reporting seller data to tax authorities. In this article, we share what DAC7 is about and how it affects online marketplaces.
The best marketplaces run on commission
Sharetribe studied how the top 100 marketplaces of 2021 make money. Our findings can help entrepreneurs determine the best strategies to monetize their platform.
How to introduce remote services to your marketplace
Freelensia co-founder shares the practical steps the marketplace took to move from on-site interpretation to remote services.
The concierge marketplace model: how to match supply & demand
Boost your growth by manually matching your marketplace supply and demand. Mike Williams discusses the benefits of the concierge marketplace model.
How to onboard & grow your initial marketplace supply
Mike Williams shares five tactical tips for growing and onboarding marketplace supply. All battle-tested with his global music studios marketplace Studiotime.
How to leverage word-of-mouth to start and grow your marketplace business
Word-of-mouth creates lasting customer relationships. This guest article offers effective strategies to help optimize your marketplace for positive WOM.
James Currier at the Marketplace Conference: 19 tactics to solve the chicken-or-egg problem
This article discusses James Currier's 19 actionable tactics to solve the chicken-and-egg problem for marketplaces. This is the fourth article in a series covering our favorite talks from the first Marketplace Conference in San Francisco.
Josh Breinlinger at the Marketplace Conference: How to maximize liquidity and transaction quality
A long list of actionable tips for marketplace entrepreneurs, courtesy of Josh Breinlinger, Managing Director at Jackson Square Ventures. This is the third article in a series covering our favourite talks from the first Marketplace Conference in San Francisco.
Jessica Tiwari at the Marketplace Conference: Building trust in two-sided marketplaces
This article series brings you some marketplace wisdom and inspiration from the first Marketplace Conference in San Francisco. In this article, we discuss a talk about building trust by Upwork’s VP of Product Management, Jessica Tiwari.
Using content moderation as a trust facilitator
Trust is a key component of a successful marketplace. This guest post by Sigrid Zeuthen teaches you how to use content moderation to build trust in your marketplace.
Why trust is key for BlaBlaCar – An interview with Vincent Rosso
The co-founder of Blablacar discusses what B2B marketplaces can learn from P2P marketplaces, and specifically, marketplace trust as a facilitator for transactions.
Productivity – The North Star for Marketplaces
Josh Breinlinger, VC at Jackson Square Ventures, shares his advice on what marketplaces should strive for.
Node saturation as a strategy for marketplaces
A guest post by José del Barrio from Samaipata Ventures on why saturating nodes is a good strategy for marketplaces.
How to design your marketplace idea
A guest post by Simone Cicero, creator of the Platform Design Toolkit, a methodology and set of practical tools that help platform businesses create value.
Create commons – An interview with Michel Bauwens
Peer-to-peer sharing platforms should give more power to their community.
Understand your community – An interview with Jennifer Billock
Your marketplace needs to be tended like a garden.
Evolve with the community – An interview with Antonin Léonard
A community is built through offline interaction and online experience.
Rinse and repeat – An interview with Daan Weddepohl
Apply the lean startup methodology, iteratively creating your marketplace.
Make the right trade-offs for your marketplace
It is better to grow slow in order to preserve the unique aspects of your marketplace.
Solve the supply – An interview with Alex Stephany
A clear and compelling value proposition is the simplest way of acquiring supply.
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