A reverse marketplace is a type of marketplace where the typical buyer and seller roles are switched. In a reverse marketplace, customers post their needs or requests to the marketplace while providers search through these requests and submit bids, proposals, or send a message. This is a reverse of typical marketplace roles, where providers post the offerings to the marketplace that the customers search through and purchase.
Upwork is a well known example of a reverse marketplace. On Upwork, customers post unique projects they need done, usually in software development or design. Providers view these requests and submit bids for the customers' review.
Such a reverse model is particularly suitable for bespoke service hiring or goods procurement by businesses. In these situations, where there are highly specific needs, a reverse model alleviates the customer’s burden to discover the right provider by enabling them to receive bids tailored to their requests. The providers conduct the search and decide if the request is a suitable match. Moreover, this model can give customers more insight into opaque services, increasing transparency and motivating providers to offer the best deal possible. On the other hand, customers must be patient to receive bids, deliberate, and decide.
A reverse marketplace model has several unique aspects. Customers must be able to list their request on the platform and include details about their needs. Providers, in turn, must have search capabilities to discover relevant requests. Finally, the order flow must accommodate a provider submitting their inquiry or proposal for the customer to view and respond. The rest of this article discusses how to implement a reverse marketplace on Sharetribe.
How to build a reverse marketplace on Sharetribe
You can build a reverse marketplace on Sharetribe without coding. This marketplace will enable customers to post requests specifying their needs, enable providers to search and filter through requests and find suitable opportunities, and enable providers to initiate a transaction where they and customers can message back and forth. It is not possible to offer payments in such a marketplace, unless you custom code this capability, but you can monetize your reverse marketplace through a lead fee or other means.
Setting up your reverse marketplace on Sharetribe requires several steps and changes. Below, we explain what these changes are and why they must be made to make a reverse marketplace work without coding.
Customers post requests through listings
Customers must be able to post their requests or needs to the marketplace. This functionality exists through listings. Listings on Sharetribe are characterized by the fact that they are posted by one side of the marketplace (supply or demand) and by the fact that the other side of the marketplace searches through them. Moreover, listings define the sort of interaction, or transaction, users initiate through them.
Listings are made into requests through several configurations. Listing categories and fields should be set up to give the customer an opportunity to share details about their request. Customers will fill out default fields like the title and description of the request and any additional fields that you configure through categories and listing fields. Customers post requests on the marketplace through the “Post a new listing” button in the top right of the top bar.
The listing type of the request determines if the request has a price and location associated with it and what kind of transactions providers can initiate. There is only one default transaction process in Sharetribe suitable for a reverse marketplace: Free messaging. Listings configured with Free messaging transaction settings allow providers to send messages to the customers. The free text message can be used by providers to submit a bid, ask questions, or start a conversation with the customer.
Calendar booking and Purchase are transaction settings that only work when the listing is created by the provider. Since reverse marketplace listings are created by the customer, they are not suitable.
Providers search requests
A reverse marketplace must enable a provider to search through requests and identify appropriate opportunities quickly. In Sharetribe, it is listings that are searched-for and returned based on the parameters entered on the search page. Therefore, when configuring listings to be requests, it is important to consider how searching for these listings should happen.
Categories and certain fields can be used by providers to filter requests. It is therefore important to create categories that makes sense to both sides of the marketplace. Moreover, when configuring fields, you decide whether certain fields on the request should be made into a filter for providers. These filters show up on the search page, where all requests are shown, and where filters can be used by providers to return results most relevant to them.
Providers initiate the transaction on the request and customers respond
When providers find the right request, they can initiate a transaction with the customer. The crux of a reverse marketplace transaction without coding is the free message. Providers initiate the transaction by sending a message through the customers request listing. Customers are notified of this message via email and can view it in their Inbox. They can reply to the message from the order page.
The message function allows both sides to send any text, including hyperlinks, back and forth. There are no specific fields or forms to fill, no payments, or any buttons or actions to take beside typing and sending the message.
Though simple, the fact that the message text is free and open enables different kinds of uses. Beside a simple inquiry, providers can type in or copy and paste however much detail they want to their proposal. Important info like proposed price, timeline, or additional questions can all be typed in and presented how the provider wants. Since they cannot attach digital files directly to the message, they can copy and paste links to digital documents stored on the cloud to bring in additional information through PDFs or images.
Customers can view all messages from providers in their Inbox. They can use the same messaging system to respond to the provider. Both the customer and provider can send as many messages as they need as part of their transaction.
You can always test how things work in your Test environment. Learn how to test a transaction and your marketplace with test users and listings.
At this stage in the transaction, where the customer has posted a request, the provider has responded, and the customer has viewed, reviewed, and chosen the best proposal, there are not many additional capabilities available to the users without coding. The challenge lies in the fact that there are likely additional steps for both parties to still take. Your response and marketplace design depends on what these next steps should be.
For example, when it is time to pick a provider to proceed, customers do not have a specific action available to them in the marketplace to indicate their decision to the chosen provider and the not-chosen providers. If you want the customer to broadcast their decision, you must first decide how they should do it and second guide them to do so. You may, for instance, ask customers to use the same messaging system to broadcast their decision manually. Or, you may ask them to close their request listing so that providers can notice, when visiting the request, that it is no longer open.
Another common next step is payment. The payment for a reverse transaction will not be possible on your marketplace without coding, so the customer and provider will need to go off platform to complete such a step. If you’re only starting your reverse marketplace, it is likely best that you defer to providers’ preferred systems. This not only reduces their friction to use your marketplace, but it also means you do not need to try to figure out how your marketplace is involved in such payments while you are still validating.
Of course, when providers take a payment off platform, you lose the opportunity to charge a commission on the transaction. To monetize your Sharetribe reverse marketplace built without coding then, you’ll need to turn to alternative monetization strategies.
How to monetize a reverse marketplace on Sharetribe
Even if you do not enable payments on your reverse marketplace, there are other important features providers and customers use that you may want to monetize. For instance, providers benefit from the ability to submit bids and demonstrate interest to potential new clients through your marketplace . Customers, on the other hand, benefit from being able to post their requests to an audience of suitable providers and receive bespoke proposals. Membership to the marketplace may be valuable to both sides.
Many of these customer and provider capabilities can be toggled on or off for for individual users through the Access control features in Console. When turned on, they allow you to control whether a user has permission to do a particular action.
Take posting requests for instance. Turning it on means that customers must be granted permission to post their request listings. You could charge for this permission in a variety of ways, including a one-time fee, a fee per request posted, or as part of a membership subscription.
Typically, it is easier to monetize the supply side of a marketplace since they are gaining valuable business opportunities through your platform. You may monetize their access to the marketplace, their ability to view the request, their ability to interact with the customers who posted the request, or all three.
Our Help center contains a thorough guide on one such monetization example: the lead fee. As the name implies, the lead fee is paid by providers in exchange for a new lead or opportunity. Each time a provider wants to submit a bid or inquire further directly with the customer, they must pay a fee. The fee is paid per lead.