Tips to Growing as an Online Mobile Marketplace

Online marketplaces are the fastest growing and most innovative trends out there. Creating a mobile marketplace has even more potential to impact established markets because “the smartphone amplifies these opportunities, as the Internet’s connective tissue now extends deeper and deeper into an industry with the participants connected to the marketplace 24×7,” says Bill Gurley at Benchmark Capital.

According to the experts in the industry below are some tips for building a sustainable and industry-leading marketplace business.

• Focus on the one thing that matters most
• Don’t be afraid to charge what you are worth
• The company with the best supply wins
• Don’t try to do everything at the same time
• Offer free samples
• Look to the long term
• Know what story you want to tell
• Listen and act upon feedback from your customers
• Don’t expect mobile to do it all

Mobile acquisition channels are still immature, so don’t be afraid to build your mobile app audience by acquiring customers through your website. It can sometimes be really hard to get people to take the effort to download your app and use it. Instead, familiarize them with your marketplace on the web and translate that to your app or mobile site.