How to build an electronics marketplace like Newegg with a hybrid business model

Operative since 2001, Newegg has established its brand as the top go-to website for consumer electronics. It is popular not just in the US, but also in countries like Saudi Arabia, Canada, the UK, and others.

A good part of its success in reaching revenue of US $2.40 bn+ comes from effective marketing strategies and accurate brand positioning. It has done that by understanding consumer needs and customizing its business model around them.

Currently, Newegg caters to both end consumers and buyers considering procurement for businesses. In other words, it operates in both, B2C and B2B business domains.

And persisting with its consumer-centric approach, it has distinct platforms for both types of buyers. B2C operations are conducted by Newegg.com, Newegg.ca, and Newegg global, while B2B operations are conducted by Neweggbusiness.com.

Newegg understands the distinct requirements of both types of buyers ― ergo, it features distinctive functionalities in each of its platforms.

To build a hybrid electronics marketplace like Newegg, one needs to analyze the approach adopted by the business to mold its platforms for the distinctive needs of the target audience.

Features in the B2C platforms

To build a B2C electronics platform like Newegg, the following features can be considered:

Pleasing Buying Experience: Due to the growing competition in the eCommerce market and reducing attention span of users, it is imperative that eCommerce platforms offer a frictionless and logic-driven buying experience to the buyers. They should be able to find what they are looking for, perform tasks as per their requirement, navigate through the website, and make the purchase with minimum effort.

Robust performance and scalability: Multi-seller marketplaces tend to scale and host multiple products on the platform. The underpinnings of the platform should be able to offer robust performance to the users, even with increased traffic and product listings.

API-driven platform: Newegg has found success by offering a platform that is flexible and can be integrated with multiple third-party APIs.

Effective Marketing Tools: Newegg’s success has been built on an effective brand voice, making the users relate to the marketplace with the products on offer. To achieve the same there are multiple marketing tools like a blogging module, SEO features, and others.

Extensive Analytics: Newegg allows sellers to adopt a data-driven approach with the availability of extensive reports and analytics.

Product Catalog: To allow sellers to post and manage product listings effectively and efficiently, there is a rich featured product catalog.

Features in the B2B platform

Buyers in the B2B space have both similarities and differences when compared to end consumers. While the B2B buyers are still individuals that have been used to popular B2C platforms like Amazon, they have unique requirements as they are making B2B transactions. Typically, these are characterized by longer sales cycles, flexible pricing strategies, negotiations, high-volume requirements, and more.

This means that B2B marketplaces like Neweggbusiness need features of B2C marketplace platforms. In addition to those, they need the following functionalities:

RFQ Module: A Request For Quote module is a typically quintessential requirement in a B2B marketplace. It allows sellers to be flexible and stay open to negotiations.

Bulk Order Discounts: This encourages the sale of high-volume orders on the platform ― giving sellers plan logistics and other infrastructure/strategies accordingly, and buyers the value of making a higher investment.

Flexible Payment Terms: Due to the high-value orders on the platform, the option for buyers to split the payment in easy parts can encourage transactions on the platform.

These are only some of the long list of features that are needed to build an electronics marketplace like Newegg. To win in eCommerce one needs a complete set of features for all participants of the marketplace platform.

To sum it up

Electronics is a lucrative niche in eCommerce and it has scope for both B2C and B2B startups in the domain. These insights are a part of the complete information on how to build an electronics marketplace. Entrepreneurs considering building a hybrid business or a platform for with of the two domains can go through this information to gain an analysis of the requirements and analysis.

Additionally, Yo!Kart offers the complete ecosystem ― purpose-built self-hosted turnkey solutions for both B2C and B2B domains, and an in-house team to cater to customization needs and after-sales support.