If you run a non-transactional marketplace, the idea of introducing transactions to your platform might have crossed your mind. The potential is huge: new revenue streams, improved user experience, and a chance to boost your marketplace’s growth. But before jumping in, it’s important to understand both the opportunities and the challenges and complexities of building this in-house versus with help from a team of experts.
Opportunities
The biggest draw to adding transactions to a marketplace is the ability to unlock new revenue streams. By facilitating transactions directly on your marketplace, you create a more valuable and convenient experience for your users. This can also differentiate your platform from competitors, helping you stay ahead.
Challenges
Introducing transactions is not like flipping a switch – rather, it’s a complex process that requires careful planning and execution, especially if you plan to develop it in-house.
Many marketplace owners underestimate the effort required to go transactional. Often, they think it’s easy to build internally, but quickly realise the process is very complex and resource intensive. When you take on this project alone, you take on full development, financial, and legal responsibility. On top of that, getting a solution to go live can take up to a year and involve significant investments in both personnel and technical development.
If you choose to develop in-house, here is an idea of what your to-do list might look like within the build phase:
- Integrate secure payment solutions
- Build out payment page
- Ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements
- Build systems to manage disputes and fraud
- Decide on customer support process
- Manage funds and financial risk
- Hire and train ops and support teams
Though some people enjoy taking on big projects internally and like to be in full control, it can become overwhelming — and expensive — very fast. In fact, many ventures fail due to complexity, even when tackled by experienced teams. And if the project does make it to completion, it requires several resource intensive management of ongoing tasks like legal and compliance, customer support, and the inevitable chargebacks.
But There is an Easier Way!
The good news is, you don’t have to tackle the complexities of building a transactional marketplace alone. There’s a faster, more affordable, and less risky way to get started: Trustap, the all-in-one transaction platform that integrates payment, support, and fulfilment into your marketplace.
Why Trustap is the Smarter Choice
Faster Time to Market: With Trustap, you can get your marketplace transactional quickly. For simple use cases, our plug-ins can get your marketplace up and running within days. For more complex needs, we offer custom integrations that can take approximately 8 weeks (much faster than the year or so it could take to build such a system from scratch).
End-to-End Support: Whether you choose a plug-in or a custom solution, Trustap’s team of experts will guide you every step of the way. We handle the technical details, provide ongoing support, and even take on the legal and financial responsibilities tied to transactions. This means you can focus on growing your business while we manage the tricky stuff.
Buyer Protection: To keep your marketplace, buyers, and sellers safe, payment from a buyer is held in a Trustap Vault. Payment is held here until the buyer receives the goods and the complaint period passes. At this time, payment will be passed to the seller.
Dispute Resolution: Trustap’s 24/7 support team is on-hand to investigate and resolve any disputes on your behalf.
Detect Fraud: Automated fraud detection and expert review prevent suspicious transactions from taking place on your marketplace, keeping your buyers and sellers safe, and building trust.
Fight Chargebacks: Trustap’s experts minimise chargebacks with effective prevention and resolution.
Collect Insights: Understand customer behaviour and spot inefficiencies throughout transactions.
Integrated Postage: Trustap easily integrates flat-rate shipping from top couriers into your platform.
Flexible Transfers: Support for digital asset transfers (such as domain names) and shipped items with tracking.
To Sum It Up
While building an in-house solution comes with complexity, time, and risk, partnering with Trustap offers a streamlined alternative. With fast integration, and comprehensive support (and did we mention zero-upfront costs?), Trustap enables you to focus on growing your marketplace and strengthening user experience, without the hassle.
Running an eCommerce business? We also have a solution for you! Learn more here or contact our team.
