Scale Your Home Goods Venture In 2022 With Furniture Marketplace App Development
The steps involved in developing a furniture marketplace app.
When the world is under attack from the pandemic, companies have to change their approach to doing business. Ever since COVID-19, consumers’ behavior towards buying fashion, vehicles, electronics, and even real estate and furniture has transformed dramatically.
In this post, we’re focusing on furniture marketplace app development. So, it’s not only renowned American furniture and home-goods companies like The Home Depot, Wayfair, and Wallapop leveraging technology. With the paradigm shift in the eCommerce marketplace, small to medium-sized businesses are also turning their business digital.
To be honest,
They are smart entrepreneurs who have understood that customers prefer online shopping out of convenience. But it is way more fruitful for the brands that serve their customers online via a furniture marketplace app.
Do you know why?
Because a marketplace app resides on the customers’ smartphones which they use all day long; Now, if your app is built with modern technology such as AI and ML, you can easily understand customer buying patterns and mold your business in that way. In addition, using Augmented Reality, the app elevates the user experience, letting customers examine new furniture in their home space.
So, we get the overview that a furniture marketplace app is a great way to make your business more accessible to customers. Moreover, it will allow you to reach out to a broader audience and increase your customer base. Now let us dig deeper into how you should get started with your furniture marketplace app development.
Steps To Develop A Furniture Marketplace App
The Target Audience
The first step in developing a furniture marketplace app is identifying the target audience. This will help you decide what features you should include in the app, as well as what type of design would be best suited for your target audience.
Choose a business model for your online furniture marketplace business
Dedicated Home Décor Store
Whether you own a furniture store or a chain of furniture stores, you can manage everything online with this model. Your customers can browse the furniture items you sell and are available in your inventory, place orders, and pay online.
Home Décor eCommerce — B2B
Many home goods and furniture companies deal directly with other organizations. You need to design your furniture eCommerce mobile application based on the B2B model if you are in the same segment. A B2B eCommerce platform will cover everything you need to maximize sales, marketing, operations, reporting, finance, and other customized features.
Multi-Vendor Home Décor Marketplace
When you don’t have any existing footprints in the furniture industry, you can create a marketplace app to bridge the gap between buyers and sellers. Just like Walmart and Amazon, you can create a multi-vendor home decor and furniture marketplace like Wayfair. To your surprise, Wayfair has grown to over 14 million items that are derived from more than 11000 global suppliers.
To make an app like Wayfair though, you may need to build the buyers and sellers app separately. Additionally, an admin panel from where you can study and manage the whole virtual furniture shopping business.
List out features of your furniture marketplace app
App features are a vital aspect of software development. You can take the help of a business analyst to outline the project requirements and include features that make your user journey fun.
I have listed here some features that you can consider while discussing your furniture marketplace app project.
User Panel Features
- Social login/signup
- Manage user profile
- Browse through products using custom search and filters
- View product catalog
- View and give product reviews and ratings
- Share or refer products via social media
- Push Notifications
- Add products to the cart
- Ask questions
- Multiple payment methods
- Multiple language support
- Track product delivery
Furniture Store Owner Panel Features (in case of multi-vendor furniture app development)
- Create and manage profile
- Add/remove/manage products
- Add discounts and offers
- Accept payments
- Manage furniture prices
- Manage product returns
- Provide support via chat
- View/analyze sale data
Control/Admin Panel Features
- Manage store owners and users
- Optimize/manage product categories
- Manage shipping and delivery
- Manage payments
- Generate various reports
- Manage CMS
Boost user engagement on your furniture marketplace app with AR
From Wayfair to IKEA, leverage breakthrough technology like Augmented Reality. Such furniture marketplace apps offer features that allow users to place furniture items virtually, creating the 3D space of a room from a 2D image. Below are some AR-based features that you can develop in your furniture marketplace app.
- Project 3D models of products
- Manipulation: move, rotate, scale
- Room dimensions scanning
- Unique AR models enacted with a printed catalog
- More accurate positioning in iOS app due to ARKit use
Create an MVP of your app
The next step is to create an MVP (minimum viable product). This will allow you to test your idea with potential customers and see if they are interested in using your app. You can then use this feedback to improve the design of your app before launching it on the market.
Hire an excellent development team
Now, your furniture marketplace mobile app development basics are clear, and you are good to go for accumulating your team. Finding the right furniture marketplace app development company can be a hassle that understands your project requirements. However, many genuine software companies offer first consulting for free.
So, I would suggest you search developers on the clutch and good firms and connect them to know more about their services and expertise. Moreover, you must ensure that despite having experience, the software company has the below professionals in their development team.
- Project Manager
- Business Analyst
- Front-end Developers
- Android/iOS Developers
- Quality Assurance
- UX/UI Designers
- Back-end Developers
Pack Up
Whether you are an existing or new furniture business in any corner of the world, having a digital presence will help you grow faster. Hopefully, this guide clears some doubts, but you should list all your questions before consulting any development partner. So that when you start your furniture marketplace app development, you will have nothing to worry about.
Wish you the best in your digital business journey!
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