Building a MVP marketplace: A practical guide on how to create an online marketplace

How to build an online MVP marketplace in 2025: A practical guide

Published on November 13, 2024 by Rasmus.

How to create an online marketplace is an exciting but challenging task. One way to manage the risks and costs involved is by starting with building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

In this guide, I’ll explore the benefits of building a MVP marketplace fast, key features to consider, and steps to quickly bring your online marketplace MVP to life.

If you have time, then watch this video where I explain the steps in detail:

Why build an online marketplace MVP?

Building an MVP for your marketplace is a smart strategy to minimize risks and maximize learning. An MVP allows you to launch a simplified version of your marketplace, focusing on essential features while minimizing initial costs.

By launching a MVP marketplace, you can quickly gather valuable feedback from early adopters, allowing you to refine your product based on real user insights.

Key benefits of building an online marketplace MVP:

• Market validation: Launching an MVP enables you to test demand and gather insights. Real user feedback helps refine your product to align with market needs, indicating early on if your platform resonates with your target audience.
• Cost efficiency: By focusing only on core features, you save on development costs, avoiding investment in untested, non-essential elements. This approach enables you to allocate resources effectively while focusing on what matters most for initial traction.
• Faster time-to-market: An MVP allows you to get your marketplace live quickly, giving you an edge in capturing an audience early. With a faster launch, you can begin marketing and iterating on your platform, building awareness before fully scaling.
• Risk mitigation: Testing the market with an MVP reduces the risk of building a full-scale platform that may not resonate with users. Early-stage validation allows you to pivot or make necessary adjustments without incurring high costs.

Steps on how to build a MVP marketplace

The first step in building a marketplace isn’t writing code or picking a platform. It’s making sure your idea actually has demand.

Key questions to ask yourself:

• Who are my buyers and sellers?
• Are people already solving this problem in another way?
• Would someone actually pay for this?

A quick way to test this is to go where your potential users already hang out. Could be on Reddit, Facebook groups, LinkedIn or similar. Check what they are talking about and ask questions. Maybe they reveal something they are frustrated about. And check if they’re already trying to connect in some manual way.

Another way to validate demand is by checking competitor marketplaces (if any). Are they successful? Are users actively engaging? If the answer is yes, that’s a good sign. If not, then you have to find out why.

And when you’ve validated your idea, it’s time to decide how you’re going to build your marketplace. There are three main ways to do this, and each has pros and cons depending on your skill level and budget.

• No-code tools (fastest, but limited):
  Platforms like Sharetribe and Bubble let you create a marketplace without coding. They’re great if you want to launch quickly and test your idea, but they come with trade-offs. You’re limited by what the platform allows, and custom features can get tricky. Also, they quickly become expensive as you scale as explained in this post.
  
  ✔ Best for: Founders with zero coding skills who want to launch fast.
  ✘ Downsides: Less flexibility, higher monthly costs, limited ownership.


• Boilerplates (balance between speed & flexibility):
  Boilerplates like the Speed Build Marketplace one give you a pre-built foundation where all the basics are alredy set up like authentication, payments, messaging, but you still have full control over the code. This is a great middle ground if you have some coding skills or if you are ready to learn how to built on top of it using AI. It can also be used for still hirering a developer, but giving him a head start.
  
  ✔ Best for: Developers & tech-savvy founders who want a head start.
  ✘ Downsides: Still requires some development time & hosting setup.


• Hirering a developer (flexible, but slowest):
  If you have a unique marketplace idea and you are non-technical and you do not want to build using a no-code tool or using AI on top of a boilerplate - you can choose to hire a developer. This gives you full control, but it also means that you first need to find a developer, and then that person needs to do everything from scratch - from designing the database to writing APIs, handling security and so on.
  
  ✔ Best for: Non-technical founders or teams building something highly custom.
  ✘ Downsides: Takes the longest, costs the most, and requires hirering a developer.

Essential features of an online marketplace MVP

When building your marketplace MVP, you'll need to implement several core features that are essential for a functional platform.

Let's explore the key components that will form the foundation of your marketplace.

• User authentication: A robust authentication system is crucial for building trust and security. Modern solutions like Clerk, Firebase, or Auth0 make it fast to implement a robust solution. It is usually also a good idea to have social login options through platforms like Facebook and Twitter (X), as it reduces friction in the signup process.
• Listing management: The heart of any marketplace is its listing system. Sellers need an easy way to create, edit, and manage their listings.
• Payment processing: A secure and reliable payment processing is a must to any marketplace's success. Stripe Connect is usually the go-to one if you are just starting out.
• Messaging system: An easy way for your users to communicate with each other builds trust, as it allows buyers and sellers to discuss details, negotiate terms, and resolve questions before committing to a purchase.
• Search and filtering: A well-designed search and filtering system is great for user engagement. You should at least implement a basic search functionality, category filtering, and have some sorting options as it helps users quickly find what they are looking for.

Examples of successful marketplace MVPs

Amazon: Amazon’s MVP was an online bookstore, eventually expanding to become the world’s largest e-commerce platform.

Airbnb: Airbnb started as a simple website for renting out space, evolving into a global lodging platform based on user feedback.

Etsy: Etsy began as a marketplace MVP for handmade goods, allowing small artisans to sell their crafts online. Today, it’s a widely recognized platform for unique and creative products.

Nordic Mugs: Nordic Mugs launched as a niche marketplace for collectible Moomin mugs. The platform quickly attracted a dedicated community of buyers and sellers. I built Nordic Mugs using Next.js and MongoDB. 😊

Reverb: Reverb started as a marketplace MVP for buying and selling musical instruments. Focusing on musicians' specific needs, it grew rapidly to become a leading platform in the music equipment industry.

All in all

Building an MVP marketplace (and launching it!) lets you test your idea quickly and improve it based on real user feedback. This approach helps you build something people actually want while keeping costs low.

Remember these key points:

• Choose the right development approach: Use some time to evaluate no-code platforms, boilerplates, and custom development options based on your budget, technical skills, and long-term goals with your marketplace.
• Keep it simple. Start small: Focus only on the most important features to begin with. You can always add more features later.

Ready to build your marketplace? The Speed Build Marketplace boilerplate can help you get started with a robust marketplace MVP foundation.