The number of online marketplaces continues to grow, and this trend is certain to persist in 2025. Platforms that have so far operated exclusively in selected markets, such as Temu, have begun expanding internationally. At the same time, local marketplaces are flourishing in many countries, such as Erli – one of the fastest-growing eCommerce platforms in Poland.
Marketplaces are gaining popularity due to their ability to combine convenience for consumers with benefits for sellers. For customers, they offer the ability to compare products and prices in one place, while for sellers, they provide access to high traffic and lower entry barriers to the eCommerce world. A key driver of their success is the network effect: the more sellers join the platform, the more buyers it attracts, creating a self-sustaining growth cycle.
In this article, we will explore the different types of online marketplaces and discuss Sylius – an excellent
Types of marketplaces
As online marketplaces continued to grow, they slowly evolved into more specialized platforms that focus on covering a specific area of the market. But before we jump into this, let’s quickly revise the two core business models applied to eCommerce marketplaces (but also standard online stores).
C2C (Consumer-to-Consumer) marketplace
A C2C model is something that most customers are familiar with. The C2C marketplace enables individual consumers to buy and sell products or services directly with other consumers, with platforms like Facebook Marketplace or Vinted being prime examples. The popularity of C2C marketplaces continues to grow as they tap into the sharing economy trend and provide an easy way for people to monetize their unused items or skills while offering buyers access to unique items at competitive prices.
B2B (Business-to-Business) Marketplace
A B2B marketplace, in turn, facilitates transactions between businesses, ranging from small companies to large enterprises, such as the Alibaba marketplace. These platforms often handle complex purchasing processes, including bulk ordering, customized pricing, detailed specifications, and integration with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. B2B marketplaces are transforming how businesses buy and source products and materials by providing greater transparency, efficient supplier discovery, and streamlined purchasing processes while often offering additional services such as logistics (e.g., Alibaba.com Freight) and safety purchases (e.g., Alibaba Trade Assurance).
B2C (Business-to-Consumer) Marketplace
A B2C (Business-to-Consumer) marketplace enables businesses to sell products or services directly to individual consumers through a digital platform, with platforms like Amazon and eBay. The popularity of B2C marketplaces continues to grow as they provide businesses with direct access to consumers while offering shoppers a wide variety of products, streamlined checkout processes, and robust consumer protection features. These platforms typically include user reviews, personalized recommendations, multiple payment options, and clear return policies to create a trusted shopping environment.
While those are the main marketplace categories, there are several more specialized types of these platforms that customers see on a daily basis.
Product Marketplace
The first one is a product marketplace where multiple sellers can list and sell physical goods to customers through a single website. These platforms handle many aspects, making it easier for sellers to reach customers without building their own eCommerce infrastructure. The popularity of product marketplaces comes from their ability to offer customers a wide selection of items with competitive prices while providing sellers with access to a large customer base and a ready environment to start selling products.
Key characteristics:
- Multi-vendor platform with standardized product listings and categories
- Integrated payment and shipping systems
- Rating and review systems for both products and sellers
- Search and filter functionality for easy product discovery
- Built-in customer protection systems and platform security
Examples of product marketplaces:
Amazon Marketplace
Amazon transformed from an online bookstore into the world's largest product marketplace, now hosting millions of third-party sellers who offer everything from electronic gadgets to household items alongside Amazon's own retail operations. The platform offers an advanced logistics network (Fulfillment by Amazon), sophisticated recommendation algorithms, and a Prime membership program that ensures customer loyalty through fast shipping and additional services.
eBay
The platform pioneered the peer-to-peer online selling model, enabling both individual users and businesses to trade everything from vintage items to brand-new products. eBay distinguishes itself through its advanced feedback system, buyer protection program (eBay Money Back Guarantee), and Global Shipping Program that facilitates international commerce. The platform maintains its auction heritage while embracing modern e-commerce features like Best Offer options, authenticated luxury item sales (eBay Authenticate), and a deals marketplace that competes with traditional retail.
Etsy
Etsy hosts millions of independent creators and small businesses that offer everything from handcrafted jewelry to custom furniture and digital art prints. The platform maintains its commitment to creative entrepreneurship through features like Pattern (for custom websites), sophisticated search tools highlighting unique items, and Etsy Studio for craft supplies. The marketplace distinguishes itself through its focus on handmade, vintage, and customizable products while offering seller tools like Etsy Ads, the Star Seller program to recognize top performers, and Etsy Payments, which simplifies transactions across multiple currencies.
Service Marketplace
The next one is a service marketplace. It is an online platform that connects professional service providers with customers seeking specific services. Instead of browsing products, users can for various services, such as home maintenance, holiday rentals, online freelancing jobs, and much more. The success of service marketplaces lies in their ability to standardize service delivery while maintaining quality through ratings, reviews, and verification systems. This way, the marketplace is organized, and potential customers can easily find what they are looking for.
Key characteristics:
- Booking and scheduling systems with real-time availability
- Detailed service provider profiles with credentials and reviews
- Standardized pricing models and secure payment processing
- Communication tools between providers and customers
- Quality control through verification and rating systems
Examples of service marketplaces:
Fiverr
Fiverr is a leading freelance marketplace where professionals offer their skills across diverse categories, including digital marketing, graphic design, programming, and writing. The platform stands out through its standardized "gig" system, where services are packaged into clear offerings with defined deliverables, timeframes, and prices while providing tools for secure payments, milestone tracking, and workflow management.
Upwork
Similarly to Fiverr, Upwork is also one of the largest freelance marketplaces, now connecting millions of skilled professionals with businesses seeking talent across different fields. However, Upwork tends to attract more professional freelancers and higher-value and longer-term projects, while Fiverr is often associated with quick, specific tasks and creative services.
TaskRabbit
TaskRabbit connects people needing help with everyday tasks to skilled "Taskers" who can assist with everything from furniture assembly to home repairs and moving. The platform, acquired by IKEA in 2017, streamlined local service hiring through its instant booking system, verified background checks, secure payment processing, and detailed tasker profiles with skills ratings while maintaining strong integration with IKEA's furniture assembly services and expanding into various home-related tasks.
Subscription Marketplace
The third type is a subscription marketplace which is a platform where vendors offer recurring products or services to customers through flexible subscription plans. The success of this model comes from providing predictable revenue streams for vendors while offering customers convenient access to regularly updated content or products. Over the past years, the subscription marketplace model has gained significant popularity as consumers increasingly prefer access over ownership and value the convenience of automated, regular deliveries or content updates.
Key characteristics:
- Automated recurring billing and subscription management
- Flexible subscription plans and pricing tiers
- Customer retention and engagement analytics
- Easy subscription modification and cancellation tools
- Content or product delivery scheduling systems
Examples of subscription marketplaces:
Netflix
Netflix operates as a leading subscription-based streaming marketplace, offering a vast library of movies, TV shows, and original content from multiple studios and production companies. The platform excels through its sophisticated recommendation algorithm, multiple subscription tiers with different video quality and screen options, and significant investment in original content production.
Spotify
Spotify functions as a comprehensive music and podcast streaming marketplace that connects listeners with millions of songs from artists and record labels, along with a growing library of podcast creators. The platform differentiates itself through features like personalized playlists, sophisticated music discovery algorithms, and a freemium model that offers both ad-supported and premium subscription tiers.
MasterClass
MasterClass evolved from a niche online education platform into a premium subscription-based marketplace for learning, connecting global audiences with world-class leaders, celebrities, and industry experts who share their knowledge through high-production-value video courses. The platform revolutionized online learning by featuring instructors like Gordon Ramsay for cooking, Hans Zimmer for film scoring, and Serena Williams for tennis, offering cinematic-quality content through an annual all-access subscription model.
Having explored various types of marketplaces - from product platforms like Amazon through service marketplaces like Fiverr to subscription-based platforms like Netflix - it's clear that each type requires specific features and capabilities to operate effectively. This is where Sylius comes in as a flexible foundation for building any of these marketplace types. Let's explore why this eCommerce framework is particularly well-suited for creating and managing marketplace platforms.
Why is Sylius a good solution for building marketplaces?
Sylius is an open-source eCommerce framework built on PHP Symfony, designed to provide maximum flexibility and customization options for online businesses. With its API-first modular monolith architecture, Sylius enables businesses to adapt and extend the platform to meet specific requirements while maintaining high code quality and minimal technical debt. Let’s browse the core advantages that make this solution stand out in front of other options.
Sylius Marketplace Suite
First and foremost, the Sylius Plus module, Marketplace Suite, provides handy tools for managing a multi-vendor platform, including vendor registration and verification, product management, commission handling, and communication systems. The module streamlines marketplace operations by offering features like customizable vendor profiles, channel-specific product listings, flexible shipping configurations, and robust admin controls for overseeing the entire marketplace ecosystem.
What's more, Marketplace Suite is built with scalability and performance as core priorities. Its architecture is specifically designed to handle high-traffic volumes and manage extensive product catalogs efficiently, ensuring smooth operation even as the marketplace grows.
https://bitbag.io/blog/sylius-marketplace-suite-comprehensive-guide
Integrations with payment providers
Secondly, Sylius offers straightforward integration with major payment solutions, including PayPal, Mollie, Stripe, and Adyen, providing marketplace owners with flexible options for handling multi-vendor transactions. These integrations support various payment methods and offer specialized marketplace payment solutions, ensuring secure and efficient financial operations for both vendors and customers.
Scalability
Thanks to its modular architecture and Symfony foundation, Sylius provides exceptional scalability that allows marketplaces to grow without compromising performance. The platform's API-first approach and ability to integrate with external systems like Product Information Management (PIM) or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) ensure the marketplace can expand and adapt to increasing business demands.
Valuable plugins for managing marketplaces
Sylius benefits from a rich ecosystem of plugins that enhance marketplace functionality, including tools for content management (CMS Plugin), advanced search (Elasticsearch Plugin), shipping management (ShippingExport Plugin), and customer engagement (Wishlist Plugin, Bonus Points Plugin). These plugins, many developed by the community, provide cost-effective solutions for adding new features and improving the marketplace experience.
Examples of Sylius-based marketplaces
Before jumping to the conclusion of today's article, let's look at the latest Sylius-based projects that leveraged the Sylius capabilities in real-world marketplace implementations.
JAST USA
JAST USA, established in 1996, is a leading publisher and online retailer specializing in anime-inspired video games. To enhance user experience and overall performance, they had to migrate their online store from Magento to Sylius, addressing accumulated technical debt and modernizing their platform.
To modernize the marketplace and ensure the best possible performance, BitBag addressed numerous challenges. The main “marketplace-oriented” changes included a new payment gateway, customized returns system, advanced product search and filtering, loyalty points system, and regional pricing system.
The brand-new platform is a fully modern, high-performing marketplace that has significantly improved JAST USA's online presence. The migration from Magento to Sylius brought immediate benefits, including faster file downloads through AWS S3 integration, intuitive product discovery with Elasticsearch implementation, and improved customer engagement through features like the loyalty points system and automated promotions. The custom regional pricing system and new payment gateway, in turn, have expanded market reach and increased sales.
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WaVa.Exchange
WaVa.Exchange is an innovative marketplace platform that revolutionizes the exchange of industrial by-products. It connects businesses looking to manage their production waste with companies that can use them as raw materials in their processes, actively supporting the development of a circular economy. The platform stands out with its advanced data confidentiality protection system while maintaining full transaction transparency. Sellers can monetize industrial waste while buyers gain access to economical and sustainable materials.
All of this contributes to building more efficient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly industrial practices, while generating measurable business benefits for all platform participants.
Centre of Excellence
Centre of Excellence is a leading online learning platform offering a diverse range of fully accredited courses across various disciplines, including holistic therapy, business, and personal development. With over 1,000 flexible courses available, learners can access materials 24/7 across any device, allowing them to study at their own pace without deadlines. The platform provides a state-of-the-art online learning experience, enabling students to pursue their educational goals from anywhere. All courses come with full support from dedicated tutors in the chosen subject field, ensuring learners receive guidance throughout their studies.
Centre of Excellence has been recognized with multiple international business awards, including Best Online Education and Training Provider, highlighting its commitment to delivering exceptional value to customers.
Summary
Building a successful marketplace platform requires careful consideration of several key factors. When choosing the technology for your marketplace, it's essential to analyze your specific business needs, target audience, and long-term scalability requirements.
Sylius emerges as a compelling choice for marketplace development due to several distinctive advantages. Its Marketplace Suite provides comprehensive tools for vendor management and platform operations, while the framework's modular architecture ensures excellent scalability. The platform's robust integration capabilities with payment providers, extensive plugin ecosystem, and proven track record in real-world implementations make it a reliable foundation for various marketplace types.
If you're considering building a marketplace platform or would like to explore how Sylius can benefit your business, our team at BitBag is ready to help. With extensive experience in implementing Sylius-based marketplaces, we can guide you through the process from initial concept to successful launch.
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