Marketplace Development

Two-sided marketplaces in 12-20 weeks: escrow payments, KYC, search ranking and dispute resolution baked in, not glued on after launch.

What Marketplace Delivers

• Escrow That Holds Money Until Both Sides Are Happy: Marketplaces fail at one of three places: cold-start (no supply or no demand), trust (the first dispute the founder cannot solve manually) or unit economics (a take-rate that does not survive payment processing fees). We design the platform around those three risks first (concierge supply, programmatic trust signals, transparent fee math) and only then do we build the polished UI.
• KYC Without Killing Conversion: Tiered onboarding: light verification to browse and place small orders, full KYC (ID + selfie + business registry) only when the seller crosses a transaction threshold. We integrate Onfido or Sumsub so the verification call is one component, not a six-week project.
• Search Ranking That Rewards Quality, Not Old Listings: Postgres full-text plus a ranking layer with relevance, conversion rate, response time, refund rate and an editorial boost. New high-quality sellers do not get buried; abusers stop seeing traffic without a public ban.
• Dispute Flow That Does Not Eat Your Inbox: Structured dispute reasons, a built-in chat with file attachments, a 72-hour seller-response SLA, automatic escalation to your ops team and an audit log of every action. Payment is locked until the dispute resolves, which usually settles 80% of cases without your intervention.
• Take-Rate Math You Can Defend to Investors: We model the unit economics in the same database that runs the platform: gross volume, take-rate, processing fees, refunds, fraud, hosting per transaction. The dashboard shows true contribution margin, not vanity GMV.
• Built for the Cold Start, Not Just for Scale: In the first months you usually need to fake supply, run concierge fulfilment, or seed reviews from real off-platform transactions. We build the back-office that lets you do that legitimately: manual order injection, internal-account flags, demand-side credits.

How We Build Your Marketplace

1. Liquidity Plan & Take-Rate Model: Two-day workshop on which side starts hard (usually supply), the cold-start tactic and a fee model that survives Stripe processing plus refunds. We leave with a spreadsheet your CFO can stress-test.
2. Two-Sided Onboarding Skeleton: Buyer signup, seller signup, KYC stub, a "create listing" form, a "place order" form. Crude UI on purpose: the goal is to push one fake transaction end-to-end on day 14.
3. Escrow & Payouts: Stripe Connect Express or Mangopay wallets per seller, automated payouts on a schedule you control, partial refunds, chargeback handling, balance reconciliation reports.
4. Trust Layer: Reviews tied to verified transactions, seller ratings, response-time scoring, abuse reporting, profile verification badges. The boring stuff that makes a buyer hit "checkout" the second time.
5. Search & Discovery: Filters, geo search, category trees, related listings, saved searches with email alerts. We start with Postgres + Meilisearch; only move to Elastic if the dataset proves it needs it.
6. Soft Launch with Concierge Ops: We run with you the first 4-8 weeks of real traffic, sitting in dispute review, watching fraud signals, tweaking ranking weights. Going live is not a button, it is a campaign.

High-performance stack used by global leaders

React/Next.js/Angular on the frontend and Java 21 + Spring Boot + PostgreSQL 14 on the backend: the same stack that BBVA, ING, and Netflix use for their security and performance.

Marketplace: FAQ

How much does a marketplace cost to build?

A focused MVP marketplace with one transaction type, Stripe Connect escrow, basic KYC and a single search facet runs €55,000 to €110,000. A richer v1 with multi-currency, geo-search, dispute flow and a vendor analytics back-office lands at €110,000 to €220,000.

How long until the first live transaction?

Our internal goal is the first end-to-end real-money transaction by week 8, even if it is between two friendly users. Public soft launch usually happens between week 14 and week 18, after the dispute and trust layers stabilise.

Stripe Connect vs Mangopay: which do you pick?

Stripe Connect Express is faster to integrate and the default for global digital goods. Mangopay (or Lemonway) is better when you need true e-money wallets, longer escrow, regulated financial flows or strong EU-only positioning. We pick during week one based on payout geography and average ticket size.

Can the platform charge different commission rates per category?

Yes. Commission rules live in a database table, not in code. You can have a flat 10% on most categories, 15% on premium services and a flat €1.50 on transactions under €20. Rules are versioned so you can run AB tests on take-rate without scaring sellers.

How do you prevent fraud at launch?

Three layers: Stripe Radar on the payment side, behavioural rules in our own engine (velocity, mismatched IP/billing, brand-new accounts hitting high tickets) and a manual review queue for the first weeks. Most card-not-present fraud bounces at Radar; the rest gets caught on rules tuned to your category.

Do we own the data and can we leave with it?

You own everything: the application code, the Postgres database, the Stripe account, the domain, the buyer and seller PII. We deliver a one-click backup script and document a clean exit path. Vendor lock-in is something we sell against, not something we hide.

What about regulatory compliance (VAT, e-money, RGPD)?

For most marketplaces operating under Stripe Connect or Mangopay, those providers act as the regulated payment institution and you do not need a licence yourself. We wire VAT collection per seller country (OSS scheme in the EU), surface invoices both sides can download, and ship a GDPR-compliant data deletion path.

Do you work with clients globally?

Yes. We work fully remote with clients across Spain, Europe, the US and LATAM. Time zones, video calls and live demos at every milestone.