Create an online services marketplace and bring it to life in just 4 to 8 weeks with the team that founded the world's first service marketplace.
The team behind Eaco Systems arguably knows the service marketplace space better than no other. In 2005 they launched the world's first marketplace for services, Service Central, in Melbourne Australia. Service Central, marketed as "the easy way to find trades & services" went on to generate over $2 Billion in transaction value matching consumers with local tradespeople and service providers. In 2016, the Service Central marketplace was sold to Trading Post, however the underlying technology was retained by the original founders. Today that underlying technology (now known as the Eaco System) is available for organisations and budding entrepreneurs to use to create your own Service Marketplace.
An Experienced Team
Every member of the team at Eaco Systems has intimate knowledge of how to setup and run a successful marketplace for services. Some of the challenges that the team has worked on over the last 15 years include:
- The chicken and egg problem --> The balancing act of growing the buyers and sellers in a marketplace in a (relatively) balanced manner;
- Revenue models --> We have generated revenues for marketplaces operating under a large number of different revenue models from pay per lead, pay per transaction, membership based, and hybrids of these options;
- Quality control --> Maintaining the quality of your service providers and building the trust of your consumers;
- Partnerships --> Initiating and building strong partnerships with external organisations;
- Sales Strategies --> Growing your network of Service Providers;
- Marketing Strategies --> Generating work for your Service Providers in an affordable and scalable manner;
- Financing Strategies --> Attracting investors to your marketplace, what they are looking for and seeking to deliver that outcome;
- Job Matching and Dispatching --> Custom algorithms that achieve the best balance between customer satisfaction and revenue generation;
- Customer service management --> Immediate access to customer data and history; and.
- Technology --> Building a fast, robust, reliable and scalable technology platform for your marketplace.
What is a Services Marketplace?
A services marketplace can be as simple or as complex as you choose. At its core it's a marketplace that connects the people and businesses that provide services with the consumers that require those services.
These services could be local services such as gardeners, cleaners, electricians and plumbers, global services such as web designers, graphic designers, marketers and tech developers, professional services such as lawyers, accountants, architects and financial services, or on-demand services such as ride-sharing, couriers, food delivery and last-mile fulfilment.
An online marketplace can make the connection between service providers and consumers as simple as providing a lead generation service or a get quotes services, or as detailed and complex as an Uber where the entire transaction is tracked and managed including payment processing.
In all of these scenarios the Eaco System can be configured and customised to meet the exact needs and specifications of the type of online services marketplace that you wish to create.
Design your Services Marketplace
The Eaco System has the underlying flexibility and configurability to enable you to design your services marketplace to look, feel and work in the exact manner that you desire. If you have a particular UI or look and feel that you wish to implement, share it with us and we can make this the front-end and use Eaco's backend marketplace technology to support it and scale it. Similarly, if you have a particular way that you would like your services marketplace to operate (get quotes, exclusive jobs, tenders, fully managed transactions, job-sharing, etc), no worries, we can configure the Eaco System to follow the exact workflows and actions that you wish for.
Interesting Elements to consider for your Services Marketplace
The team at Eaco are driven to make the world a better place and we believe that services marketplaces can play a big part in that change. We are always interested in working with people that are driven towards improving on what currently exists today and making life easier for all the consumers and service providers out there.
Idea's and technology to consider when building your online marketplaces include:
- Live service provider tracking --> Providing consumers with live updates on the exact location of the service providers that they have hired;
- Automatic creation (and payment) of invoices --> Particularly useful when there are a large number of real transactions occurring in your marketplace. Furthermore, integrating these invoices with your accounting system (and the accounting system of your service providers) is a big time saving for all involved; And,
- Job Sharing & Safety Net Networks --> Believe it or not no-one has 100% capacity to fulfil the needs of every customer. Having technology that enables you to call on the capacity of other service provider networks (franchise groups, industry associations, media companies, and even competitors) can be a great way to fulfil every request that comes through and keep the customers happy and coming back to you.
Who we have worked with in the past
Eaco Systems have used our expertise and experience in the services marketplace space to work in a number of organisations and entrepreneurs over the years. These include:
- Media Organisations;
- Industry Associations;
- Retailers;
- Franchise Groups;
- Utility Providers;
- Lead Generation Providers; And,
- Entrepreneurs establishing their own services marketplaces.
Call Eaco Today to discuss your Services Marketplace needs
To commence a discussion about your particular services marketplace needs in the pick up the phone and call us today on 1300 739 814. Alternatively, you can email the Eaco team at support@eaco.me
Looking forward to seeing how we can work with you to help in the near future.
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