What is a Hyperlocal Marketplace?
A hyperlocal marketplace is an online multi vendor marketplace catering to a small geographic location. The hyperlocal marketplace platform onboards local stores as vendors for the brand. When customers place an order, the order is routed from the nearest vendor warehouse/store to the customers’ doorsteps. Having multiple local stores as vendors make deliveries faster and smoother.
Hyperlocal marketplaces usually deliver products that are everyday essentials, groceries, over the counter medicines and health products, safety and hygiene products, food items etc. Some popular hyperlocal marketplaces in India are BigBasket, Zepto, Swiggy, Urban Company (service-based online marketplace) etc.
The hyperlocal marketplace business model has gained popularity thanks to the changed buying behaviour during the pandemic.
How does the Hyperlocal Marketplace work?
A typical hyperlocal marketplace works just like a multi vendor marketplace. The end customers perceive the purchase to be done from the marketplace brand rather than the individual sellers/hyperlocal stores. In some use cases, users might choose individual vendors also and can connect with them for giving specific delivery instructions. For example, food delivery or service-based hyperlocal marketplace platform.
This is how a hyperlocal business model functions:
The hyperlocal marketplace brand builds its marketplace website and apps
Local stores and sellers are onboarded on the marketplace website
Sellers get their separate dashboard using which they can add their inventory
Customers get to see location-based inventory when they browse the hyperlocal marketplace site or app
Customers choose the desired products and pay for them through their preferred digital or offline payment methods
The orders are directed to the sellers nearest to the customer location or the seller chosen by the customer (in case of food delivery or service-based hyperlocal marketplace platform)
Order is packed and handed over to delivery agents for delivery
Delivery agents have their own app wherein they can check the delivery route, update delivery status etc.
Order is delivered quickly to the customers’ addresses
While the process sounds pretty streamlined, to coordinate various aspects ( vendors, delivery boys, customer locations) the marketplace brand needs a well-rounded, feature-rich hyperlocal marketplace software.
StoreHippo offers a complete solution to build a hyperlocal marketplace in India or any other location across the globe. It comes with extensive vendor management solutions, a delivery boy app, integrated payment gateways, marketing tools, order and inventory management solutions and many others to help set up a hyperlocal marketplace in record time.
What are the benefits of building a Hyperlocal Marketplace?
Hyperlocal marketplace business model has huge benefits for enterprise brands planning to grow their business to new markets. Here is why the hyperlocal marketplace in India is such a sought after business:
A cost-efficient solution to leverage your dealer/partner network without investing in setting up location-based warehouses
Easily manage multi-level dealers, vendors, delivery boys etc. with inbuilt automated solutions
Easy to scale to new geo-locations by onboarding local stores as vendors
Quickly add new product-lines by onboarding new vendors on your hyperlocal marketplace
Get better conversions with a fast delivery option
Better marketing ROI by offering personalized, location-specific deals and discounts
Get valuable customer data to plan strategic business and marketing moves
Scope for quick brand popularity by word of mouth promotion by loyal and happy customers
With the right hyperlocal marketplace platform like StoreHippo, it has become easy for enterprise brands to use the plug-and-play features and get battle-tested solutions to start their business. StoreHippo also offers a plethora of tools to personalize the buyer journeys and helps hyperlocal brands achieve better customer engagement, retention and conversions.
How to build a Hyperlocal Marketplace?
Building a hyperlocal marketplace can have two approaches:
Set up an IT team and get your hyperlocal multi vendor website built from scratch
Go for a hyperlocal marketplace software that comes with an end-to-end solution for building your marketplace website, managing its day-to-day operations and promoting it
To go with option 1 you should have ample time and resources to get the website up and running. Option 2 on the other hand offers a tested solution that has all the necessary modules, features and integrations in place. A customizable hyperlocal marketplace platform like StoreHippo also gives you the creative freedom to tweak the backend and frontend as per your brand’s unique requirements.
What are the must-have features to build a successful Hyperlocal Marketplace?
The best hyperlocal marketplace software is one that offers you a 360-degree solution to build, manage and grow your brand. Your marketplace platform should make your processes automated, efficient and error-free.
To build a successful hyperlocal marketplace brand your marketplace software should have the following features:
Detailed vendor management solutions to onboard and manage local store owners and dealers as vendors
Multi store feature to set up location-specific stores
Multilingual solutions to connect with customers in their native language
Inbuilt mobile solutions to leverage mobile commerce
Inbuilt delivery boy solution to manage the fleet of delivery boys for different vendors
Easy customer location-tracking and Google map integration to facilitate quick and error-free deliveries
Separate logins and dashboard for vendors and delivery boys so they can manage orders allotted to them
Complete control of vendors, products, orders, delivery boys etc. to the admin
Inbuilt solutions for order management, inventory management, multi-level taxation, discount engine
Easy integrations with chosen payment, shipping, marketing, accounting, CRM, warehousing and any other software/service provider of choice
Flexibility to implement changes at the backend as well as the frontend
Inherent scalability to accommodate business growth in new geographies, product lines or new vendor network
StoreHippo offers a well rounded hyperlocal marketplace software that comes with 300+ inbuilt features and 120+ seamless integrations to build tailor-made hyperlocal solutions for brands. With the decoupled headless architecture of the platform, hyperlocal brands can easily go omnichannel and connect with customers at multiple touchpoints to establish the brand as the industry leader.
Why choose StoreHippo to build your Hyperlocal Marketplace?
StoreHippo enterprise ecommerce platform comes loaded with a host of features that help hyperlocal marketplace brands to build inherently scalable and easily customizable solutions. Build grounds up on the mobile-first architecture StoreHippo hyperlocal marketplace platform has an inbuilt mobile apps builder and a variety of apps for the admin, vendors, delivery boys along with hyperlocal marketplace apps for the end buyers.
Powered by MACH ( Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless) architecture, StoreHippo gives better creative control to the developers, designers, marketers to build personalized, conversion-oriented buyer journeys.
Storehippo inbuilt multi store ecommerce solutions and go global features enable hyperlocal brands to grow their reach even in international markets. Along with building a hyperlocal marketplace in India, brands can quickly scale up their business to global markets. They can easily onboard global vendors to set up a chain of localized stores for different locations across the globe. StoreHippo’s inbuilt multilingual, multi-currency, tiered-taxation, multi-level discounts etc. make it easy for brands to personalize their hyperlocal offering for different audience segments.
To manage the huge product lists of hyperlocal marketplace business model StoreHippo offers advanced order management and inventory management solutions. Its advanced search feature, hierarchical categories, integration with various live chat software and chatbots, seamless integration with multiple payment methods, inbuilt store wallet feature etc. make customer buying journey quick and frictionless.
The PCI DSS compliant hyperlocal marketplace platform also offers free SSL to ensure your marketplace brand wins buyer trust and confidence right from the start. Brands can even implement the quick commerce model by strategically planning their hyperlocal marketplace operations for fast delivery.
Ready to ride the new wave of ecommerce with your own hyperlocal marketplace? Get started with your journey right away by starting your 14-day free trial.
