Aggregator Marketplaces: How B2C Aggregators Work?

Online shopping has become an inherent habit among consumers and aggregator marketplaces seem like a perfect platform as they bring together multiple vendors and options to choose from. Aggregators are a popular ecommerce business model in many industries such as food, taxi booking, beauty products, fashion, etc. When talking about aggregator marketplace, food aggregators and taxi aggregators are most commonly used on-demand aggregator businesses such as Uber and Zomato.

B2C aggregators have become even more popular after COVID-19 as a larger number of consumers have shifted towards online shopping. According to a research, global aggregators market is expected to expand by $1 trillion by 2025.

This projected growth has attracted interest from entrepreneurs who want to launch an aggregator business. If you are also interested in food aggregator app development or launching a taxi aggregator app like Uber, then the foremost step is to understand what is aggregator business model?

In this article, we will answer basic questions about online aggregators.

What Is Aggregator Business Model?

Aggregator business model is one of the most successful subset of ecosystem business model. An aggregator model is a networking ecommerce business model where an aggregator collects product or services data from multiple or competitive vendors and displays it on its website or marketplace platform.

Typically the B2C aggregator, itself, does not have its own manufacturing unit but instead depends upon its ability to create a domain that allows consumers to compare prices and specifications of competitor manufacturers and buy a product after thorough diligence.

Irrespective of the business sector an aggregator caters to, they share some common attributes:

• Customers: Every aggregator model has two customer segments – the consumers or goods buyers and the goods or services providers that are listed on the aggregator marketplace.
• Industry: All goods and services providers enlisted on the aggregator marketplace can be categorized under similar industries or niche.
• Partnerships: The goods or service providers listed on the B2C aggregator platforms are business partners of the aggregator. The manufacturers are free to take their own business decisions. The partnerships are governed by contracts that include terms related to quality standard, order acceptability, etc. for the manufacturer and the online B2C aggregator platform is entrusted with the responsibility of marketing and creating more sales.
• Brand Image: Building brand image is one such activity that takes up a major portion of budget allocation by the aggregators. Aggregators plan their brand building by focusing on factors such as high product quality, offering competitive price bands, and on-demand delivery.

See Also: Direct To Consumer Business Model: Why Direct Selling Is Beneficial & How To Get Started?

Aggregator Business Model VS Marketplace Business Model

Aggregator business model is often confused with marketplace business model, but these two business models have basic differences.

A marketplace is an eCommerce platform that collates products and services offered by different manufacturers or providers. An online marketplace acts as a mediator or bridge that helps manufacturers reach their consumers. The product prices are decided by the manufacturer or seller and the online marketplace platform charges a commission on sales. Some popular examples of online marketplace business models are Amazon business model, Flipkart business model, etc.

B2C aggregators also organize services or products from different providers but they target unorganized and populated sectors like hotels, taxi, food, etc. Although the sellers are partners of the online aggregators but the products are not sold under the seller’s name. The products or services are sold under the brand name of the aggregator. The price of products or services is also determined by the aggregator. Popular examples of aggregator business model are Uber business model, Oyo business model, etc.

How B2C Aggregator Business Model Works?

For launching your food aggregator or a taxi aggregator app like Uber, it is important to have thorough understanding of how a B2C aggregator works.

Aggregator Business Model

• Aggregator contacts the offering providers or sellers and proposes a partnership plan in exchange of improving their sales via efficient marketing and sales strategy.
• After signing partners, B2C aggregator builds its brand and implements various strategies to attract consumers or buyers.
• These consumers make a purchase; the seller gains more sales and the aggregator platform earns commission.

See Also: How Deliveroo Works: Business & Revenue Model Explained

Benefits Of Aggregator Business Model

Aggregators are gaining popularity among providers and consumers because they help in saving time, money and generating a trust chain, thus creating value proposition.

Here is an overview of benefits of aggregator business model for consumers and sellers:

• Trust: Aggregators have a feedback system that includes ratings and reviews of products. Also, since aggregators choose the product or service providers after thorough scrutiny to maintain their brand value. This helps in adding credibility to the aggregator business model making it a popular choice among consumers as well as providers.
• Easy Access: It is a common consumer behavior to search multiple providers to compare products, prices and quality before making a purchase. An aggregator brings together multiple product options on a single platform making it easier for the consumer to access a large number of options.
• Time Saving: The services offered by an aggregator marketplace are time saving and convenient as the consumers are not required to visit multiple platforms or search for individual providers. This adds value to the buying process for the consumers. Aggregator business model creates value proposition for providers or sellers as they are gain exposure and can reach out to new customers.

Owing to these benefits, a large number of consumers and sellers are choosing aggregators as a means to serve their demand and supply needs respectively. This makes launching an aggregator marketplace a profitable business.

Advantages of aggregator business model for the entrepreneur:

So, why is it a good idea to launch an aggregator? Entrepreneurs are inclining towards food aggregator app development or building taxi aggregator app like Uber because an aggregator business model has multiple advantages:

• Entrepreneurs are required to make less investment as they do not need to set up manufacturing units.
• The work load is divided as aggregators work with partners (sellers who take the manufacturing load).
• Aggregators can be easily scaled up.

See Also: How To Build An On-Demand App Like Nykaa – Nykaa Business Model, Features & Cost

Aggregator Revenue Model: How B2C Aggregators Earn?

As an aggregator, you can choose from two revenue models.

• First one is more commonly known as Uber revenue model. The aggregator helps the sellers or service providers in reaching out to customers and in exchange, it charges a pre-decided commission.
• The second aggregator revenue model is the one adopted by Oyo. In this revenue model, the service provider or seller quotes a minimum price for its services or products. The aggregator adds its surcharge or profit to this price and quotes the final price to the customer.

How To Launch Your Online Aggregator Business?

Launching your aggregator business is a stepwise process.

• The first step is to decide the market niche such as food, taxi services, etc.
• Choose the revenue model.
• After deciding the market niche and business idea, you would need to build an aggregator app to provide a platform for linking consumers and providers.
• Sign up partners (service providers or sellers) and list them on the aggregator platform.
• Choose effective marketing strategy and build your aggregator brand.

Features Of Aggregator Platform

The features of your aggregator app will depend upon the type of aggregator you plan to launch. Here we will discuss basic features of food aggregators and taxi aggregators.

Features of food aggregator:

When launching a food aggregator, you need to provide platforms for customers, restaurants, and delivery agents. Here is a list of features you need to include in the customer facing food aggregator app:

• Seamless user interface and experience
• Offers and deals section
• Recent orders and popular dishes
• Food categorization
• Multiple OS availability
• Cart
• Search option based on cuisine, dish or restaurant
• Digital wallet
• Integrated payment gateways
• Order tracking
• Address management
• Flexible delivery
• Feedback

Features of taxi aggregator:

When launching a taxi aggregator like Uber, you need to provide following features:

Passenger Panel –

• Register and login
• Home screen to book a cab and check distance
• Driver rating section
• Payment gateways
• Push notifications
• Ride history
• Real-time map plotting
• Schedule ride

Driver Panel-

• Driver status and profile
• Ride alert
• Navigation reports

Advanced Features-

• Bill splitting
• Free in-app calls
• Vehicle selection
• Geolocation tracking and routing

Summing Up

Aggregator businesses are on a rise owing to the changing consumer behavior. The aggregator market has many players and you need cutting edge technology to outsmart your competition. Code Brew Labs is a mobile app development company you can trust for reliable and innovative aggregator app building. Connect with us to make your aggregator business a reality. Let’s connect now!