How to build a website like Amazon without coding

Amazon is the world’s fourth-largest company, and the second-largest based on revenue. But despite its dominance, smaller online marketplaces still have entry opportunities in the niche.

Today, product marketplaces represent a massive and growing opportunity. B2C marketplaces now account for 67% of global online sales, a massive increase from just 40% a decade ago. E-commerce platforms like Amazon, Etsy, and niche marketplaces have proven that connecting supply and demand through a trusted platform is one of the most effective and scalable online business models.

Early-stage marketplace founders shouldn’t try to build replicas of Amazon, but instead use it as a valuable blueprint. The core mechanics of Amazon—connecting many sellers with many buyers, offering product variety, and simplifying transactions—are the foundation of any thriving multi-vendor marketplace. You can extract many actionable lessons from how Amazon structures its business model, grows supply and demand, and builds trust at scale, then apply them to your own niche marketplace idea.

This guide walks you through how to build a website like Amazon, from establishing your business model to launching your first MVP and more.

Online marketplaces are growing rapidly.

By the end of 2025, the top 100 online marketplaces are expected to generate $3.9 trillion in gross merchandise value (GMV), marking  10% annual growth from $3.8 trillion in 2024.

And this is just the beginning. Projections indicate that by 2027, third-party sales through online marketplaces will be the largest and fastest-growing retail channel worldwide.

The interesting part is that global giants like Amazon are facing increasing competition from smaller, nimbler players that focus on a niche. That’s why you should get in, too. 

Besides its promising future, building a marketplace like Amazon is an accessible start-up model that doesn’t require a huge team and budget. Here’s why:

1. No inventory needed: Unlike traditional e-commerce sites, you don’t need to stock or manage inventory. Instead, you connect buyers with third-party sellers. This asset-light approach reduces overhead and risk and makes the marketplace model extremely scalable. 
2. Low barrier to entry: Modern e-commerce website and marketplace platform builders have made it easier than ever to launch an online marketplace quickly and inexpensively.
3. Test and iterate easily: Marketplace software like Sharetribe lets you launch a fully functional marketplace website within a day without writing a single line of code. You can test your business idea, get user feedback, and iterate on your model before investing heavily.
4. Customization possibilities: When ready to scale, you can easily extend your marketplace by adding custom coding and features to your initial Sharetribe-powered platform.

The opportunity to build a thriving, niche online marketplace has never been more accessible. This guide teaches you how to bring your vision to life sustainably.

Amazon connects third-party sellers with buyers worldwide. This marketplace model is the driving force behind Amazon’s operation and success. 

Sellers on Amazon can list and sell almost any type of product on the platform and access tools to manage their product catalog, inventory levels, pricing strategies, and order fulfillment processes. They can choose to handle shipping themselves or use Amazon’s fulfillment services.

Data analytics and reporting tools are available to track sales performance, advertising ROI, customer feedback, and more. Sellers also get access to Amazon’s advanced advertising solutions to promote their product listings through sponsored ads.

Amazon handles customer service inquiries about orders, while sellers manage inquiries about their products.

For buyers, Amazon offers a browsable product catalog for every category. Rich product pages with high-quality imagery, videos, descriptions, and reviews help customers make informed purchase decisions.

Amazon’s seamless checkout experience, trusted payment processing (Amazon Pay, PayPal, or credit cards), and flexible shipping options make for a smooth and reliable buying experience. Their customer service system handles inquiries, returns, and refunds.

Amazon’s marketplace primarily runs a commission-based business model and does not charge users who want to sell or purchase upfront. It generates most of its revenue through commissions charged to third-party sellers for each product sale on the marketplace.

As the company has expanded, its revenue model has also diversified. Amazon now has additional offerings beyond its marketplace roots, some of which include: 

• Amazon Prime membership with services like free delivery, video streaming, exclusive deals, and more
• Amazon hardware like Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, and Echo smart speakers
• Cloud services through Amazon Web Services (AWS)

If you want to learn more, check out our detailed guide to how Amazon makes money. It covers all its monetization strategies and teaches you how to apply these lessons to your own marketplace.

Amazon has purchased companies that operate in areas complementary to its core business. These become subsidiaries, fully owned and controlled by Amazon. Examples include:

• Audible for audiobooks
• Goodreads for book reviews
• Twitch for live streaming
• Whole Foods for grocery retail

However, the main e-commerce marketplace remains central to Amazon’s success. This guide focuses on replicating that foundational marketplace functionality and experience for your online business.

It’s useful to break down the key characteristics that define Amazon’s marketplace model to understand how a website like Amazon works. These categories help explain the types of users Amazon serves, the features it prioritizes, and the business strategies it uses to scale.

From here, you can better assess how your marketplace idea compares and which features and strategies might be most relevant to your niche.

Amazon can be described as a:

• global
• multi-vendor
• product marketplace

Global means that Amazon operates internationally, connecting sellers and buyers across countries and continents. This requires features like multi-currency support, international shipping options, tax and regulatory compliance for multiple regions, and localized user experiences.

Multi-vendor means Amazon is a two-sided marketplace where multiple independent sellers offer goods to buyers. The platform manages listings, transactions, and logistics, while sellers handle product selection and pricing. Multi-vendor platforms need features like individual seller profiles, commission structures, seller onboarding, and tools for managing product catalogs.

A product marketplace focuses on physical goods rather than rentals or services. Its core functionality revolves around browsing and purchasing products, so essential features include product listings, shopping carts, online payment options, order tracking, and review systems. While Amazon sells nearly everything today, most successful new marketplaces thrive by focusing on specific product categories or niche audiences.

These three dimensions of Amazon’s model reveal several key lessons for marketplace founders:

• Start with a clear focus: Amazon began as a single-category product marketplace (books) before expanding into new categories and regions.
• Empower third-party sellers: Much of Amazon’s success comes from enabling a diverse range of independent sellers, which creates supply variety and reduces inventory risks.
• Build core features around product transactions: Listings, payments, reviews, and fulfillment infrastructure make Amazon’s marketplace scalable and trusted.

With these principles in mind, you can apply similar strategies tailored to your niche when building your marketplace.

Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, initially as an online bookstore. Bezos’s vision was to create a store that could offer more books than any physical bookstore, using the vast and scalable nature of the internet.

Starting with books allowed Amazon to perfect its e-commerce business. The company soon expanded into selling various goods, becoming a one-stop shop for almost anything a consumer needs.

Amazon’s success comes from a combination of strategic business decisions and relentless customer focus:

• Multi-vendor sales: Amazon’s third-party marketplace was launched in 2000. Today, independent sellers account for around 60% of Amazon’s total sales, providing product variety and minimizing inventory risk for Amazon itself.
• Commission-based revenue model: Amazon makes money primarily through commissions on each transaction. It also earns revenue through fulfillment services (Fulfillment by Amazon), subscription programs (Prime), and advertising, giving it multiple income streams from the same transaction flow.
• Customer obsession: A core part of Amazon’s ethos is its commitment to customer satisfaction. Bezos once said, “Start with the customer and work backward.” This principle guided Amazon to prioritize customer needs and convenience, such as easy returns, fast shipping, and low prices.
• Continuous experimentation: Amazon’s success is also attributed to its culture of innovation and willingness to experiment boldly. Amazon is not afraid to test new ideas, learn from failures, and iterate. Not all experiments have succeeded—Amazon’s Fire smartphones were a flop. But many have. For example, Amazon developed its own hardware (like Kindle), launched services (like Amazon Prime), or entered entirely new business domains (like cloud computing with AWS). 
• Constant iteration: Amazon’s approach is iterative; they regularly refine and improve their services based on customer feedback and data. This iterative process ensures that Amazon stays ahead in meeting and anticipating customer needs.

This customer-centric and innovative approach is exactly what Sharetribe has seen work for the success of marketplace founders we’ve collaborated with over the past decade. 

Next, let’s examine how this approach can work for your business in our step-by-step guide that will take you from ground zero to launch in your founder’s journey.

At Sharetribe, we’ve worked with hundreds of marketplace founders. We’ve found that the best way to build a marketplace like Amazon is by following these ten steps:

1. Identify a strong marketplace idea
2. Choose the right marketplace business model
3. Start with a focused scope
4. Pre-validate your marketplace idea
5. Build a website like Amazon, starting with an MVP (Minimum Viable Platform)
6. Onboard your first sellers
7. Launch your marketplace
8. Reach problem-solution fit
9. Reach product-market fit
10. Scale into new markets

Next, we’ll discuss these 10 steps specifically in the context of building a website like Amazon. For more details and additional resources, check out our definitive guide on creating a marketplace. 

The first step is to find a unique, strong idea that will likely resonate with customers. 

Remember Amazon’s rules of starting small when choosing your idea. Bezos’s idea was to make how people shopped for books faster and easier. What small niche could you focus on to improve the shopping experience?

Here are some insights to identify a marketplace idea like Amazon’s:

• Consider verticals or niches not well served by Amazon’s marketplace: Look for categories with consistently poor reviews, listings lacking detailed information, or long delivery times. These pain points are potential areas for creating a better and more curated marketplace focused on better service. 
• Explore categories where you have expertise and experience: Start by focusing on industries you know well. When you understand the needs, frustrations, and goals of buyers and sellers in a market, you’ll be better equipped to solve real problems. Look for gaps like poor user experience, lack of trust, or fragmented supply. These are often signs of untapped marketplace potential. Many successful marketplaces, like Airbnb and Etsy, were built by founders who solved problems they had experienced themselves.
• Join and gather insights from communities like Reddit, Quora, and niche forums: Look for recurring complaints, suggestions, or wish lists that customers and sellers express about their Amazon experience. For instance, some sellers complain on Reddit about Amazon’s new placement fee. These conversations may help you find opportunities to create a more specialized and tailored selling experience based on customers’ needs and preferences.

Like Amazon, your marketplace should:

• Solve a real problem for both sides of your marketplace.
• Have a large enough market that matches your business goals.
• Have fragmentation, meaning there are several sellers and buyers in the niche.
• Have potential for frequent usage (repeat purchases).

There are generally six different business models that online marketplaces use: 

• Commission: The marketplace takes a percentage or flat fee from each transaction between buyers and sellers. This is the most common model because it aligns revenue with platform usage.
• Subscription: Users (usually sellers) pay a recurring fee to access the platform, regardless of how many transactions they make. This model is ideal for steady, predictable revenue.
• Listing fees: Sellers pay a fee to list their products or services on a marketplace. This model is typically used when there’s a high demand for visibility or limited listing space.
• Lead fees: Sellers pay for access to buyer leads or inquiries, which is common in marketplaces where transactions happen offline or are negotiated outside the platform.
• Freemium models: Basic access to the marketplace is free, but users can pay for premium features, better visibility, or added services.
• Featured listings: Sellers pay extra to have their listings promoted or appear in premium spots, which boosts visibility and potentially increases sales.

Amazon’s marketplace follows a commission-based model. They generate revenue by charging third-party sellers a fee for each product they sell on the marketplace. 

This means that Amazon profits only when sellers successfully sell through its platform. This commission-based approach is common in the marketplace industry as it reduces upfront risks and costs for sellers compared to other models.

Over time, Amazon has added additional revenue streams such as fees for premium seller tools, marketing services, fulfillment and logistics, and more. These add-ons were introduced after establishing the core marketplace experience.

If you’re starting a business, avoid overcomplicating your offering with too many services or fees upfront. Focus on delivering exceptional value and only consider expanding revenue streams cautiously after achieving product-market fit.

The lesson from Amazon is starting with a simple, scalable business model that creates value for buyers and sellers from day one.

Just as Amazon began by focusing on the single vertical of books, your online marketplace should start with a very specific and focused scope. 

Trying to be a horizontal marketplace for all categories right out of the gate is a recipe for overextending your limited resources.

Amazon’s beginnings in the niche market of books served as a scalable, manageable starting point and laid a strong foundation for future expansion. Following Amazon’s focused approach gives your marketplace startup the best chance at achieving product-market fit quickly. 

You can also iterate features and market your platform far more effectively with acute focus versus trying to be everything to everyone from day one.

Start with the most underserved, passionate niche where you can realistically build a liquid marketplace. Then, systematically replicate it when expanding into additional verticals down the road (more on this step later).

Pre-validating your marketplace idea basically means checking to see if your online marketplace idea is a good one before you spend a lot of time and money building it. 

Amazon itself popularized this lean startup principle of validating before executing.

You must test your assumptions about:

• The real problem or need you want to solve with your marketplace
• Why people would use your marketplace instead of Amazon
• If there are enough sellers and buyers to keep your marketplace going

The best way to go about this is to find your target audience and talk to them.

For example, you could join the earlier-mentioned Amazon seller communities, find a subgroup dedicated to your specific niche, become active there, and openly and genuinely ask for advice and feedback.

Some other methods of validating your marketplace idea include:

• Interviewing prospective users to uncover what they struggle with and what features they actually need
• Creating simple validation tests like landing pages, pre-order forms, or concierge MVPs, where you manually facilitate transactions before automating anything
• Studying existing marketplaces that serve a similar audience to find common complaints in reviews, feature gaps, or friction in the user experience

First-hand validation allows you to pressure-test your assumptions, refine your positioning messaging, and potentially find early adopters. It’s market research grounded in real insights versus just assumptions.

Validate first, then build with confidence.

The first versions of Amazon’s website were barebones compared to today’s standards. But they had the critical essentials like the ability to: 

• Browse an online product catalog
• Place secure orders and make payments

They also had something that didn’t sound essential, but that worked for their audience: a notification service to be notified when a book by your favorite author became available.

Similarly, your marketplace MVP can deliver the core value proposition and transaction features without every bell and whistle. But ensure it solves your customers’ and sellers’ problems and is lovable from day one.

If you’re not technical, there are three options for building an MVP similar to Amazon’s:

1. Get a freelancer or an agency to build your MVP from scratch.
2. Find a technical co-founder to build an MVP for free.
3. Build the MVP yourself with no-code tools. 

For example, Sharetribe’s no-code platform lets you quickly build and launch a fully operational online marketplace without technical skills. This flexibility of the no-code platform lets you:

• Get your first version live a lot faster
• Gather insights from real customers
• Make changes and test new features quickly and efficiently
• Conserve resources and focus efforts
• Evolve based on what users want

Overall, the fundamental mindset is to: 

• Identify the essentials for your target audience to participate in your marketplace’s core value exchange.
• Launch just those critical components first as an MVP. 
• Then, rapidly gather feedback to determine what to enhance, modify, or develop next based on real user behaviors.

To help you get started, here is a list of essential features that most online product marketplaces similar to Amazon would need:

• User profiles: Profiles help build trust between users by showcasing key information like names, photos, bios, transaction history, and reviews. This transparency encourages safer, more reliable transactions and helps buyers feel more confident purchasing from sellers.
• Listings: Listings are the backbone of any marketplace. Sellers display their products with detailed descriptions, pricing, and photos. High-quality listings make it easy for buyers to browse, compare, and find what they need.
• Online payments: Secure and seamless payment systems are critical for trust and convenience. Integrated online payment methods (like Stripe Connect) handle transactions, enable commissions, and protect both buyers and sellers through features like escrow or delayed payouts.
• Reviews: Reviews allow users to leave feedback after transactions, which helps build credibility for sellers and transparency for buyers. A well-implemented review system reduces risk, fosters trust, and encourages repeat business.
• Admin tools: Admin tools give you complete control over your marketplace, from moderating listings and users to setting transaction fees and handling disputes. Strong admin features ensure your platform runs smoothly and adapts as your business grows.

When creating your MVP, you may need to decide whether you need a multi-vendor shopping cart that combines purchases from different sellers into one checkout experience.

Amazon offers this feature, but not every marketplace idea needs it.

A multi-vendor shopping cart is a complicated feature to build and limits your choice of no-code solutions and marketplace payment providers, so it’s worth spending some time considering whether it’s necessary.

For example, second-hand marketplace giants like Vinted and Depop don’t have a multivendor shopping cart. They have a “Buy now” button that lets a customer make a purchase much more quickly. If a customer wants to buy two items, they click “Buy now” twice.

On the other hand, businesses like Amazon and Etsy have guest checkout (where users don’t need to create an account to make a purchase), which means they can’t have a similar “Buy now” button. Instead, they need a multi-vendor shopping cart. Without it, customers would have to provide their credit card details, shipping address, and other necessary information for each product they purchase—a bad user experience. 

If a multi-vendor cart is necessary for your platform, you can build one on top of Sharetribe’s no-code builder. While Sharetribe doesn’t include this feature natively, you can add it to your platform by:

• Integrating third-party shopping cart software
• Or hiring a Sharetribe Certified developer to custom-build the feature

However, before deciding whether or not you need one, you can read more in our guide on building a multi-vendor shopping cart. It provides more context for evaluating this decision. 

After having your MVP ready for users, you may face a classic chicken-and-egg dilemma: How do you attract sellers without customers, and how do you acquire customers without sellers? 

All marketplace startups face this problem, and most succeed by prioritizing supply first. Building a supply base is crucial for offering customers a reason to be interested in your marketplace. 

Here are some strategies to convince sellers to join before there are any customers:

• Communicate how your marketplace improves on the experience sellers have on Amazon: Explain how your platform solves common seller frustrations, like high commission fees, lack of niche focus, or intense competition from Amazon itself. Highlight benefits like better margins, better customer support, an active community of users, or specialized tools tailored to your niche.
• Offer early adopter benefits like commission discounts or featured listings: Incentivize sellers to join early by offering limited-time perks, such as lower fees, free featured listings, or extra promotional support. Early adopter benefits reward sellers for taking a chance on a new platform and help you build an initial supply more quickly.
• Create an exclusive community where only top sellers are invited to join: Make early participation feel like a special opportunity by positioning your platform as selective and targeting high-quality sellers who align with your marketplace’s values or niche. This tactic builds credibility and creates a sense of prestige around joining your platform early.
• Communicate buyer potential: Even if you’re just getting started, emphasize your plans for generating demand, such as planned marketing campaigns, targeted outreach, or partnerships. Sellers are more likely to join if they feel confident that your platform will attract the right buyers for their products.

Speaking of online forums again, explain to these forums how your marketplace offers a better experience than existing generalist options like Amazon, especially for your specific niche.

Even if your MVP is barebones, an audience-building launch lays the foundation for future growth. 

You don’t need to worry about a big PR launch yet. First, launch your marketplace to a small group of first buyers.

So, how do you find your first customers? Here are a few ideas:

• Online groups and communities (like Facebook groups, subreddits, etc.)
• Offline groups and communities (like local flea markets or stores)
• Using paid search engine ads (with a small budget)
• For B2B customers: cold-calling, direct sales, company visits, and participating in related conferences and events.

For a marketplace like Amazon, your sellers could be an important potential source of customers. If sellers who are currently active on Amazon join your marketplace, they likely have existing customer bases and marketing channels at their disposal. 

If you’ve convinced them that your niche marketplace offers a superior value proposition, they’ll be incentivized to promote your platform to their existing audiences. Ask them to announce their presence on your new marketplace through email lists, social media, referral programs, etc.

Achieving problem-solution fit means validating that you’ve correctly identified and efficiently solved a real pain point or need for your platform’s existing users.

This means your marketplace:

• consistently facilitates transactions between buyers and sellers
• makes revenue from those transactions (but not necessarily profit)

For instance, a problem-solution fit is missing if your marketplace has 60 users but zero sales. 

If your goal is Amazon-level success, it can be tempting to start rapidly scaling expenses and efforts after an encouraging initial launch. However, resist the temptation to invest prematurely in scaling.

Amazon’s success can be attributed to its focus on experimenting, analyzing customer data, and making changes based on real user behaviors. Rather than guessing what features or expansions to pursue, Amazon relied on real user behaviors to inform its roadmap.

So, don’t be too discouraged by poor initial traction. It’s rare for a new marketplace to experience explosive overnight growth.

What’s more important is identifying and doubling down on the features, messaging, and marketing channels that actively lead to transactions and satisfied users. Focus on what actually drives engagement and sales, rather than vanity metrics like website visits or signups.

A product-market fit means you can prove that you’re in a good market with a marketplace product that can satisfy that market.

To be fair, Amazon didn’t quite follow this rule. The company didn’t post its first profitable quarter until 2002, eight years after launching and three years after going public.

However, reaching product-market fit in one category first before scaling is the better option for most founders.

First of all, becoming profitable gives you the confidence that your idea is worth investing in and an actionable playbook you can repeat in new markets.

Second of all, if you’re building a large-scale marketplace, you’ll likely need some external marketplace funding.

Early venture investors like Kleiner Perkins, who led Amazon’s $8 million round in 1996, bought into the long-term vision rather than short-term returns. This patient capital enabled Amazon to refine its marketplace model through years of experimentation until it hit product-market fit.

Today’s investors scrutinize far more how you will become profitable. Venture capitalists will drill into quantitative unit economics and your strategic playbook for expanding from your initial product-market fit foothold. 

So, reaching product-market fit and having a playbook for doing that in new markets will be critical in your talks with investors.

Here are some key marketplace metrics to know whether you’ve reached product-market fit: 

• Liquidity (the likelihood that a transaction will happen on your marketplace)
• Repeat-purchase rate
• Unit economics (customer acquisition costs vs. customer lifetime value)
• GMV retention

The most important metric is liquidity. It measures the likelihood that a seller gets their listing sold and that a buyer finds what they’re looking for. 

Liquidity requires a balance between sellers and buyers. To increase liquidity, you must start building a growth system for your marketplace. Although there are several strategies, choose the ones that work best for you. 

Some marketing strategies to consider include:

• Marketplace SEO
• Viral marketing
• Direct sales
• Hyperlocal offline marketing
• Network effects

From a product standpoint, a simple MVP might not be enough anymore. You’ll likely need to invest in product development to improve functionality and user experience.

If your marketplace is powered by Sharetribe, adding custom-coded elements on top of the no-code builder is very easy. If you used more general tools, this is a stage where you’ll need to invest in rebuilding your platform.

After success in its original books vertical, Amazon began rolling out new product categories, such as music, videos, consumer electronics, and more, in 1998 and 1999.

Each new category benefited from the proven demand, acquisition, logistics, and marketplace dynamics Amazon had refined over the prior years.

On the geographic expansion front, Amazon took a similar incremental approach. After establishing dominance in the US market, it launched localized sites across the UK, Germany, France, Japan, and other countries throughout the early 2000s. In 2018, Amazon released its “International Shopping” mobile app to facilitate global cross-border e-commerce.

The key principle is using your product-market fit playbook to gradually expand into new verticals and geographies. Three ways your marketplace can scale include:

1. Adding a new location
2. Adding a new category
3. Adding a new customer segment

Your goal should be to maximize the applicability of your core marketplace infrastructure, processes, and expertise, which you developed through initial product-market fit. If you need funding for your next expansion, consider non-dilutive funding options to avoid losing equity.

Here’s how to efficiently scale into new markets:

• Scale one market at a time: Focus on expanding to a single market or customer segment before moving to the next. That way, you can thoroughly test and optimize your approach in each market and avoid spreading your resources too thin.
• Reach product-market fit in that market: Before scaling further, make sure your marketplace consistently facilitates transactions, satisfies users, and generates reliable revenue in the new market. Achieving product-market fit confirms there’s sustainable demand for your solution.
• Create a playbook of what works: Document the successful strategies, acquisition channels, onboarding processes, and features that helped you grow in each market. An official playbook streamlines future expansions by giving your team a proven roadmap to follow.
• Repeat the process until your business goals are met: Use your playbook to efficiently replicate success in additional markets and steadily grow your user base and transaction volume without reinventing your strategy every time.

Overall, ensure you choose your next market carefully. Do some market research to consider how your second market differs from your first. Then, collect all the best strategies and knowledge you’ve learned when scaling to new markets and turn them into a playbook.

Sharetribe proudly powers over 1,000 live marketplaces. Our customers operate in different markets and niches: B2B, B2C, C2C, product-selling, renting, and services.

Here are a few thriving marketplaces like Amazon built on Sharetribe. For even more inspiration, check out our customer gallery.

The Octopus Club lets parents buy and sell preloved clothes, toys, and other kid gear. The founder, Ana Rachel Estrougo, founded this marketplace to solve a problem she and other parents are painfully aware of: making sustainable choices as parents.

For the first year, Ana ran The Octopus Club completely alone. But the marketplace grew quickly, and Ana soon realized she needed help.

She launched a crowdfunding campaign and reached her maximum target of £150,000 pre-revenue in 15 days. She’s also been able to grow the marketplace organically with very little paid marketing.

Read Ana and The Octopus Club's entire story here.

Sugarlift is an art gallery and a marketplace with a mission to make buying art more accessible.

The platform is bridging the gap between brick-and-mortar galleries and the digital world and wants to make buying art more accessible.

The founder, Wright Harvey, didn’t have the technical know-how to build a marketplace website, but that didn’t stop him from launching and growing Sugarlift. 

Today, over 500 artists are on Sugarlift’s online marketplace, 10 to 20 of whom are exhibited in the physical gallery every year.

Learn more about how Wright built Sugarlift.

Talk about a niche marketplace!

Aircraft For Sale thrives as a marketplace for buying and selling aircraft. Owned by Flying Magazine, the site is made by pilots and driven by the needs of pilots, with big ambitions to improve the plane selling and buying experience.

GearSource is a global marketplace for buying and selling professional audio, lighting, video, and staging equipment. It connects production companies, venues, and industry professionals with quality used gear from trusted sellers.

Your Book Store is a community-driven online bookstore that supports independent authors and small publishers. The platform focuses on helping readers discover unique and diverse books they won’t easily find elsewhere.

Building an online marketplace like Amazon has never been this easy. Even if you are not a developer, no-code platforms like Sharetribe allow you to build your first MVP without a single line of code.

However, the goal isn’t to replicate Amazon’s scale. Instead, apply the principles behind Amazon’s success to your own niche. Amazon became a global powerhouse by:

• Starting in a focused category
• Obsessing over customer experience
• Iterating based on real-world feedback

Every marketplace entrepreneur can—and should—use these strategies, no matter the size or industry. Start small, build relationships with your first users, and use their feedback to improve. As your marketplace grows, you’ll develop your own playbook for success—one that reflects your market’s unique needs.

Overall, the most important mindset is to start, and the best time is today. 

Sharetribe is built specifically for marketplace founders. With Sharetribe, you can launch quickly without writing a single line of code, thanks to a fully functional no-code builder that covers everything from user profiles and listings to payments and transactions. As your marketplace grows, you can seamlessly extend your platform with custom features using Sharetribe’s developer tools and APIs, which give you the flexibility to scale without re-platforming.

Sign up for a free trial of Sharetribe today.

The cost depends on your approach. If you hire a web development company, building a custom marketplace from scratch can cost anywhere from $30,000 to $300,000+ and take many months.

Using a marketplace builder like Sharetribe drastically lowers costs. You can launch for as little as $99/month and scale affordably by adding custom code only when needed.

No, you don’t need developers to launch your marketplace. Marketplace builders like Sharetribe offer a fully functional no-code platform with built-in features for user profiles, listings, payments, and transactions.

Developers become useful later if you want to deeply customize your platform or build unique features via Sharetribe’s APIs.

With no-code tools like Sharetribe, you can launch your marketplace in a day. Most founders launch within a few days or weeks, depending on how much time they spend on setup, customization, and content. Traditional website development can take several months or even a year before launch.

You have several options:

• Let sellers handle shipping: Most early-stage marketplaces let each seller manage their own fulfillment.
• Use third-party logistics (3PL): If sellers need support, you can partner with fulfillment providers like ShipBob or Easyship.
• Offer local pickup: Many niche marketplaces use local delivery or pickup, especially in early stages.

Sharetribe doesn’t offer in-built fulfillment services like Amazon FBA. It gives you flexibility to choose what works for your business.

Key trust features include:

• Verified user profiles and reviews to vet sellers and buyers
• Secure payments with escrow to hold funds until successful delivery
• Private messaging systems
• Admin tools for content moderation and dispute resolution

Sharetribe has these features built in; you can add more with custom development.

You shouldn’t aim to compete with Amazon’s scale, especially early on. Instead, use Amazon as inspiration for your business model and marketplace structure.

Focus on serving a specific niche with a clear value proposition, build trust with your users, and solve real problems for your market. A small, specialized platform can often provide a much better user experience in its niche than a generic giant. Starting narrow helps you achieve early traction and sustainable growth without needing massive scale.