10 Mistakes that can prove Deadly for Your Task Marketplace

There was a time when looking for an electrician to fix the air-conditioner or a house cleaner used to give you a headache. Times have changed and finding such professionals or getting things done is just a click away. Online services sector is growing at a rapid pace as entrepreneurs see a lot of growth potential in it. The fact remains that now is the perfect time to launch a task marketplace. But in a hurry to become first ones or to capture the market share, many startups end up making deadly mistakes that hurt their platform fail in the long run.

This post is not about how task marketplaces like TaskRabbit have bridged the gap between seekers as well as professionals, nor is it about the essential features required in a task marketplace; it is aimed at those deadly mistakes that can prove to be disastrous thereby ruining the future profits of a startup based on service marketplace. Let us take a closer at those repetitive inaccuracies of service based websites:

#1. Poor Website Navigation

You would never go to unknown terrain without a compass or a map. When it comes to websites, navigation is of utmost importance as it acts like a road map to all the information contained within the website. If your navigation is clear, then the visitors will stay and surf through different pages. You should give ample importance to all the categories of the services being provided. Adding proper hierarchy to the menu also helps users find exactly what they are looking for. But most of the businesses that fail seem to be doing it completely opposite due to less focus on information architecture and more on graphics.

#2. Payment- Lack of Security & Options

Secure mode of payment has been the penultimate hurdle for all sorts of ecommerce platforms. With secure wallets coming into play, that issue has also been solved. Still many online gigs platform software tend to ignore the aspect of online payment and don’t deem it essential to offer secure and enough modes of payment. When making the payments on your website, the consumers should be given a wide range of choices. If they are unable to use the one/two options provided by you, then they simply cannot make the payment. As an owner of the online task marketplace, you do not want that to happen, right?

#3. Ignoring The Importance of Mobile

Mobiles are so quickly taking over desktops that if your task marketplace fails to offer optimal mobile user experience you will certainly lose a big share of profit. Mobiles are the present as well as future so ignoring importance of responsive designs and mobile applications is a big mistake made by ecommerce businesses. A saying aptly defines how important is to make your website fit for offering similar user experience on all devices including  tablets, smartphones, desktops- People who love to shop online may use desktops but people needing a service immediately will  pick up their mobiles.

#4. Closing Eyes to SEO Benefits

You add all the advanced features to your task marketplace, make it user engaging, and have loads of amazing options; but all of that would be worthless if it is not visible in search results. Studies have shown that search engines are one of the major referrers for ecommerce websites. This facet is chiefly overlooked by web administrators. To extend the reach of your task marketplace, it should have well optimized content titles, descriptions, tags, etc. If you get this right, it will help you drive more traffic to your service portal.

#5. Weak or No Verification System

Would you hire someone to take care of your gardening or plumbing without verifying his or her credentials? The task seekers, as well as, professionals are connected virtually, which is why verifications become highly vital to ensure security of both the individuals. The website must incorporate best practices like social media profile linking and other verification methods to keep scammers at bay. Websites that do not pay heed to implementing strict verification method fail to earn trust of target users.

#6. No Scalability

When you launch a marketplace, you cannot judge its growth initially. What if thousands of service professionals register on your website and you can only accommodate a few hundreds. Ecommerce is immensely volatile sector and you need to be prepared to scale up your website as per the growth. Most of the webmasters fail to apprehend their growth prospects in advance and choose a non-scalable clone scripts or solutions that build up stress at the time of upgrading, which eventually results in restricted revenues or increased overheads. This is why you need to be prepared beforehand and ensure that you buy a scalable solution to build task marketplace.

#7. Lacking a Proper Communication Channel

A task marketplace is an online platform that connects service seekers with professionals, which is why you cannot omit the most essential piece of this puzzle. Poor communication channel can affect how users search, hire or get hired. Don’t forget to add proper communication channel to let the service seekers and professionals easily talk to each other.

#8. Inferior Bidding Management

The whole point of a task marketplace is to ensure that the service seekers get their job done without any hassle at the least possible price and service bidders get paid as per their set cost. More jobs and more bids demand a well-defined bidding management. If your task marketplace script does not have a robust bidding system in place, you cannot meet the varied expectations of both the parties simultaneously. This can prove to be devastating for a task marketplace as consumers would then throng to the website, which offers them easiest way to post a job, place bids, reviews bids, etc.

#9. Unimpressive or NO Reviews-Corner

You want to hire someone to repair your electronics goods but do not have any idea about the qualifications required for it. This can be difficult for service seekers to find out who is appropriate to fulfill their needs. They will either want someone trustable to choose a professional or they might not like the idea of hiring help through online marketplace. Reviews act as free assistance to such users. Studies have shown that most of the first time purchases are made based on reviews. Websites that do not have a review system are unable to capture the trust factor of the consumers. Service seekers with queries concerning the service offered by a professional can rely on reviews left by other user. It also gives chance to service providers to prove their credibility.

#10. Wrong website solution

Most of the online ecommerce websites use readymade turnkey solutions, which makes implementation as seamless as possible. If you create a service marketplace website using a featureless clone script, it would drastically affect your growth, future prospects as well as revenues. So make no mistakes. Always go for a feature rich, user friendly solution that not only avoid-mentioned mistakes but is also economical and easy to setup. One name that comes to mind is Yo!Gigs.

Yo!Gigs is a powerful and complete package for entrepreneurs looking to start a task seekers and service professionals’ marketplace. It includes advanced features like quick and hassle free setup, secure payments via eWallet and efficient end-to-end communication channel. If you need professional assistance to launch a service professional marketplace, discuss your requirements with the development experts of Yo!Gigs.