Two-sided marketplaces often juggle multiple third-party systems, causing fragmented customer communication. Authentication emails are sent from identity providers, order receipts arrive from payment processors, and shipping updates are sent from logistic partners.
Product owners want to increase marketplace buyer and seller satisfaction, but their plans are constrained by these disconnected systems. Engineering teams want to build tools that can send marketplace notifications to multiple channels, but they are blocked by the complexity of working with different APIs, template languages, and data schemas.
Marketplaces can solve this problem by creating a unified notifications experience that focuses on three interconnected pillars: consistency, reach, and orchestration.
Pillar A. Brand consistency
All notifications should reflect the marketplace's visual identity and voice. This requires taking control of generic third-party communication so the marketplace can send brand consistent messages.
Pillar B. Cross-channel reach
Instead of defaulting to email notifications, a marketplace should deliver messages through the most effective channels. SMS and push notifications can be used for urgent communications, while in-app notifications can keep buyers engaged during a shopping experience.
Pillar C. Intelligent orchestration
An ecommerce study found that 57% of consumers actively avoid brands that flood them with marketing messages. Marketplaces should add an orchestration layer to cross-channel notifications that will enable them to respect user preferences and route messages in a way that avoids overwhelming recipients.
Cross-channel notification use cases for marketplaces
With these pillars as a guide, marketplaces can design timely notifications that increase engagement and reduce friction for buyers and sellers. Below are five common notification use cases every marketplace should consider implementing.
1. User onboarding
When new users register for a marketplace, security should be balanced against user experience. Email confirmations provide a basic level of authentication, but a marketplace can also request phone verification.
This is “Pillar B” in action, giving a marketplace a strong defense against fraud. The tradeoff however is that the multi-channel approach can cause registration friction and lower the activation rate of buyers and sellers.
To solve this, a marketplace can also use “Pillar C” and add a delay between notifications. Users can browse with just an email verification, then some time later the app can prompt users to verify their phone number before completing their first transaction. This reduces onboarding barriers while maintaining high security standards.
For example, real estate marketplace Indigo uses a two staged approach by starting with a phone registration, then later asking for email verification.
2. New product orders
When a product is ordered in a marketplace, order confirmations, payment receipts, and shipping updates scatter out from separate third-party services, creating a disjointed experience for both buyers and sellers.
Marketplaces should apply "Pillar A" by bringing these notifications into a unified system. Then buyers and sellers can receive consistent, branded messages.
Next, Pillars B and C should be used to route these consolidated notifications across multiple channels. Shipping updates can be sent via SMS, while order confirmations can be delivered through email and an in-app notification center.
For example, luggage storage marketplace, Bounce uses all three pillars:
"The most important notification is whenever someone makes a booking. So we want to make sure that the customer gets their confirmation. We send them an email, an SMS, an in app notification, and a push notification.
And also for the partner, he gets the same information but with different workflows. We just want to make sure that we're sending the notifications at the right time."
3. Buyer / seller communications
Buyer and seller communication in a marketplace needs to be fast, safe, and convenient for both parties. An in-app notification inbox can help here.
Instead of just email, an inbox within the app gives buyers and sellers a dedicated place to communicate and do business. It also prevents fraud due to spoofed emails, and doesn’t require the user to open a separate app, which can be a slow experience.
Gorgias provides customer service software to the seller side of marketplaces. The company found that customer service response times improved by 27% by giving vendors an inbox experience for customer communication, versus using email alone.
4. User preferences
Marketplaces should allow buyers and sellers to set communication preferences so they can receive notifications in the channels that work best for them, and for the events they care the most about.
Hiive, the marketplace for buying and selling shares of stock in private companies offers users an in-app preferences center. By allowing users to set preferences, Hiive avoids overwhelming buyers and sellers with notifications, which would cause them to disengage entirely from the app.
5. Inventory updates
Two-sided marketplaces do not control product inventory, which presents a problem. Products frequently move in and out of inventory across sellers, which leads to dissatisfied buyers when they land on an item that's out-of-stock.
Music marketplace Discogs solved this frustrating experience for buyers. They implemented inventory notification on all items, in or out-of-stock. This inventory alert enables fans to track the music they want to add to their collections and receive updates when items they want are listed for sale in Discogs' marketplace.
Knock can power cross-channel notifications for marketplaces
Marketplaces use Knock to power all of the pillars and corresponding use cases listed above.
Pillar A: Knock’s template management system enables marketplaces to create templates that are centrally managed but can be reused across multiple channels. Knock also supports authoring templates visually or with Liquid, so that marketplace notifications can include dynamic content. Together these features empower marketplace teams to create brand consistent notifications that are easy to manage.
Pillar B: Knock supports every channel a buyer or seller would want to be notified through, including email, SMS, mobile push, in-app, and more. Knock also provides in-app components so that a marketplace can create notification experiences within an app quickly.
Pillar C: Knock’s visual workflow builder supports branching, batching, and delaying notifications as well as fetching data through an HTTP request. Marketplaces can use these functions to send the right message, to the right buyer or seller, at the right time.
By adopting Knock’s managed notification infrastructure, marketplaces can increase user engagement, reduce spam, and prevent fraud, while increasing sales.
If you want to learn more about using Knock for marketplaces, we have the following articles for you:
- Marketplace notifications with Knock and Next.js
- How to grow a marketplace with in-app messaging
- How to use inventory notifications to grow a marketplace
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