The startup, which provides a SaaS solution adding an e-commerce layer to any existing website, has stretched its offer to not only products but also services marketplaces, allowing every actor, e-merchant or not, to launch their service marketplace with the help of a turnkey solution.
“Today, Uber is the most important car service company in the world, they have more than 1 million drivers available without even owning them. Same for Airbnb, which is today the first accommodation provider with more than 2 million rooms available in 34,000 cities. These companies would never have reached such a success without following the marketplace model,” explained Benoît Feron, Co-Founder of IZBERG. With actors such as Amazon, eBay or Cdiscount, marketplaces have been associated with products selling for a long time: “The tertiary sector is the least digitalized today, the reason is that you can’t store human labor, it’s not like storing products. Scaling and growth problematics are more important and tricky, the way we manage marketplace for services is really different, you need to take consideration of agendas, catchment areas, dynamic prices etc. Its fundamental today to adjust supply and demand on the same platform, just like Uber or Airbnb did.”
The concept of marketplaces is already very democratized in France, being a real advantage for businesses by permitting them to expand their product range and avoid the purchasing of goods, the logistics, and the problem of unsold items. Many specialized e-commerce retailers already work with IZBERG Marketplace, such as e-commerce website Pixmania, care-services leader Europ-Assistance, and even international charity Emmaüs.
Whether you want to launch a service marketplace or complement your product offer with services, IZBERG let their partners improve customers experience and rentability by gathering local merchants and service providers.
“We are experiencing an important traction with clients who want to mix product and service, and we believe that the opportunities to build this type of business are almost unlimited. For instance: La Belle & Le Barbu, one of our partner, is a wedding marketplace where you can buy everything you need for a wedding, from the outfits to the decor, and thanks to IZBERG’s Platform for Services, you can also book your photograph or catering.”
IZBERG’s solution answers every problematic related to the online services. Modules for geolocalisation, calendars, availabilities and even reviews are built-in the platform.
The next step for the French startup is to evangelize their concept of marketplaces in order to expand their client network around the world: “The integration and customization are mostly done by the web-designer or the agency who works for the final client. We focus on offering the best API and back-office technology to keep facilitating the deployment of marketplaces,” concluded Feron.