Flippa is an auction and trading web platform where anyone can buy or sell a website, domain or application. It was launched in 2009 and is currently considered one of the most popular due to more than 1 million visitors per month. In this article, you will learn how to create a clone script of the Flippa marketplace - a site with a similar design and similar set of functions, thanks to which you can start your own business like Flippa.
Step 1: Flippa Website Business Model
The main idea of Flippa is to provide an open platform for selling online businesses: sites, applications and domains. A transaction can take place according to one of two options: assisted sale and broker management. In the first case, the seller receives an account manager as assistant manager, who can be contacted for assistance in creating a lot and concluding a transaction, and secondly, a dedicated broker who will look for a buyer.
Listing fees (top) and commissions (bottom) on the Flippa website
The platform mainly earns money through listing fees and commissions from successful transactions that the seller pays. For buyers, the platform is free. The fees range from $ 10 for domain names to $ 49 for existing e-commerce businesses. The size of the commission depends on the volume of sales - from 10 to 5%, or 15% when you
connect broker.
Reasons for the efficiency of the Flippa business model:
- Multiplying effect. The point is that an increase in the number of buyers leads to an increase in the number of sellers, which in turn stimulates an increase in the number of buyers. This creates a closed loop that leads to increased traffic on your site without your intervention.
- No geographical barriers. Buyers and sellers of sites, domains and applications can bid on Flippa from anywhere in the world, an Internet connection and registration are enough. This increases the number of sellers (put lots) and buyers (bids).
- No time frames. You can place bids and place bids at the auction 24/7. Time for bidding can be set from 1 hour to 30+ days. The number of lots is not limited.
Step 2: Flippa Marketplace Features
Advantages. If you compare Flippa with other marketplaces, then it
most closely resembles eBay. Both trading floors are available for both private and legal entities, and at the same time conduct tenders through auctions. But Flippa has its own positive aspects that distinguish it from classic marketplaces and direct competitors. The main differences are:
- Flippa is not a broker. Most of Flippa's direct competitors are brokerage companies that help with buying or selling an online business. Whereas Flippa is a multi-vendor platform that allows you to conclude transactions without intermediaries to accompany the transaction. You can connect a broker to the transaction, but this is not necessary.
- Hiding lot data. Flippa allows you to hide some data about the lot (site, application) in the listing so that users can’t see the keys, traffic sources, analytics and so on, and use this information to create their site with identical keys, channels and marketing.
- Flippa have well implemented tools for promoting individual lots with the help of recommendations in the listing, a description of the case on the blog, a banner on the main page of the market place and promotion on affiliate platforms.
Disadvantages. When creating a site like Flippa, in addition to analyzing the business model, you also need to study the expectations of the sellers, because if you read the reviews on the Flippa website on
trustpilot and
sitejabber, it will become obvious that not all of these expectations were realized by the project team. Here are some examples:
- Help for beginners. Yes, selling a business on a site is carried out through step-by-step instructions, but the problem is that those who are selling a site for the first time do not have an understanding of how to evaluate its value, how to protect themselves from scammers, or how to reach an end customer, not an intermediary.
- Data privacy. Flippa has data hiding tools that can only be accessed if you sign an NDA. But what prevents you from signing an agreement and then selling the data to a third party? Usually this problem is solved by means of the obligatory participation of a broker in a transaction or through a fee for access to information.
- Fraud protection. At Flippa, this is well implemented only when you connect to a dedicated broker transaction, if you just try to buy, for example, a site, then, in fact, your only protection is linking to a Google Analytics account. However, there is no guarantee that the statistics, metrics and analytics indicated in the lot are reliable or relevant. You can solve this problem using KYC and AML practices.
- No multi-language support. Marketplace supports only English, which limits the reach of the audience and does not allow trading sites from other language zones. This problem can be solved by adding 5-7 main world languages and relevant filters in the search.
Step 3: the main functions of the trading platforms
The next step in
creating a marketplace clone script like
Flippa involves analyzing its design, functionality, and user interfaces. User interest is how the visitor sees the site. In our case, we need to implement three options for such interfaces for three user roles:
- Administrator. You or your employees who will manage the marketplace. They should have tools to manage sub-administrators, users, list requests, categories of websites, domains and applications, reviews, disputes, monetization methods, payments and integration with social networks.
- Buyer. Users who will buy sites, domains and applications on your site. They need a convenient toolbar to search for offers of interest to them, place bets, conclude deals, etc. They should also be able to report false, incorrect or irrelevant data, if they are.
- Seller. Users who decide to sell a site, domain or application through your service. For them, it is necessary to implement the procedure for identification of the person, confirmation of ownership, putting up a lot, management of applications from sellers, etc.
Here's how the dashboard features will differ for these three roles: