Overview of Online Tutoring 

Online tutoring is a process of teaching students/learners virtually through a webcam. The tutoring can vary from one-to-one to group sessions. Additionally, the teachers and students can connect with each other from geographically diverse locations. 

Why Do You Need to Start an Online Tutoring Business?

• Flexibility –  Having an online tutoring business gives you the flexibility to start your business from anywhere in the world. You do not have to tackle operational issues, such as renting classrooms, paying bills, providing facilities to teachers, and more. 

• Scaling Business Geography – Every business faces the urge to scale at some point. However, if you choose to create a tutoring website, rather than scaling, you go global from the beginning. By having your online tutoring business, you can work with both tutors and students from across the world, providing them all with the desired flexibility.

• Analytics and Reporting – As already mentioned above, by adopting an online tutoring platform, you can spare yourself the operational headache. You can also automate the payments and get in-depth insights into all your business processes through analytics. For example, you can learn how much time individuals spend on your platform, how many have subscribed, which course is popular, and so on.

• Branding – A well-designed online tutoring website can contribute to brand awareness in the market with brand colors, design patterns, tone of voice, and so on. This, in turn, will allow you to develop your brand even further. 

• Increase in Conversions – A smartly developed online tutoring platform is in demand in the industry. Creating a user-friendly website will increase user conversions and will allow you to earn more.

• Withstanding Covid-19 Impact – When the pandemic first started, social distancing was of the essence. Several businesses struggled to pay the rent as they had no customers. With an online tutoring website, you will be able to mitigate such issues.
  

The 5 Steps to Start an Online Tutoring Business

1. Identifying Your Online Tutoring Market Niche

The tutoring industry is growing exponentially in the wake of Covid-19. Therefore, before starting an online tutoring business, it is crucial to determine your market niche. But how do you do that? You need to identify tutoring segments where demand exceeds supply. Excess demand will aid in establishing your tutoring business online and will set you on the path to higher profit margins. That said, some of the on-demand online tutoring services are as follows:

• Young learners who cannot attend school 
• Learners with proven difficulty in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
• Learners who wish to improve their grades 
• Individuals with dyslexia 
• Individuals who need to prepare for exams, job interviews, and special tests 

By defining your niche, you will have a clear vision and understanding of the audience you are targeting. And, once established, you can also expand into adjacent markets.

2. Conducting Market Analysis and Competitor Research 

By analyzing the market, you can choose which part of it you want to focus on. For example, who will be interested in your tutoring business? You can start with the basic demographics like: 

• Age
• Gender 
• Income Level 

And, then examine other factors that define your target market. While you validate your idea through market research, it is pivotal to analyze the competitors and market leaders, their USPs, customer segments, and their motivation. A few of the top players in the online tutoring space are showcased in the graphic below:

3. Completing Legal Formalities to Run an Online Tutoring Marketplace

Before getting started with running an online tutoring business, it is crucial to complete the legalities associated with it. This includes: 

• Naming your online tutoring business; getting it registered. 
• Determining what legal structure your business should adopt. This is pivotal for tax and other implications. 
• Insuring your online tutoring business. 
• Opening a business account in the name of your online tutoring business. 

Note: The most common doubt most tutoring startups have is whether a license is needed or not. The answer is no, a license is not required to run an online tutoring business.

4. Creating the Marketplace

Purchase a domain name that represents your tutoring business and create a supporting marketplace. This will not only be a place to send prospects who want to learn about your tutoring business but will also serve as a portal for supplemental content that your students will need access to.

To ease the process of marketplace creation, you can either opt for a readymade online tutoring solution or choose to develop it from the scratch.

Custom Build Your Online Tutoring Platform

An online tutoring platform is said to be custom-built when it is tailored as per the requirements of the business or the entrepreneur. Such a platform is built from scratch and provides the flexibility of:

• Customization
• Scalability
• Added Security

However, the cost and time of development depend on the complexity of the functionality to be incorporated.

Choose a Readymade Solution to Launch Your Online Tutoring Platform

Choosing a pre-built software like Yo!Coach can aid in launching your online tutoring platform. You just need to buy, install and start using the platform. It is simple to use and offers 12 months of free technical support. A few other factors contributing to the success of online tutoring platforms built from it are:

• Yo!Coach is time and cost-efficient
• Scalable and Customizable
• Secure and GDPR compliant
• 100% White Label solution

5. Marketing Your Business

Building an online tutoring platform will not suffice as you will need students and teachers as well. To spread awareness, you will need to focus on marketing strategies too. Listed below are a few marketing tactics for your newly launched online tutoring business: 

• The platform should be SEO friendly
• Social media should be used for promotions 
• Educational marketing videos should be created 
• The platform should be mobile-friendly 
• Testimonials should be published on the website 
• Digital media advertising should be done. 

Note: You get a basic digital marketing services package free with Yo!Coach GoCustom.

Summary

Online tutoring will continue to remain on an upward trajectory worldwide. And, with the increasing competition, it is essential to choose the right solution to launch a feature-rich online tutoring platform. Hence, Yo!Coach is the solution that can be used to build an online tutoring platform as it comes with an array of features and functionalities.

The post 5 Steps to Start an Online Tutoring Business appeared first on Diggiecorp Blog.

In this blog, we will discuss 7 steps to do cross-border trading and conduct smooth global operations. But before that, we have discussed the benefits of going global.

Table of Contents

• Benefits of Going Global
  – Access to Niche Markets
  – Increase in Customer Retention
  – Increase in Brand Reputation
• Simple Steps to Expand your eCommerce Business Globally
  – Create a Business Plan
  – Develop a Cohesive Marketing Strategy
  – Localize your Online Store
  – Outsource your workforce
  – Select Shipping Partners
  – Provide Robust Payments Options
  – Collect Feedback
• Marketplace Solutions for Business Expansion
• Conclusion

Benefits of Going Global

1. Access to Niche Markets

Industries having multiple niches and microsegments can benefit from global operations by increasing their accessibility to foreign audiences. For example, an eCommerce business specializing in Peer-to-Peer furniture rental can expand its target market by providing the same furniture rental services in multiple countries.

2.  Increase in Customer Retention

Businesses with diverse audiences, including consumers from middle to upper class can reduce the customer churn rate by launching multinational branches. This will happen in use cases where the loyal customers of an eCommerce business move abroad and become immigrants. Similar is the case with customers living abroad on work or study visas. Thus, along with getting access to foregin customers, global operations can also assist eCommerce brands in retaining their existing customers widely.

3. Increase in Brand Reputation

Expanding business across the borders will boost the brand reputation of eCommerce businesses. After expansion, they will be considered under the global players list, which can have a positive effect on the consumer mindset. Moreover, global operations also improve a company’s brand status in their native land, making them highly potential assets for funding.

Simple Steps to Expand your eCommerce Business Globally

Step #1: Create a Business Plan

Each market is unique, and it has a well-established ground set of rules to enter the market and establish a retail business. To satisfy that, eCommerce businesses require strategic planning.

Start with what you know and move ahead from there:

• Define short, medium, and long-term goals 
• Define the business model
• Map out your supply chain
• Create projects and allocate funds
• Conduct appropriate market research for deployment

Step #2: Develop a Cohesive Marketing Strategy

Decide the name of your global venture, i.e., whether you will be promoting your business under the same brand name or adding an extension. Similarly, register trademarks for your business and maintain consistency across all marketing channels. Secondly, you will need to define all marketing channels and touchpoints for effective campaigning. As your business will be new in a well-established market, it is best to explain your Unique Selling Points (USPs) very clearly through your marketing channels. 

Step #3: Localize your Online Store

Global business expansion will also require business owners to localize their online stores with the targeted region. This includes using a different festive calendar for introducing discount promos and other marketing campaigns. eCommerce businesses will also need to hire local customer support who can speak in the native language of customers and understand their various concerns. 

Also, the localization will be required for each targeted region. For this reason, it is wise to opt for multilingual and multi-currency eCommerce marketplace platforms that are scalable for conducting multinational operations. 

Another efficient way to localize is to hire polyglot customer support and sales personnel who can converse in multiple languages and resolve customer queries. 

Step #4: Outsource your workforce

Entrepreneurs can outsource various tasks such as content marketing, social media marketing, customer support, logistics, human resources and also hire a virtual assistant. Outsourced professionals will be well-versed in the native language of the target audience and aware about their culture. Thus, they would be able to do a better job than your in-house team.

Another benefit of outsourcing some work is the lower cost of services when compared to monthly salaries, plus additional savings on hardware resources and utility bills. Moreover, outsourcing a professional team is time saving. While business owners just need to find suitable outsourcing services to get started, hiring each talent manually will consume too much time and resources. 

Step #5: Select Shipping Partners

Shipping is a challenging aspect of conducting eCommerce businesses. It is also the last stage of many satisfying eCommerce operations. However, shipping rates and shipping speed are equally useful to begin the operation. To elaborate, it has been proven on several accounts that customers consider shipping price an important deciding factor. eCommerce stores with cheap or free shipping policies receive a competitive edge and attract more customers. 

The challenge that new entrants in the global eCommerce industry face is finding reliable shipping partners with reasonable shipping costs. Furthermore, to do some savings, eCommerce businesses are recommended to inform the customer about the payment of customs and other taxes (if any) during the checkout process. This will also prevent consumer disputes at a later stage. 

Some shipping options for global eCommerce businesses are: 

• Shipping directly from the headquarter country, which will be inclusive of international carrier charges and other trade regulations.
• Establishing warehouses in the target country and finding local inventory resources to cut down costs on international deliveries.
• Partnership with local shipment services to handle all shipments remotely. 
• Businesses based in the UK can sell on OnBuy for easy international shipping.  

Make sure to choose a sustainable shipping plan which provides ROI in the long run. Estimate yearly shipping and handling costs before jumping into the business to ensure steady profits.

Step #6: Provide Robust Payments Options

Consumers across the globe prefer to make payment through their trusted gateway platforms. For this reason, it is important to provide reliable payment gateways on your online store. Also note that every gateway services provider can charge you or your customers a small percentage of the transaction as service charge or transaction fees. Fof best value, look for the options that levy minimum service charges. 

Also, global and cross-border eCommerce transactions require your payment gateway to support multiple currencies. A multilingual setup will also streamline the payment experience for your customers. If entering into western markets, you can accept crypto currencies to attract high-income customers to your business. 

An important integration for global eCommerce stores is exchange rate converter that will eliminate the task of manually specifying pricing in various currencies and improve operational excellence. 

Step #7: Collect Feedback 

Consumer feedback is important for business growth. It helps entrepreneurs identify the shortcomings of their business and improve the value proposition. Consumer feedback can be collected from your first customers and used to improve international stores.

The different approaches to collecting consumer feedback are:

• Cold calling
• Emails
• Reviews and ratings page
• Feedback surveys

Marketplace Solutions for Business Expansion

Global expansion looks challenging on the first sight but is efficiently achievable with strategic planning. Following the aforementioned list, interested entrepreneurs can not only expand their business globally but also carry out smooth global operations. If warehousing and inventory seems to be the primary challenge, then our top recommendation for such entrepreneurs would be to expand to a marketplace business.

An online marketplace follows the asset light business model in which multiple vendors sign up on the platform and sell their products. This way, the business owner is only responsible for connecting the vendor with the customer whereas the vendor manages the inventory. The marketplace owner earns money through several revenue streams such as commission, featured listing, display advertising, subscription packages and more. 

Below is the list of renowned eCommerce software to help you expand your business globally:

Yo!Kart: Yo!Kart is a multi-vendor eCommerce platform with advanced capabilities to streamline eCommerce operations. It is also fully customizable and supports unlimited product listings and user profiles so that you can grow your business without worrying about the scalability of your software technology. Along with this, Yo!Kart also comes with one-year of free technical support. 

CedCommerce: CedCommerce is a Magento powered marketplace solution that supports both B2B and B2C operations. Like Yo!Kart, it also comes with unlimited listings and user-profiles. As the solution is developed on Magento, it comes with an open-source code, which is easy to edit for customization and feature expansion.

Arcadier: Arcadier is another feature-rich marketplace solution that simplifies eCommerce  operations for various kinds of businesses. It is a fully-hosted solution that  comes with monthly recurring prices. Although it has all essential features required to start an asset-light business, it comes with a limited number of transactions. 

Contact the respective sales teams of these solutions to understand how they can help you grow and promote your business overseas. Interested entrepreneurs can also book a personal one-on-one demo for Yo!Kart and CedCommerce. 

Conclusion 

All entrepreneurs with or without a local offline store can launch a global eCommerce store that can help them acquire more customers and gain an international presence. A global brand image will also give them a competitive advantage and open up various opportunities for partnerships, funding and conducting business. Lastly, the choice of the eCommerce solution would be crucial in streamlining the global business operations. For that reason, we advise you to do a careful selection of the solution.

The post Launching a Global Store: 7 Simple Steps to Sell Across Borders & Expand Your Business appeared first on Diggiecorp Blog.

In the co-evolving dynamic ecosystem where the emphasis is on nimbleness and speed, ventures are investing in minimum viable products by immediately eliciting feedback from first-time users. After an initial launch, the MVP is revised and the improvement cycle starts all over again – testing, redesigning offerings, and making adjustments in small (iterations) or substantive ones (pivots) to validate the idea.

But new ideas are often few and far between. This means that the hypotheses that are summarized in a framework (business model canvas) are usually based on details or nuance, for example, a new feature or functionality. So, it becomes essential for startups to be perceived as truly distinctive, for which they can evaluate and refine their offerings iteratively by harnessing the information gleaned from first-time users.

As compared to full product development, building an MVP is a better approach for startups as its time to market is less. The huge amount of money that’s otherwise unreasonably spent on non-essential things is also curbed. With MVP software development, businesses can scale at their own pace.

With that in mind, in this blog, we have covered the MVP examples of businesses, who instead of developing a product in a regular insular fashion, launched lightweight and readily adaptable versions and went on to become the successful giants they are today. However, before you dive deep, let us take a look at what an MVP is, why you should build an MVP, types of MVPs, key characteristics, mistakes to avoid and much more.

What is an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)?

An MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is the basic version of a final product. It enables the core features required to complete transactions and evaluate user flow on the platform. An MVP is introduced to early adopters who evaluate the workflow, process and complete transactions. Further, users provide feedback that can be implemented in the final product to ensure a seamless user experience. 

A minimum Viable product provides a quick start, avoiding unnecessary efforts and implementations. Additionally, it helps businesses minimize development timeline, investments and steps. 

Launching an MVP is the best way to validate an idea with a lower initial investment. It helps mitigate risks by allowing entrepreneurs and business owners to analyze and comprehend the need and acceptance of a product or a business idea without the need for significant investment.

Why Build an MVP? 

MVP helps you better time the market, draw up initial demand, take cues for future development of the product from initial users and get to market faster. It can also help reduce overall product development costs and attract investors who want to see a viable product instead of just an idea.

Types of MVPs

Before moving on to examples, there are also various types of MVPs that you should have a look at. While one type of MVP may be useful for a company, it can be of no help to the other. Thus, after understanding the business model and defining your requirements, you can decide what type of MVP will be the most suitable for your business:

Concierge MVP

In a concierge MVP, the users are manually helped to accomplish their goals as a means of validating whether or not they have the need for what you are offering, and building a product is not even necessary. In other words, the users are manually guided through the solution to a problem.

Wzard of Oz MVP

This type of MVP is one of the most effective and fastest ways of testing hypotheses as to whether the proposed solution will create value for customers or not. In other words, the Wizard of Oz MVP creates an illusion of a functional product and can be used for several MVP ideas.

Landing Page MVP

A landing page MVP lets you test the product idea and can help you in deciding whether to build an initial version of the minimum viable product or a different version than the intended version is to be created. It lets interested users join a mailing list or simply lets them click to buy now.

Email MVP

Creation of an email takes less effort than it takes to build a product or even a feature. If you have existing customers, then you can begin by creating and sending emails manually to check if the response to the email is favorable. If you observe that users are reading the mail but are not clicking on call-to-action buttons then it can be concluded that the offered value proposition is not attractive.

Piecemeal MVP

An MVP is a very basic and simple version of the end product, with no finalized features or form. Due to this, it makes sense to develop an MVP using the tools and materials that you already have. Such a kind of MVP is known as a piecemeal MVP. Here, an MVP is prepared using all existing resources instead of developing everything from scratch.

Single-feature MVP

Going to a micro-level, a single-feature MVP is used to test and validate the demand for independent features in a product. It is useful at stages where entrepreneurs want to introduce some new features or test the reliability of third-party integrations.

Key Characteristics of a Successful MVP

The idea behind launching an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is market validation. Businesses focus on collecting feedback from real customers. They ensure whether the solution is able to solve the core problems of the users, or implementations are needed. To learn more about MVP and its importance, you can explore the key characteristics below. 

• Incorporates Core Features: An MVP supports all the necessary features required to complete transactions for all its user types. It’s designed to ensure seamless transitions and enhance overall user experience with the minimum required features. 
• Solution-focused Approach: The ultimate goal of an MVP is to provide a solution to the users they are exactly looking for by addressing their pain points. It’s introduced with a motive to catering the needs of a specific targeted audience. 
• Adaptable and Scalable: An MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is always designed with a goal to further transform it into a final solution (Full-fledged product). Adaptability and scalability are the key characteristics essentially needed for improvements and implementations. 
• Cost Efficiency: MVP prioritizes core features rather than developing out-of-the-box features required when building a full-fledged platform. This is how it eliminates unnecessary expenses and helps businesses reduce costs, making MVP a cost-effective approach.
• Time-to-Market: An MVP can help you tap into the market quickly. It manages the development cycle and reduces the timeline to speed up the launch, allowing businesses to gain a competitive advantage by tapping into the market first. 

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Building an MVP

Many startups fail. Not because they had a bad idea, but they actually failed to spot and avoid mistakes. Here we will be discussing some common mistakes to avoid when building an MVP. 

Building MVP without Proper Market Research

A thorough market research and analysis is highly recommended when starting a business or launching an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). This will give you an idea about the market demands, target audience, users’ pain points, competitors, budget requirements and much more. A proper market research further helps in making informed and smarter decisions.  

Prioritizing the Idea, Not What Actually Matters

Always remember! Users look for solutions that can solve their real problems, not for a platform that is feature-rich and the idea sounds good. This is where many businesses fail, because the owners follow a great idea, not the real challenge. 

However, in reality, even a great idea, according to the business owner, means nothing to customers if the idea doesn’t solve the actual problem. Therefore, always find an idea that actually solves the problem users are frustrated with or provides the solution they are looking for.  

Adding Too Many Features in the Early Stages

Don’t try to develop and offer everything via the platform until you validate your idea. Many entrepreneurs fail to understand the actual meaning of an MVP. They focus on attracting and impressing early adopters by offering everything from the beginning. 

However, they forget that MVPs are built to test ideas, not to deliver an out-of-the-box experience in the early stages. Simply, build and launch your platform with some core features that are essentially required to complete the transaction and evaluate how it works to further iterate and grow.

Ignoring Users Feedback

Users’ feedback is paramount, ever and always. It helps businesses find the actual challenges that users face and solve them. Many businesses assume their platform is perfectly aligned with users’ expectations if users enroll in large numbers. They start ignoring customers’ feedback. 

However, all of a sudden, they see a drop in the number of users without any significant reason. But the reality is, if they don’t know the reasons why their users are migrating from your platform or rejecting their idea. It clearly means businesses have ignored user feedback and failed to innovate what actually matters to build a sustainable and successful business.

Not Defining Success Metrics for MVP

If your MVP’s goals are not well-defined, you can’t track the success. Therefore, you need to define success metrics, the parameters that can help you measure and decide whether your MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is successful or a failure. These metrics can be the number of users visited, sign-ups, engagement time, sales, referrals, feedback, conversion rate, growth rate and many more. However, the success metrics are defined as per the specific business model, type of transactions, users, and others.

20 Successful Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Examples

Want to explore the top 20 successful businesses started as an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)? The stories of MVPs below are great inspirations for entrepreneurs, startups and existing business owners who are either planning to establish a new platform or want to expand the existing one.

• Amazon
• Turo
• Dropbox
• Foursquare
• AdWords Express
• Groupon
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Zappos
• Airbnb
• Food on the Table
• Uber
• Etsy
• Pebble MVP
• Uber Eats
• Fiverr
• Cambly
• DoorDash
• Rent the Runway
• LinkedIn

1. Amazon

The well-known, custom-multipage shopping destination for individuals is one of the most successful examples of a minimum viable product that made it big. Though very few people might know that Amazon once started as an online bookstore in the early 1990s. At that time people did not trust the internet and having an online store of ‘everything’ was just not possible. But, Bezos (the founder) had a vision of building a massive empire. He read a report stating the annual growth of web commerce in the immediate future would be 2,300 percent upwards. So, he started by creating a minimum viable product.

The first phase of development included streamlining top 20 products that could be effectively marketed on the internet which were further narrowed down to 5. But, Bezos eventually landed on books as the most marketable product online. The decisive factors included – price, several titles that could be sold, and high demand for books all over the world. So he started by buying books from the distributors and selling them at a lower price angle through a simple website. While most entrepreneurs would have invested in a fully functioning store. Bezos operated frugally and tested his idea through a simple website (MVP).

With the surge in the order of books online, more books were listed. The MVP was great and continual innovations over the next two decades were done to expand the product offerings. A comprehensive list of features was added to the website and a warehouse was also acquired. Currently, Amazon is the retail leviathan and has surpassed many eCommerce giants for the title of world’s largest retailer (outside China).

Explore the post  to know how to build a website similar to Amazon

2. Turo

Turo, the world’s most popular P2P car rental platform was launched by Shelby Clark, Tara Reeves, and Nabeel Al-Kady in 2009. The idea of launching the business came into Clark’s mind when he was biking through icy streets to rent a car about two miles away. On the way, he saw many unused parked cars that made him think why don’t people rent those cars? After some research, Clark found that insurance was the primary problem.

It took the trio 18 months to resolve the problem and they finally launched their business under the name of RelayRides. However, the business soon faced a challenge from cab booking services like Uber and Lyft, as they soon capitalized on the daily rental model after the launch of RelayRides. In an attempt to increase their business, RelayRides expanded operations to San Francisco and received a major boost.

Later on, as the company grew, it acquired many small car rental companies and even rebranded itself to Turo in 2015. Today, Turo has a full-fledged P2P car rental marketplace with a community of over 10 million users. Turo’s fleet size includes over 350,000 vehicles in diverse categories including luxury, sports, and even pick-up trucks. The estimated annual revenue of Turo in 2024 is around $900 million.

However, it is also worth noting that there’s no other P2P giant in the car rental industry, meaning there remains scope to enter the industry with your own P2P car rental marketplace like Turo and replicate its success.

3. Dropbox

Founded in 2007 by MIT students Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, Dropbox is a fantastic file-hosting service that currently provides customers with extensive cloud features like personal cloud, client software, cloud storage, and file synchronization. When the founders came up with the idea for a cloud-based file syncing service, they realized that building an actual hardware infrastructure would be incredibly time-consuming and expensive. So they followed a scaled-back approach to test the idea and made a simple video (as the MVP) that told prospective investors what the product would provide to customers once it was created and launched.

Despite being simple, the video was highly successful and encouraged over 70,000 signups from people curious to learn more. The feedback provided was also pivotal to building and developing Dropbox to what it is today. They also reverse-engineered Apple’s finder system to introduce their own icon onto the top dock. Intrigued, Steve Jobs also offered to acquire the company. Despite multiple opportunities to sell the company in early stages, Dropbox has displayed a stunning ascent with its founders solving the messiest dilemma: “How do you get all your files, from all your devices, into one place?” Currently, the site offers 100GB of storage for a base subscription of $10 per month and its 50-million user figure is also up by threefold.

4. Foursquare

Started as a single featured MVP in 2009, Foursquare is a location-based social network. Earlier in the day, it allowed users to check-in from different locations, share with their friends and family, and in return, they won badges. There was no special functionality or sophisticated design, only that gamification made people excited about using the service. This made the product increasingly popular and as you know, now Foursquare is a comprehensive city guide that is used worldwide to look for hotels, restaurants, places for entertainment, and more.

5. AdWords Express

Adwords express is used to generate relevant ad copy for customers. From the start, its process appeared to be automated. But, on the back-end, a group of students would quickly type ads and deliver them to the customers. When it became obvious that people wanted this service, the process was fully automated and AdWords Express was further developed. 

6. Groupon

Founded in 2008, Groupon was a piecemeal MVP that promoted services offered by local businesses and offered deals that lasted for a limited time through a simple WordPress website. The concept was simple; if visitors wanted to avail themselves of a few coupons, they would subscribe and the team of Gropoun would mail coupons in PDF format. Quickly Groupon amassed an email list of customers who engaged with the site and got the data that was needed to create a full Groupon website that exists today – A hugely successful platform that operates globally.

7. Instagram

The MVP of Instagram allowed users to just share photos and apply filters, initially allowing Kevin Systrom, the founder to see if the market approved of the product. The application was liked by users and since then, all the incredible features we see today – messaging, business profiles, stories, live telecast, tagging, hashtags, and much more have been a part of Instagram’s amazing success story. Globally, there are 1.074 billion Instagram users now.

8. Facebook

The popular social networking site Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. The basic MVP idea was to connect students of Harvard. Using the platform, users were able to post messages on board and the idea proved popular enough to expand the platform with more complex features. Mark ultimately evolved Facebook into what we know today.

9. Zappos

Zappos, a popular online retailer that started in 1999 as a simple MVP to determine if an online store of shoes would be popular, i.e. if anyone would purchase shoes without trying it on first. Nick Swinburn, the founder, created a simple website under the domain of shoesite.com and identified the market viability of the product. Needless to say, the MVP was successful and in 2009, Amazon acquired Zappos for a staggering $1.2 Billion. Since then, the platform has been growing incredibly, bringing more than $1 Billion of sales each year. Today, they sell shoes as well as clothing, accessories, and more.

10. Airbnb

Airbnb started as a simple site in 2007 when Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were struggling to pay the rent of their accommodation in San Francisco. As a solution, they thought of renting the top floor of their apartment to the visitors. As an MVP, an ad about renting an air bed on a basic web page was placed. It consisted of their housing pictures and soon they had three guests. The idea was proven and the platform was redesigned. Today, Airbnb not only offers accommodation but also provides its users with a list of restaurants, events in the cities of their destination along with feedback and ratings. What was once a startup is now valued at 30 billion dollars with 4 million listings.

11. Food on the Table

Is a perfect example of a concierge MVP. It sends users recipes and deals from various stores so that they can save money while considering their choice. The founder team initially had only one customer to serve and he got a concierge treatment. Instead of interacting with a digital app, the company’s CEO, Manuel Rosso, would personally visit the client weekly. So on, for early customers, the founder together with the VP would review what would be on sale in stores and based on the client’s preferences select the recipes. The products would be delivered to the homes of the users weekly, soliciting feedback. The process was automated once the model became viable. 

12. Uber

The story behind Uber as an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is something that validates that the right solution to the real problem can help you establish a business. Founders Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick identified a clear problem when they struggled to find a cab in Paris during a snowstorm. In order to solve the problem, they decided to make ride booking easier and ensure availability by 4/7. 

That’s how the idea of building a platform where rides can be booked with a few taps was envisioned in 2008. One more highlight to the idea of trackable ride-hailing services is that Camp was also inspired by a Movie scene where James Bond was tracking a car on his mobile phone. 

However, a prototype was built in early 2009 and officially founded as UberCab before its official San Francisco launch in 2010. In 2012, UberX was introduced, making the ride-hailing app available worldwide. Today, Uber operates in 70 countries with approximately 189 million users, according to Statista.

Suggested Read: How to build an app like Uber

13. Etsy

Etsy is another popular example of a successful MVP. It was initially started with minimum features, focusing on connecting buyers and sellers who want to sell or buy handmade goods. It was a niche-focused C2C marketplace. However, with a strong market demand, the MVP soon became the leader in the eCommerce world for selling unique and handmade items. A significant number of craftsmen, artists, and creators enrolled and started selling products. 

The marketplace idea was simple to build a specialized platform for crafters. Etsy was founded in 2005 with a belief that people want to buy from people by Rob Kalin, along with partners Chris Maguire and Haim Schoppik. 

However, behind-the-scenes, the story was that Rob Kalin, the founder himself, was an artist and woodworker by profession. Once, he wanted to sell his handcrafted wooden-cased computers, but found no platform; that’s how the idea for Etsy was born.

Read: A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Build a Marketplace like etsy

14. Pebble MVP

A great business idea never lacks funding. The success of Pebble proves that a great idea will never fail to secure capital. In the smartwatch world, Pebble was a well-recognized name. However, the journey started with crowdfunding. The founder, Eric Migicovsky, envisioned e-paper watches that could deliver long battery life, customizable faces and more, connecting with smartphones. However, the idea lacked funding. 

Therefore, Eric Migicovsky launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in 2012, intending to raise $100K. The campaign went viral and became one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns of the time. It exceeded the $100K goals in hours and raised over $10 million, far from expectations. 

Pebble launched its first smartwatch early in 2013 and continued to launch more products. However, the success turned into failure very soon after Apple launched its Apple Watch. Not because of the competition, but Pebble failed to innovate. Instead of adopting changing technology and innovation, they were only focused on production and market capitalization. 

On the one hand, competitor Apple was enabling users to make calls, send messages and access the internet via cellular connectivity, making the smartwatch a standalone device. On the other hand, Pebble’s dependence on smartphones and Bluetooth technology made Apple watches a preferred choice due to their versatility and convenience.

15. Uber Eats

UberEats was also an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). It was launched to test the food delivery market using Uber’s existing technology. Initially, it was a simple platform with some necessary features and functionality. 

The founders of Uber, Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick, wanted to explore more than just offering ride-hailing service. Hence, they decided to experiment with their idea. They began the journey by launching UberFRESH in 2014, restricting services to the city of California called Santa Monica. This food delivery platform was offering a curated list of lunch menus from a small selection of restaurants in Santa Monica. 

Later, based on increasing demand, the platform evolved and transformed into a multi-restaurant marketplace called Uber Eats, an independent on-demand food delivery platform. Today, Uber Eats is available in more than 700 cities worldwide. 

16. Fiverr

Fiverr, one of the leading freelance marketplace platforms in the gig economy. However, the platform was started as an MVP in 2010. Inspired by the need for micro-tasks, Fiverr was designed to enable the buying and selling of digital services similar to buying products on Amazon. 

Founder Micha Kaufman and Shai Wininger started the platform with an idea to eliminate the need for negotiations and bidding by offering or booking services for $5 exactly. The platform enables users to simply browse the catalog with defined and fixed price services. However, as the platform evolved, service offerings moved to tiered pricing packages. 

From a specific tenet, Fiverr started offering a range of digital services catering to diversified needs at different pricing tiers. Today, the platform connects millions of highly skilled professional freelancers with businesses seeking software development, digital, marketing, design, video and animation, and any other tasks related to the tech world.

17. Cambly

When it comes to exploring an online platform that offers on-demand services, Cambly is among those popular names that you can’t miss. It’s also a perfect example of an MVP designed to validate the online tutoring marketplace idea. 

Founded by Kevin Law and Sameer Shariff, two former engineers from Google. However, the idea behind the platform was to connect learners seeking one-on-one online tutoring via video chat with specialized tutors. 

Cambly is an online English learning platform that connects learners worldwide with native English-speaking tutors. The first version of Cambly was an iPad app. It was introduced with a single button that enables students to directly connect with a native English tutor. 

In the beginning, Co-founder Kevin Law himself acted as the tutor. Whenever a learner used to push the button, Kewin got notified to join the session. The goal was to fulfill the demand for face-to-face language practice instantly. 

18. DoorDash

The idea behind DoorDash was initiated by four Stanford students, Tony Xu, Andy Fang, Stanley Tang, and Evan Moore. They built a simple website, PaloAltoDelivery.com. To learn operational workflow and validate the idea, they took orders featuring PDF menus from local restaurants, a contact number on the website and further manual order fulfillment (delivered orders personally). 

This is how founders validated their idea without significant upfront investments. They learned about the workflows, understood customers’ needs, recognized the need for logistics and more via a simple low-code version of their online food ordering and delivering platform. 

The idea was simple to help local restaurants that were struggling with local delivery and lacking services. 

However, after initial success, they received funding, developed a proper system and introduced DoorDash in June 2013. Today, with a market share of approximately 56%, DoorDash is the largest food ordering and delivery marketplace in the US. 

19. Rent the Runway

Rent the Runway was co-founded by Jennifer Hyman and Jenny Fleiss in 2009. They were students at Harvard Business School and often used to discuss entrepreneurial ideas. However, the idea behind Rent the Runway sparked from an incident that Hyman experienced. Once she realized that her younger sister Becky had overspent $2,000 on a designer dress for a wedding, leaving Becky in credit card debt. 

Jennifer Hyman thought that just to wear once, her sister spent a significant amount on a designer dress that she will wear rarely, probably never. Why can’t she rent? That’s how the idea came to light. Jennifer discussed the idea with her friend Jenny and plans to offer rental dresses, a smart alternative to buying dresses.  

However, before they introduced their online platform, the founder validated the idea in multiple steps. Firstly, they held pop-up events where they allowed female students to try on dresses. They tried renting without trying. Finally, they propose that customers can rent online via an eCommerce platform. The idea succeeded and today Rent the Runway is a high-end fashion rental marketplace that offers rental dresses for everyday wear, special occasions, maternity needs and more.

20. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one of the most popular social media platforms, widely known for job search, recruitment, networking and the latest industry and business updates. However, what LinkedIn is today was not exactly the same when it was founded. The idea was kicked off in 2002. The brain behind LinkedIn was Reid Hoffman, an executive at PayPal at the time. 

Hoffman decided to build a platform especially for professionals and business communities. He wanted to connect them via a social platform. Therefore, to bring his vision to life, he recruited LinkedIn co-founders Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly, Jean-Luc Vaillant, and Allen Blue. 

A year after the idea was envisaged, on 5th May 2003, LinkedIn was officially launched. The platform was initially introduced as an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) featuring a free basic account creation functionality along with premium plans to access expanded services. 

However, the idea attracted professionals at a good pace and LinkedIn captured over 4500 users within a month. In 2004, its membership surpassed 1 million. Since then, the platform started allowing job listings. Today, the platform has over 1.1 billion users worldwide. 

Lessons Learned from These Successful MVP Examples

In the section above, you have explored all the top successful MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) that either once dominated or are dominating the eCommerce landscape. Let’s take a look at the lessons we have learned or approaches one should be following from these popular MVP examples.  

Start Small

Many entrepreneurs and businesses made mistakes when bringing their ideas to life. They often try to be full-fledged. However, validating a business idea doesn’t require a full-blown feature-rich platform. You can test your idea by offering some core features. 

The concept of an MVP is all about understanding the workflow, improvement areas, target audience, and market acceptance. You can see how the successful businesses above in the examples started their journey with minimum initial investments via their MVPs. 

Focus on Users’ Pain Point

The formula of a successful business is to solve the problem. No matter whether you are operating offline or online. It’s all about finding the pain point and providing resolutions. MVPs above are those who found users’ pain points and offered the right solution at the right time. 

Don’t Overbuild Early Versions

Go simple, don’t overdo or overbuild. Many entrepreneurs failed to understand the concept of MVP and went full-fledged, which may lead to project failure and a major loss. Undoubtedly, building a feature-rich final version of your platform requires a significant investment of time and budget. 

By any chance, if your idea fails to meet demand or find the customers’ pain point, the situation can be challenging. Therefore, it’s always practical and the best approach to proceed with the early version of your product. 

Iterate Based on Real Feedback

Continuous incremental changes based on the users’ feedback help businesses build a platform that perfectly aligns with specific demands and requirements. It enables businesses to transform their MVP into a market-ready final product. The above successful MVPs also evolved over time based on the real users’ feedback and market demand, one of the reasons to achieve success.

Selecting the Best MVP Development Company – Points to Consider

Now that we have learnt about the various types of MVPs and have also looked upon a few examples of successful MVPs, let us discuss the points to consider when choosing an MVP development company as it can make all the difference in turning your idea into a reality. Further, the right MVP development company can help create an MVP that is compatible with all of your requirements swiftly and effectively. The three pivotal factors to consider include:

Check the Portfolio and Experience

A company’s portfolio depicts its work in action. It allows you to check if the company has done something similar in your domain and also helps in gauging the level of experience and quality of the work. You can also check the reviews.

Assess the Technical Expertise

The technical expertise of the development team of the company will play a vital role in the success of the MVP. Hence, you need to check if the company keeps up with the latest technological advancements, adheres to the best documentation practices and meets the coding standards.

Evaluate Communication and Collaboration Skills 

Good communication skills are key to an effective working relationship. Be aware of how the team communicates, whether they are responsive or not. Any challenge in communication can lead to complexities in the development of the MVP. Hence, it is wise to partner with a company that maintains transparency in its work and communication.

Price

Pricing can be a major deciding factor for startups. Make sure to ask the company representatives for clear pricing. It should neither be too low nor too high as compared to what other companies are offering.     

Why Consider Diggiecorp?

Diggiecorp embarked on its journey in 2004 and has spearheaded several MVP development projects for businesses of all sizes enabling them to achieve the desired success. With 17+ years of experience, the company has gained valuable experience that is needed by a business to gain traction to achieve its goals and can help in finding errors for faster wins through its services for MVP development. 

Working with Diggiecorp means partnering with a team of multidisciplinary experts who go above and beyond to meet the needs of the business. Moreover, the company provides proactive technical support for a seamless user experience. To see the portfolio of Diggiecorp, visit. 

Conclusion

In an ever-changing market, the fallacy of having a perfect business model has been replaced by MVP software development. It significantly de-risks the investment of building a fully baked product and lets startups focus on quick adaptation to market via product validation. Also, as mentioned above, most successful MVPs don’t stay startups for long. So, if you are an entrepreneur who is on the frontier of innovation and is looking for MVP software development services, contact Diggiecorp.

FAQs

Q 1. How does an MVP help in validating a business idea?

There is no one-size fits all solution but MVP development helps in validating a business plan as it follows the approach – “Build-Measure-Learn.” Rather than assuming, you build MVP, gather feedback and measure how the target audience is responding. The loop continues till the product is able to meet the market demands.

Q 2. What are some common mistakes to avoid when developing an MVP?

A few common mistakes to avoid when developing an MVP include:

• Feature Overload
• Inadequate product strategy 
• Oversized development team 
• Too much feedback

Q 3. Is it hard to build an MVP?

No, building an MVP is not so hard that you can’t manage. Launching an MVP is a reliable approach to validating your business idea. However, to ensure a seamless MVP development journey, you need to decide on the right solution. You can build an MVP either from scratch or by choosing a readymade solution. Both approaches work differently. 

On the one hand, custom development offers more flexibility but requires high investment and timeline. On the other hand, a readymade solution might be a bit less flexible but is cost-efficient and minimizes timeline. Businesses can choose the approach that best fits their specific requirements. 

Connect with the experts to learn more.

Q 4. What is a marketplace MVP?

Marketplace MVP is the basic version of your eCommerce platform that contains core features. It enables entrepreneurs and business owners to validate their marketplace idea, mitigating risks. A marketplace MVP minimizes costs, time and resources required in full-fledged platform development. Moreover, it provides valuable insights enabling businesses to evaluate and make an informed decision.

Q 5. How much does it cost to build a marketplace MVP?

The cost to build a marketplace MVP can vary depending on the specific feature required, the platform’s complexity, and the approach you choose. However, if you choose custom development that cost can be anywhere between $10000 to $100000 or more. On the other hand, if you choose no-code readymade marketplace software like Yo!Kart, the cost can be reduced significantly, allowing you to build your MVP starting at $499. 

Q 6. Why do businesses launch an MVP?

Businesses launch an MVP to validate their business idea before going full-fledged. It’s a cost-effective and time-saving approach. An MVP enables businesses to further iterate and transform it into a final version of their platform without any significant challenge.

The post Top 20 Successful MVP (Minimum Viable Product) Examples appeared first on Diggiecorp Blog.

In this blog, you will learn what a white-label reseller program means and what are the various benefits of joining it. In the end, we will also help you select the correct program for your business needs.

Table of Contents

• What is a White-label Reseller Program?
• Types of White-label Reseller Program
• Benefits of Joining a White-label Reseller Program
  – Service or Product Offerings Expansion
  – Increases Brand Value
  – Faster Delivery of Projects
  – Requires Less Programming Expertise
  – Reduces Human Resource Expenses
  – Crisis Management
  – Streamline Internal Process
  – Access to Better Talent
• How to Select a White Label Program?
  – Price Control
  – Range of Product/Service Offerings
  – Documentation
  – Technological Support
  – Delivery Time
  – Demo
  – Reviews
• Conclusion

What is a White-label Reseller Program?

Under a white-label reseller program, the white-label partner sells the products and services of the software provider under any brand name. To be more precise, a white-label software does not have any logo or branding of the original developer and thus, the white-label partner can sell the software to clients under its own brand name or the client’s brand name. The same goes for white-label services in which the customer receives an invoice under the white-label partner’s brand name.

Any software development company can join a white-label program for a specific period of time and become the white-label partner. However, as the white-label, the company must comply with terms and conditions of the actual development firm.

Below are some common reasons why software development companies and business enthusiasts prefer to join a white label program.

• For outsourcing software development projects
• For launching a new service or product
• For launching an IT startup
• For reducing development costs

Types of White-label Reseller Program

There are different types of reseller programs that a software development company can join. The most popular among them are:

Software Development Reseller Program

Under this type of program, the reseller partner can sell custom or readymade software of the manufacturing partner. Today, there are numerous businesses looking for readymade solutions over custom development because of three main reasons, which are cost-effectiveness, reduced time to market and tried and tested products. However, in some cases off-the-shelf solutions fail to fulfill the requirements of a business and that’s where custom development services help.

Design and Development

Design and development teams do not only require technical knowledge but also creativity and critical thinking to produce fascinating designs and functionalities. However, finding such talent is difficult these days and also expensive. As a solution, joining a white label reseller program with design and development services is more reliable for many companies. Not to mention the investment saved on human resources.

Branding and Digital Marketing

Branding and digital marketing reseller programs are useful for those companies who provide end-to-end startup consultation. Not to mention, these are also some services that entrepreneurs immediately require after setting up an online business. With a dedicated team of branding and digital marketing experts, fulfilling client requirements becomes easy. Providing digital marketing services along with software development or readymade business solutions is also a lucrative addition to existing service offerings.

Benefits of Joining a White-label Reseller Program

Along with being a cost effective option for several software development businesses, there are also various other benefits of joining a white label reseller program. In this blog, we have brought some of them to the limelight:

• Service or Product Offerings Expansion

Planning and development of a new software product takes time. By eliminating the development stage from the entire process, companies can release new software much faster. With a white label reseller program, IT companies not only get past the development process but also get access to a wide range of software that they can add to their service offerings and sell forward. A good service offering also impresses the customers and makes you highly distinguishable within your industry.

• Increases Brand Value

Continuing from the previous point, with the help of white label solutions, software development companies are able to accept and deliver projects with complex requirements within time. This gives a competitive edge to the businesses and surges its brand value in the industry. Moreover, the white label business model also ensures the white-label partner (while not even being the actual developer of the software) is able to meet the client’s exact requirements and deliver a high-satisfaction product.

• Faster Delivery of Projects

White label solutions enhance the project delivery speed of software development businesses with the principle of divided workload. The entire development process is eliminated from the project and the white label partner remains responsible for handling client side communication and conveying the client’s requirements to the white label provider. This speeds up the entire work process and leads to a comparatively faster delivery of multiple projects.

• Requires Less Programming Expertise

Startups, SMBs and several medium-sized businesses feel the need to hire technical expertise when some complex project requirements arrive. They do so because large size projects are important for business expansion and rejecting them can be detrimental. However, often the required expertise for these projects is out of reach, especially in developing countries. Thus, completing such projects with the help of a white label software is easy. Most white label providers already have the expertise required for handling complex project requirements, which reduces the burden from the shoulders of the white label partner.

• Reduces Human Resource Expenses

Small businesses and SMBs repetitively face the challenge of finding reliable talent that can commit with the company for a long time. As a result, work quality and internal processes deteriorate. Human resource management feels overburdened with too many hiring requests. Including the hiring costs, length of the hiring process and possible rejections, joining a white label reseller program sounds more lucrative and convenient for SMBs. This program not only reduces human resource expenses but also decreases the workload.

• Crisis Management

Crisis can be of various types, including PR, executive and work related. In several scenarios, developers leave the firm halfway through a project or leave a pile of long backlog that cannot be completed within the deadline. White label reseller programs assist in resolving such crises by providing means to reduce the workload by outsourcing any new projects to the white label development firm. In the end, these programs help you protect your company’s reputation by ensuring performance and delivery even in the toughest times.

• Streamline Internal Process

Internal processes involve back and forth amongst various departments and team members. During revisions and long backlogs, this back and forth becomes hectic and hinders the work process. Although a company might follow standardized development procedures, they are difficult to comply with impaired internal processes, resulting in redundancy and time wastage. White label reseller programs are able to bring the internal departments on the same page by outsourcing various interdependent development and testing procedures. They make the remaining internal processes easy to manage and follow.

• Access to Better Talent

Going back to human resources, it is difficult to find appropriate talent for startups and SMBs. Due to this, software development companies also hire remote developers to meet the complex software development requirements. In some cases, the right talent isn’t locally available, leading to more talent search issues. As a solution to these problems, joining a white label program is really helpful. The software products included in the program are mostly readymade and do not put the burden of finding the talent on the reseller partner.

How to Select a White Label Program?

Despite the benefits, white label programs can also lead to aberration of profit expectations and client satisfaction. This happens when software development companies join a white label program without a forethought. Several inconveniences arrive such as lack of effective communication from the white label firm and failure of timely delivery of your project. To stay afloat from all such problems, consider the following factors while selecting your white label reseller program.

• Price Control

The price ceiling fixed by white label providers limits the profit margin of the partner. Several white label companies impose pricing restraints due to various reasons, such as maintaining tiered partnerships. Under this, the partners cannot advertise the product or service lower than the stated price category of the tier and must also follow the price ceiling very strictly.

Price ceilings vary from tier to tier to encourage white label partners to sell more to move up a level and maximize their profit. Other reasons for pricing control include balancing demand and fair pricing strategies amongst all partners. However, to earn adequate profit, we recommend you to join a reseller program with minimum pricing controls or pay close attention to terms of tiered partnership programs. In any state, a good white label reseller program should offer you 30-40% profit on each project.

• Range of Product/Service Offerings

The greater the number of product and service offerings in the white label program, the greater your value proposition. Wider offerings also mean you can go to the white label company for various requirements and complete those projects on time. To explain it in layman terms, joining a white label reseller program with multiple offerings is like joining multiple white label programs without the hassle of complying to the diverse terms of each and every partner.

• Documentation

Software documentation acts like a backbone of every project. It includes more than boarding manuals, such as database documentation, troubleshooting information, installation guides, software requirements and much more. Basically, having documentation will make you less dependent on the white label provider. For example, with documentation, you can perform server migration, do minor design changes and provide customer support to a level all on your own. 

Usually, the project delivery involves a copy of documentation to be given to the client but the white label partner should also be providing one to the reseller for a mutually beneficial partnership experience.

• Technological Support

The reseller partner should confirm if the white label partner program is inclusive of the technological support. While some white label companies charge for it (meaning, to cover its costs, you will also need to charge your clients), others provide limited tech support free of cost. However, the white label service provider should usually provide support because of its complete knowledge on the software.

Under no circumstances, the white label partner can provide better support than the provider despite having a full-fledged team of developers. This is because technical support is not only about resolving bugs and issues, but also about acting on deep knowledge to resolve the problem in a quick and efficient manner.

• Delivery Time

White label providers can have different delivery frames for each and every partner depending on his tier. To move up this tier, the partner will need to sell more. But till then, the white label provider may keep the delivery of his projects on low priority. Thus, read the terms and conditions to ensure the white label program includes a reasonable delivery time. The same goes for delivery including any customizations and customer support.

• Demo

A white label reseller program may offer a wide range of services and products. However, the program is not profitable if the included services are not in high demand, or the offered software lacks in quality, functionality and features. Thus, if the offerings are not good or agile or fail to meet the requirements of your clients, there’s not much benefit in joining the white label program. To confirm the functionality and quality of the software, ask white label firms to provide you with a one-on-one product demo. For services, you can again ask for a demo to understand the working process of the firm.

• Reviews

Another important factor for selecting a white label program is reviews, both software-user and reseller partner reviews. Finding the partner reviews is going to be very difficult considering that many companies sign an NDA with the white label provider. NDA is even included in the terms and the conditions of the program to protect the source of development from the partner company’s clients and competition. On the other hand, you can find user reviews of the software on websites like Clutch, G2 and TrustPilot that actively review software products to spare time for prospects.

Conclusion

With all aforementioned benefits, joining a white label reseller program is lucrative for software development companies. To sum up all the benefits in one sentence, it is safe to say that white label programs allow you to focus on your goals while sidelining complex development tasks. However, it is possible for the white label reseller partnership to take some time before bringing in the desired profit. Thus, one last piece of advice is to stick with a white label partner for a minimum of six months to see how things workout.

The White Label Reseller Program of Diggiecorp Technology is currently open. This program offers several readymade eCommerce solutions to launch an online marketplace (multi-vendor) or store (single-vendor) in various niches. You can talk to our industry experts to book one-on-one product demos and clear any doubts.

The post The Beginner’s Guide to White Label Reseller Program appeared first on Diggiecorp Blog.

To understand how a white label partnership can prove to be highly beneficial for your business, you must first understand what are white label solutions and how they work. White-label services or products are developed by one company while marketed and sold by another. Partnering with a white label service provider company legally permits you to resell their products and services under your own brand name, logo, and identity.

It is of utmost importance that you choose the right firm to partner with as the quality of services developed by your white label partner company will be a deciding factor for your clients’ satisfaction and retention. Experience, reputation, positive clients’ feedback, and diverse niche expertise are some of the major factors that make Diggiecorp a reliable white label service provider.

Diggiecorp’s White Label Partnership Programs

Diggiecorp aims to form a valuable association with businesses looking to expand the repertoire of their services. The partnership programs offered by Diggiecorp are designed to empower businesses and help them gain a competitive edge in their target market. The white label partnership model extends great opportunities for you to associate with the technology leader and derive advantage from an agile team, market-leading products & exemplary services to foster your business growth. Diggiecorp’s partnership model consists of the following two programs.

White Label Reseller Program

White label reseller program enables you to build a co-branded partnership with Diggiecorp, where you get entitled to rebrand and resell a wide range of white-labeled products & services developed by Diggiecorp. When you become a white label reseller, you are legally allowed to offer the products & services originally created by Diggiecorp to your customers using your brand name.

The partnership enables you to deliver better and faster services and minimize the go-to-market time by offering the fully developed, market-ready products to your customers. This way you can incorporate an additional revenue stream into your business model while simultaneously work towards expanding your business reach.

Referral Marketing Program

As the name suggests, Diggiecorp’s referral marketing program enables you to build greater capabilities by leveraging your corporate connections. The program presents a lucrative opportunity where you can enhance your business by spreading the word about Diggiecorp’s market-leading products, services, and other ventures to your associates and invite them to collaborate with Diggiecorp. All you have to do is to build a passive channel of clients and forward the details of the mature leads to Diggiecorp. For every lead that is converted, you earn a commission or a certain percentage of profit. This program will help you establish yourself as a reliable marketing consultant and create multiple business opportunities for you.

White Label Services & Products Offered by Diggiecorp

Having expertise in every service domain that you want to offer to your customers may not be possible in a short period of time. There are several businesses that choose to dedicate their available resources to improve their core competencies rather than distributing their efforts on countless peripheral operations. Also, it may be a case that you are overwhelmed with the amount of work and maybe considering outsourcing your work to another company. No matter what your reasons are, you can rely on white label solutions. Associating with an experienced & trustworthy white label service provider allows you to offer a wide range of services even if you don’t have the expertise in them. Here are the major white label services & products that you can offer to your customers under the partnership program.

1. Web Design & Development

Becoming Diggiecorp’s white label partner enables you to add the web design & development services provided by Diggiecorp to your service offerings and market them under your brand name. Your clients’ web design and development requirements are catered by the Diggiecorp’s team of professionals but your client will relate it to your brand.

2. Mobile App Development

White label mobile app development services by Diggiecorp enable you to rebrand and resell the mobile apps designed and developed by Diggiecorp’s team of experienced professionals.

3. Digital Marketing

Diggiecorp offers a wide range of digital marketing services under its white-label partnership program. Leveraging Diggiecorp’s expertise in delivering best-in-class services, you can expand your business by offering digital marketing services like social media marketing & PPC to your clients. The team of digital marketing experts at Diggiecorp will help your clients to grow their business online and enhance their online presence.

4. SEO

You can resell the white label SEO services offered by Diggiecorp to your clients. The SEO experts at Diggiecorp will work to optimize your clients’ websites but you will get the credit for the services delivered.

5. Online Reputation Management (ORM)

With Diggiecorp’s white label ORM services, you can expand your clientele across the globe. You can outsource your online reputation management projects to Diggiecorp and the experts at Diggiecorp will carry out the work for you.

6. Creative Services

Diggiecorp also offers creative services like graphic designing, infographics, motion graphics, PPT & video creation for white labeling.

7. E-Commerce Solutions/Products

Diggiecorp enables you to resell a wide range of fully developed, ready-to-market e-commerce solutions that help entrepreneurs launch B2B, B2C, and P2P multi-vendor marketplace through the website & mobile app. These market-ready solutions are offered as white label products so that you can rebrand them with your brand logo, identity, and then resell them to your clients under your brand name. The products are designed with a customer-centric approach, hence offer complete ease of use for various use-cases. The white-label marketplace solutions developed by Diggiecorp enable businesses to launch their online venture in various verticals like online grocery, food delivery, e-learning, online rental, on-demand cab booking, and many more. The following are the major products provided by Diggiecorp for white labeling.

• Yo!Kart: Multi-Vendor Marketplace Solution
• Yo!Coach: Online Learning and Consultation Platform
• Yo!Rent: Multi-Vendor Rental Marketplace Platform
• VivoCabs: Online Cab Booking Software
• VivoGigs: Event Booking Marketplace Solution
• Growcer: Online Grocery Store Platform

Rising Demand For White Label Solutions Due To The Outbreak of Coronavirus Pandemic

The outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic has had a massive impact on global trade and business. Every part of the world is in some type of lockdown and it has led to the downfall of the global economy. Businesses in the USA, Europe, and many other parts of the world are trimming their resources in order to cope up with the global economic slump. Many businesses with reduced workforce are considering outsourcing their projects to firms in India, China, or the Philippines so that they can provide continuous services to their clients.

White label solutions are gaining popularity amidst the COVID-19 pandemic as white labeling enables businesses to rebrand and resell the products and services developed by some other company. So, companies that are functioning with minimum resources can effectively cater to the business requirements of their clients by reselling a wide array of white label services & products.The lockdown has almost brought the brick and mortar stores business to a halt and the world has switched to online methods for fulfilling their basic requirements. Since the people are staying indoors and the markets are more or less shut, they are buying everything online. From grocery shopping to lectures & seminars in educational institutes, the world is literally functioning through online platforms.

According to a report by Emarsys, e-commerce sales in New Zealand have almost doubled during the coronavirus outbreak and the online orders through the month of March & April in the U.S.and Canada have shot up by 43% as compared to the same period a year earlier. The surge in online shopping has created new opportunities for entrepreneurs to take their business online. White labeling proves to be the most suitable solution for businesses that are planning to launch their e-commerce marketplace amidst the lockdown.

As Diggiecorp offers B2B & B2C e-commerce products for white labeling, it saves you from the trouble of building a marketplace from scratch. Diggiecorp’s white label products are completely market-ready, thus, you can instantly launch a multivendor e-commerce website & mobile app to get your business started. Whether you want to start an online grocery store, rental marketplace, e-learning portal, or online shopping marketplace, Diggiecorp has fully developed products that can be easily customized as per your requirements. Also, you can rebrand these products with your brand identity and then resell them to your customers to earn profits.

Why Choose Diggiecorp As Your White Label Partner?

Diggiecorp stands as one of the most reliable software development companies offering white label products and services to a global clientele. The company empowers businesses to achieve their goals and expand their capabilities by offering a wide range of services. Outsourcing your services to Diggiecorp will enable you to deliver top-notch services to your customers and take a competitive edge in your market. A multidisciplinary team, niche expertise, & the highest level of professionalism exhibited by each professional, make Diggiecorp the ideal business partner for you.

1. Experience

Diggiecorp has been delivering the best in class white label solutions to its clients across the globe, since 2004. Being in the industry for a long period of time has helped the company to develop a better understanding of the clients’ requirements and evolving market trends. With vast industry experience, Diggiecorp proves to be a reliable white label partner.

2. 20+ Products

Joining Diggiecorp’s white label partnership program entitles you to rebrand and resell a wide range of fully developed e-commerce products. With 20+ market-ready products, you can offer additional value to your clients.

3. Brand Recognition

Being associated with one of the leading companies in the industry enhances your brand value and reputation. Forming a white label partnership with Diggiecorp helps you provide high-quality services and products that lead to increased brand loyalty and recognition.

4. Technical Support

Custom software development company, Diggiecorp offers free technical support to its white label partners for a complete 1 year from the date of system delivery. All the technical issues or queries are instantly resolved by our team of experts. As the company provides multi-channel support,  you can easily contact the team through various mediums like email, chat, phone.

5. Vast Clientele

Diggiecorp has been providing white label services and products to a large number of clients all across the globe. The company has developed a value-based relationship with every client by building trust and contributing to the clients’ business growth.

Conclusion

White label partnership is a new-age concept that has brought forth the idea of collaborative growth. Diggiecorp’s white label partnership program extends great opportunities for businesses that seek to build extraordinary capabilities by scaling their offering and revenue. Outsourcing your services to Diggiecorp can prove to be an efficiency-boosting strategy for your business as you can shift the entire focus on enhancing your core competencies while Diggiecorp’s experts work on delivering the additional services.

The post How To Grow Your Business With Diggiecorp’s White Label Partnership Program? appeared first on Diggiecorp Blog.

In this blog post, we share five opportunities for entrepreneurs and cover the pain points addressed through online learning.

The Current State of Schooling

Majority of the schools are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While nations are trying to control the situation, teachers have adapted to a new way of teaching – online learning. In a short period, traditional schooling has evolved and is replaced by web conferences, virtual classrooms, and more. More can be added to the list, but most importantly, the coronavirus has taught the education community that e-learning adds convenience and can be implemented on a large scale.

Many schools in the US remain closed due to coronavirus. Northshore School District, which is one of the largest schools in the US, recently announced that all its branches would remain closed due to coronavirus as well. In a recent blog post, the superintendent conveyed that Northshore will be shifting education from the classroom with four walls to the cloud. During the pandemic, one may find many examples where schools are being pushed to adopt the online-only model of teaching.

Rising College Tuition Fee

Sending someone through a university may require financial sacrifices. The education divide is constantly widening due to rising college tuition fees. Many experts believe that academics, who are in a position to design courses for students, develop a curriculum that may not match the requirements of the current workforce. After gaining a formal college education and spending thousands of dollars, job seekers often have to sign up for short courses to improve their skill set with practical insights.

According to the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, the cost of higher education in the US has increased by nearly 200 percent. During the pandemic, one clear alternative to attending traditional classroom-based learning at universities is e-learning. Even before the coronavirus, students were able to earn college degrees online, but the number of options was less and relatively expensive. The cost of earning an online degree is less than receiving a full-time degree, and quite remarkably, the value-add remains the same for both.

Changing Expectations on Reskilling

Most employees find it difficult to change and improve their skill set in times of perpetual disruption. Such behavior is not good if one wishes to stay relevant in the job market. Many factors contribute to shaping the future of work and increases the scope of reskilling. Some factors include – technological changes, government regulations, health concerns such as coronavirus, work expectations, and more. To stay relevant, reskilling the existing workforce involves competency-based learning as well as massive open online courses (MOOCs).

As many nations across the globe are on lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, employers are seizing this opportunity to push reskilling among their employees by leveraging e-learning. Competency-based learning is being preferred by major companies like Delta Dental, FedEx, Blizzard, and more for a variety of reasons. For an employer, the benefits include improved work quality, lower operating costs, and more.

Disruption in Executive Coaching

The executive education program has seen the least traction in the past few years. There can be different possible reasons behind such slow growth. One of the primary reasons is – executive education depends on tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge involves a mentor imparting education to an executive through face-to-face interaction. There are three fundamental components of tacit knowledge – standard teaching, lectures and discussions, and deep interactions. E-learning has begun sowing seeds of inspiration in the field of executive education as well.

The concept of online learning satisfies the three components of tacit knowledge. For example, instructor-led training (ILT) approach can be adopted by an e-learning website where the instructor can impart executive education in almost real-time and have interactions through voice and chat. Furthermore, an online learning website adds value by giving more options to the student. A student can easily hire the best teacher available on any given subject.

The Rise of Gig Economy

According to McKinsey, nearly 30 – 40 percent of the US workforce are independent contractors and freelancers. Technology and shift in thought-process have led large enterprises to embrace independent and temporary workers in the new era of Work 2.0. The search engine giant, Google, has more temporary workers than full-time employees. After observing such transformation in the corporate workforce, the education sector can add value in a unique way to complement this change.

To work in the gig economy, an e-learning website can offer short-term courses such as basics of managing a freelance profession, fundamentals of finance, setting up a website to showcase portfolio, basics of entrepreneurship, and more. The course list can also include technical subjects such as web design, web development, data and analytics, artificial intelligence, and more. Disrupting how hiring is done in startups, small and medium businesses (SMBs), and large organizations, the gig economy is here to stay.

Download our whitepaper to learn more about how the education sector is adding value to the economy.

Conclusion – Start E-Learning Website with Available Platform

There is a lot that the COVID-19 pandemic can teach an entrepreneur. The revolution brought in the education sector through e-learning is the most recent example. Time is of critical importance, and entrepreneurs can start their online learning website by leveraging a ready-made e-learning solution such as Yo!Coach and significantly reduce the time-to-market (TTM).

It enables an entrepreneur to build a competitive advantage and utilize many essential features that bring ease in management. Some features of Yo!Coach are – multi-lingual support, teacher slot booking, video chat, file sharing, collaborative document, text chat, rating and reviews, gift cards, and much more.

The post Covid-19 Pandemic – Opportunities in Online Learning for EduPreneurs appeared first on Diggiecorp Blog.

There’s a hesitation to share anything about your business with anyone — what if they steal your idea? There can be a reluctance to read about what others have done, for fear of either adopting bad advice or losing faith in your thoughts. If you talk to an eCommerce entrepreneur, they’ll tell you the biggest mistake one can make is not reading best eCommerce blogs. 

Well, I’m here to tell you to let go of that attitude and become a sponge. Starting a successful eCommerce business is challenging, and countless companies have come before you and made mistakes you can learn from without repeating them yourself. There are tons of incredible blogs dedicated to giving you free advice on ecommerce inspiration, marketing strategies, statistics on trends, and so much more. Pop your entrepreneurship bubble and absorb it all.

Best Ecommerce Blogs For 2025

1. Shopify

Let’s start in the big leagues. You’ve undoubtedly heard of Shopify, the ecommerce platform giant that you can sell your goods on — but did you know it also has an incredible blog dedicated to eCommerce marketing and running your own eCommerce business? It offers everything from practical tips and guides to features of other companies. Maybe you could be featured there one day.

2. Merchant Maverick

You want an excellent blog for small eCommerce business; Merchant Maverick has you covered. While a lot of larger companies have blogs that are focused on issues that other large companies are facing, Merchant Maverick gets down into all the nitty-gritty details of everyday challenges faced by small businesses. From an in-depth analysis of small payment processing apps to saving money on shipping costs, this blog is an excellent resource and is considered as one of the top eCommerce blogs.

3. Diggiecorp Insights

Diggiecorp Insights aims to be the one-stop-shop for entrepreneurs and is among one of the best eCommerce blogs, whether you’re just starting and need advice on eCommerce marketplace platforms, or you’re in the thick of it and need some marketing inspiration or web design ideas. The blog goes beyond eCommerce and enables an eCommerce entrepreneur to understand different aspects of running an online business.

4.  A Better Lemonade Stand

Where are you in your eCommerce business journey: Are you still creating it, are you ready to launch, or are you trying to grow? Lucky for you, A Better Lemonade Stand has content for whatever phase you’re in. It’s an excellent resource for guides, advice, and inspirational stories to help entrepreneurs all over.

5. Yo!Kart Blog

Yo!Kart’s blogs are true inspiration and a one-stop destination for Entrepreneurs, startups and businesses of all sizes who want to be a part of this growing eCommerce landscape. Here you gain valuable insights on multi-vendor marketplace platforms, updates on eCommerce trends, explore growth strategies, learn about eCommerce niches, business models, revenue streams and more from the industry’s top experts.

5. Ecommerce Platforms

Running an ecommerce site is a lot of work. Not only do you have to handle marketing and operations, you also have to manage the infrastructure that makes your business work. Fortunately, there are a lot of ecommerce platforms out there that can help you manage everything from inventory management to shipping and logistics. Ecommerce Platforms aims to compare the most popular ones and give you an unbiased opinion to help you choose the best one for your needs.

6. 3dcart

What better resource is there for eCommerce expertise than the blog of one of the longest-running eCommerce platforms? 3dcart has been helping people build their own online stores for more than two decades, and their writers regularly release excellent articles with in-depth guidance based on the latest knowledge. Their archive is extensive, meaning there is a blog post to answer just about any question that merchants could have.

7. Get Elastic

On the technology side of things, Get Elastic has you covered and is considered as one of the best eCommerce blogs. It focuses on the latest and most significant breakthroughs and news in the tech sphere, from eCommerce trends to how new technology can (and will) impact your business in the future. Its latest articles focus on everything from cryptocurrency to the Internet of Things, but the most important reason to read it is to keep an eye on the future.

8. Ryan Robinson

For a more personal look at one entrepreneur’s journey, enter Ryan Robinson. He features other entrepreneurs on his Side Hustle podcast, along with guides to making money blogging, and he frequently writes long-form articles with everything you need to know about vital online marketing topics like keyword research and email marketing.

9. Printful

Printful: a custom, on-demand printing and fulfillment service, and excellent blog resource? Believe it or not, Printful has an incredible blog filled with a massive variety of unique content. They feature marketing advice (including a full Instagram hashtag guide), an eCommerce platform guide (SEO, Amazon, Shopify, Etsy), and even style and trend articles ranging from interior design tips to choosing the best heather grey shirt. They’re a goldmine of advice for businesses at every stage and in any industry.

10. Red Stag Fulfillment

While Red Stag Fulfillment is a third-party logistics company and frequently features 3PL topics, we also provide guides, resources, and infographics on just about anything eCommerce-related. We’re big on data-driven tips and practical guides you can apply to your own business.

11. TechCrunch ECommerce

TechCrunch is a little different than many of the other companies on this list, as it is solely a publishing company and not another business with a blog. Its sole job is to publish news, analysis, and articles about technology, and of course, it has an eCommerce section. For the latest tech news and profiles of up-and-coming tech-focused companies, stop by TechCrunch’s blog.

12. Multichannel Merchant

No-nonsense Multichannel Merchant is one of the top eCommerce blogs which offers a wealth of articles in three categories: eCommerce, Marketing, and Operations & Fulfillment. Taking more of a broad view, they publish everything you ever wanted to know in each space, including news, commentary, and guides.

13. Bootstrapping ECommerce

You’re on a budget, and you’re tired of reading articles advising you to spend thousands of dollars on platforms, software, and advertising. Bootstrapping eCommerce gets it. It gives excellent advice in its blogs, which are all focused on how to get started as an entrepreneur with the smallest investment possible.

Learn From the Best Ecommerce Experts

The most significant favor one can do for your burgeoning eCommerce business is to collect all the information you can from others who have been there and done that and use it to your advantage to do it better than you ever could have dreamed. What blog is your go-to for eCommerce tips and guides? Whom did we leave out? Let us know in the comments.

The post List Of Best eCommerce Blogs For Retailers and Marketplace Owners appeared first on Diggiecorp Blog.

The winter season is here. Festivals like Christmas, Hanukkah, Easter, and New Year make people think of unwinding and having fun with friends and family. So naturally, the holiday season also presents numerous opportunities for entrepreneurs to capitalize on the festive spirit and cater to the celebratory atmosphere. Here are some of the business ideas that could thrive during the season and potentially bring profits all year long.

Table Of Contents:

eCommerce Marketplace

• Handcrafted Items Sale
• Decoration Service
• Unique/Customized Gifts Website
• Toys & Winter Apparel
• P2P Online Automobile Website

Rental Businesses

• Costumes Rental Website
• Ski And Car Rental
• Renting Essentials During The Holiday Season
• Vacation Rental House Website

EdTech

• eLearning And Skill-sharing Business

On-Demand Services

• Babysitting Services
• HVAC Repair Services
• Snow Ploughing Websites
• Errand Running For Senior Citizens

Grocery

• Grocery Delivery Website
• Liquor And Wine Delivery Services

Food Business

• Gourmet Bakery
• Online Food Ordering
• Food Catering Websites

Travelling

• Travel Planning Websites
• Activity Booking

Party and Event

• Party Entertainer
• Event Booking Websites
• Holiday Musical Show
• Party Planners Website

Deals Website

• Deal Management Websites

Conclusion

eCommerce Marketplace 

1. Handcrafted Items Sale

Many people prefer to give personalized handcrafted gifts to their loved ones but not everyone has enough time or talent to craft personalized gift items. As such launching an eCommerce store where handicraft artists can list products is a great idea. It doesn’t have to be specific to winter festivals only but can include a variety of handcrafted gifts people like to give their loved ones all year round.

2. Decoration Service

During the holiday season, everyone wants their house to look bright and beautifully decorated with lights. However, in the current age, people do not have much time to decorate their own house for festivals. Additionally, businesses such as brick and mortar stores also do not have the expertise to decorate their store for a perfect holiday season.

Create a website which provides decoration services to individuals or businesses. The customers can easily connect with your website throughout the year, especially during the latter part of the year or for private parties.

3. Unique/customized Gifts Website

Festivals are a time everyone waits all year long to receive presents from their loved ones. Everyone wants to give something unique to their loved ones but isn’t always able to find the perfect gift.

Launching a unique/customized gifts website will yield a lot of benefits as it will target the pain points of the customers during the holiday season. This will be a hit not just during the holiday season but all year long.

4. eCommerce Website For Stuffed Toys And Winter Apparel

According to research by Salecycle, eCommerce sales reach their peak in the holiday season i.e. in November and December. So, launching a multivendor eCommerce website for stuffed toys and winter apparel during the holiday season is a lucrative business idea. Make sure the turnkey solution you choose to launch your eCommerce website has an extensive and admin management section.

5. P2P Online Automobile Website

People during the holiday season prefer to gain access to automobiles to get around different places. Build a P2P website where users can sell and buy automobiles according to their preferences. Launch a P2P website on a platform which has an easy user interface for people to list and buy automobiles quickly.

Solution: Yo!Kart

Yo!Kart is a fully customizable online marketplace solution. It comes with plenty of features for product and sales management. With multivendor support, Yo!Kart also makes it easier for you to partner with other people and sell their products on your eCommerce platform.

Rental Businesses

6.  Costumes Rental Website

Winter brings in a lot of festivity where people often attend themed events during the season. There are winter carnivals and traditional events for which people like to dress up. Hence, building a rental marketplace from where customers can easily rent costumes can be a good strategic move. As winters transition into other seasons, the inventory can be updated to cater to various festivals and events throughout the year.

7. Ski And Car Rental

Many young people like to rent cars and skis during the holiday season for different types of activities. Providing these people with a website to easily rent cars and skis online is a great business idea. Keep in mind easy navigation and quick loading time of the website are must to ensure maximum profits.

8. Renting Essentials During The Holiday Season

There are a few items which are needed for a short period of time. Especially during the holiday season, there are products that people do not wish to buy, but just use for a limited period of time. Some of these products are Christmas trees, roller skates, furniture, musical instruments, etc. Create a P2P marketplace where product owners can list their products and those in need can rent them.

9. Vacation Rental House Website

During the later part of the year, people prefer to travel to places to either enjoy their vacation or to move away from their busy lives. People who own a vacation home or a house in a beautiful location can charge a certain fee and rent out their apartment for a few days to holidaymakers.

An online renting marketplace can make the process of connecting with travelers and holiday-makers quite easy and convenient. will be a profitable business.

Solution: Yo!Rent

Yo!Rent is a full fledged readymade solution for developing online rental platforms. It also supports the option to sell, which adds another revenue channel to your business.The platform comes with advanced features for vendor and buyer management. Yo!Rent is available in both single and multi-vendor variants

EdTech

10. eLearning And Skill Sharing Business

Irrespective of the season, eLearning and skill sharing businesses have been quite popular amongst people. In winters, there are many individuals who prefer sitting at home and learning a new skill such as computer programming, playing guitar or baking. To help such people and make a good profit while at it, you can launch an eLearning business where multiple tutors can sign up and teach on your platform. This way, you don’t even need to compile learning material or master any skills first in order to teach.

Solution: Yo!Coach

Yo!Coach is an online eLearning marketplace solution that helps entrepreneurs to launch their elearning business with ease. It comes with learners mobile apps for Android and iOS both and encompasses a suite of rich features that allow learners to get in touch with teachers from anywhere, anytime. The software solution also allows teachers to create and upload courses.

On-Demand Services

11. Babysitting Services

As parents have more social commitments during the holiday season, providing babysitting services via an online babysitting services platform can be beneficial. Using the platform, parents can search for babysitters by location, experience, specific skills, rates, reviews & ratings and more.

12. HVAC Repair Services

Living in cold countries isn’t easy. Here people are largely dependent on HVAC(Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) appliances to keep them warm in winters. But with an increase in use also comes the need for repairs. Hence, starting a website that offers HVAC repair services is a good business idea. HVAC engineers can register and earn you a commission on every successful gig.

13. Snow Ploughing Websites

During the holiday season in winters, people find it extremely difficult to go outside due to huge layers of snow. People during this time often need help in plowing snow. Launch a website where people can hire snow plowing servicemen online in just a few clicks.

14. Errand Running For Senior Citizens

Senior citizens find it extremely difficult to run day-to-day chores like cleaning, grocery shopping, etc. Upcoming holidays will be more difficult for them due to COVID and freezing temperatures.. Create a website where the baby boomer population can register for a serviceman. The serviceman can visit the customers according to their needs. The platform that you plan to build the website on should have a very easy to use UI for the senior citizens.

Solution: Yo!Gigs

With the help of Yo!Gigs, you can launch a gigs marketplace where several servicemen can easily sign up and find various gigs. To help you grow your business, Yo!Gigs also comes with several marketing options.

Grocery

15. Grocery Delivery Website

People are becoming busier in their daily routines and finding less and less time to do their daily chores. Looking at the need of the hour, you can launch an online Grocery Delivery website that delivers day to day items at the doorsteps of the customers. The platform that you use to launch your grocery delivery website should have an extensive feature offering to schedule orders as per the customers’ requirements.

16. Liquor And Wine Delivery Services

People enjoy luxury liquor and wines in the holiday season and get-togethers. These wines aren’t easily available and the exotic ones aren’t cheap. Meaning, there’s a lot of profit in an online liquor business that delivers appetizing liquor from all around the globe.  All you will need is a liquor license and a fast and responsive website that can help you get started with this business.

Solution: Growcer

Growcer is a ready-to-launch grocery delivery solution that you can use to build your online grocery business in as fast as 3-4 working days. It comes with both single-vendor and multi-vendor support and also includes an optional delivery staff application.

Food Business

17. Gourmet Bakery

During festivals in the latter part of the year, people get a craving for warm cookies, cakes and other bakery items. They not only relish them but also prefer gifting these sugar treats to their loved ones. Not everyone has the time, patience and perfect recipe to cook such delicacies.

People prefer to get these things baked from a bakery and gift them to their loved ones. People would absolutely love it if these bakery items could be delivered to their doorstep, without stepping a foot outside in the chilling cold. Launch a website which provides cooked bakery items at people’s doorsteps

18. Online Food Ordering

People during the holiday season prefer to sit at home rather than going out and getting stuck in the traffic. When the family is united during the holiday season, people want to spend maximum time together rather than shop for groceries or get food.

Launch online food delivery business website that provides bulk orders or special food items during holidays. People would easily order food in a few clicks when they spend time with their loved ones. The food delivery website should have different features to deliver the food as per the comfort of the customers.

19. Food Catering Websites

Even small gatherings of up to 20 people can require a catering service. Launch a website where people can book different caterers according to their needs and number of people. In just a few clicks, people can arrange the food for their get-together parties. This business will be profitable not just during the holiday season but all year round.

Solution: Yo!Yumm

Yo!Yumm provides enhanced support to launch a food delivery business. It is a white-labeled food delivery solution that comes with different apps for the restaurant, customer and the delivery staff.

Travelling

20. Travel Planning Websites

Winter is the time when people want to get out of their busy schedule and enjoy a vacation somewhere nice. Not everyone is good at planning a trip for their entire family. From booking flights to a reservation in a hotel can be quite an arduous task. Hence, launching a travel booking website can help people to plan their travel and manage their bookings.

21. Activity Booking Website/Sleigh Rides

Sleigh riding, skiing are some of the few activities people adore in winters. As it is the high season for these activities, people would like to make a booking beforehand to avoid any last-minute disappointment. It’s a great option for customers if they can book these activities online in a few clicks? Looking at the needs of the customers, launch a travel activity booking website which can book activities across different locations in a few clicks.

Solution: FunAway

FunAway is the solution you need if you want to launch an activity booking marketplace. With this solution, you can get various travel agents and trip advisors to sign up on your platform and provide various activities or tour packages.

Party And Event 

22. Party Entertainer

The holiday season is all about throwing and hosting parties. Providing entertainment artists like magicians, juggles or superhero cosplayers can keep the gathering entertained and hence launching a website that helps connect party organizers with party entertainers is a lucrative business idea.

23. Event Booking Websites

During holidays, many restaurants and hotels organize events to engage customers. So, creating a website from where visitors can book nearby events happening in the city makes for a great business idea. Further, to launch an event booking website, choosing a platform with an intuitive user interface that offers rich user experience is pivotal.

24. Holiday Musical Show

There are different things people prefer to do during their vacation time; some like to enjoy traveling while others like to enjoy musical events. Making the booking beforehand to avoid any last minute problems is common among such people. As a result, a website where people can book musicians for a private event is bound to gain popularity. Make sure there are enough categories on your website to check the preference of the customer.

25. Party Planners Website

Planning parties sounds fun, but it can be difficult for a lot of people, especially the working class. As party planner engagements can range from weddings to awards ceremonies, corporate events and so much more, so having an online website that caters to all the party planning needs of customers can be a sure way to stay in vogue all year round. One could also suggest party ideas on such a website.

Solution: VivoGigs

VivoGigs is an advanced marketplace solution for launching an event planning business. It comes with several essential built-in features like location mapping, easy gig posting and a ratings and review system.

Deals Website

26. Deal Management Websites

Deals and coupons of restaurants, salons and amusement parks are really hard to find on the internet, especially having reopened so recently. Not all deals and coupon sites are keeping themselves updated with the offers, leaving a scope for you to take an edge and start a profitable business. Launch a website which lists all the deals and coupons of multiple restaurants, salons, bars, amusement parks, etc. Make sure the platform on which you are launching the website has easy navigation and social media sharing options.

Solution: Yo!Deals

Yo!Deals is a white labeled product that can be used to launch a daily deals website. It comes with various administrative features such as deal management, vendor management, sales management, review and ratings system and a multi-user CMS.

Conclusion

The winter season is undoubtedly a golden time for entrepreneurs who can capitalize on the festive atmosphere, customer demand, and various business ideas mentioned above. So, combine creativity with innovation, a dash of holiday magic and get started with any of the business ideas mentioned above. For more information, get in touch with us.

The post Winter is Coming: Holiday-themed Business Ideas for Entrepreneurs appeared first on Diggiecorp Blog.

The fact of the matter is that you just cannot switch your revenue model at a drop of a hat. You need to be systematic in your approach and ensure that all the parties affected by that revenue model are on board.

One key step in determining the revenue model revolves around identifying the source of your revenue. You can stick to one or choose various revenue streams like,

-Product sales

-Service fees

-Advertising sales

-Data access fees

-License fees or commission

And, more.

Various factors are taken into account when deciding on the most ideal revenue model for an online business.

Another important aspect to keep in mind is that the revenue model that you choose, will eventually affect your business strategy and will be paramount in achieving your financial objectives (profits). There have been several cases in the past where startups have been unable to attain profitability despite having an innovative business model. In most cases, their revenue model was screwed or they did not choose the right one.

Most entrepreneurs believe that a startup should always follow KISS (keep it super simple) principle as consumers are typically wary of complex and artificial pricing. By doing this they tend to hurt their future prospects as well as financial growth. The challenge is to tread the fine line between a simple and complex revenue model that not only offers a fair ROI to you but also is acceptable by the consumer. During the early stages, you need to keep it simple and add multiple channels as you grow.

Suggested Read: Top asset light business models for your online startup

How to structure your revenue model?

There are different scenarios that you need to take into account when deciding which revenue model you should incorporate. These scenarios are directly related to your business model.

• If you are acting as intermediary connecting buyers as well as sellers, then would you charge a commission on the resulting sale?
• Will you charge for access to the content or community online in the form of subscription?
• Will you provide most of the services for free and charge advertisers and marketers who want to target the users?
• Will you provide your services and products to be used in the exchange of a license fee?
• Will you use a combination of these revenue models?

The post Which Revenue Model Will Be Ideal For Your Online Business? appeared first on Diggiecorp Blog.

Being one of the pioneers of the online food ordering industry, not only has Grubhub simplified food ordering for millions of people, but has also paved the way for the next generation of food ordering websites across the globe.

Year over year, the company has devised impeccable growth & marketing strategies; and, in turn, has gained continuous success – whether it is in terms of user base, revenue, sales.

Besides these impressive growth stats, Grubhub’s merger with its competitor Seamless, its IPO, and recent acquisition of Yelp’s Eat24 have turned out to be very smart moves, which have played a crucial role not only in the success of the company, but of the entire industry.

Here is the success story of Grubhub that depicts how the company has enjoyed continuous growth over the years by making right decisions at each stage (from ideation to expansion) and in regard to key business operations. Not only is it worthwhile for online food ordering startups, but for the entire startup ecosystem. Let’s get started.

Ideation

Matt Maloney & Mike Evans launched Grubhub in 2004 after experiencing the lack of a streamlined dinner ordering service, which wouldn’t require them to call restaurants to ask for menu and then read their credit cards & address to place the order.

Back then, they were working on a rental real estate search website, instantly realized that there can be similar service for restaurants. So they began collecting menus across Chicago, and Mike wrote the initial site code, and Grubhub was live (in Chicago).

Takeaway for startups

The first takeaway here is pretty straightforward – build something to solve a problem; or if a solution already exists (phone ordering), then enhance it (online ordering). To train your brain for such kind of thinking, I highly recommend you to read Zero to One: Notes on Startups by Peter Thiel.

The second takeaway is that entrepreneurs must learn cross usage of growth agents across industries, which is essentially what Matt & Mike did with the idea of online real estate listing. The practice doesn’t have a standard name yet, but recently Elon Musk referred it as ‘cross-fertilization’, when SpaceX ’s technology was used at Tesla for better operational efficiency.

Execution

Matt & Mike didn’t start with the commission-based (now a time-tested one) revenue model for Grubhub; instead, they offered restaurants a premium placement on their marketplace website, and charged $140 for 6 months.

But soon enough they realized that this idea wasn’t clicking with restaurants; so, they brainstormed a little & decided to implement a commission-based model (10% commission on each order), which till date has proven effective for the company.

Takeaway for startups

Revenue model plays a major role in deciding the fate of startup. Therefore, entrepreneurs must thoroughly understand the market to pick the most fitting revenue model for their business idea. Additionally, to maintain profit margins they should use additional revenue streams (such as display ads) in conjunction to the primary revenue channel.

Related Read: How Instacart Manage Healthy Profit Margin in the Low-yield Online Grocery Sector

Funding

Once Grubhub became a hit in the local Chicago market, it was time to take it to other US cities. But Grubhub, still in its nascent stage, didn’t have sufficient funds for an expansion. So, the team tried approaching some venture capitalists.

Although most VCs didn’t say no to their idea, they didn’t fund it either. The founder duo was aware that time is more precious than money (as the idea was already out for copycats), so, decided to bootstrap their expansion to San Francisco. The move, though a bit risky, played in Grubhub’s favor and also got them their first funding one month later.

Takeaway for startups

Acquiring funds are crucial for startups, but they shouldn’t solely rely on it. Entrepreneurs must learn to interpret time’s value into money & act accordingly. Basically, money is important but your conviction comes first.

For instance, here at Diggiecorp, we run an initiative called YoSuccess, where we feature successful early-stage startups from across the world. More than 80% of the startups listed on YoSuccess are bootstrapped.

Expansion

Grubhub entered the San Francisco market in October 2007, and their bold move of a self-funded expansion was undoubtedly inspiring. However, how they approached it brings a different lesson altogether for startups.

From the start, Grubhub team was aware that expansion to a new market will be difficult. Not just because of the lack of funds, but also because they were not locals there (like in the case of Chicago). And online food delivery, being a hyperlocal business, requires extensive local market knowledge for apt execution. So, they hired a location manager for San Francisco, who physically went to restaurants to sign them up for Grubhub and bit-by-bit built company’s network there.

Takeaway for startups

Every market is distinct; so what works in your native market won’t necessarily work in others. So, before entering a market, entrepreneurs must analyze the unique nature of the new markets, and execute their expansion plan accordingly.

Marketing

One of the major reasons behind Grubhub’s successful expansion to San Francisco was their effort in offline marketing (such as posters/banners at transit hubs, buses, subways, where their prime target audience is bound to pass through). And over the years, this approach has paid them well. They know that offline advertising can work well for their business, thus, distribute their marketing efforts between online & offline channels aptly, instead of just focusing online, like most startups do these days.

Grubhub has also kept a keen eye on its competitors, especially Seamless (now a partner), which was doing pretty well in New York in early 2010s. Grubhub closely studied Seamless’s efforts towards product enhancement & marketing, and implemented similar strategies for its own growth.

Takeaway for startups

Don’t be a part of the rat race. Understand the nature of your business and decide which marketing channels would be most beneficial. Also, spend some time & effort in competitor research, learn how they are progressing, and map out sounder product enhancement & marketing strategies for yourself.

Technology

Since its inception in 2004, Grubhub has constantly worked towards improving its technology to provide better customer experience. For instance, in 2010, after observing a rapid shift towards mobile, the company launched its mobile app, quite timely.

Around the same time, Grubhub also sensed the need of a tablet app for restaurants, in order to help them manage the bulk of orders they were receiving from the website (for the same reasons we also recently launched restaurant & delivery boy mobile apps for our food ordering portal builder YoYumm). Besides confirming and completing orders, the app also allowed restaurateurs to update menus, business hours, etc. Overall, for their restaurant partners, it was a very welcoming technology-enabled change, which down the line aided in company’s growth.

Takeaway for startups

Updating your business with latest technology is crucial. Entrepreneurs must keenly observe and also anticipate customers’ needs and then ponder upon how the latest technological advancements can be used to address those needs in the most satisfactory manner.

Customer Support

While most ecommerce businesses trumpet about expedite 2-day or next-day shipping, Grubhub and other food ordering & delivery platforms have to deal with customers who expect their orders to deliver within the same hour or so.

To ensure that 60 minutes, Grubhub has hundreds of customer care executives at their Chicago headquarters & automation tools to manage orders & delivery across the US. If the order isn’t confirmed within 5 minutes or if it is not out for delivery in 20 minutes – the company proactively sees what’s wrong and fixes it to ensure customer experience isn’t hampered.

Takeaway for startups

The ultimate key to the success for a business is to deliver exceptional experience to customers. For that continuous investment in customer services is of utmost importance, whether it is by integrating new technology solutions (like automation) or by building processes that proactively solve common problems faced by customers.

Conclusion

All the success that Grubhub has gained over the years is primarily attributed to their approach of never stopping to explore new territories to improve their offerings. Its delivery service for restaurants that don’t offer their own delivery, hiring of independent delivery contractors, and recent acquisition of Eat24 (after which Grubhub has a hold on 50% of the US market); are all examples of this never-stop-improving approach.

Grubhub success story is lesson for every entrepreneur & business enthusiast that teaches how through moving ahead step by step with conviction, perseverance, and focus on consumers help startups in achieving heights they dream of.

Before browsing away, have a quick look on Grubhub’s timeline:

Grubhub Timeline – Major Growth Milestones

2004 – Launched in Chicago

2007 October – Expanded to San Francisco

2007 November – Received $1.1M Series A funding

2010 – Listed among Inc. 500

2011 August – Acquired FanGo – Mobile ordering & payment solution provider

2011 September – Received $50M Series E funding (total funding $84.1M)

2013 May – Merged with its main competitor Seamless

2014 April – Went Public

2014 June – Started offering its own delivery service in over 50 cities across US

2017 August – Acquired its main competitor Eat24 from Yelp in $287.5M & gained 50% of US online food ordering & delivery market

The post What Startups Can Learn from Grubhub’s Success Story? appeared first on Diggiecorp Blog.