Online marketplaces · Other
Fill the supply side first, then give buyers a reason to arrive.
A home-services marketplace opens in Bengaluru with 300 listed electricians. Buyers search, find three who do not pick up and one who quotes outside the app, and leave. The founder's real problem is not demand. The listed providers are real but not active, and the ones who are active have worked out how to take the customer off the platform.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
An online marketplace connects sellers or service providers with buyers on one platform and earns a commission or a listing fee. GullySales recruits and activates the supply side by phone, WhatsApp and field visits, then builds the buyer-side search and local campaigns, and records which side is short in each city.
A marketplace has two customers, and they need different selling. Your sellers want orders and fear fees, your buyers want choice and fear being cheated. Spending the whole budget on buyer ads before the supply side is dependable pays for visitors who find nobody to answer.
Last updated 18 Oct 2026.
How buyers decide
How online marketplaces are chosen.
A seller decides on one question: will this bring me orders I would not get otherwise? A shop owner or a service professional hears about the platform from a field executive, a distributor or a WhatsApp group, and asks other sellers whether it paid out on time and whether the commission was clear. A single seller who complains about delayed payment in a local group can undo weeks of onboarding.
A buyer decides on trust and availability. They search on Google or on the app, look at ratings and photos, and check whether someone will actually respond today. If the first two listings they try do not reply, they leave, and the platform may not get a second look.
Both sides stay when the platform keeps its promise at the moment of the transaction. Payment released, order delivered, a dispute settled by a human who picks up the phone. That is what the marketing has to be built around, because marketing that overpromises on it makes churn worse.
The problem
What usually goes wrong for online marketplaces.
What owners tell us on the first call, in their words.
“Listed sellers are not active sellers”
Accounts exist, but some never respond to a lead. Buyers meet silence and the marketplace gets the blame.
“Sellers take the customer off the platform”
After the first connection, the provider shares a number and the next order never touches the app.
“We cannot tell which side is short in which city”
Hyderabad has too many buyers and too few providers while Pune is the opposite, and one national budget is spread across both.
“Buyer ads bring traffic with nothing to show them”
Paid campaigns run in a locality where only a handful of sellers are live.
“Seller onboarding takes too many calls”
A field executive explains the platform four times before the seller lists a single product.
“Reviews are thin or look fake”
New listings have no ratings, and the few that exist were obviously written by friends.
What we do
What we do for online marketplaces.
Everything included for online marketplaces.
Supply recruitment plan by city
A list of the trades and localities where buyers are searching, and a call and field plan to bring sellers on in those first. Seller messages are written in the language they use at work.
Seller activation routine
A phone and WhatsApp routine for sellers who listed but have not replied: what to ask, what to offer and when to drop an account that is dormant.
Buyer landing pages by service and locality
A page for each service in each area where you have live sellers, with real listings, a visible response promise only if your operations can meet it, and a simple way to book.
Trust pack for both sides
Plain-language pages and messages covering commission, payment timing, cancellation, disputes and how reviews work, written separately for sellers and buyers.
Supply and demand dashboard
One sheet that shows, for each city and category, live sellers, buyer enquiries, enquiries answered and orders completed.
How the result is measured
- Listed sellers who are active
- Enquiries answered by sellers
- Orders completed on the platform
- Cost to recruit an active seller
- Cost to bring a buyer to a first order
- Repeat orders by buyers and sellers
Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.
Every service, written for online marketplaces
Each has its own page: what it involves for online marketplaces, what you get, and what it is measured on.
- Lead generationGenerate leads for both sides of the platform, starting with the side that is short.
- SEOBuild search pages for each service and locality where real sellers are waiting.
- Local SEOShow up in each locality where your sellers actually work, one pincode at a time.
- Social media marketingUse social media to show real sellers and real orders, not slogans about the platform.
- Content marketingPublish guides that answer a seller's doubts and a buyer's worries, in separate voices.
- Buyer personasDescribe the seller and the buyer as real people before writing one line of marketing.
- CRMKeep sellers and buyers in one record system, with the side marked on every row.
- Follow-up systemsFollow up with sellers and buyers at the moments they are about to drift away.
- WhatsApp marketingUse WhatsApp to reach sellers and buyers in the app that they already open.
- Digital marketingPlan digital marketing around supply, so no paid click lands on an empty listing.
- WebsiteBuild the website with one door for sellers and another for buyers.
Worth a page and a campaign of their own
A seller recruitment list by city, locality and trade · Seller onboarding in Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu or the local language · Activation calls to listed sellers who have not responded · Buyer pages for each service in each locality · Review and rating collection after each completed order · Payment and dispute messaging that builds trust · Fee explanation written for a shop owner, not for investors · City-by-city view of supply against demand · WhatsApp reminders to sellers when a lead arrives
Priority campaigns
Campaigns for what online marketplaces most want to sell.
Each one planned around when your buyers decide, and measured against the baseline.
Neighbourhood launch
In one locality, a coordinated push: listings of nearby sellers, a WhatsApp group of buyers, a society-level poster and a first-order offer funded by the platform.
Seller referral drive
Sellers who have earned from the platform invite two others in their trade, with a reward paid only after the invitee's first completed order.
Reactivation of dormant sellers
A call and message cycle to listed accounts with no activity, asking what is stopping them and fixing what can be fixed.
Seasonal demand push
Campaigns for the months a category peaks, such as AC servicing before summer or tutors before exam season, backed by checked supply.
Review collection after delivery
A short message after each completed order, in the buyer's language, asking for a rating and one line.
Beyond search
Where we reach buyers of online marketplaces, beyond Google.
Search matters, but it is rarely the only way this industry's buyers find a supplier.
Field visits and trade associations
Market associations, dealer groups and service-provider unions are where sellers hear about new platforms.
Seller WhatsApp groups
Electricians, tutors and tailors swap leads and complaints in their own groups, so presence there is earned through a field executive the group knows, not broadcast posts.
Google search for the service
A buyer types a service and a locality, so each pairing with live sellers gets its own page, and a Google Business Profile is added where the platform has a place to list.
Instagram and local creators
For lifestyle, food and craft marketplaces, where a buyer browses photos before deciding, so seller spotlights and local creator posts do the work.
Society and community notice boards
In dense urban areas, apartment communities and resident groups put you in front of buyers of one locality at once. The poster and the group message go through the association's own office bearers.
Who it is for
This is written for these online marketplaces.
- Local services marketplaces for plumbers, electricians, tutors and beauty professionals
- B2B marketplaces connecting manufacturers and buyers
- Product marketplaces for a niche, such as handlooms, organic food or industrial spares
- Rental marketplaces for equipment, vehicles, furniture or space
- Freelance and talent marketplaces
- Agri marketplaces connecting farmers with buyers
- Used goods and refurbished device marketplaces
- Hyperlocal delivery marketplaces serving one town
- Travel and experiences marketplaces connecting local hosts and guests
Not for
It is not the right fit if.
- You want a guaranteed Google ranking or a guaranteed number of leads. Nobody honest can promise either.
- You need enquiries by next week and have nobody to answer them.
- You want posts and reach reported, not enquiries and orders.
How it works
How the work runs for online marketplaces
The work itself, in order. How an engagement starts, from your brief to a written scope, is set out on our method page.
- 1
Pin down the category and the cities
The category, the cities, the count of live sellers and the way a typical order starts are written down first.
- 2
Record the baseline
Sellers listed, sellers active, enquiries, enquiries answered, orders completed and where each started.
- 3
Choose one city and one category
The pick is a place where supply and demand can both be reached, not the whole map at once.
- 4
Recruit and activate, then open demand
Buyer-side campaigns begin only once enough sellers answer quickly.
- 5
Review against the baseline and copy
What worked in the first locality is documented and repeated in the next, with changes for local habits.
Where this fits
Three pieces of sales work, in this order.
GullySales builds every engagement from three pieces of sales work. This page is not one of them, but the same three steps apply to the business behind it.
Step 1
Sales audit
Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.
Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.
Step 2
Sales process design
One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.
Start here if every salesperson sells differently.
Step 3
Sales management
A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Start here if the team has targets and no routine.
FAQ
Questions online marketplaces ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
Should we recruit sellers or buyers first?
How do you stop sellers taking customers off the platform?
Do you handle seller onboarding calls?
Can you work only on the B2B side of our marketplace?
How is this different from the B2B wholesale marketplaces page?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
Part of Other. See the other industries in the sector.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.