Discuss your marketplace

01Services

Six services · One lifecycle · Three starting offers

Marketplace development services for the whole lifecycle.

Start here

Discuss your marketplaceExplore marketplace work

The model

One team takes a service marketplace from the first model to a platform that buyers, providers, operators and their software agents can transact through. Strategy, design, engineering and growth stay connected, so nothing is handed over the wall.

Models
Booking, request, quote, rental, managed
Foundations
Bespoke, MarketStarter, Sharetribe, Medusa
Pace
Agent-accelerated, human-led

One connected lifecycle · The platform decision sits inside the method

Scroll for each service

  1. 01ValidateModel, supply plan, unit economics
  2. 02DesignJourneys for every side of the market
  3. 03BuildBespoke or platform, agent-ready
  4. 04LaunchDensity first, then reach
  5. 05ModerniseReplatform without losing equity
  6. 06GrowLiquidity, trust, operations

01Marketplace strategy & validation

Prove the model before you build the platform.

Service marketplaces live or die on economics and supply more than code. We validate the transaction model, the take rate, the supply plan and the operator load before anyone commits to a build. The output is a decision you can defend to a board or an investor.

Explore marketplace strategy
Three colleagues at a whiteboard mapping providers, bookings, payments and buyers with arrows and sticky notes.
FIG. 01Mapping supply, demand and the transaction before scope is agreed

What sits under it

  1. Marketplace consultancy

    Independent advice on model, platform and sequencing.

  2. Marketplace validation

    Supply interviews, demand tests and unit economics tested against evidence.

  3. Business model, pricing & take rate

    Commission, subscription, lead fee or hybrid, chosen on evidence.

  4. Supply & demand planning

    Which side to win first and how dense a launch has to be.

  5. Service Marketplace Blueprint

    The fixed-scope starting offer: model, risk map, MVP scope, go or no-go.

02Marketplace UX & product design

Design for every side of the market, not just the buyer.

Buyers, providers and operators each need their own journey, and the marketplace only works when all three hold together. We design the search, booking, quoting, onboarding and dispute flows as one system, then prototype and test them with real providers.

Explore marketplace UX design
Overhead view of a desk with a hand sketching a booking flow, a printed booking journey map, sticky notes, a laptop and a phone showing a rental listing.
FIG. 02Booking and provider journeys sketched on paper before a single screen is built

What sits under it

  1. Marketplace UX design

    Search, filters, listing pages and checkout tuned to how the service is actually bought.

  2. Booking, request & quote journeys

    The right transaction model for the job, from instant booking to managed quotes.

  3. Provider onboarding design

    Verification, profile and availability flows that make it simple for providers to go live.

  4. Trust & verification design

    Reviews, badges, guarantees and dispute paths that help strangers trust each other enough to transact.

  5. Prototyping & user testing

    Clickable prototypes tested with real buyers and providers before build.

03Marketplace development & integration

Bespoke or platform, built to transact from day one.

We choose the foundation to fit the model, not the other way round. That can be MarketStarter, our sibling product, or Sharetribe, Medusa, Mercur or fully bespoke code. Payments, payouts, messaging, reviews and disputes are engineered in from the start.

Explore marketplace development
Two developers at a curved monitor in a dim studio, one pointing at a marketplace admin dashboard with listings and a transaction flow diagram.
FIG. 03Transaction flows, payouts and admin tooling built as one system

What sits under it

  1. Custom marketplace development

    Owned code for models no platform handles cleanly.

  2. Platform builds

    MarketStarter, Sharetribe, Medusa and Mercur, configured and extended.

  3. Payments, payouts & escrow

    Stripe Connect, staged payments, deposits and refunds done properly.

  4. Messaging, reviews & disputes

    Trust features designed to support transactions on the platform.

  5. Integrations & APIs

    CRM, calendars, accounting, identity checks and third-party supply.

  • Bespoke

    Owned code when the transaction model is unusual or the moat is the product itself.

  • MarketStarter

    Our sibling product. Fast to launch for service and booking marketplaces, disclosed as such.

  • Sharetribe · Medusa · Mercur

    Recommended when they fit. We tell you when they don't and what it costs to leave later.

  • WooCommerce

    For product-led multi-vendor commerce that doesn't need service transactions.

04Agentic marketplace implementation

Make your supply legible to agents. Keep people in control.

Two colleagues in a bright office studying a wall display of provider profiles and status checks, one gesturing as she explains.
FIG. 04Operators reviewing agent activity against the rules they set

Why it matters now

Assistants can help buyers with discovery and comparison. Providers can use agents to structure and distribute supply. Operators can use them to onboard, moderate and resolve exceptions. Supply that agents can read, price and transact with gives a marketplace a way into that assistant-led discovery.

Our stance is governed participation, not a self-operating marketplace. Agents act inside identity, permissions, policy and deterministic controls, with a person on every escalation.

Explore agentic implementation

What sits under it

  1. Agent-Ready Marketplace Audit

    Seven-area readiness review with a prioritised roadmap, not a score.

  2. AI search & matching

    Conversational discovery where it helps, structured filters where they still win.

  3. Machine-readable supply

    Listings, availability and pricing that assistants can read and trust.

  4. Agent permissions & governance

    Identity, authority limits and policy checks for buyer, provider and operator agents.

  5. Human escalation design

    Clear hand-offs so a person decides when the rules run out.

05Marketplace modernisation

Replatform while protecting customers, data and search equity.

Ageing marketplaces carry years of supply, reviews, rankings and habits. We stage the move to support trading continuity, map and redirect the URLs that earn demand, and plan the change so providers find a better platform rather than a new one to learn.

Explore marketplace modernisation

The migration sequence

  1. Assess

    Architecture, data, UX, SEO and cost of staying put. This is the Marketplace Modernisation Assessment.

  2. Protect

    URL map, redirects and structured data, set up to help preserve the pages that bring demand.

  3. Migrate

    Supply, reviews, bookings and payment history moved in stages, with provider cut-over planned in advance.

  4. Improve

    The backlog you could never ship on the old platform, released in order of commercial value.

A team in a bright office reviewing a wall screen that shows an old platform beside a redesigned marketplace, one woman pointing at the new design while colleagues work on laptops.
FIG. 05Old and new platforms planned to run side by side through a staged provider migration

What sits under it

  1. Marketplace replatforming

    From a hosted platform or legacy code to a foundation you own.

  2. Sharetribe graduation

    Moving off Sharetribe once the model outgrows it, with the breaking points mapped before anything moves.

  3. Data & supply migration

    Providers, listings, reviews, availability and payment records, carried across and reconciled.

  4. SEO equity protection

    Redirect maps and structured data to help preserve valuable URLs and search visibility.

06Marketplace growth & operations

Launch is the start. Liquidity is the job.

A marketplace needs supply activated, demand arriving from search and paid channels, leakage controlled and the platform kept fast and secure. We run this as one ongoing team so the model, the product and the numbers stay connected.

Explore growth & operations
A woman wearing a headset takes a call at a standing desk, her laptop showing a map dotted with provider locations, in a busy open-plan office.
FIG. 06Provider outreach and activation, tracked against coverage by area

What sits under it

  1. Marketplace SEO

    Category, location and listing architecture that earns demand on both sides.

  2. Google Ads & paid acquisition

    Paid search and social tuned to cost per booking, not cost per click.

  3. Provider outreach & activation

    Getting supply live, verified and responding in the areas demand is waiting.

  4. Hosting, support & continuous engineering

    Managed hosting, monitoring, security and a standing engineering allowance.

  5. Liquidity & leakage control

    Match rates, response times and the off-platform behaviour that erodes take rate.

07Three ways to start

Fixed scope · Written recommendation · A decision at the end

Start with a decision, not a proposal.

Each starting offer is short, fixed in scope and ends with a written recommendation you own. You may continue into a build with us. You may not, and that is the point.

  1. Service Marketplace Blueprint

    Best for · New marketplace or new vertical

    A validated model, transaction design, risk map, MVP scope and a go or no-go recommendation.

    • Supply and demand interviews
    • Take rate and unit economics
    • Transaction model decision
    • Platform recommendation
    • Scoped MVP and roadmap
    Ask about the Blueprint

  2. Marketplace Modernisation Assessment

    Best for · Legacy or constrained marketplace

    An architecture, data, UX, SEO and migration plan with the risks and costs of each route.

    • Architecture and code review
    • Data and supply audit
    • SEO equity map
    • Migration sequence
    • Cost of staying versus moving
    Ask about the Assessment

  3. Agent-Ready Marketplace Audit

    Best for · Existing marketplace preparing for AI-led discovery

    A readiness assessment across seven areas and a prioritised implementation roadmap.

    • Discovery and machine-readable supply
    • Live availability and pricing
    • Identity, authority and permissions
    • Transaction and payment readiness
    • Trust, policy and dispute controls
    Ask about the Audit

08Services in practice

Three marketplaces · From the portfolio

Selected work from the portfolio.

Three marketplaces from the Markko portfolio. Each tile notes the recorded scope or the audiences served.

See all marketplace work
  • Kinurture provider search: category filters above profile cards of local family-service providers

    01Family services marketplace

    Kinurture

    Strategy · UX · Build · Growth

    View project

  • 02Sponsorship marketplace

    A two-sided market for sponsors and the properties they back.

    Marketplace UX · Build

    View project
  • WorkVans listing grid of commercial vans and pickups with prices and monthly finance

    03B2B vehicle marketplace

    WorkVans

    Buyers, dealers & fleet operators

    View project

12Start a conversation

No deck · No pitch

Tell us about the marketplace you want to run.

Start here

Review the starting pointsExplore marketplace work

What happens

A short call to understand the model, the stage you are at and whether one of the starting points fits. No deck, no pitch.

Reach
Global marketplace agency
Focus
Service marketplaces
Delivery
AI-native, agentic, people in control