Marketplace Best Practices

An actionable guide to building, launching, and scaling successful digital marketplaces — written by the industry leaders at McFadyen Digital.

Discover proven strategies from top global brands like Best Buy Canada, AB InBev, and Uber

Learn the step-by-step process to build and scale your own marketplace

Gain insights into what drives growth, engagement, and long-term success in platform commerce

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BOOK FEATURES

What You'll Learn

Understand the Marketplace Model

Explore the platform model powering today’s digital leaders — and why marketplaces represent the future of commerce across B2C, B2B, and services industries.

Build & Launch a Marketplace

From strategy to execution — get expert insights on planning, building, launching, and scaling a marketplace tailored to your business goals.

Win with the Marketplace Model

Uncover success stories from global innovators and learn how they’ve harnessed the marketplace advantage to drive growth and customer loyalty.

About the Book

Marketplace Best Practices is the definitive playbook for launching and growing successful online marketplaces. Written by Tom McFadyen and the expert team at McFadyen Digital, the book distills decades of hands-on experience into a clear and actionable guide for ecommerce leaders, innovators, and transformation-minded executives.

In this book, you’ll find:

A deep dive into marketplace economics, architecture, and technology

Strategic frameworks and operating models for long-term growth

Proven implementation methodologies and optimization techniques

Guidance on selecting the right partners and avoiding common pitfalls

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What's Inside the Book

Part I

Understanding the Marketplace Model

This opening section lays the strategic foundation for embracing the online marketplace model. It explains how the platform economy is reshaping commerce across industries and explores different types of marketplace business models (B2C, B2B, C2B, services).

You’ll gain clarity on the financial mechanics, features, and maturity stages of a marketplace — equipping you to evaluate where your organization stands and where it can go.

Part II

Learning from Marketplace Leaders

Get inspired by real-world stories of companies that have successfully adopted and scaled marketplace models. This section showcases case studies from some of the world’s most recognized brands across retail, services, loyalty, and B2B verticals.

Each example highlights key lessons, strategic decisions, and the impact that marketplaces have made on their business outcomes.

Part III

Building and Scaling Your Marketplace

This practical guide walks you through the entire process of building, launching, and growing a marketplace — from strategic planning to operational execution. You’ll learn how to make key architectural decisions, onboard sellers, manage data, structure your team, optimize user experience, and continuously evolve the platform.

It also includes best practices, implementation approaches, and frameworks that can help de-risk your journey and accelerate success.

About the Author

With 20+ years of hands-on experience across hundreds of digital commerce and marketplace projects, Tom McFadyen is a pioneer of platform commerce. As founder and CEO of McFadyen Digital, he has helped some of the world’s most recognizable brands design, launch, and optimize enterprise marketplaces that now generate tens of billions in annual revenue.

Tom is a respected leader and frequent contributor to NRF, YPO, and EO communities. This book brings together the collective expertise of McFadyen’s global team of strategists, architects, and implementers — making it the most practical and complete marketplace reference available today.

Contributors include: