Allowing users to follow or like each other can have several positive impacts. It can promote the community aspect of your marketplace by helping to build closer relationships between buyers and sellers. It can also provide useful data that can be used in product recommendations.
Most importantly, it can increase network effects by making one side of your platform (e.g. buyers) more engaged, which creates more value for the other side (sellers). This strategy has been successfully implemented by global marketplaces like Airbnb (wish lists) and Etsy (favourites).
We built similar curation tools for our client, Affordable Art Fair. Their buyers can favourite or unfavourite individual product listings, as well as follow or unfollow artists and galleries. Buyers are notified when artists or galleries they follow add new artworks, while favourited items are used to recommend similar art in a more accurate manner.
This has helped buyers to explore the Affordable Art Fair platform in more detail, leading to higher engagement rates and increased sales.
Do you have a list of features in mind?
We can help you select and implement the right features for your marketplace.