Articles

The Future of Marketplace-as-a-Service: Trends for 2025 & Beyond

- Shyamala Rajan

In today’s fast-evolving digital economy, Marketplace-as-a-Service (MaaS) is rapidly emerging as a transformative force in B2B commerce. As enterprises seek faster, more scalable ways to launch digital marketplaces, MaaS platforms are reshaping the landscape by offering pre-built, customizable, and agile solutions. The ability to launch a marketplace quickly, securely, and at scale

With 2025 marking a tipping point for MaaS adoption across industries, companies that embrace this shift now will be better positioned to lead in the new era of digital commerce.

What is MaaS and Why it Matters for B2B

MaaS is a turnkey model that enables enterprises to launch, manage, and scale digital marketplaces without building everything from scratch. It provides all the essential components, tech infrastructure, partner onboarding tools, transaction workflows, analytics, and API integrations, delivered as a fully managed service.

With MaaS, businesses shift focus from platform engineering to value creation, letting them scale faster, reduce operational complexity, and unlock new monetization models. Unlike traditional marketplace models, which require heavy custom development, months of lead time, and significant CapEx, MaaS platforms offer:

  • Modular, API-driven architecture that is easy to configure and extend.
  • Rapid launch capabilities, enabling companies to go live in a fraction of the time.
  • Seamless integration with existing ERP, CRM, payment, and supply chain systems.

With MaaS, enterprises gain

  • Faster time-to-market to launch marketplaces in 3–6 months.
  • Lower setup and maintenance costs compared to custom builds.
  • Modular architecture for easy scaling across geographies and industries.
  • Built-in tools for partner onboarding, API management, analytics, and compliance.

MaaS: Core Trends Shaping 2025 and Beyond

1. Rise of industry-specific MaaS solutions: Tailored MaaS platforms for verticals like healthcare (e.g., telemedicine service marketplaces), telco (bundling connectivity, cloud, IoT, cybersecurity, and managed services for enterprise clients) logistics (freight-as-a-service platforms), and education (learning solutions marketplaces) are gaining traction.

2. AI and data-driven personalization: Leading MaaS platforms are embedding AI capabilities such as personalized search, intelligent buyer-seller matching, and dynamic pricing based on real-time market data.

3. Low-code/no-code configurability: Business users, not just developers, can now configure workflows, manage seller catalogs, and orchestrate user journeys without coding, reducing time-to-innovation cycles.

How MaaS Empowers the C-Suite to Scale Faster

1. Rapid time-to-market: Enterprises leveraging MaaS solutions typically achieve marketplace deployment 30-50% faster compared to traditional development

2. Operational agility and cost efficiency: MaaS significantly reduces upfront CapEx, optimizes operating expenses, and minimizes technical debt.

3. Built-in best practices: Out-of-the-box security, compliance, partner orchestration, and ecosystem management features reduce execution risk and ensure scalability.

Case examples

U.S. based telecom giant scaling a cloud marketplace across three regions in under six months

NTT DATA collaborated with a leading U.S. telecommunications company to implement a scaled agile framework, transforming their product development approach. This initiative reduced the time to market from an average of 2.5 years to less than six months, with some products launching in as few as 45 days. The transformation also led to a 33% reduction in the cost of bringing new products to the market.

Evaluating MaaS Providers: What to Look For

Selecting the right MaaS provider is a critical success factor. Essential evaluation criteria include:

1. Platform interoperability and API management: Ensure robust API support for easy integration across ERP, CRM, billing, and fulfillment systems.

2. Security, compliance, and localization: Look for built-in GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS compliance, plus support for localization across markets (currencies, languages, tax regulations).

3. Scalability for legacy integration: Choose providers that support hybrid deployments, enabling seamless scaling without disrupting existing systems.

The Economics of MaaS: Build vs Buy vs Partner

A careful TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) analysis typically reveals:

Model Cost Profile Time to Launch Customization
Build High upfront CapEx, high
maintenance
12–24 months Full control
Buy (MaaS) Lower upfront cost,
subscription Opex model
3–6 months High (modular/customizable)
Partner Shared investment and
operational ownership
6–9 months Medium

The Strategic Role of MaaS in Your 2025 Roadmap

Embedding MaaS into enterprise digital transformation strategies delivers compounded benefits:

1. Digital transformation alignment: Marketplaces built on MaaS platforms accelerate customer-centric innovation and agile business model pivots.

2. Adapting to new business models: MaaS supports revenue innovation, enabling subscription, pay-as-you-go, or consumption-based models seamlessly.

3. Key KPIs to monitor:

  • Gross Merchandise Value (GMV)
  • Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
  • Seller/Partner Activation Rates
  • Net Promoter Score (NPS) for both buyers and sellers

Conclusion: MaaS: Why Torry Harris?

As the platform economy redefines global business landscapes, leveraging a best-in-class MaaS provider is critical to winning the next decade.

Torry Harris delivers:

  • Deep expertise in composable digital marketplace architectures.
  • Industry-leading API integration and management capabilities.
  • White-label, modular MaaS accelerators for faster, more cost-efficient deployments.
  • Proven track record of building high-performance, scalable marketplaces across industries and regions.

Learn why MaaS is the go-to model for faster, lower-risk marketplace launches!

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Unlocking Digital Marketplace platform success

Strategies for maximum ROI

MAY 14, 2025

3 PM CEST/GMT+2

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as they dive into the latest trends in Marketplace-as-a-Service (MaaS), the transformative role of AI and APIs, and why outcome-based engagement models are the key to long-term success.

Guest Speaker

Joe Cicman

Principal Analyst, Forrester Research

Karthik TS

Head of Technology, Torry Harris

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About the author

Shyamala Rajan

Manager – Content Strategy,

Torry Harris Integration Solutions