Digital Platform Business: Transaction Process Design

Abstract

The emergence of digital platform business models (DPBM) across various industries continues (Ribaudo, William, 2016; Parker et al., 2017) and has also significantly influenced the domestic cleaning service (DCS) market in Switzerland (Schwiter & Keller, 2020). Conventional agencies are facing competition from digital platform (DP) businesses that transformed the way DCS is accessed and delivered nowadays (Aufgaben - Allpura – Verband Schweizer Reinigungsunternehmen, 2022). A growing number of self-employed cleaners have started offering their service directly to private households (Gnehm, 2021), while DCS platforms support both market-sides in their transactions. In particular, they facilitate distinct transactions; for example, the match of providers and consumers (haushaltshilfen.ch) or the service for the employment contract setup (quit.ch). With their asset-light approach, focusing only on their core interaction and leaving other transactions to external parties, they lack provide enough value to retain platform users for recurring transactions (Wortmann et al., 2022). The result is a highly fragmented market (Wortmann et al., 2022) and dissatisfied participants of both market-sides. Their coordination and communication efforts are spread across multiple channels, which leads to potential misunderstandings. This puts DP at risk of losing participants in their network, despite having the capabilities of digital technologies to orchestrate all DCS transactions in a holistic process through a single online channel (Cusumano et al., 2019).