Brand colours · Marketplace
Brand colours for marketplace startups
A ready-to-use palette for a marketplace brand, tested for contrast and shown on a real app screen, pitch deck and business card. Copy the hex codes, or use it to see what good looks like before you choose your own.
Meet the sample brand
To show the palette working, we built it for a fictional marketplace company.
How it should feel
Big marketplaces own their colours hard. Matching one makes you look like a clone. So Haat goes a different way, using bazaar orange as its signature and teal thread for the moments that matter.
Fonts: Outfit for headings, Inter for body text.
The palette
Four colours, each with one job. Click any swatch to copy its hex code.
Bazaar Orange
#E4692A · RGB 228, 105, 42A lively orange that feels like a busy market and works for buttons.
Teal Thread
#1E8C8C · RGB 30, 140, 140A cool counterweight for seller tools and trust badges.
Walnut
#2A1E17 · RGB 42, 30, 23Woody near-black that frames product photos well.
Canvas
#F7F2EA · RGB 247, 242, 234A neutral that never clashes with thousands of listing photos.
A good split: mostly light, dark for text, primary for key moments, accent sparingly.
The palette in use
Colours only prove themselves on real things. Here it is on the three places a marketplace startup shows up first.
App screen
Pitch deck slide
Business card, front and back
Contrast check
Text must stay readable. We checked each pairing against the WCAG standard, where 4.5 to 1 passes for body text.
| Use | Sample | Ratio | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Body text | Aa Haat | 14.5 : 1 | Pass AA |
| Text on primary | Aa Haat | 5.7 : 1 | Pass AA |
| Accent on dark | Aa Haat | 4.0 : 1 | Large text only |
| Primary on light | Aa Haat | 3.0 : 1 | Avoid for text |
| Light on dark | Aa Haat | 14.5 : 1 | Pass AA |
What to know about colour in marketplace
The palette is only a start. These are the traps we see most in this industry.
What the category already owns
Big marketplaces own their colours hard. Matching one makes you look like a clone.
Avoid
- A loud background that fights the listing photos.
- Different colours for buyer and seller apps, so both sides feel like different companies.
Test the palette with 12 real, messy listing photos on one screen. A marketplace brand must frame other people's images.
Choose your own in four steps
Use the sample as a reference, then make it yours.
Write your positioning
Colour follows strategy. Know who you serve and how you want them to feel first.
Map the competition
Screenshot five marketplace competitors and note the colours they own. Pick a lane nobody holds.
Build four colours
A primary, an accent, a dark and a light. Check contrast before anything else.
Test it on real things
Your app, a deck slide and the place customers meet you offline. Fix what fails.
Questions
What are good brand colours for a marketplace startup?
Start from a primary that the category does not already own. Big marketplaces own their colours hard. Matching one makes you look like a clone. The sample palette here uses Bazaar Orange (#E4692A) as the primary with Teal Thread (#1E8C8C) as the accent.
How many colours should a startup brand have?
Four is enough: a primary, an accent, a dark for text and a light for backgrounds. Use them roughly 60, 30 and 10 percent, with the accent the smallest share.
Can I use this palette for my own brand?
Yes, it is free to use as a starting point. Change at least the primary so it fits your positioning and stands apart from your competitors.
How does Astitva choose brand colours?
Astitva writes your brand strategy from a short brief, suggests a palette that fits it, checks the text contrast and then uses the same colours across your logo, brand book and pitch deck.
More for marketplace founders
Every guide for this industry, in one place.
Get a palette made for your startup
Astitva writes your brand strategy from a short brief, picks colours that fit it, checks contrast, and uses them across your logo, brand book and pitch deck.
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