Fusion is considered as one of the most attractive carbon-free energy sources with the potential to play a vital role in meeting long-term global energy needs. Research into fusion has accelerated over the past few years with more participation now seen from the private sector. Fusion is making an important transition from fundamental research to the delivery of power plants at commercial scale. Delivering fusion in a timely manner and at competitive costs still remains a challenge. This paper proposes the use of platform-based design approach as a means to address the challenges of high cost and long development times for future fusion power plants. A platform is defined as a collection of materials, parts, subsystems, interfaces, technologies, manufacturing processes and knowledge that are commonly shared by a set of products or product family in order to allow the development of derivative products faster and cost-effectively. Platform design delivers cost and time efficiencies through standardisation and economies of scale and increases design flexibility and future options. It can also allow ease upgradability of a powerplant in order to exploit future technological advances, maximise benefit from high initial cost of delivering a fusion power plant, reduce manufacturing complexity, help to create a sustainable and competitive supply chain, and enable development of designs that are easier to build, operate and maintain. Key areas of platform implementation for fusion are likely to be around standardisation and creation of designs that are flexible, modular and scalable.