Would a community marketplace, organized in categories like Jow Forums is organized in boards (fashion, tech, etc.), that doesn’t take a service fee as percentage but instead takes a flat subscription fee from seller (like netflix/apple music) be successful?
A very low at that, let’s say $5-10/month
Why the fuck would you want that instead of Amazon or Craiglist you absolute brainlet?
Unless you have a small local counterculture niche to serve with this it's pretty hopeless to get anything going.
And if you do the thing doesn't need to be anything special, you could literally toss up a static bulletin board you'd update when/if people send their offers via email or whatsapp or whatever. Start milking it when the circles start moving money properly.
Maybe. Build it, market it and find out playa.
because amazon charges way way more to sellers.
Craiglist is just an ads websites. No tools to complete a transaction on it (a payment gate or paypal checkout), so way to leave users feedback nor curators (as far as I know).
There are many niche cultures like these. Clothing reselling, used tech/smartphones/Tablets, or new but harder to find, people wanting to sell vynils like on discog, or watches.
1/3 there. Built it, only deciding how to monetize it. The classic % service fee is not an option.
>The classic % service fee is not an option.
No not at first. Keep it free for awhile. Figure out how to monetize well after you've built it.
death grips guy has some cool tattoos
OP, let's talk
Probably not. If you are appealing towards smaller sellers than this wouldn't work. Also, see very noided
We would start with $2/month, we can’t do less because we must be able to cover our expenses (servers, etc.).
Similar niche marketplaces websites and apps that are born in the last few years had explosive growth at the beginning. We have a very good product.
Also not true, even if you sell only 1 item at $100 on ebay or similar niche marketplaces you’d pay $6, on our site only $5 (after the trial months at $2, it would be $5/month if you sell 10).
After we have a small income we would offer a first free month (using unique paypal payerID, so no you cant make infinite free accounts).
I’m all ears.
So even if sell only one item it would be cheaper to sell with us, and even more worth it for every other item or more expensive item you sell.
If next month you dont want to sell, just stop your subscription through paypal.
If you have items in your store they freeze. Nobody can contact you about them, send you offers, see them, buy them. If years later you need to sell something else, or just re-subscribe, all the frozen item in your store are unfrozen, and you can keep going from where you left (with the followers they had/offers they had etc.).
Right now we only do few “boards”, the more we add the more worth it it is to sell if you sell items for different “boards”.
Also, don’t suggest ads for the first period. Thats not how it works, and we hate ads.
we can’t be free at the beginning we don’t have backing. We could accept donations, but it would be unreliable. but if we go with a subscription service it can work out, even if we would place a strict roof on our heads.
But neflix is several times cheaper than renting vhs was in the 90s. It doesnt mean Netflix didn’t work out fine.
bump
How about micro transactions where I pay you more to have my items stickied at the top of a particular category?
We taught about this already in the team, it would be fun to have an auction for the first 10 positions. The market chooses the price, auctions start at $0.
Normally you get a bump for an item every week, so it goes back on top, those are a limited amount to keep going you need to do pricecuts (just like facebook and other websites)
we were also thinking about a third tier for “pro” sellers. A tiny more expensive, and you purchase packs of months (like 3 months minimum), and you get some perks.
Sounds interesting. I think most sellers would try it. r/flipping would be a good place to promote and get ideas for the platform.
yeah, I know that sub.
Another idea was to go with a mixed system at the beginning.
People only need to pay their listing. 1 listing is $2, 10 listing is $5, infinite listing for 30days is $10.
It’s even cheaper if you know what you are doing.
We can survive and grow like this, and one day we can get better services/investor if we ever make it.
Isn’t this even more convenient for users? Would it bother people to have to pay a tiny bit in advance (the listing price) even if there is no fee? Most websites now dont have listing fees anymore, only service fees.
Start at $2 a month that's nothing. I'd try it. What's the name of the thing? Have you launched it yet? Can I sign up for beta?
We are so close, but we can’t show it just yet. Except our monetization everything else already work.
You can even buy/sell already, for free.
I can’t post a link on Jow Forums just yet. As much as I’d like a new pair of eyes and an uninterested opinion on the project, we’ll have to wait launch.
I’ll for sure post it on /fa/. Probably Jow Forums too.
Thank you for your support and trust.
Is that the Niggers father on the wall?