Creating an online marketplace for my province/country?

Discussion in 'General Business' started by xTrYiPiCz---, Sep 16, 2011.

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  1. #1
    Ok well today I have thought a lot, and I came up with an idea to create an online marketplace (like ebay) for my country/province.


    Well there are currently 2 other online marketplaces for my province, so it's probably going to be hard :\

    My province has 600k people, and I live in italy. I think there would be quite a lot of people interested in selling their objects online, and they can locally pick them up or ship them. I am also than going to advertise it on local newspapers etc.

    What do you guys think of this idea?
     
    xTrYiPiCz---, Sep 16, 2011 IP
  2. w3bmaster

    w3bmaster Notable Member

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    #2
    Why not give it a try ...
     
    w3bmaster, Sep 16, 2011 IP
  3. MattVit

    MattVit Peon

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    #3
    It's a pretty specific marketplace. I doubt even 1% of the population will use it. There are 250~ million people in the US, for example, and only a tiny fraction actually use eBay.

    Don't forget the start-up costs. To custom program something like that, you're looking at $5,000 to $10,000 just to program it, and then you'll need to hire a designer to work with them at $1,000 to $5,000. Then you'll need to constantly manage it and re-hire a programmer when there are errors or when the site is hacked.

    What do you offer that eBay doesn't?
     
    MattVit, Sep 16, 2011 IP
  4. jhardy2008

    jhardy2008 Peon

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    #4
    nice idea.... make your website like buy & sell classified.
     
    jhardy2008, Sep 20, 2011 IP
  5. g36

    g36 Peon

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    #5
    I think it's nice idea, why don't you try it?

    I don't believe if only 1% of US population use ebay. There are more than 1% of people use ebay in US.
     
    g36, Sep 21, 2011 IP
  6. tradester

    tradester Well-Known Member

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    #6
    Not a bad idea-creating geographic marketplace. Though you need to think more about your revenue model especially if yr initial catchment market is small 600K. You may have to charge some low fee. You need to differentiate from other global marketplaces like ebay. What makes your marketplace unique? Like maybe it is in Italian language and focused on local provincial needs and maybe offer help to those illiterate with online buying and selling. Research best local offline classifieds paper and see if you can grab some of their customers. See how much they charge and offer for a start lower price, set up hotline for interested customers to call you and you can post their ad for them on your site etc.
    Advertising them offline may be expensive but you can attract non-web savvy customers whom you can convert to use your service.
    As they say, many ways of skinning the cat but you need to do more research :)
     
    tradester, Sep 23, 2011 IP