I am going to start a new online business, and I was looking for some help from the DP community. I am not going to give away my business plan, obviously, but I will try to be as detailed as possible. I want to start a site where people can list their used items for sale, similar to auction sites like ebay, but just straight prices no auctions. I want people to be able to list their item for sale, and then be able to accept the payment (probably paypal) and them they are required to ship the item. I am not sure what would be the best way to go about this though, should I do it ebay style where the people are responsible for accepting the payment and shipping, they just use my site as place to do so, or should I accpet the payments and pay out accordingly? I was considering charging just a percentage fee, most likely 10-15% of the total sale? What do you guys think?
That is a good idea and there is an ASP script that works the way you describe. I have to go offline now, but I will get back to check this thread and provide you with further details.
It would be great if you could give me more info on this script, I am relatively new to making websites so I know this is going to be a big project, I am shooting to open it this winter, I am going to give myself a few months, I want this to be a successful site and I plan on working my ass of on it.
Hmm, I'm curious how this will go. I wonder how trusting people will be in buying other people's items if there isn't some kind of reputation system (I'm not sure whether you plan to implement that). Then if you do go with one, you have to get into scams and insurance and the like. I'm not knowledgeable about this, but I just wanted to throw the idea out there.. I also think 10-15% is too high of a charge. If I were to put up something for sale on your site and you had that rate, I would probably try and find ways to contact potential buyers and negotiate another means (like ebay) to do the transaction. Still, I hope this works out for you.
I was thinking of creating a reputation system, which is not too hard. How about I just charge a flat rate to list items? Like 50 cents per item?
I'm back online and ready to browse my scripts. This one I'm telling can also be setup to run live auctions, like those you attend offline at fine art stores or antiques bazaars. I collected a large number of script during the early 2000's when I was learning ASP and despite have a Windows hosting service to test, I was not aware how sites like eBay, Bidz and others work. Today I'm more knowledgeable and that is why I believe this script, which name I don't remember, can help for this purpose, however I know it must somewhere in my collection. Let me check
Just my 2cents But its been done a thousand times over... If I was yourself I would give it some serious thought to locales your public, to a town or city, that will also give you the opportunity to do some offline marketing at very little expense (flyer's etc..), and not only that but encourage buyers as they would kinda know to whom they are dealing with, which will overcome their fears of getting scammed etc...
A flat rate I think would work better per listing, like they do it on ebay. If you charge under 1.00 for a listing fee (people generally seem to be passive about anything under a dollar), you would of course have to rely on a high number of listings, and thus you'd really need to advertise the business. Also, if I were you, I'd try to focus on asking myself, "why should people choose to deal through my business instead of craigslist/ebay/ect?" So I'd think you'd need some kind of catcher. I can't think of one at the moment.
Yea I think what you are describing is Craigslist (except craigslist is free). Seems like you are kinda screwed in this market, but who knows.
I would say go with escrow so the buyers feel safer and add those little stupid "Hacker Safe" logos at the bottom, so people feel even safer. I would suggest you start this within your city or town and then expand throughout your country, bcuz if u make it worldwide, why would people use your site when there is ebay etc. Also, if you start it within your city/town, make sure the main language of your country is the main language of the site. Put ads on your local newspapers, or put the hot products on your news papers and the lowest price of that product etc.. i hope you get the idea. by the way, PM me if you want more ideas, I have some ideas that will get you some traffic and members, PM me if you want them, bcuz i dont want to list them here and give away your tricks
I second the idea of making this local. It's way too much to bite off, to try and compete nationally with similar companies that have 20,000+ employees. Pick a local city and develop an exchange based site and then you can do offline marketing to help with promotion.
Here's just an idea- have you considered making a craigslist for foreigners? I know many foreigners in my city and it would be great if you had like a multilingual site where, for example, Thai people, Spanish people, ect could connect to each other through your site. They could buy/sell, advertise services/jobs (as could English speakers who are looking to hire foreigners)/rooms for rent/ect.. they could also use it as a way to simply connect with their fellow countrymen.. In fact I'm thinking this would be a good idea.. pm me if you'd like to talk.
First position, then execution. I really think you're running up hill. Competition is not going to be, it's already fierce.