Project description
Showplace is a project uniting the works by different designers in one place. Thus, the demand for the manufactures (low marketing cost allows to reduce the prices) and convenient discounts for the customers grow.
Target group: Upper middle income buyers of designer’s clothes and other items aged from 25 to 35.
Revenue: Percentage of sales.
Comparison
Etsy is the website for selling hand-made and vintage items and objects of art. It started as an online-shop to sell the things made by its creator and then turned into a great community (over 25 million users) to sell different items as well as to communicate and hold different activities (The Etsy Labs).
Target group: Customers. Clothes and other items designers.
Revenue: Percentage of a bargain (3.5%). Publication fee (20 cents).
Yarmarka Masterov (Craftsmen’s Fair – livemaster.ru) is a popular commercial platform to buy and sell designers’ items in Runet. Over 3.3 million potential customers from Russia, Ukraine and other countries visit the website every month. You can buy ready-made things or order something original. Livemaster.ru is not just a commercial website; it’s a community with the RSS news feeds, events and discussions.
Target group: Customers. Clothes and other items designers.
Revenue: Restrictions lifting fees (loyalty card purchase).
Marketplace project (p2p marketplace) provides a possibility of buying and selling different goods for young designers, collectors or just fashion lovers. The main difference of Marketplace from the similar resources like eBay, Amazon and the abovementioned one is that every seller at the website can have an access to ASOS.com manager account and receive a premium account at Marketplace for just 50 USD a month. Every e-boutique can take a picture of its products in Street chic style and then have the manager’s advice on sales maximizing.
Target group: Customers. Clothes and other items designers.
Revenue: Percentage of a bargain (10%). Consultation fee (50 USD a month).
Closed sales shop with a wide range of designer’s closes at low prices. The shop is created in June 2007. Now ideeli is one of the fastest developing retail chains in the USA with over 5 million participants and over 1000 brand partners. They present new collections for men, women and children as well as decoration and travelling items every day at 12 o’clock EST.
Key success factors:
1. There is a community aimed at attracting users and having an opportunity to sell products and the results of the community’s activity. The number of users should achieve the limit and you should use various marketing and product strategies to do that.
2. Trust. The users that can turn into sellers cannot be an odd person for the business-partners. They should trust the marketplace publishing their information to decide to complete a bargain.
3. Network effect. The network effect is the basic condition for every multilateral marketplace: a marketplace becomes more valuable as the number of its customers grows and the parties balance is maintained. The network effect can be achieved by combining the product promotion methods for all the customer’s groups.
4. You can compensate the low profitability of one bargain with a great number of bargains.
Advice
1. Such marketplaces are often opened in Russia (for examplehttp://www.reddesigners.ru andTrendsbrands.ru )
2. Such shops in the USA usually become a kind of a membership club. The membership aura, limited offer and “new collection” by the definite time allow to stimulate the demand artificially.
3. The business-model is built correctly. I added content development to the Activity category from the point of view of the marketplace style formation. Without the designers moderation according to the marketplace style it can get down to avito.ru.
4. The initial monetization method is correct; the “publication fee” should be left for the future till the project comes to its maturity, the designers’ community is formed and the brand is easily recognized.
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