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Questions and thoughts on making vintage shopping easier

Discussion in 'PUBLIC Vintage Chatter - Anything and everything' started by Bowbari, Sep 14, 2011.

  1. Bowbari

    Bowbari Registered Guest

    Hi, all! I'm new and hope I'm posting in the right place.

    I did do my homework and spent nearly 3 hours reading through previous posts - and I'm in awe. You all are like a mighty combo of historians and palm readers, you know so much by looking at a garment and a tag!

    I am transitioning from the marketing and automotive world and aim to start a new web-based, vintage-focused fashion business to make shopping easier.

    I've done some market research on the consumer side and I've learned that vintage shoppers sometimes find the task of searching for a perfect piece to be tedious because there are so many places to search.

    So I wonder, might it be worthwhile for sellers to re-post for-sale items in a single aggregated location? This would create one single location for vintage hunters (and huntresses!) to find exactly what they need. Pair aggregation with a consistent search and size mechanism, and we might really make vintage shopping easier.

    What do you think? Would you be willing to try this out in hopes of greater exposure, and connecting with buyers who are searching for exactly what you have? Has this already been done? If so, I want to shop here, so please tell me where it is :)

    This service is not yet built and I expect the idea will evolve as we learn more. Additionally, it will start out free and if it works, will eventually charge a low monthly subscription based on volume of (re)posts.

    I'm happiest when surrounded by beautiful things with wonderful stories, and since I know more about business and marketing than the actual clothing pieces, I figured I could enter the business on the marketing end. This could be a great way for me to learn about what I love, but I look to you for feedback to ensure I'm not being idealistic, but am being realistic in terms of what amount of additional time, effort, and money sellers will contribute to reach a greater audience and increase sales.

    Holy long sentences. I must be excited.

    Thank you for reading!

    Ariel
     
    Bowbari, Sep 14, 2011
    #1
  2. cactusandcattails

    cactusandcattails VFG Member VFG Past President

    Welcome Ariel!

    I do think there are a few sites that do this, or have attempted to at least. It sounds like a huge undertaking.
     
    cactusandcattails, Sep 14, 2011
    #2
  3. Retro Ruth

    Retro Ruth VFG Member Staff Member

    Hi and welcome.

    Here are my thoughts.

    It's very ambitious. It sounds like you are proposing a new marketplace site. A lot of very big players are already doing this, but with a wider market than just vintage. Perhaps there might be room for a niche site, but you are still competing against etsy and ebay, ruby lane, artfire, etc. You need to ask yourself why buyers and sellers would come to you rather than other existing sites. Consistent search terms across sellers would be wonderful, but near impossible to achieve. Ebay barely manage it, so are you sure you can?

    Or do you mean to do a shopping search engine site, that links to existing sites rather than having it's own listings? Like google shopping or Kelkoo or Ciao, but specific to vintage clothing. That might be more achievable. These are usually paid for by click-throughs, I believe. I've come across one that allows you to search all the UK online charity shops, but I can't find it now. Again it would be near impossible to have consistent search terms across lots of sellers.

    With either type of site you are talking about building a new search engine, and it sounds like you want to effective searching to be your USP, so it'd need to be a good one. That's a massive piece of programming - do you have the resources for this?

    Sorry if I sound like I'm throwing cold water on the project, but these are important questions if you are serious.

    That said, as a seller I'd probably try something if it was free, and not too time consuming. (Though I'm yet to check out artfire, and I believe that's free.)

    Ruth
     
    Retro Ruth, Sep 15, 2011
    #3
  4. jauntyrooster

    jauntyrooster Alumni

    I think you could have trouble with a subscription fee. There are lots of places for vintage sellers to promote for free and more continue to pop up. If you could prove that your site increased their sales then perhaps...
     
    jauntyrooster, Sep 15, 2011
    #4

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