.
new marketplace under development
.
[8 Points] None:
[6 Points] Vendor_BBMC:
The number one concern of vendors is unfettered access to our own takings.
Sheep Marketplace was really an excellent piece of software written by a piece of shit. I particularly liked its vendor gallery feature..
Agora is rather light on photos, Even Silk Road and SR2 allowed up to 4 photos per listing.. I have to compile them into collages and store them on photo hosting sites
http://anonimg.com/img/bb9748cc70a4d952ca6cc96ce66e2022.jpg
http://anonimg.com/img/41ba8bb1f528754d9aaa7d4264e749bb.jpg
Apart from handling pictures, agora has a really great vendor control panel, with a to-the-point mailbox for each order between the vendor and customer, and the usual general chit-chat mailbox. I like this approach. All the important stuff for each order stays with the order. Orders that require attention kind of float to the top of the page,so you can handle more orders before getting yourself in trouble like an MXE vendor.
About the only good thing I remember as a vendor on the original Silk Road was that there didn't seem to be many scammers. The admins didn't put up with any nonsense from vendors.
I like a marketplace to have very high vendor fees to discourage teenagers who've just grown their first pot plant from listing, but who don't make vendors like me pay a deposit! I've never got a deposit back from any marketplace.
At least scammers have to pay through the nose every 4 month cycle when they rename..
A few other suggestions to mull over:-
Know when to stop. pre-announce it. Enjoy your retirement.
Make everybody have Sunday off. There's no post on Sunday. Use it to do upgrades, or just close TOR and go outside and sit in the garden. Otherwise you'll get "TOR fatigue", and by the 4th month you'll rob your own site just to get a day off from the intrigue, scammers, victims, DDOS attacks, capcha codes and pushy customers sounding you out for blackmail with their "security hardening advice".
Think about how the sun is always shining on some drug market round the clock, and how you're going to recruit and handle Flemmish-speaking admins.
Offer reputable, experienced vendors on other marketplaces open-ended offers to become admins on your site. One day, when we're feeling fed up of drugs and envelopes, we'll weed out scammers and law-enforcement, because they're really easy to spot if you've been a vendor yourself.
It doesn't matter how many signature your escrow, without a fair arbiter to run it and rule on disputes. Escrow is the only way two anonymous parties can trade with confidence.
Keep yourself and your infrastructure away from the United States.
If you're going to implement a tumbler under the floorboards, make it an uncrackable, instant one like agora or localbitcoins. You click "withdraw", and somebody else's bitcoin which was already tumbled last night is immediately broadcast on the blockchain, from a different wallet each time.
[1 Points] AgroJoe:
While I dont think an invite only market will work (vendors want the maximum amount of buyers possible) if you are creating a new markets this is what I recommend:
Seperate your feedback into Domestic and International - Have a 2 stage feedback process. First is visible to the vendor, normal 5 star feedback type. Second is just a questionaire to all users "Did you receive? yes/no" Then you will be able to see stats on vendors to see the % of no shows they have... This will encourage people from hot countries (who make up a large percentage of buyers) to use your system. To often vendors will blackmail, bribe or trick users into leaving postive feedback even when thy do not receive.
This will almost eliminate selective scamming
[1 Points] edcrfvedc:
I'm a user not a vendor. That said how about a market that doesn't allow weapons or financial fraud?
I will never even begin to trust a market that allows the buying and selling of financial fraud items.
[1 Points] None:
[removed]
[1 Points] pmmeonc9-Mwhite:
Interesting!
I'm not a vendor, but I do have a word of advice- Look at the 'suggestion/feedback' forum folders at the other markets, and I'm sure you could find many cool/unique/useful/attractive features to implement.
As for asking vendors questions... let me give you a little advice. I have family in the business consulting field, and one of the things they teach their clients is to ask their customers what they think of their business, honestly not too much different from what you're trying to do. Of course you can just ask them their opinion, and I'm sure you will get some useful data. With that said, asking each of the vendors a prepared set of questions will enable them to think about each specific issue that interests you, instead of just getting a random assortment of ideas. Questions such as.... what did you like most about Evo's functionality, what were bottlenecks in the process, were there any market policies that hurt business, would you be fine paying a higher commission/a listing fee to allow bold text, additional pictures, etc....
Lastly, another great idea is to check out eBay. They have spent tens of millions of dollars improving their site if not more, and there's a very good reason why they have everything the way it is- ultimately so people have a good experience and spend more money. One specific example you can perhaps use is free and fast shipping. Search cell phone on eBay right now. Notice the listings that have free shipping actually say that in bold before you even click the item? Or if it ships quickly, there's a little logo that says that? There's a whole field dedicated to having websites, programs and other interfaces flow better- its called UX, or user experience. Even if you don't delve into this personally, finding someone with this skillset can perhaps give your market the unique advantages that cause it to grow at an accelerated rate.
HTH