

Ask HN: What would you like to see in a new online marketplace? - muoncf

Greetings,<p>We (me and a co-founder) are working on an online market service. Basically, we think eBay is terrible and are committed to building something better. UI issues aside (which is not to say that those aren't important), we're mostly concerned with building something that makes people more comfortable with using such a platform for pretty much anything they can buy/sell. It's a big dream, yes, but we're giving it the best we can.<p>Now, we know what we like to see in such a platform ourselves. But here's a small list of tihngs we'd like to ask:<p>1. What complaints do you have about eBay? What do you think could've been done much better?<p>2. What would be your prefered way of trading over the internet, and would make you more inclined to make extensive use of such a service? A trusted broker, a peer-to-peer kind of service as is used by most online markets right now, or something different altogether?<p>3. If you work in a sector that makes extensive use of outside suppliers and retailers, would you think you might make use of a more central internet retailer that handles the buy/sell orders of many clients?<p>4. Is there anything in particular you'd very much like to see implemented in an online marketplace?<p>Those are our questions. We would very much appreciate it if you could take a bit of your time to fill it in, and obviously hope to be your online marketplace of choice in the future!
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Clotho
1\. Too expensive for the seller. Lots of games are played with the rating
system - discerning who is honest and who isn't gets to be about reading
between the lines in the comments rather than using the star system. The
'local only'function works poorly.

2\. I like the auction house paradigm, but would like one that was more third
party friendly so people could personalize the experience.

3\. No. I don't want to be separated from that transaction.

4\. Nothing that I haven't covered above, but I'm happy to answer any other
market research questions.

