A couple of years ago, I had an interesting idea. What if there was a marketplace where all the underlying tech was open-source? The order management system, the storefront, customer support, etc.
The marketplace would simply connect to the seller’s infra instead of locking them in. If, for some reason, the seller is removed from the marketplace, their software stays with them and they can continue accepting orders directly.
This model can be used to disrupt any marketplace from AirBNB to UberEats: building tech for home renters and restaurants and later, leveraging that to build a competing marketplace.
In 2019, I started building the first piece, Openship, an order management system that lets you source orders and fulfill them from anywhere. Now that that’s in stable release, next up is Openfront (an e-commerce platform for storefronts) and Opensupport (ticketing software for customer support). Together, they provide the staples for any modern business: sales, fulfillment, support.
Let me know what you guys think of the idea and if you see any potential pitfalls.
I see it's just Shopify-to-Shopify for now - bravo for starting with probably one of the most costly integrations. I'm working with a client right now who had to build these integrations using a low-code drag-n-drop platform which allows a quick MVP but has slow job processing, so isn't great for high order volume.
The "amazon" comparison is good for marketing - sure you're not doing all their marketing, or having their reach but you are connecting suppliers, buyers and fulfilment which is a genuine problem.
The companies who would use this often have developers on board already, so providing open source, accepting contributions and turning this into a useful dev-friendly service will almost certainly find paying customers.
Following :)