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MenuIs there a solution that could run a marketplace eCommerce website on the front-end and a wholesale system on the back-end?
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The only 2 companies I have heard of that could do something like this are:
1-Airship: they have automated all the processes of dispatching, logistics, customer support, credit analyses, order fulfillment, etc on the backend. In the front end you just built your own e commerce website. It is plug & play and that easy.
2-Indemand. (Tryindemand.com)
They built the order management, inventory system and dispatch on the back of a white label e-commerce site. They are focus on grocery stores so don't know how much it will fit your specific needs.
(Disclosure I know both CEO's and have invested interests
Two great sites are http://www.shopify.com/ or http://www.squarespace.com/. The both have content management systems that are build and managed by the companies, have integrations with Google Analytics and best of all they have the whole billing flow/system taken care of, which for a commerce site is one of the most important things to get right.
They provide base themes or allow you (with a little elbow grease to learn their respective templating languages) to completely control the front end.
If this is for clients you get the added bonus directing them to the Shopify/SquareSpace customer service for more backend technical questions about payments etc.
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Your support software should cater to your needs, depending on how your business operates. Fiver uses Vanilla forum and Zendesk. Thumbtack uses Zendesk. Not sure about AirBNB, their help center seems to be custom. Depending on how well funded your are, I would recommend starting with a free plan with one of the help desk SaaS products, or even using open source ticketing platform. Then, as your needs grow and you need integration with your marketplace, there's no reason you can't scale and migrate.Viktor NagornyyVN
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Check out https://www.balancedpayments.com/ They are made for marketplaces. Airbnb CEO among others invested in them and they have some of the best pricing/payout fees. Also some good info on http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/2013/10/08/online-marketplaces-are-hard/ One of Balanced Payments co-founders is writing this blog series on marketplaces.Mikeal AbramoffMA
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How to solve a chicken and egg problems for a marketplace like Uber? What is the best way to acquire demand side?
The best way to solve chicken and egg problems for marketplaces is to prove market need on each side independently first with a low-cost MVP-type test. Once you've proven the market on both sides with metrics it is much easier to leg in supply and demand with a strategic or enough funding to match a market on a local or niche level to ensure liquidity. For a deeper analysis, here is a post on medium that I wrote... http://bit.ly/1k2vYbY Also, feel free to schedule a call with me if you'd like to dig deeper.Dan KuraniDK
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When creating a marketplace, does it make more sense to focus on stimulating demand first or supply?
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