Open Source Solution for Buying and Selling Community

[UK Business Researcher]

I'm just starting the process of developing a buying / selling community. It will be a bit like Ebay, but without the auction part - i.e. just simple asking prices set by members who are selling items. But unlike Ebay, it will have detailed product-specific product disaggregation - e.g. colour, manufacturer, price range etc. etc.. Any advice on a low cost solution would be greatly appreciated - I'm currently looking at Joomla 'classifieds' extensions, but not sure this is the best way to go?

 

[JonathanSEO]

But unlike Ebay, it will have detailed product-specific product disaggregation - e.g. colour, manufacturer, price range etc. etc..

eBay has all that functionality. So you'd not be unique by being able to view or search by product specifications.

Honestly don't waste your time with this. No chance it can get off the ground.

 

[UK Business Researcher]

eBay has all that functionality. So you'd not be unique by being able to view or search by product specifications.

Honestly don't waste your time with this. No chance it can get off the ground.

I'm really just looking for technical advice. We're not aiming to compete with Ebay but rather focusing on a niche market we have discovered. And I would maintain that Ebay doesn't disaggregate very well in terms of users or search engines for niche markets in particular.

 

[MooToTheMax]

How much of this can you get away with doing manually? E.g. users fill out forms with details etc, but it's you that actually creates the sales pages by hand for each and every item.

Seems like the quickest and cheapest way to test whether the idea's viable (will people *really* care if it takes 10 mins for their item to be "approved"?), and once you know whether the site works in such a basic level, you can invest the time, effort and money in a proper solution.

 

[UK Business Researcher]

How much of this can you get away with doing manually? E.g. users fill out forms with details etc, but it's you that actually creates the sales pages by hand for each and every item.

Seems like the quickest and cheapest way to test whether the idea's viable (will people *really* care if it takes 10 mins for their item to be "approved"?), and once you know whether the site works in such a basic level, you can invest the time, effort and money in a proper solution.

Thanks for your reply - I could certainly do it manually while I tested the concept.

However, because of the nature of the business we are likely to be hosting hundreds of listings quite rapidly and it might be difficult to keep up. Perhaps I was being optimistic thinking that there would be an ideal open source solution for this? Although I am still thinking that Joomla plus extensions might offer some substantial short-cuts.

 

[MooToTheMax]

However, because of the nature of the business we are likely to be hosting hundreds of listings quite rapidly and it might be difficult to keep up.

My thinking is: this would be a really nice problem to have! Further, it's a problem you can throw manpower at until you do have a working, automatic solution.

Perhaps I was being optimistic thinking that there would be an ideal open source solution for this? Although I am still thinking that Joomla plus extensions might offer some substantial short-cuts.

There probably is something open-source that you could hack together a rough solution out of, although I doubt it'd be ideal.

I'm just not sure why you'd bother; if the idea does work, you'll need something custom-built anyway, and you could get a custom minimum viable product put together inside a couple of weeks if it's absolutely vital.

Maybe that'd be the next logical step once you've proven that your idea will make money?

 

[UK Business Researcher]

My thinking is: this would be a really nice problem to have! Further, it's a problem you can throw manpower at until you do have a working, automatic solution.

There probably is something open-source that you could hack together a rough solution out of, although I doubt it'd be ideal.

I'm just not sure why you'd bother; if the idea does work, you'll need something custom-built anyway, and you could get a custom minimum viable product put together inside a couple of weeks if it's absolutely vital.

Maybe that'd be the next logical step once you've proven that your idea will make money?

And if I were to hack something together, would you have a view on the best open source starting point for this?

My situation is that I have developed a number of successful eCommerce applications using LAMP - websites, CMS, Order Admin etc. - and I have existing web assets I could use for this, with some modifications. Regarding demand for the new website, we have customers waiting to list their items. I was just hoping that someone could provide some insight into the suitability of specific open source platforms for this kind of selling community. I'm not so concerned with the business pros and cons at the moment - especially as we can do all the development in-house.

 

[bargainmania]

So you mean something like, http://demos.appthemes.com/?theme=classipress

 

[UK Business Researcher]

So you mean something like,

That looks really good - where can I get one of those and how much will it cost?

 

[seoswat]

sounds like you are just after some sort of classifieds theme that you can use with any free CMS solution like wordpress

Here is a free one that lists its features, you can make changes to get what you need better.

http://www.awpcp.com/

Very simple to set up and install onto Wordpress

 

[UK Business Researcher]

sounds like you are just after some sort of classifieds theme that you can use with any free CMS solution like wordpress

Here is a free one that lists its features, you can make changes to get what you need better.

Very simple to set up and install onto Wordpress

Thanks for this - great to have a free alternative.

 

[webstore]

There's several multi-vendor extensions available for use with Magento CE 1.7 and here's an example of several available http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/magento-vendor-dropshipping-extension.html

 

[bargainmania]

http://www.appthemes.com/themes/classipress/ $99

 

[rashisree]

Hi, Try with AJ Classifieds Script which is the best user & seo friendly classifieds software to create your classifieds portal.