Apply HN: Wantobuy – Post items you want so sellers can sell them to you

41 points by ryderj 10 years ago | 30 comments

Demo: http://www.wantobuythat.com/demo.html

Problem: Within online trading forums, including Facebook Groups, users post what they want in the hope that sellers will get in touch and make the sale. Yet, these 'want to buy' posts aren't standardised or searchable so it's impossible for sellers to see your post and for you to get the items you need.

This issue is bigger than just online communities too, there's currently no central hub for people to post what they want to buy which is viewable to sellers.

Wantobuy: We're standardising 'want to buy' posts so that if you're selling something you can see who wants to buy it, how much they're willing to pay and then sell for the highest price. We're taking this one step further and once users post something they want we'll search top retail platforms (Amazon, eBay etc.) to see if it's already available online and show the user 'wheretobuy' it.

About us: Jack (21) and Sam (22) who have known each other for 11+ yrs and built stuff together in the past (Check out Spaces, which we got to 30th on the App Store without spending any money - http://needa.space). We're big on sneaker and streetwear Facebook groups (yes, we have camped out for sneakers a few times..) and so will target these first before scaling to further product categories. We're applying because we're determined to learn from the YC network, plus we're about to graduate so the money would massively help us survive whilst we build Wantobuy.

So far: Over the past few months, we've interviewed Facebook Group admins, given them a demo of the app to play with and received extremely useful feedback.

Any feedback, questions or comments would be super useful too!

kuisch 10 years ago |

This approach makes sense. I also think that sneakers (or streetwear in general) would make for a pretty compelling initial market. You'll obviously encounter the chicken-and-egg problem with this platform, so it would probably be good to try and hack one side of the market. In that light, definitely keep working together with the admins of these huge Facebook groups (I reckon you're in Basement, Supreme Talk, Palace Talk?!). These 40k+ groups make for an incredible opportunity to engage with your target audience. Hell, to get initial traction just raffle a pair of Yeezy's, Air Mags, or that new Gosha among the people that sign-up.

One thing I'd do differently though is start out with a website (vs. an app). It's very true that Facebook doesn't have any form of domain-specific search fields. But it's very accessible. I realize that n = 1 here, but the friction in having to download another separate app to my phone would be too high for me to switch from using the different Facebook groups. I think you'd want to make it as easy as possible to access your solution (or at least submit WTB requests) in order for this to take off. In that light, a website would be much better I think.

On another note, here's a really good read on why Facebook may help you out a lot, but would also most likely be your biggest competitor: http://alexmuir.com/facebook-is-the-new-excel

Anyway, very cool. Happy to chat more if you like -- I'm at aron@wanderlust.ly.

ryderj 10 years ago | |

Cheers for the feedback Aron!

Yeah, we're both in so many Facebook groups our newsfeeds are purely streetwear posts! As you say, the challenge comes when we want to get people onboard. The great thing is that these WTB posts already exist within the groups so I'm sure we can find a way of getting these on our platform in the beginning so we at least have the supply side of things covered. Yeah you're right, raffling a pair of Yeezy's would get everyone and their mum to download the app - something we'll look at down the line for sure.

I hear what you're saying about the website and we are looking to get something decent up before too long, however from talking to members, a growing number of people are using the Facebook Groups app to get their 'fix' of streetwear throughout the day, so an app would seem like the natural progression there. I do understand what you're saying and we'll certainly look into the desktop presence asap.

Great stuff, thanks again - I'll ping you an invite to test the app so far if you're interested?

tobydylan 10 years ago |

This concept is really solid. There’s a massive gap in the market to help standardise the 'want to buy' posts. I'm constantly manually searching across multiple selling platforms when i want to pick an item up for that best possible price - usually just scrolling away..! That and checking prices for items i already own & could be tempted to sell, I even got pm'd with a ridiculous offer on some old beaters i posted on a group as a joke!

Price is really key! For myself, a lot of the time i tend to try and avoid the hype / overlook resellers looking a mad price for highly in demand shoes or products. These posts and groups stand out for me within the second hand market. Individuals looking to trade/sell the items they own second hand with around (8/10) wear & a dropped price in mind. Someone buys, doesn't wear as much as they thought they would, sees something they might wear more?, sells on to someone else on a budget they can afford.

Everyones fashion taste is evolving and this idea of the 'two lunch tables' working together, buying, wearing, selling on, especially with high end products is enabling more and more people to get into the GAME! Focusing on this second hand market would be ridiculously useful and really pushing for an organised 'want to buy' community would be a game changer. Just got to have an influx of sellers onboard who aren't looking to resell for retail (or higher)

ryderj 10 years ago | |

Thanks for the feedback Toby! Yeah for sure we're looking to control how much people purchase things for so people can actually follow through with their WTB requests - by not allowing silly 'want to buy' amounts for example.

Cheers!

vit05 10 years ago |

This is cool. I tried to do something when Groupon was hot. I had a site that was a Groupon just for travelers.

As we already had all the tools, we thought it would be easy. The idea was to bring together many people who wanted to buy something and then try to negotiate a better price with the dealer. Neither worked. Do something with big scale is very complicated.

I think only two people negotiating could work. As proven by facebook groups that are horrible =). If you do something with a better UX, than the Facebook, and guarantees for both, I think will work.

ryderj 10 years ago | |

We were thinking of expanding into something similar eventually related to group buying. Were you focused B2C? We were considering looking into B2B but as you say, I can imagine the complications involved!

vit05 10 years ago | | |

B2C and small organizations. The problem is that some people don't like to pay, or change their mind. And some people promise things that they can't deliver. Similar to problems that Kickstart has.

fitzwatermellow 10 years ago |

I like it too! Streetware, fashion: its like the new liquid asset right now. The part where buyers can "bid" on price is particularly compelling. I'd also like to see the "sell" side of the interface: in other words the data you are going to present to retailers and brands since ultimately they are the ones you will be selling this product to ;)

ryderj 10 years ago | |

Thanks! Controlling the price 'want to buy' requests will be important. Currently, on Facebook Groups people advertise that they would pay a much larger figure than they intend to which is extremely frustrating for sellers as well as other interested buyers.

I agree, with scale a catalog of what people want to buy and how much they want to pay for it turns us into a market research company of sorts!

merterdir 10 years ago |

This is pretty cool. I've seen some startups try to tackle this (sorry don't remember the names) but I haven't seen someone actually make the search standardised.

My recommendation would be to make sure people are not giving custom names to stuff but rather choose from a list. This would make the whole searching thing much easier.

Good luck!

ryderj 10 years ago | |

Great shout, you're right. I think it's about finding a balance between standardising the listing as much as possible but allowing for people to post any item they're after.

Cheers!

fiatjaf 10 years ago |

For me, this only makes sense if applied to local businesses.

I want to buy some items (let's say some kind of food) and I'm ready to do it on a regular basis, but no store near me has the items. This app would make a win-win for me and the store.

ryderj 10 years ago | |

Local businesses are definitely important! We want to satisfy the casual sellers and the smaller businesses too.

Ideally, we'll sync up with the stock these businesses are currently holding and then be able to let them know who wants to buy their products. Win-win since businesses are accessing new customers that didn't previously know about them and the buyers are getting what they need.

I like the locality aspect though and I agree that should play a big role in this side of things.

Cheers!

kyfallon 10 years ago |

Hey guys, this is a really interesting idea! One question - i'm new to the wtb concept, and i'm not a member of any facebook groups so i'm curious as to why someone would post a wtb instead of shopping around online?

samhowarth13 10 years ago | |

It's Sam here...there are 2 main types of wtb post:

1. Items you cant find anywhere - they may be rare or in limited quantities such as a pair of Nike Air Mag sneakers. In this case you'll be better placed to find your ideal product.

2. When you don't know exactly what product you want - people create 'want to buys' for generic items e.g. 'a black trucker hat'. This way, wtb posts can actually aid product discovery and make the whole shopping experience easier and less effort since sellers are coming to you and not the other way round!

Thanks!

vr3690 10 years ago | | |

For the 2nd point, is googling not helpful? As in, can't the user just Google for that stuff and buy it from eBay or whatever?

zbuf 10 years ago |

Brit here. When you say "Post" to me that means "Mail".

I couldn't work out why I would want to mail an item to someone else, so they could mail it back to me :)

ryderj 10 years ago | |

Hey, we're from Britain too, Newcastle originally!

To clear that up, when we talk about 'posting' we mean creating a Facebook post in a Fb Group.

The only time something would be sent in the mail is the same as conventional selling, when something has been purchased.

brudgers 10 years ago |

What do you see as your strategy for handling unsatisfactory transactions passing through the platform?

For example, items not as advertised, credit card chargebacks, or out right fraud?

ryderj 10 years ago | |

Like any marketplace we're employing a feedback system where users can rate/report transactions to combat dissatisfaction.

On top of that, when a user sells an item they must take a photo on the spot, not choose from their photo library. The photo is tagged with their username and date so the buyer is confident the item they're purchasing belongs to that particular seller.

Payments can only be sent/received using PayPal to start with since this is standard practise with our beachhead segment - Facebook Groups.

Authentication service - for items over a certain price we're looking to offer an authentication service where we can act as the middleman for the transaction. This way we can ensure premium goods are legitimate before sending them onto the buyer.

Of course, with marketplaces there's risk, however, we feel these steps will help to minimise this risk.

glougheed 10 years ago |

So you are thinking of a number of sellers competing for the buyer?

ryderj 10 years ago | |

Yes, almost the reverse of current retailers. Instead of multiple buyers trying to purchase from one seller, we're looking at one buyer having multiple product options from other users.

This would help with product discoverability since other users can suggest products the buyer had not originally thought of as well as helping the buyer to get the exact product they want.

Cheers

glougheed 10 years ago | | |

So are these qualified leads? My concern would be people fishing and wasting other people's time. Or someone that currently owns the product and is looking for ideas on how to price. Thoughts?

ryporter 10 years ago |

eBay tried this feature (which they called "Want it now"), but they shut it down. Why will your service fare better?

ryderj 10 years ago | |

Great question!

Process - Although I never got a chance to use it, we have looked into this and it seemed like eBay's service was hard work for buyers. The whole process of creating a 'wanted item' listing and then eventually purchasing that item seemed to be fairly ugly and involved entering auctionId's or setting up new auctions to complete the purchase... not fun!

Fees - eBay fees are sky high at 10% + listing fees. Instead of charging fees we're looking to generate revenue through referral, not charge the buyers/sellers directly.

Product discoverability - We're not bound to one platform. From scraping top retailers such as Amazon, Etsy, Alibaba and eBay we've got a wider search area to find exactly what buyers want.

Community - We're building this for the Facebook Group community because we would love to have something like this ourselves - it would make our lives buying/selling so much easier. As a result, the ability to chat with sellers within the app (not email) and share WTB listings to Facebook Groups gives our users much more power to find what they want, fast!

chris2chris 10 years ago |

Trust issues

ryderj 10 years ago | |

Hey Chris, which part are you referring to?

We're only using PayPayl to handle payments, employing a feedback system to combat untrustworthy users and in the beginning only allowing Log In with Facebook so users are authenticated to some degree.

Happy to explain any aspects in further detail!