Great question. It can be hard to run a marketplace for expensive items as I feel like people have a threshold for the amount of money they’re comfortable risking online through payments. Most people started with buying books online then built up their tolerance to risk through more successful transactions. Credit card refunds and Paypal buyer protection helped but people still have a number of internal checkboxes that they need to check before parting with large sums of money online.
These include:
Cues and social proof from your marketplace website
Whether they read about the marketplace from a reputable news source or were referred from a trusted friend
Whether there are online reviews
These are some of the basic issues around trust and this ties into what people look for when they’re confronted with buying something expensive online.
To help alleviate these natural fears in people when buying expensive services, you could look to build a marketplace that uses Escrow as a means of payment. This could either be through a dedicated escrow provider like Escrow or could be a built-in feature of your marketplace. You could also look to link up provider’s social profiles as additional social proof but, depending on your % commission or fee, you may find some people looking to bypass your marketplace and deal directly with the provider.
These two features will go a long way to providing more surety when someone is buying through your marketplace.
My brother won a golden ticket a few years ago and gave it to our family to visit the Nestle chocolate factory. That’s where I met Ruth & Charlotte (not their real names), working the end of the line for one type of chocolate bar. The final machine would pass them each a few dozen …
For context, I was looking at CRMs for clients and thought I’d found the best CRM for my needs in a flashy, expensive CRM that did everything including walking your dog and making your breakfast. It wasn’t until I’d dived into the software that I found it didn’t fit my style and visibility needs. Too …
What we used in building our peer to peer school uniform marketplace using Sharetribe. Categories KINDER ELEMENTARY/PRIMARY MIDDLE SCHOOL HIGH SCHOOL TERTIARY Order Types Sell School Uniform Barter/Trade Uniforms Request Uniform School – Lost Property School – Uniform Shop Listing fields & filters School Name Text Item/s (condition) Dropdown New, Excellent, Good, Fair, Varied Uniform …
How can my marketplace build trust when selling expensive services?
Great question. It can be hard to run a marketplace for expensive items as I feel like people have a threshold for the amount of money they’re comfortable risking online through payments. Most people started with buying books online then built up their tolerance to risk through more successful transactions. Credit card refunds and Paypal buyer protection helped but people still have a number of internal checkboxes that they need to check before parting with large sums of money online.
These include:
These are some of the basic issues around trust and this ties into what people look for when they’re confronted with buying something expensive online.
To help alleviate these natural fears in people when buying expensive services, you could look to build a marketplace that uses Escrow as a means of payment. This could either be through a dedicated escrow provider like Escrow or could be a built-in feature of your marketplace. You could also look to link up provider’s social profiles as additional social proof but, depending on your % commission or fee, you may find some people looking to bypass your marketplace and deal directly with the provider.
These two features will go a long way to providing more surety when someone is buying through your marketplace.
Related Posts
The day a machine replaced Ruth & Charlotte
My brother won a golden ticket a few years ago and gave it to our family to visit the Nestle chocolate factory. That’s where I met Ruth & Charlotte (not their real names), working the end of the line for one type of chocolate bar. The final machine would pass them each a few dozen …
The near-perfect onboarding outreach email
For context, I was looking at CRMs for clients and thought I’d found the best CRM for my needs in a flashy, expensive CRM that did everything including walking your dog and making your breakfast. It wasn’t until I’d dived into the software that I found it didn’t fit my style and visibility needs. Too …
Schools Marketplace
What we used in building our peer to peer school uniform marketplace using Sharetribe. Categories KINDER ELEMENTARY/PRIMARY MIDDLE SCHOOL HIGH SCHOOL TERTIARY Order Types Sell School Uniform Barter/Trade Uniforms Request Uniform School – Lost Property School – Uniform Shop Listing fields & filters School Name Text Item/s (condition) Dropdown New, Excellent, Good, Fair, Varied Uniform …