I have a great idea for a new multi vendor marketplace with 3 partners ready to commit approx $40,000 in total. Is this likely to be enough to get the marketplace as an MVP to a point where external funding can be sourced or not? I’m particularly concerned about the cost of marketing.
Also in terms of time, together we can commit approx 40 to 50 hours a week on the project. Is this likely to be enough initially, assuming we outsource the marketing?
Would anyone who has used CS-Cart to set up a multi vendor marketplace be able to share their experiences?
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After few questions, our managers will provide you with the approximate costs and timeframes
It’s definetly possible, the likelihood in your case in the absence of information and knowledge of your abilities is impossible to determine, we all go into this thinking we have a great idea!
Marketing can certainly be a significant cost, there are ways to stretch your budget. I had a competitor launch a similar idea in the same market at the same time. They approached a TV station, radio station and industry publication and were successful in getting free promotion in all of these. I had a better platform in a number of ways but they definetly got the jump on me (however they are now reconfiguring their platform after loosing some of that initial advantage).
In terms of marketing, from a cs-cart perspective, there are a couple of things you can do. Make sure you take advantage of all of the SEO levers, host the platform on a fast server, take advantage of the suggested speed tweaks (in cs-cart documentaiton and some forum topics). Cross-site linking is also helpful in getting high up in the google rankings (a link from other reputable sites to yours),
In the end you are probably going to have pay for clicks. Facebook and Google are the main ones and it is not unreasonable to think each $1 will get you a click through to your site (can vary significantly), even with a targeted add it doesn’t mean that will become a sale.
Once you get people to your site, then in terms of cs-cart it is your content, proffesional presentation (good verbage, spelling errors, poor punctuation, non-sensicle descriptions scream scam). This, inventory holdings and quality imagery can also bite into your budget.
One thing you may be able to do with marketing is start early e.g. get a face-book page up, start posting content so when you go live you have some posts and followers (it you go live on day one with just your two mates and a single post, that can also scream scam). You can start with a pre-registration of interest.
If you consider, one years licence, one years support (in my view a must in your first 12 months) and hosting can take a quater of that. Then you have your legals (terms and conditions, company registration) and insurance (potentially you want product insurance, cyber insurance, proffessional insurance, public indemnity … depends on what you are doing).
Certainly is possible to get this all done with your budget and it could easily take more or less.
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Thanks you very much for your efforts in replying to my post. Much appreciated.
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