Setting up a wholesale trading website

shopfrontuk · 02-03-2006, 01:59 PM

Hi,

Im in the process of building a website similar to Ioffer but with differences that hopefully make the buying side of things more secure.

sellers accounts must be verified, this will be done using several things:-

1. Mail out letter to them to confirm address
2. Also use Electral Role/Companies house to verify them

Sellers will not be allowed Western Union etc, only Proper payment methods

Any seller found seller fake/replica will have an instant ban and IP address blocked from accessing the website

I will be charging a seller signup fee of say $25.00 to cover cost of mailing and time for checking Co Details (I may even put this up to try and put dodgy sellers off signing up)

Buy accounts will be FREE and they will can post things like want adds which sellers can answer and discuss prices etc.

There will be no commision on sales through the website as I find this could be expensive on larger orders, I was thinking of doing something like a fixed $2 per sale.

Does anyone like the sound of this or am I wasting my time, I would also be looking for some help from people to test the website - all charges would be cancelled during this time.

amazingfinance · 02-03-2006, 02:06 PM

Its a long process, and to be 100% honest, sellers shoudlnt really have to pay to sell.

Although we have to on this forum, but it works on the forum.

Boro97 · 02-03-2006, 02:28 PM

Why not sell in £ instead of $, you don't see a USA site selling in £'s you are uk based arn't you

shopfrontuk · 02-03-2006, 02:28 PM

Hi,

the reason for the charge would be to cover costs of Mailing sellers a letter and checking them out with Companies house etc - to get full details from companies house you have to pay - so this need to be covered.

The idea is to make a safer place for the buyers, unlike Alababa and Ioffer.

if buyers understand that its a safe website to buy from they will use it - and if buyers are visiting and posting on it then surely It beneficial for sellers to pay to have access to them.

Obvoisly I need to get sellers to use the website before I can get the buyers in any volume so to start with I would need to give the seller accounts for free - at least until the traffic is there - but also the fees can help towards marketing the website.

Maybe even try and speak the the owners of the forum about giving the registered sellers on here free accounts, but im a bit away from that I think its better to finish the website first.

shopfrontuk · 02-03-2006, 02:33 PM

The Idea for the $$ instead of sterling is that there is a lot of good sellers from all over the world and the dollar is used as the international trading currency -

I think it might be a good idea for me to have the website show both UK and US prices, seller can advertise a listing in any but the website would show both to end customers.

StrictlyUrban · 02-03-2006, 03:01 PM

Sounds okay but how are you going to verify legitimacy of international sellers? You only mentioned verifying UK sellers. The majority of your sellers would probably be from US/China etc and this is where you could encounter problems and red tape. Not trying to be negative just pointing something out that you may not have thought about. All the best!

shopfrontuk · 02-03-2006, 03:08 PM

Im not to sure about China, thats something I am going to have to look into.

I think the US needs to be look at further as well, but there must be a simple way to check they are valid sellers.

These checks are something that I need to get right, as I want to market the website as the safest wholesale website available - and try and give buyers a reason for using it above the others.

Any advice on checks for the US and china would be greatly appreciated - if they cost money then so be it, as I mentioned earlier this would be passed onto the sellers on signup charges - but I would prefer them not to be to expensive.

StrictlyUrban · 02-03-2006, 03:33 PM

I think for the US Dunn & Bradstreet is a form of verifying businesses authenticity. I'm sure one of our US colleagues will be along soon to give us more details...

shopfrontuk · 02-03-2006, 03:36 PM

Got that one added to my Fav's - its got a company lookup on the homepage

http://www.dnb.com/us/

sort of same thing as basic companies house check in the UK - so that will be handy

kjo · 02-03-2006, 06:07 PM

I'm in the US, and would be interested in this site...but the process does sound pretty long. Definitely include US dollars as a form of currency. Maybe for US sellers you could ask for Business or Tax ID number. You can verify these online for free most of the time, but they can be a pain to look up.