Aroxo - DOA?
I have just discovered a new marketplace is launching called Aroxo. I can’t tell you anything about this site as they are still in private Beta. However, I think that they will be lucky to make any headway in a marketplace dominated by the likes of amazon and eBay.
The bus for generalist marketplace has left and I think that anyone would be daft to launch a generalist marketplace, that is unless you have a massive advertising budget. Yes, sites such as Tasbar and CQout have several hundred thousand listings, but these are mostly tat and do not compare to the tens of millions on eBay.
People of Aroxo, I wish you luck, you are going to need it.
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August 24th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Hi Trevor - firstly, thanks for your wish of luck!
Clearly, any new start-up needs a dose of luck to help it along when it launches. However, we’re basing Aroxo on much more than just luck. Now I totally appreciate how annoying it is when someone says “trust me we’ve got a good idea, but we’re not going to tell you what it is just yet”, which is effectively what we’re doing.
But what I can say is that we recognise that you cannot compete with eBay by launching another auction, the format is not conducive to direct competition. So we’ve designed a model which gives us (and any sellers who use us) the best chance to building an alternative buyer channel. And which offers buyers some clear benefits too.
I note that you’ve signed up for our alpha trial - which is fantastic - and we can’t wait to hear your views of our service and business model.
If any other sellers are happy to take part in our alpha and “kick the tyres” of the service before there is any real money or real transactions involved, they are welcome to sign up at http://www.aroxo.com using the sign-up code “tginn”.
Matt.
August 24th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
I would really want to see increased competition against eBay in any shape and form. It will be wise to kick start by serving a narrow market niche and then diversifying the categories.
With any e-marketplace there is barrier of “network externalties” often reffered to as “Chicken n Egg”, there is certainly a massive oppourtunity for anyone who is able to break this barrier. Maority of sucessful enterprenuers started off from an office in a garage without any major investements, Tasbar on the other hand invested millions if not thousands in its advertisment campaign but failed to make a major breakthrough.
August 25th, 2007 at 10:30 am
I am all for competition for eBay, as it goes online merchants more channels through which to sell their products. However I think that there is a massive barrier to overcome in terms of attracting buyers (and hence sellers) to the site.
The shopping comparison sites have a lot of the characterists of a marketplace, in fact Shopping.com and shop.com now allows customer to buy directly from their site. However, they spend a lot of money on advertising and PPC.
In the UK there are 200 auction of which only about 3 get enough traffic to make them of even passing interest with one clear market leader (eBay)