A marketplace for Hops
Hey all,
I am fairly close to the world of homebrewing and pro brewing and I have been looking for gaps/ideas in that space.
Hops are incredibly popular / in-demand and not even for just beer anymore. Seltzers, wines, ciders etc are all using hops now.
There really isn't a central place to purchase hops. I was thinking of creating an aggregator of sorts, but reading up on aggregating so many products into a single destination seems to be a venture that hasn't worked out well for most.
Scraping seems to be the most recommended approach. Does anyone have an opinion on this?
What are you planning for the monetization of the site?
Thanks for the reply. Let me clarify some things that might guide this more. The pro business is more about ordering large quantities in bulk, where they request a quote or even sign a long term contract. Even just typing this out has me ruling out this marketplace.
Homebrewers buy online all the time, but my point is that there are multiple websites/farms selling hops. There is no single site where you could search, for example, "galaxy hops" and get a list of galaxy hops from varying sources with price comparisons etc.
Also, there are vastly more homebrewers than pro brewers.
Here's what you can do with this easily:
Set up a quick online guide / directory. Something basic like WordPress will suffice since your interest is very niche.
Include links to websites, price ranges, descriptions, reviews. All the basic info a purchaser would like to be able to compare in one place. Do this for a couple dozen providers at least. (Don't do it for hundreds -- launch before you finish if there are that many.) Add a contact form for including a company's info. Slap some adwords on the site and call it a day.
If it gains some traction, you can add stripe to the contact form and require a payment to be included in the directory.
It's not fancy, and it won't make you rich. But for a few days' effort, it may earn you a few hundred bucks a year long-term, and create a platform from which you can link to other homebrew-related projects in the future.
This comment was deleted 7 years ago