Create private classified sites for e-commerce platforms

A few days ago, Ikea announced the launch of a "peer-to-peer" sales platform for its customers.

Basically, with this platform, instead of selling your secondhand Ikea furniture to eBay, Craigslist, or Gumtree, you could sell it directly on Ikea's marketplace.

Why this is a good idea: Ikea has customer data for millions of customers. Ikea knows who owns Ikea furniture. So the supply side is handled. The demand side is also there.

The new platform is "aiming to tackle the secondhand market for customers selling directly to each other — an area where some people estimate Ikea has a higher market share than in new furniture sales."

Woah. Let that sink in. Ikea has a higher market share in used furniture than in new furniture.

The economic logic behind this

If you follow the news at least occasionally, you'll see at least 10 speculations per week on whether we're heading for a recession.

This usually means that people spend less; when people are looking to buy something, they'll see if there is an used option before getting something new.

On the other hand, companies are looking for more innovative ways to make money in a recession-like climate.

From this perspective, it makes total sense for Ikea to create a classified ads platform for its products; they want to grab a piece of a piece that's already big, if not bigger than their existing business.

The opportunity for bootstrapped founders like you

It's usually one big company doing something that inspires multiple smaller companies to do the same. My guess is that we'll see medium-sized companies attempting to do the same.

The problem: This is technically challenging to do for most e-commerce stores.

Sure, you can find 100s of scripts that allow you to build a classified sites. This is different. This is about building a classified site for your own store. This means:

• A limited number of products

• More custom ways to list your item (putting things like production year, etc.)

• The e-commerce platform stands behind promoting your listing

You can see how this is much more appealing for end users vs. listing on a generic site like Craigslist.

Your opportunity: Create a platform where e-commerce stores can create their own, proprietary classified ad site.

You can then release your SaaS as a Shopify, Magento, or Woocommerce platform.

I went through the Shopify App Store and haven't seen anything that provides this. The closest I've come by is this app which allows merchant to list their returns for discounted prices.

You can also promote your SaaS by mentioning Ikea's news in your pitch, and saying this is a trend that many stores will likely start doing.

I hope you found this to be useful!