How can I generate or get initial users for my marketplace?
Hi guys, I'm Nana from Ghana and I've built a marketplace to help African fashion designers get global recognition. www.claeus.com, It's simple but I don't know how to get users to start using the application. It's pretty hard to get people to start using your webapp. I would like to know how I could sell the product and get active users. I would like to integrate payments but not when nobody is actually using the app.
I would like advice on how best to move forward..
Thanks
Hi Nana,
The hard part about marketplaces is the chicken and egg problem. You don't have any designers because you don't have any consumers. But you don't have any consumers because you don't have any designers!
My suggestion would be to reach out manually (via whatsapp, phone, email, personal visit, etc etc) to some designers and do the hard work of integrating their offerings into your marketplace yourself.
Once you have 5-10 different designers (for free), you can start promoting the marketplace online to consumers and it should be possible to get them interested and maybe even make some sales!
After that, you can reach out to further designers and show them how well the marketplace is already working - hopefully they will be impressed and sign up themselves...
At the very beginning, it's really important to do things that don't scale - like talking to users and onboarding them manually. Make sure you really understand the problem you are solving for both sides of the marketplace and most importantly, have fun!
Good luck :)
Thanks very much for your time.. I will gladly start by implementing your advice .. i will be back to give your feedback