A marketplace platform can help consumers sell to consumers by facilitating a certain workflow and making it a simple process by setting up resources that consumers can use, including guides with step-by-step processes for selling items. When you build a multi-vendor marketplace, you become the intermediary for them to sell.
By making the process easier and taking the logistical load off the consumer/seller, it makes the idea palatable so that, even if it requires some steps that may take some time, at least those steps are very well explained, and conveyed from a marketing perspective. When you create a multi-vendor website, communication is paramount.
It can be helpful to tell them, for example, that if they list their items and sell them, it’s a lot better than not getting paid for them, and it’s typically only going to take 10 to 15 minutes to take it to the UPS Store and get it packaged to ship. And things can be set up where the seller can get shipping labels and order the appropriate boxes to be delivered to them so they don’t even have to leave their home, and they can order a pick up from an appropriate carrier.
So there are options to really streamline the process of fulfillment through a marketplace that a typical consumer is going to be pretty overwhelmed by. Having guides and resources can be extremely beneficial, and could even include friendly videos from very successful sellers walking community members through, saying, “hey, is this your first time selling something online? We've done this before and it really is just about a two to three minute process to get started. There are these three things you need to do. Here’s what they are… and then your item is ready to go.”
This can be really helpful to get people to list their items in the first place to make it really easy for them, and deal with any mental blocks that they might have in a C2C scenario.