1stdibs is an upscale online marketplace known for its vintage and premium furniture, art, and collectibles, linking customers to a carefully curated array of distinctive and high-quality products.
If you’d like to start your own marketplace like 1stdibs, you’re facing a buy vs build decision. So before you decide to build it in-house on top of Spree open-source, consider using Vendo which is a marketplace SaaS. Go live, start selling, iterate
Build vs Buy a marketplace?
Open-source usage offers numerous advantages, like complete control and development versatility, but these come with significant financial costs. The process of developing a complete marketplace solution is lengthy and expensive, often requiring months or years. This has been our takeaway from several marketplace projects.
If you haven’t acquired substantial funding, you’re likely to find more value in an off-the-shelf, comprehensive marketplace solution like Vendo, advice from someone who has a long history of billing for marketplace development work.
Back to the 1stdibs marketplace case study
1stdibs is a fancy online store that started in 2000. It changed how rich people shop on the internet. A guy named Michael Bruno got the idea from a famous market in Paris.
At first, it was just a website where art dealers could list their stuff. But in 2013, they started selling things directly online. By 2016, 1stdibs was all about selling stuff online. And in August 2023, they became a public company on the Nasdaq stock market.
1stdibs is special because they sell all kinds of fancy stuff like art, jewelry, clothes, and home decorations. The website is easy to use, making it easy to buy fancy things. They really care about trust and making sure everything is real. This is super important for rich people who want to know the story behind the things they buy.
People who shop on 1stdibs are different, like art lovers, rich fashion shoppers, and interior designers. They all want special things with cool histories. The company makes sure the whole shopping journey, from looking at stuff to getting it, is super fancy and top-notch.
1stdibs changed how people shop for fancy things online. They made sure everything is real and special. This also made other fancy online stores copy them. But to keep growing, 1stdibs needs to keep up with new technology and what customers want.
How to emulate 1stdibs marketplace success?
To get success like 1stdibs, it’s advisable to initiate your marketplace in a matter of weeks, not months. Look into how your product catalog aligns with your target audience’s needs and adjust your customer acquisition approach based on real-life feedback.
It’s crucial to test the market before you fully invest in developing it.
Here’s what you’d be getting with a Vendo free trial:
- Book a marketplace demo call: We’ll set up your demo marketplace and populate it with products, so you could give it a try and start selling in 14 days
- Customize your Storefront: Use the drag & drop page builder or custom CSS
- Onboard Brands: Invite your brands or choose brands from our catalog
- Select Products: Curate products and collections manually or automate it
- Embed products: Make your content, newsletters, social media shoppable
- Get Paid: Get paid as soon as products are shipped by the brands
- End-to-end automation: Brands sync, fulfillment, payouts, invoicing, taxes
When you’ve tried all that and it works, start thinking about building your own, custom-made marketplace project based on Spree Commerce. First, by decoupling the storefront and going headless with Vendo marketplace API, and later with your own backend, if you decide you really need it. Just lift and shift the storefront.
Nobody has to know what’s under the hood, right?
