EarthHero is an online marketplace dedicated to sustainability, offering a diverse array of eco-friendly products like clothing, home goods, beauty items, and accessories, with the aim of assisting consumers in making environmentally conscious decisions.
If you’d like to start your own marketplace like EarthHero, 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?
There are several positives to using open-source, like having total control and flexibility in development. But, it’s important to remember that these advantages are not without their costs. Building a complete marketplace solution from scratch is a time-consuming and expensive endeavor, often taking many months or years. This insight comes from our experience with multiple marketplace ventures.
If you haven’t received substantial funding, you are likely to benefit more from an integrated marketplace solution such as Vendo, a recommendation from someone who has spent years charging for marketplace development services.
Back to the EarthHero marketplace case study
EarthHero has emerged as a pioneering marketplace for sustainable shopping, driven by the desire to make eco-friendly products easily accessible and trustable. Recognizing the challenges and misinformation prevalent in the sustainability sphere, Ryan Lewis, the founder, created EarthHero to be a certified B-Corp platform that curates a wide array of responsibly-made products, enhancing the ease of sustainable living.
With over 150+ vetted sustainable brands and more than 4,000 unique eco-friendly products, EarthHero employs a rigorous five-step sourcing methodology, ensuring the authenticity of its offerings.
The platform hosts an array of trusted brands, like Girlfriend Collective and Pela Case, offering products across various categories such as zero waste, clothing, travel, and technology, all easy to navigate through a user-friendly website.
EarthHero’s commitment extends beyond facilitating sustainable purchases. The company has achieved carbon neutrality in its shipments and embraced a zero-waste business approach, eliminating plastic in favor of biodegradable and recycled content for packaging.
As a socially responsible entity, EarthHero is a member of 1% for the Planet and collaborates with non-profits like Trees for the Future, emphasizing its dedication to environmental stewardship. Through its comprehensive approach combining convenience, trust, and ethical practices, EarthHero not only simplifies sustainable shopping but also fosters an eco-conscious community, leading the way towards a more sustainable future.
How to emulate EarthHero marketplace success?
To achieve a level of success similar to EarthHero, you should think about launching your marketplace sooner rather than later, ideally in weeks rather than months. Check how well your range of products meets the needs of your audience. Continuously refine your customer acquisition strategies based on real experiences.
Test the waters of the market before you dive into building it yourself.
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?
