The Flamingo Market is a temporary market that highlights and backs LGBTQ+ and BIPOC entrepreneurs and enterprises, offering them a space to showcase their distinctive products and innovations.
If you’d like to start your own marketplace like Flamingo Market, 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?
The use of open-source comes with multiple benefits, such as having complete control and flexibility in development. However, these come with a hefty price tag. To develop a complete marketplace solution, expect to invest a lot of time, often many months or years, and a significant amount of money. This conclusion is based on our experiences with several marketplace projects.
Without significant funding, you’re likely better off using a packaged, all-in-one marketplace solution like Vendo, according to someone who has years of experience in charging for marketplace development.
Back to the Flamingo Market marketplace case study
Flamingo Market, an innovative online marketplace, is a unique platform that supports the LGBTQ2SIA+ community. It started in February 2019 as Toronto’s only market for LGBTQ2SIA+ artists, makers, businesses, and non-profits.
The founders, Jack Shinton and Sica Saccone, aimed to create a welcoming space for LGBTQ2SIA+ vendors to succeed while being true to themselves. When the pandemic hit, Flamingo Market moved online to help its vendors who relied on physical markets for income.
The shift to an online marketplace in mid-2020 was a big effort but succeeded in supporting vendors new to the digital world. They now have over 300 vendors offering various products and services, with directories for easy browsing.
Flamingo Market also hosts events and workshops, building a strong sense of community among vendors and customers. It’s more than just a sales platform; it’s a lively community hub.
This market fills a crucial gap for LGBTQ2SIA+ businesses, providing a safe and celebratory space for their identity. In physical markets, queer and trans individuals often face difficulties, making Flamingo Market’s inclusive environment even more important.
How to emulate Flamingo Market marketplace success?
In pursuit of success like Flamingo Market’s, contemplate setting up your marketplace promptly, in a few weeks rather than waiting months. It’s vital to test how well your product catalog meets your audience’s needs and revise your customer acquisition tactics according to real results.
Initially, test the market before investing heavily in building 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?
