Glassette is a renowned luxury glassware brand that creates exquisite handcrafted glass items such as sophisticated drinkware, vases, and home decor, blending artistic craftsmanship with practicality to enhance both dining experiences and interior aesthetics.
If you’d like to start your own marketplace like Glassette, 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 Glassette marketplace case study
London’s Glassette is transforming the homeware market by carefully selecting products from top UK independent brands. Founded in November 2021 by Laura Jackson and Daniel Crow, the platform quickly secured £1.2 million in funding from notable angel investors, enabling its expansion into international markets, including a U.S. launch this year.
Glassette’s primary strategy involves collaborating with renowned global brands that align with its design-focused and values-driven approach. They offer consumers a unique selection of high-quality homeware, chosen by the founders themselves.
Additionally, Glassette plans to introduce an ‘original art kiosk’ and Glassette Editions, exclusive limited-edition designs created in partnership with brands.
Laura Jackson, co-founder and co-CEO, expressed Glassette’s dedication to supporting top homeware brands and artisans while connecting with a passionate community. She believes the recent trend of increased home investments aligns with Glassette’s mission to offer the best design-led products through a unified digital shopping experience, and the funding signifies trust in this vision.
Co-founder and co-CEO Daniel Crow emphasized Glassette’s goal to revolutionize homeware shopping globally, advocating for thoughtful consumerism and sustainability in the industry. Their journey blends entrepreneurship, strategic investment, and a commitment to redefine the homeware shopping experience while fostering a conscious consumer and producer community.
How to emulate Glassette marketplace success?
To follow in the footsteps of Glassette’s success, think about quickly launching your marketplace, opting for weeks over months. Make sure your product catalog aligns with your audience’s preferences and continually adjust your methods for attracting customers, drawing on actual outcomes.
Test the market before making a full commitment to build 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?
