Poosh marketplace vendor image

Poosh is a lifestyle label founded by reality TV personality Kourtney Kardashian, providing a wide array of resources and items related to well-being, beauty, lifestyle, and health, which includes articles, guidance, and merchandise for individuals interested in pursuing a healthier and more harmonious lifestyle.

If you’d like to start your own marketplace like POOSH, 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 POOSH marketplace case study

Poosh, established in 2019 by Kourtney Kardashian, offers a unique blend of health, wellness, beauty, and lifestyle content, alongside a curated selection of products.

The brand’s philosophy revolves around leading a balanced, healthier life, reflected through a platform offering both informative articles and a multi-vendor marketplace. Poosh stands out for its commitment to quality, featuring over 50 brands that align with its wellness ethos and delivering content that is both educational and insightful​​.

The brand’s success stems from its integrated approach to content creation and e-commerce. Poosh maintains high content quality, curates a selection of products that meet its standards, and ensures a user-friendly experience.

Kourtney Kardashian’s personal brand and active involvement lend authenticity and foster trust among the audience. Strategic partnerships with established brands have also contributed to its reputation and variety of offerings​​.

Poosh’s journey provides valuable insights for those looking to replicate its success. Key takeaways include prioritizing quality content, curating a relevant product selection, investing in personal branding, enhancing user experience, and establishing partnerships. These elements are crucial in building a trusted and thriving online marketplace or content platform​​.

How to emulate POOSH marketplace success?

In pursuit of success like POOSH’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?