We recently discovered a new marketplace where anyone can buy and sell internationally for free.
The biggest free e-commerce, ezebee.com has grown rapidly in India in the last year and in April 2016, released a brand new mobile-first platform.
The company was launched back in 2013 and since then has established more than 1 million offers for sale, mostly from India but also Europe and the US. They offer anything from accommodation rentals to jewellery to men’s shirts.
From day one, ezebee.com went international and is explicitly made for global business. Their internal currency system, EZB Coins, make it possible to do safe and transaction-free international payments. Any offers posted on ezebee.com can be traded without fees or even the use of money. This feature is especially interesting for export-driven emerging markets such as India.
The rapid growth in India both surprised and challenged their founders over the last year. The mobile use in India is bigger than other countries and this was why they decided to go ahead with the relaunch of the platform.
Mobile First vs. App Strategy
The goal with the new website is not just to simplify the trading process, but also to work with the conditions in the Asia-Pacific and mainly India. India is a huge emerging market with many native expats living all over the world. The Indian products are in demand internationally and this is where ezebee.com comes in.
Rather than working on an app strategy, ezebee.com decided to go straight to mobile-first. “Social media interaction and communications are the main features of the platform, which makes the connection with the internet inevitable,” states Ossian Vogel, Co-founder of ezebee.com. Many other platforms such as Flipkart and Myntra now roll-back their app strategy for the same reason. “A website should work on all devices. As simple as it sounds and as difficult it is“ he says. “The advantage of mobile first development lies in the shortage of space owners have. This forced us to optimize each step and keep everything as clean, light and simple as possible. Ultimately, this offers a lot of advantages, not only for those on mobile, but also for desktop users.”
You can check out the free marketplace for yourself and also learn more about online selling and tips for being successful on the platform in their online magazine.
