Carousell is a local bulletin board/marketplace, much like Craigslist (but less seedy haha). I’d been trying my luck with posting gigs and services there as a marketing experiment in local markets. I tend to market to an international audience, but with Covid and all the local focus, I got drawn to Carousell and wanted to learn and explore more. And very much like previous posts about unbundling Craigslist, this is a little entrepreneur brainstorm in unbundling Carousell.
Carousell has all the typical categories of sellables that any decent marketplace would have – cars, property, women’s fashion, home furniture, electronics and jobs, pet supplies.
But it’s the other lesser-known categories that I find fascinating:
?? Muslimah fashion - a category dedicated to fashion items for Muslim women. This is an interesting niche to have. And I’d not observed many Muslim-focused ecommerce retailers out there on the internet. With the “global islamic clothing market size is expected to reach USD 88.35 billion by 2025”, this category itself might be worth having it’s own marketplace.
♿️ Assistive devices - I love this category. It’s at the intersection of social good and business as well. I learned from my experience working in the social welfare sector that finding assistive devices is pretty hard, and usually under-served as a market. I’m glad Carousell made this happen, so that many people who need health monitors, hearing aids, rehabilitative devices, and wheelchairs are able to procure them easily and at more affordable rates.
? Religious items - this has got to be the most unusual of even the niche categories. But in multi-religious Singapore it makes perfect sense! Imagine buying preloved religious figurines, pendants, ornamental items from other people… that feels a little weird, doesn’t it? These items feel so personal, it feels like buying second-hand underwear from someone else. But there obviously is a demand! Strange but beautiful. I’d love to see a religious items marketplace come up.What kind of character would it have?
? Shopping assistants - this is like Task Rabbit or Instacart for you as a category. Especially relevant during lockdown and safe distancing. I included this here not because it’s unusual but because it kind of validates some ideas for grocery delivery that I had when our lockdown was at it’s peak.
? Free items - best things in life are free, and no marketplace is a true marketplace without freebies. Great for upcycling, resue movement. There’s definitely potential for a well-organized social good upcycling marketplace. People are throwing away good quality, useable stuff all the time, which might be better off in someone else’s home than in the rubbish bin.
Which one of these unique categories do you think has the most potential as a standalone marketplace in its own right? And why?