This will be more suitable for local/physical transactions due to absence of escrow and arbiters so that a product description is verified on site (plus other verifications) before payment is made. And it's OK that funds are not held or transferred through the marketplace since it's centralized, can vanish with the funds, can be confisticated, etc I think a decentralized escrow would be needed unless you want thls to be purely a local thing.
Hope there are provisions for product reviews and seller's reputations
Thanks Ucy, that is how I see it too. Local and in person is where it works best right now, and not holding funds is deliberate for exactly the reason you gave.
Reviews and seller reputation are already in. Sellers have a star rating built from reviews only, with the review count beside it, so nothing is handed out by the platform.
Decentralized escrow is on the table for going beyond local deals, and I am keeping the options open on how it gets done. Either way it needs users first, and marketing is honestly not my strongest side, so that is where my focus is.
Ofcourse.
Also, try to see if you can keep the marketplace data decentralized or well backed up so that If the current site is stopped for whatever reason, the data can easily be migrated to another site by participants. This should make the marketplace somewhat censorship resistant and decentralized. You should however ensure that activities are transparent and ethical in other to give the censorship resistance and decentralized approach enough legitimacy.
For attracting lots of participants and customers, I believe there should be alternative for quick crypto to fiat conversion for local sellers who wouldn't want to hold crypto. And on the website,
members could list things they regularly/occasionally buy and share the list with local sellers to attract those who can supply the needs. And you could try encouraging mutually beneficial trading — buyers can aswell check their sellers "need lists" and supply them too
Wish you all the best