An online marketplace looking to diversify
The client is an online marketplace with a consignment model, primarily selling high-end products. They had strong infrastructure and a loyal buyer base, but their revenue was concentrated in a single product category. They needed a new supply source and a hedge against a market downturn.
A new category that didn't exist yet
The marketplace wanted to expand into a complementary product category — but the infrastructure to support it didn't exist. They needed authentication to verify product legitimacy, vendor partnerships to handle the verification process, automated data flows between customers and vendors, and a way to convert authenticated items into marketplace listings.
Building a new business line isn't just adding a product page. It's supply chain, partnerships, operations, and marketing.
End-to-end infrastructure for a new product category
We built the complete infrastructure for a new business line: a customer-facing submission interface with an automated fulfillment walkthrough, integration with an authentication vendor to verify product legitimacy, and full automated data flow — customer submission, vendor authentication, results back to the customer, prompt to sell.
We structured partnerships with vertical industry players — preferred service for customers, guaranteed volume for partners. And we wrote the direct response marketing copy driving post-authentication conversions.
The entire operation was designed to run with minimal headcount. One person managed the whole thing.
The largest initiative the company ever launched in a single year
- $3M GMV in the first 12 months — the largest initiative the company ever launched in one year
- 60% conversion rate from authenticated items to marketplace listings
- 1 FTE ran the entire manual operation
- Automated systems handled all data flow between customers, vendors, and marketplace
- Brand new service offering and revenue stream
- Protected the business against category-specific downturns
A new business inside an existing one
The marketplace didn't just add a product category. They built an entirely new business line — with its own supply chain, partnerships, and economics — on top of their existing infrastructure.
One person runs the operation. The automated systems handle the rest. And $3M in GMV in year one proved the thesis: the buyer base was there, the demand was there, they just needed the infrastructure to capture it.