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Posts: 79
Location: Cromarty | I would be interested in any feedback on the following:
Online Community Market
The proposal:
A person with a delivery van for a year, who would also manage the project. This person would go round once a week on a Saturday, collect the orders from the suppliers and deliver to designated pick-up points.
My proposal would be for these to include outside each of the market venues, and also Fortrose, Avoch, Munlochy, and possibly one or two more.
A website with virtual market stalls for each stallholder taking part ( they would each pay a small fee for their stall)
People could order either at the markets or online, and collect their purchases at the markets or in intervening weeks at the designated pick-up points - pick up option to be specified at time of online purchase
stallholders could display their current stocks online and get feedback from customers for potential new lines; and they could come to markets with pre-orders paid and ready for collection.
the markets (and everyone) would benefit from people coming in to collect orders and meet the producers face to face
Potential problems as I see them:
Setting up the project including getting the funding in place requires quite a bit of work
Online payment system - not easy to implement (apparently)
What to do about people who pay for goods then fail to collect them as arranged, or who reject them for whatever reason on collection
How this would relate to existing box schemes and home deliveries direct from producers? These could undermine each other.
Sustainability after the funded first year: could sufficient costs could be recovered from stallholders or customers to keep the delivery service going?
Any thoughts?
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Online Community Market anyone? What do you think?