Creating an online user-interactive marketplace

[computerpro3]

I was wondering if anyone here had experience creating an online user-interactive marketplace, and what was the best way to go about it.

I don't plan on having insane volume, but it's more of a niche thing. I need people to be able to cleanly and easily list their products for sale and complete the sale through the website, while ensuring my website takes a cut of the final value. Paypal and credit card payments are planned.

What are the popular backends to do this? Is there anything similar to Shopify but more geared to user generated listings rather than straight up retail?

Thanks in advance.

 

[JosiahBradley]

I am going to warn you now that this is one of those things that is way more complicated to implement than it seems. My day job involves setting up such an environment for a large group of people, but no matter the size there are several things you need to keep in mind before you take on something like this.

If you plan on hosting this yourself, and you are going to accept credit cards, you need to make sure that your solution is PCI-DSS compliant or you face major legal fees from Visa, MasterCard, Amex, and others, as well as having your bank cut off your merchant account.

My suggestion would be to operate through one of the sites that has a pre-built shopping application that takes care of payment processing for you as this is the single hardest part for setting up any commerce website.

If you want something that allows user submissions then a custom application may be better suited for you and you can use a thrid-party vendor authorized by your bank to accept the credit card payments. If you are going to outsource the programming to a developer than you are looking at anywhere from 10,000 to a maximum of 80,000 grand for a solution.

 

[computerpro3]

$10k may be doable, but 80k will be a much harder sell (likely impossible).

I'm looking to get started with the lowest initial investment possible, even if it means that I'll pay more in the long run via subscription fees. That's why I was looking for something that is pre-built as much as possible - if there is third party backend I can use, I could save a lot of money just hiring a developer to tweak it as opposed to starting from scratch.

I definitely don't plan on hosting it myself and I may even just go all paypal. The most important thing is to get a ebay-type setup going where people can list their stuff, but I can't seem to find any third party solution. You may be right that I have to have it custom done.

What about these guys?

http://www.phpprobid.com/auction-software-features.php

 

[CEpeep]

I would look into using Magneto (http://www.magentocommerce.com/) as the backend for this type of project. It's extremely powerful, open-source, and has lots of knowledgeable developers and consultants who would be able to help you get this project off the ground.