🗞 What's New: Ikea's new sales platform means new opportunities

Ikea just announced its new "peer-to-peer" sales platform:

• Build a platform where e-commerce stores can create their own, proprietary classified ad site, and leverage Ikea's news in your marketing.
• If you're an early stage founder, LinkedIn cold outreach > email. Why? It's more personal, harder to ignore, and builds trust more quickly.
• A 6 figure acquisition with a content site for rustic-style weddings. Maggie Lord left teaching to go full-time, and eventually sold to David's Bridal.

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from the Trendy Software Ideas newsletter by Darko

A few days ago, Ikea announced the launch of a "peer-to-peer" sales platform for its customers.

Basically, with this platform, instead of selling your secondhand Ikea furniture on eBay or Craigslist, you can sell it directly on Ikea's marketplace.

Ikea has customer data for millions of customers, so the company knows who owns Ikea furniture. Therefore, the supply side is handled. The demand side is also there.

The new platform is "aiming to tackle the secondhand market for customers selling directly to each other, an area where some people estimate Ikea has a higher market share than in new furniture sales."

This bears repeating: Ikea has a higher market share in used furniture sales than in new furniture sales.

The economic logic behind this

Many speculate that we're heading towards, or are already in, a recession. This usually means that people spend less. When people are looking to buy something, they'll see if there is an used option before getting something new.

On the other hand, companies are looking for more innovative ways to make money in a recession-like climate.

From this perspective, it makes total sense for Ikea to create a classified ads platform for its products.

The opportunity for founders

Typically, when a big company does something, it inspires multiple smaller companies to do the same. My guess is that we'll see medium-sized companies trying to get in on this, also.

The problem: This is technically challenging to do for most e-commerce stores.

Sure, you can find hundreds of scripts that allow you to build a classified site. But this is different. This is about building a classified site for your own store. This means:

• A limited number of products.

• More customized ways to list your item (adding things like production year, etc.).

• The e-commerce platform stands behind promoting your listing.

You can see how this is much more appealing for end users than listing on a generic site, like Craigslist.

The opportunity: Build a platform where e-commerce stores can create their own proprietary classified ad site. You can then release your SaaS as a Shopify, Magento, or WooCommerce platform.

I went through the Shopify App Store and haven't seen anything that provides this. The closest I've come across is this app, which allows merchants to list their returns for discounted prices.

Also, you could promote your SaaS by mentioning Ikea's announcement in your pitch, and explaining how this is a trend that many stores will likely start doing.

Discuss this story, or subscribe to Trendy Software Ideas for more.

from the Trendy Software Ideas newsletter

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🎁 Small businesses can achieve transformative growth this holiday season.

💲 Link to your product here. Our most affordable ad.

💻 Here are a few search engines worth checking out, to branch out beyond Google.

💸 This new report looks at social shopping adoption and trends.

🔐 The quiet disappearance of the safe deposit box.

Check out Trendy Software Ideas to discover more software ideas inspired by recent news.

by Aaron Morris

I get asked for early stage startup advice quite often, since hitting $10K MRR with my latest product.

I'm sharing my top tips here!

Launch a bad MVP ASAP?

It's pretty common startup advice to launch an MVP as soon as possible. But here's the problem: If you launch super early, your MVP will suck by definition. This can make it really hard to acquire your first customer.

Here's a repeatable method on how to solve this problem:

1. Identify a very specific problem.
2. Manually reach out to people who are likely to have this problem, and set up a call.
3. During the call, get to know the person. Explain why your goals are aligned.
4. Ask them to join the journey with you. People love supporting others, and helping them achieve their dreams!
5. Give them a personal guarantee: "Yes, I'm building a product, but if it doesn't solve your problem, I will do it manually myself."
6. Treat that customer like royalty.
7. Use the feedback to improve your MVP.

Become friends with your potential customers

When I started, I didn't have a network. Over time, I attended industry events and conferences, and made some friends! We talked about our goals and ambitions. I supported them, and they supported me.

A few weeks later, I realized that I actually had a decent network. Many of those people were potential customers!

LinkedIn, LinkedIn, LinkedIn

I believe that LinkedIn is better than email for cold outreach. Why?

1. Trust: If you build a network and post somewhat regularly, you will have a visibly active profile.
2. Prospecting: It's extremely easy to find potential customers. Once you've found the first potential customer, you can look through their posts and recent comments to find other people in their network.
3. Response rates: It's slightly harder to ignore a cold message that you receive via LinkedIn. When you message someone on LinkedIn, they see your face, so it feels more personal.
4. Spam filters: It's extremely easy for your emails to be flagged as spam, and never be seen. With LinkedIn, you have a better chance of having your messages seen and opened.

Discuss this story.

by James Fleischmann

SaaS Watch is a roundup of all the latest micro-SaaS acquisition opportunities. Here are the top three for this week!

1. AI-powered analysis tool for business ideas: 16 users, $700 ARR, $8.5K asking price.

2. AI-powered domain name search tool: 10-100 users, $150 ARR, $8.5K asking price.

3. Anycast DDoS protection for game servers: 28 users, $6,246 ARR, $25K asking price.

Subscribe to SaaS Watch for more opportunities.

by Marc Andre

Each week, FlipMySite publishes an inspiring success story featuring a founder growing and selling an online business.

When Maggie Lord was planning her wedding in 2008, she struggled to find information and inspiration online, particularly for rustic-style weddings. So, she launched Rustic Wedding Chic. Over the next 12 years, she grew her audience to reach millions of visitors each month, then sold the website to David's Bridal in a six figure acquisition.

Teacher turned founder

Maggie was working full-time as a middle school teacher, while finishing her master's degree, when she started Rustic Wedding Chic in 2008. She continued to teach part-time while building the business, and in 2010, quit her teaching job to become a full-time indie hacker.

Needing photos and stories from real weddings to feature on the site, Maggie initially reached out to wedding photographers and wedding planners for permission to use their photos. As the site grew, photographers and planners later began submitting their photos directly.

The growth

When Maggie launched, there were only a handful of other wedding inspiration sites in the business, and hers was the only one in the rustic niche.

When visual platforms like Pinterest and Instagram entered the scene, Maggie capitalized on the opportunity. Becoming an early adopter of Pinterest helped her grow a very large following.

Maggie wrote all of the content herself, publishing 10 articles each week. Rustic Wedding Chic had several revenue streams, including advertising options and branded content for brands, a 5K+ member directory for wedding professionals, a strong affiliate program, a book publishing deal, and a licensing contract for the product.

Although Maggie ran the business and created all of the content, she had a team of four contractors who helped with social media, ad sales, the vendor directory, and technology.

The exit

In early 2019, Maggie began actively strategizing and identifying the ideal fit for Rustic Wedding Chic's acquisition.

She gained attention outside of the wedding niche when she began writing for Entrepreneur Magazine about growing a business while raising kids. This exposure led to advisory and consulting requests from others who wanted Maggie's insight.

Aside from the growing demand for her consulting services, Maggie's decision to sell was also influenced by Rustic Wedding Chic's growth. She knew the business had grown to the point where it needed more resources than she was able and willing to dedicate, so selling seemed like the best option.

Once Maggie decided to pursue a sale, she hired an advisor. She also reached out to the CEO of David's Bridal to see if there might be a fit for a potential acquisition. She had previously worked with the company's social media team a few times to create content, and decided to take a proactive approach in seeking a buyer.

David's Bridal announced the acquisition of Rustic Wedding Chic in October 2020. As the leading source for rustic wedding inspiration, the site was an incredibly valuable resource to aid in the wedding planning process.

After the acquisition, Maggie stayed on as David's Bridal's VP of Partnerships until 2022, then as Head of Wedding Planning until 2023.

Helping other founders

Today, Maggie is a strategic advisor and business coach for startups and businesses, predominantly those founded by women. She helps clients with strategic vision, marketing and branding, public relations, and mergers and acquisitions.

Maggie's top piece of advice for those looking to sell a website or business is to invest time in identifying the brands and businesses that would gain the most by acquiring your business. Once you have this information, you can tailor a compelling narrative highlighting how the acquisition would benefit them, as well as how much they, or their customers, stand to gain from the deal in the long run!

Discuss this story.

by Tweetmaster Flex

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Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to Darko, Aaron Morris, James Fleischmann, and Marc Andre for contributing posts. —Channing