Free cycling marketplace PedalRepublic goes live
PedalRepublic, a new cycling marketplace which is 100% free to use, has launched this week for use by the trade, local bike shops and private sellers.
The site has a number of unique features, including four independent modes (Road, MTB, BMX & Vintage) to effectively give users four sites in one, as well as a fully dedicated live auction facility and standard classified advertising and make-offer tools.
Built by two cyclists with IT backgrounds, the site, which has has a real-time WhatsApp-style chat tool, will also provide an area for pro teams to sell and advertise their ex-kit, bikes and merchandise.
By providing a free service, PedalRepublic believes that in addition to substantial savings for the active trader, the site will also improve the transparency users can operate under during the selling process.
The company is actively encouraging information exchanges such as telephone numbers and emails due to no vested interest in profit making, which it believes makes the process of negotiating and selling much easier.
Due to no seller’s fees, and the understanding that people sometimes prefer to make cash transactions in person, the system has also been designed to allow cash deals to be fully concluded on the site, giving a legitimate paper trail for the transaction.
Upon opening an account with PedalRepublic, the user is presented with a dashboard which offers buyers and sellers complete control over their transactions. Sellers can track the movement of sales from initial advert creation through to final checkout, with payments made simple and logical. On the buyer’s side, they can view and add to a watch list, observe offers they have made, pending purchases and so forth.
Co-Founder Andrew Pringle, said: “Along with everybody else, we have grown tired of the greed and extortionate fees you now have to pay to simply sell something online. We decided a couple of years ago to show it was possible to design and build something which was able to provide the same user experience people have come to expect, but still totally free. With our passion for cycling, this seemed the obvious place to start.”
The other half of the team, Richard Hoddinott, added: “We were also acutely aware of the fact that by providing a free platform for trade it would give your local bike shop the opportunity to have the same profile and real estate online as the big fish.
“Encouraging bricks and mortar shops to work online to stem possible closure may seem paradoxical, but the internet is not going anywhere anytime soon and something like PedalRepublic’s free ecommerce platform could be a start towards stemming the tide of the rapid closures local bike shops have experience in recent years.”
Find out more about PedalRepublic’s free online market place, here.
