Many people first got a real opportunity to experience online sales for themselves when Ebay launched and revolutionised the whole trading market. It meant that you didn’t have to have you own physical shop to make money buying and selling, and people could find items online that they may not have been able to find elsewhere. It is likely that Ebay will remain a highly used site for many years to come, but the prominence of online trading has now been taken to a new level by sites such as Twitter and Facebook that boast a more social capacity.
One website that was quick to see the potential in allowing their users to trade items online was Facebook. Their ‘marketplace’ quickly became an active community in itself and people even started setting up shops here, in the same way as you might do on Ebay. Now it can be argued that sites such as Gumtree and Craig’s List have been providing this trading platform for over a decade, but the newer social powerhouses have taken it to another level. They encourage a more discerning buying process whereby you can do some background research on the seller, request more information, or even ask the opinion of some experts in the field. For example, before you make that commitment to buy one of those second hand bikes you can request more pics, query your friends about it, or ask those people who are hanging out in the cycling community section if you are making the right choice, and if not, what is the right one?
Moreover, people now even have the ability to actually seek out items that they are looking for via sites such as Twitter. For example an extreme sports enthusiast might post on their twitter profile that they are looking for 7’6” surfboards, and because of the potential size and power of the networks here, they will likely find multiple people very quickly who have suitable surfboards for sale.
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