My New App for Parents to Buy and Sell Gently Used Baby and Kids' Gear
Hello there - I’m built and launched a new app called Growr - it's a marketplace for baby & kids stuff.
As a parent myself, I’ve experienced firsthand how quickly our little ones outgrow their clothes, toys, and gear. It’s tough on the wallet and contributes to unnecessary waste. That’s why I created Growr, a marketplace specifically designed for buying and selling gently used baby and kids' items. My goal is to make parenting more affordable and sustainable for everyone.
The way it works is simple - as a seller, you list your baby's or kid's item and wait for the buyer to contact you. As a buyer, you look for what you want and start chatting with the seller. It's all local based, which will help with community building as well.
We're working on building various functionalities such as rating system, payments, and options to deliver so that we can support the communities better.
You can find the link here: iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/be/app/growr/id6465306158 Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.modoo.mothings
Check them out! If you have any feedback, please feel free to reach out. Thanks!
My SO and I have come close to being scammed in a few other marketplace type sites. I like that this seems purely local.
Are there safeguards of any type for scams and the such?
I completely understand the difficulties in safeguards so this isn't a request, just a question.
Edit: might want to add Show HN to the title.
I guess this might be a regional thing, but where I live (in Finland) there's a healthy trade amongst parents with other local families for clothing and toys.
Facebook marketplace is used for this a lot, and also the local WhatsApp groups that you seem to find yourself in with the parents of your child's friends. The kinda group that has "Hey we're going to the park, who's coming?" and similar "local" stuff.
I know from the time our child was born up until at least the age of five we only really bought new clothes once a year or so - and that was exclusively the outwear (winter clothing for the snow and subzero temperatures).
I can't imagine going out to look for a dedicated marketplace for such things. There are charity shops nearby which are packed full of used clothes for kids up to the age of 11 or so - after that I guess fashion might lead to demands of new stuff.
I guess maybe if you have no local relatives, and your kids is the biggest/fattest in the class you might need special options. But otherwise the local trade of used stuff seems to be handled quite casually and happily - and that's what I remember from being a kid in the UK; my parents would throw big bags of used clothing from cousins, neighbours, and similar people at me now and again up until I was 12 or so.
FB Marketplace was one of the places we almost got burned, even though it was a local group. And we have traded stuff with other parents for needed items, but their kids are either too young or too way too old, but we still trade/give away what we can. And unfortunately, our extended families are mostly childless or have adult kids. I guess it's the bane of being the youngest lol.
The school thing we haven't tried yet, but we will as soon as he starts school.
As far as the app goes, I'm really just looking for more options. You did provide some options, so thank you! Much appreciated!
Yeah I agree with your point of view for clothing related things. We're also getting most of our clothes from our friends.
I think it becomes more difficult when you're looking to buy things outside of kids clothes tho. Things like strollers or baby bouncers - more expensive, short usage.
Facebook marketplace is the most popular one for those, but I generally feel that I don't usually trust those sellers and it's a bit of hassle to get through that. We're trying to see if there's an angle that we can go to address those issues.
Thanks for the suggestions!
I agree that scamming is an issue with few marketplaces. We're trying to add different user scoring methods to show how reliable the seller/buyer is based on their behaviors. We're also trying to see if we can cut deals with daycares and orient the user acquisition/experience centered around them. My hypothesis is that it comes with credibility if we acquire them from daycares around us.
Do you have any other thoughts?
Isn't this a network effect problem? For local, why would sellers choose this over the reach of Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist? For buyers, why would they go to an unknown app with little inventory instead of one of those sites or a local kids thrift store?
For delivery, it seems like ebay already does all that and has a mature stable reputation, payment, and refund system.
"Kid stuff" just seems like another generic category alongside "outdoor gear" or "used elefteonics" or whatever that any of the big players already accommodate using their existing platform. Meanwhile you're trying to build a new platform that does pretty much the same thing, but with a much smaller network of sellers and buyers. Why should anyone use it?
Here in the Midwest, there are retail stores called "Once upon a child" that sell and buy kids clothes, toys, etc. There are also relatives, friends, and Facebook groups.
I see - thanks for the info. I'll check them out.
There is only one thing here that matters: options to deliver so that we can support the communities better
Everything else is basically FB Marketplace, Offerup, nextdoor, craiglist.
If you can make an app that enough people use is questionable, let alone be profitable is another thing.
Whats the plan to make $?
So I think there are many different marketplaces, but I don't personally find them as useful because of a few reasons - when I'm a seller, the buyers are flaky; as a buyer, I'm worried about being scammed (and it actually happened to me once).
Delivery is an option that we're contemplating now. If we were to build it, it'll be in next few months to try it out.
On the monetization front, we're thinking introducing in-app payment processing and adding delivery options to take commissions. I'm not sure how excited the users are going to be yet tho, so that'd be the challenge