How I Got 25k+ Downloads in 4 Months for my Online Marketplace App

[Vasudev Soni]

Hi Fastlane Forum members

I am excited to introduce my app, BechDe, to this community. BechDe is a user-friendly online marketplace for buying and selling second-hand items nearby. My app has been live for around 4 months and I have already garnered over 24,000 downloads. Currently, the app is only available on the Play Store, in India.

While I am thrilled with the initial traction I have received, I am now looking for ways to increase engagement and take my user base to the next level. I am determined to see my app become a leading platform for online transactions of second-hand goods.

Here are a few things that I have in mind -

• Launch the app on Apple App Store and make it available for the web
• Integrate a referral system that rewards users for sharing the app and inviting their friends/family

As I work towards this goal, I would love to hear from the Fastlane community about what other strategies/things to do.

What strategies have worked for you in the past to increase user engagement and grow your user base?
I am open to any and all suggestions that can help me in any way.

Thank you in advance for your insights and support. I look forward to learning from your experiences and growing my app together.

You can checkout the app here - BechDe

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Have you made any sales? How are you monetizing and making money? I would think you could just focus on India to start, plenty of people there.

 

[Vasudev Soni]

Have you made any sales? How are you monetizing and making money? I would think you could just focus on India to start, plenty of people there.

The platform is basically a peer-to-peer app where users chat and then meet to complete the process.
And for monetisation, we are earning some income from in-app-ads and some through in-app-purchases, but it is very minimal as of now.
I would really appreciate some advice/help that you have to offer.

 

[Two Dog]

The platform is basically a peer-to-peer app where users chat and then meet to complete the process.
And for monetisation, we are earning some income from in-app-ads and some through in-app-purchases, but it is very minimal as of now.
I would really appreciate some advice/help that you have to offer.

Get it to 100K+ downloads and an endless stream of people can help you monetize it.

Seriously, it doesn't sound like enough traction at this stage to worry too much about money and total downloads aren't really a good indicator for this kind of app. Engagement is much better e.g. how many thingies get traded between users? How many chats are going on? How many items have been posted? Things like that...

 

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[NathanN]

This is awesome man congrats. How did you acquire your first 25,000 (probably more now) downloads? Did you run facebook or google ads or was it mostly just app store optimization?

 

[MarcoAguilar]

Congratulations on that dude. How did you came up with the idea? Did you have the problem of not being able to find second hand items or where to sell them? Or was it just a shower thought?

 

[Vasudev Soni]

This is awesome man congrats. How did you acquire your first 25,000 (probably more now) downloads? Did you run facebook or google ads or was it mostly just app store optimization?

We are currently at 55k+ downloads. The first 25k was all organically through ASO.

 

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[Vasudev Soni]

Congratulations on that dude. How did you came up with the idea? Did you have the problem of not being able to find second hand items or where to sell them? Or was it just a shower thought?

There are platforms, but they only allow you to list 1 item per month, after which they charge you money. So, we allow users to post as many products as they want for completely free.

 

[Private Witt]

There are platforms, but they only allow you to list 1 item per month, after which they charge you money. So, we allow users to post as many products as they want for completely free.

Can you figure a way to charge a fee to the sellers by facilitating the $ transaction through the app and take like 10 percent per sale and they don't pay upfront only out of the sale.

 

[Vasudev Soni]

Can you figure a way to charge a fee to the sellers by facilitating the $ transaction through the app and take like 10 percent per sale and they don't pay upfront only out of the sale.

It’s basically a peer to peer platform. We don’t provide any delivery service, the customers handle the transaction on their own. Therefore, it’s not feasible to implement a payment system and charge fees from users.
We have monetised the app using ads and in-app-purchases.

 

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