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3 market trends + 3 startup opportunities:

• Helping home-based entrepreneurs to sell online (Consumer marketplace)
• Unlock luxury experiences for everyday people (On-demand app)
• Increase employee motivation and talent retention (HR tech)

Trend #1: Vertical B2C online marketplaces

Existing B2C e-commerce giants like Amazon, eBay, and BestBuy are going after the horizontal approach — by offering products that span across multiple categories and covering a wide scope of audiences.

New B2C online marketplaces are created to cater to specific types of communities, creating unique buyers/sellers experiences and focus on a particular segment or vertical to grow. For example,

• GOAT is a marketplace for buying and selling sneakers.
• Houzz is a marketplace for home furniture driven by a community of interior designers & home improvement enthusiasts.
• Watchbox allows you to buy, sell and trade luxury watches online, driven by communities of watch collectors.

As online businesses continue to rise, more vertical-specific marketplaces will emerge to help small business owners to make money from home.

🚀 Takeaway

• Any hobbies can potentially be a vertical marketplace opportunity. Connect people who want to monetize their hobbies as an at-home business. See — Startup Opportunity #1.

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Trend #2: New on-demand platforms will emerge

The on-demand economy has unlocked “luxury services” to ordinary people. What used to be “only the rich could afford” are now accessible for everyday people through an app — anytime, anywhere:

• Chauffeurs → Uber, Gojek, Lyft, Grab
• Personal grocery runners → Instacart, Shipt, FreshDirect