I’m a big fan of buying secondhand premium items on sites like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. Over the years, I’ve scored some pretty incredible deals. In 2021, I snagged a pair of new-in-box 1970 JBL L100 loudspeakers for $25. That might be the best deal I’ve gotten. But enough about the happy parts of the process. What about the negatives?

Problem Statement

Negotiating on digital marketplaces typically follows a consistent pattern.

  1. Seller lists item for price they like.
  2. Buyer sends offer below the price asked.
  3. Buyer and seller go back and forth until they either agree on a price or decide the deal isn’t worth it to them.

I find this to be a fairly adversarial relationship. We’ve developed this notion that the list price is never the price we’re going to pay at places like Facebook Marketplace. So we do this dance. This horrible, uncomfortable, frustrating, time-consuming dance of, “Best I can do is $210.”

Proposed Solution

Ditch the price entirely

No, I’m serious. Think about it like this. What if everything was listed as, “or best offer?” The goal here is to make both parties feel like they’re getting a deal. The way to satisfy the seller is to help them earn the money they want to earn. The way to satisfy the buyer is to help them feel like they’ve gotten a great deal. My proposal is to obscure both the price and the offers from the seller. Here’s how I see that flow’s happy path:

  1. Seller lists item with desired price of $100.
  2. Buyer sees the item and knows it’s worth $150.
  3. Buyer sends an offer of $120.
  4. Offer is accepted and sale is made.

But what if the seller is asking too much?

  1. Seller lists item with desired price of $150.
  2. Buyer knows the item is worth $150.
  3. Buyer sends an offer of $120.
  4. Seller is notified that they’ve received an offer that is below their desired price and asked if they’d like to lower the price.
  5. Buyer is notified that their offer was not accepted and is asked if they’d like to increase the offer.
  6. As the offer increases and the asking price decreases, they will either reach a delta or stop negotiating.

The benefit here is that it completely takes the uncomfortable bartering and haggling out of the negotiation process. We do this by having both the list price and the offers be obscured to the buyer and the seller. That is to say that the seller will not see what offers they’re getting and the buyers won’t see what the sellers are asking. At the end of the day, all that matters in one of the negotiations is that the buyer and seller agree on the price. So if the buyer feels comfortable with the offer they’ve sent, the only thing that matters is that it was accepted. The seller getting a little extra in the event that the buyer’s offer was higher than the seller’s asking price is just a bonus for the seller.

Prototyping

negotiation app low-fidelity prototype

Initial Concept Feedback

Among friends and family surveyed, my concept received largely positive feedback. One of the primary detractor comments that I received was that, from a buyer’s perspective, there was a fear that they would offer too much and miss out on a potential deal. I think this is particularly interesting. It made me consider ways that people might game the system. For example, if a buyer wants to get the absolute best price, they could, in theory, simply continue submitting marginally higher offers each time they are rejected until they reach the seller’s limit price. This would definitely be one of the early challenges. To solve for this, perhaps a buyer couldn’t submit a new offer until the seller has seen that there is a low offer and has chosen to not lower the price. This, of course, puts more effort on the side of the seller though, and that hurts our primary user. More research into this problem is definitely required.

Next Steps

I’d like to build a prototype for this product using a low-code/no-code tool like FlutterFlow. The backend requirements for an app like this are pretty minimal. It should be fully achievable with a simple backend like Firebase. Once I have a functional prototype, I’d like to test it with friends and family. Once I have a concept that I like, the next step is understanding a monetization strategy. I think there’s a great idea at the core of this product. It’s just a little rough around the edges. Inside of that ambiguity, lies opportunity. We just need to go find it!