Riley Tart, senior in architecture, has helped launch an online college trading post. MidTrade.net is a website where college students can make money by selling items to other students at their universities.
It is similar to Craigslist.com, but Tart, the head of the marketing team, has found a way to keep it in the college community only.
“MidTrade is exclusive to college students,” Tart said. “A user has to have a university .edu email in order to join. This creates a more controlled and safer environment to buy, sell and trade goods.”
Launched September 2015 at three schools — Auburn University, Eastern Carolina University and the Naval Academy — MidTrade.net has reached schools all across the country.
With nearly 4,000 registered members and growing, MidTrade benefits from the Naval, Air Force and Army academies.
The numbers at these schools are higher, considering most of the MidTrade team are actively serving military members who either attend one of the schools or previously attended one of them.
Andy Bonn, chief executive officer and graduate of the Naval Academy, credits the response at the military schools to the amount of military items such as boots, belts and other items the school requires the students to have.
“We have to have certain apparel at these schools, so it’s much easier and cheaper to get on MidTrade and find a pair of gently used boots than it is to go to the store and buy a brand new pair,” Bonn said.
As simple as signing up, logging on and entering the trading post, shoppers can view the items for sale at their respective campus and either bid on the item to lower the price or email the person to buy the item right then.
It is then between the buyer and seller to arrange the transaction, which sometimes takes less than 15 minutes from start to finish.
Although the website has helped college students make and save money, Tart admits their focus is not completely on money right now but instead is looking at the future of the company, focusing on generating advertisements and gaining more users.
“In the near future, we plan on making money through advertisement on the student discount page and concert page,” Tart said. “Then we want to charge businesses and venues to post. But for right now, we are trying to build our user base before charging.”
In order to generate advertisements, Tart and the team have reached out to their customer base and have offered compensation for any individual who brings a company that is looking to advertise on the website.
“I mean, we’re being advertised on Facebook now and obviously that is huge for us, for our company, even for the members of the website because now more people will see it and add items for sale,” Tart said.
Tart said he believes the website is a service students should take advantage of. Having looked at issues students face, Tart said he designed MidTrade to be a problem-solver.
“MidTrade consolidated what students did most: buy and sell things, organize rides and try to solve any problem a college student might have,” Tart said. “The functions are products of reoccurring problems that typical college students have.”
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