EdenHub
The brief: "Multi-seller marketplace connecting local producers with the Garden Route community."
A project that was (and still is) close to my heart, which I worked on relentlessly for over two years. Our strategy was to establish a cooperative of small-scale producers, each focussing on what is best suited to their unique land, wildlife and other unique factors.
In addition to this, we created multiple avenues for local producers to sell their goods, which included an online marketplace, multiple retail outlets and representation via shared market stalls across the Garden Route.
To keep the delivery cost as low as possible, we recruited a network of collection points (12 so far and counting), where producers could drop off their orders.
Multi seller marketplace
The EdenHub Marketplace was an extension of the EdenHub project, which was an NGO myself and a friend started when we realised the fragility of our food systems, early 2020. The projects aim was to support local producers, by helping them farm more productively, while giving them an avenue to sell their produce online with as little friction (and costs) as possible.
I opted to use WordPress, along with WooCommerce and Dokan Multi-vendor marketplace plugin to get a mvp up as quickly as possible, with the intention of migrating to a headless commerce and jamstack architecture.
A premature end
In 2022 my partner in the venture decided to pull out, with the rising costs of our hosting infrustructure and not enough momentum, I was given an ultimatum of a buy out or to shut down the project. While I wasn’t ready to give up, I also wasn’t prepared to put myself into a substantial amount of debt and finding a funding partner is somewhat challenging when your intention is not to make money. So with that, the EdenHub chapter came to a premature end.
Lessons learnt
I learnt a great deal from the experience, from running the marketplace, what functionality vendors require, infrustructure costs and
Achievements
While the project ultimately failed, we still managed to achieve many of the goals we set out for ourselves.
- Community forum with 100+ members.
- Online Marketplace with 500+ products and 140+ vendors.
- 12 collection hubs across the Garden Route.
- A shared market stall at the Sedgefield market.
- 2 retail outlets.
- Monthly seed swaps.
- Our own offline market in Touwsranten.
- I was a guest on two online radio shows.
- I took part in multiple round panels made up of local community leaders.
- Went on a two week discovery tour from the Garden Route to Swellendam, meeting with local producers, communities and potential collection hubs along the way.
