Hamster Marketplace is a decentralized platform for the sale of unique and indie electronics with no middlemen. The foundational ideas of the project are direct partnership with device manufacturers, collective management of the platform by the vendors, as well as state-of-the-art advances in inventory, data analysis, and delivery tracking. The plan is to create several key systems that will favorably distinguish Hamster Marketplace from other platforms. These systems include a defect tracking system (Defect Rate), a smart data collection and arbitration system, and a mechanism to vet manufacturers at the earliest stage, when they first enter the platform. Each of these mechanisms is described in detail below.
A System for Attracting and Vetting Manufacturers
One of the key problems for modern internet retail platforms is the massive number of unscrupulous sellers. The conception for Hamster Marketplace includes working directly with manufacturers, with each product placement on the platform being unique, but that does not solve the issue of ensuring the quality and good faith of manufacturers themselves, who act as the vendors. For this reason, the project’s administration has developed a series of measures to vet manufacturers before giving them access to sell their products on the marketplace.
First, each vendor who expresses an interest in operating on Hamster Marketplace is individually verified. This verification includes everything, from reviewing the documentation and verifying the manufacturer’s existence to evaluating potential risks concerning their stability and the quality of their products.
Manufacturers who meet the platform’s requirements in part may secure their place with a deposit in HMT tokens. If there are any statistically significant problems with the products, large numbers of complaints, or other serious incidents, the deposit would go to covering losses and compensating buyers, and the vendor would be blocked from the platform. If, on the other hand, the vendor addresses any issues and comes into complete compliance with the platform’s requirements, the deposit is returned, with the tokens applied to the vendor’s balance.
Defect Rate Inventory System
Experience shows that, for buyers, acquiring a product from small-batch production can turn into a kind of lottery. In this lottery, someone might receive the product of their dreams, but they might also receive a mediocre (and at times non-operational) hack job. Hamster Marketplace will not work with manufacturers who deliver clearly low-quality goods.
The Defect Rate system involves collecting data on each placement of each product, based on reviews from users. All the information will be recorded in the Emercoin blockchain to ensure transparency, public accessibility, and immutability of the data on manufacturers. This is needed to eliminate the possibility of influencing Defect Rate, thereby influencing the rating of a given manufacturer and their product. Data will only be entered into the blockchain from “live” orders, orders that were actually paid for and received, to avoid the chance of inflating ratings or attacks on competitors.
If there are large-scale quality issues with a product, the manufacturer will either have to mitigate the problem and compensate users for damage, or be entirely and irrevocably blocked from accessing the marketplace.
Delivery Tracking System
In addition to Defect Rate, a delivery tracking system will be implemented on the platform. First and foremost, this is needed to avoid fraud attempts by unscrupulous buyers, as well as attempts by vendors to inflate the number of positive reviews. As with Defect Rate, all information on successful or failed deliveries to buyers will be recorded in the blockchain.
In addition to the issue of fraud, this tracking system also addresses the issue of tracking the actual volume of a vendor’s sales, since the number of orders received does not always clearly reflect the actual number of devices shipped (due to canceled orders, funds returned, product sold out, etc.).
Arbitration System
The dispute arbitration system is a logical continuation of the Defect Rate and delivery tracking systems. Unlike the mechanisms described above, the arbitration will be conducted manually by a team of Hamster Marketplace moderators. Arbitration will be involved only in individual cases, when data from the automated systems don’t show the entire picture and don’t allow for the guilty party to be identified without additional information.
Arbitration is an established practice on all modern platforms. Non-routine situations, where the seller and vendor can’t resolve the problem directly, are a regular occurrence. Resolving such situation is the purpose of the “third party” represented by the platform’s arbitration system.
Price Data Collection
Working directly with manufacturers does not always guarantee the lowest price. The Hamster Marketplace administration does not limit or dictate to their vendors on where else they can sell their products. The purpose of the marketplace is to offer the best service and the best prices for the products offered.
To maintain the terms of this policy, the platform will include a full-fledged system to collect data on the prices for products offered outside the marketplace. It will allow for automatic data collection and for prices to be adjusted downward. At the same time, attempts to “crater” the price for products will be nipped in the bud. In the event of anomalous price jumps, humans will get involved in the data analysis to evaluate the data collected by the system and to reach a final conclusion.
The operation of all the systems described will result in a maximum advantage for users, who will have the certainty that Hamster Marketplace offers a reliable service and the best online prices for the products they want.