Current Favorite Product: Coscove

Question: What is the latest product you’re absolutely obsessed with and why?

Quick Overview: How I Discovered Coscove + Why I Love It!:

In November, I met the founder of Coscove at a Babson/MIT/Harvard entrepreneurship event. Through our conversation, I immediately fell in love with the product and couldn’t stop thinking about it. There are 3 core reasons why I love Coscove:

1. First, as a self-diagnosed fantasy geek (thank you Skyrim + World of Warcraft 🗡️), I have a soft spot for products that support the cosplay and fantasy community. I browse the site daily and love seeing all the new costumes listed on the service.
2. Second, given my experience in marketplaces at Italic and e-commerce at Amazon aggregator Thrasio, I have a deep passion for marketplace products. I love how these platforms benefit multiple stakeholders (usually two, sometimes even three!) and solving the puzzle around scaling this type of unique model.
3. Lastly, Coscove helps bring out the kid in all of us. Some of my fondest memories growing up was going to the Baltimore Comic-Con and seeing all the amazing comic artists and cosplayers. As anime and video games like Fortnite, Dota, and League of Legends continue to thrive, it brings a smile to my face that the stigma around comic-con and cosplay is peeling away (who said LARPing wasn’t cool 😎?).

What is Coscove? What are its goals?

Homepage!

Coscove is the costume marketplace where cosplayers, hobbyists, and fans come to buy, sell and commission unique costumes. The costume resale market is incredibly fragmented — today, sellers must scour Poshmark, eBay, and Depop to buy and sell costumes/props. Even worse, users might revert to Facebook groups and other high-friction, cumbersome platforms. The constant back and forth on figuring out quality, pricing, shipping, product specs, and other criteria is a huge headache. There is space for a centralized product that can unite these buyers and sellers. Think what Depop did for unique fashion, or what Poshmark did for second-hand clothes, Coscove is doing the same for the costume industry.

Given Coscove is an early-stage marketplace venture and has achieved some product-market-fit (per my conversation with the founder), its goal should be user acquisition. After hitting a critical mass, we can then prioritize other metrics like engagement and retention.

However, as with all marketplaces, it brings to light the chicken 🐔 or the egg 🥚 dilemma — why would makers/sellers (supply side) want to sell on a platform with limited buyers (demand side). In reverse — why would buyers shop on a product that has a limited number of listings?

From what I learned at Italic and through analyzing other marketplaces like Etsy, Poshmark, and OpenTable, we should prioritize driving early supply. A marketplace needs sellers and their listings to build enough supply to attract buyers. As well, I assume like Etsy and Depop, the sellers on Coscove tend to also be the buyers. Thus, this reinforces my conviction that focusing on supply first will in return spur demand, and get the Coscove flywheel spinning.

What makes the product so great?

Here are a few reasons why I think Coscove’s product is stellar!

Simple Searching + Intuitive Browsing:

• The product is incredibly easy to use for visitors and resembles that of traditional e-commerce platforms. Users can smoothly search for items via the search bar. Even better, they can filter the listings by specific parameters like by universe including Disney, League of Legends, and Genchin Impact, and even by category like armor, wings, props, etc (as shown below). This makes it very easy to find their desired item.
• Users can also browse by maker and hire them based on their respective budget and timeline. For example, say you are looking for the Oathkeeper sword from Game of Thrones but don’t see it currently on Coscove. Fortunately, it looks like KaroCrevan has a knack for making swords. You can click “Hire Me” and fill out a quick form detailing your order. If the maker approves, you’re in business! This makes it very easy for makers to earn more and for buyers to acquire unique items that might not be currently listed.

Very clever and relevant filters

Maker page to request a project

Critical Commerce Features:

• From easy messaging functionality, transparent shipping costs, and digestible listing specifications, Coscove bundles in all the core e-commerce components needed to smoothly facilitate transactions between buyers and makers. This reduces the back and forth communication, and expedites the shopping experience.
• For payments, the platform currently uses Venmo as its payment rails, further minimizing fees and friction for both buyers and sellers. While this might change over time, this is smart as it further incentives early adopters to shop on the site who might be wary of the hefty fees on other marketplaces (Depop’s take rate is 10%, Poshmark’s is upwards of 20%!).

Product detail page (PDP) showcasing the critical e-commerce components

Embedded Network Effects:

• Akin to social media and other marketplace platforms, Coscove’s product benefits from network effects. Each additional user makes the service more valuable for all users. Ten more sellers mean more listings for buyers, and ten more buyers mean sellers are more likely to sell their inventory.
• One way Coscove fuels network effects is in their frictionless sign-up flow. Unlike other sign-up funnels (yes, I might be talking about some B2B cloud products 😬), users only need to provide three elements via a single page: their desired Coscove username, email, and password. This effortless process quickly onboards users, and helps spark the product’s network effects.

Easy sign-up page

Good for the Planet:

• This is less on the product, but more on the business — Coscove is a perfect example of a venture both innovating and playing its part in the circular economy. Instead of throwing out old costumes, makers can help find their precious items a new home (and make some extra money, too!).

What can be improved?

The following are some suggestions Coscove can consider to further develop its marketplace product and scale its numbers of makers (supply-side). I also added some other improvements to make the product stickier that can be tested either during or after ironing out their supply. All of these improvements are strictly from my own analysis and did not involve user research.

Scale Supply-Side/Makers (Priority)

1. Referral Program (Near-Term): Makers most likely know other makers. A two-sided referral solution where both the referrer and referee get rewarded when the referee lists an item is a great way to exponentially scale supply. The rewards also do not have to be strictly financial (cash), but can even include being featured on the Coscove homepage or Instagram.
2. Community-Driven FAQs + Reviews (Mid-Term): The only “content” on the current product are blogs written by the Coscove team. What if users have questions that they’d like to share with the cosplay community Adding an open FAQ/question board where users can post questions, reply back, and upvote responses is a great way to spur community engagement and increase Coscove’s search-engine optimization (SEO) ranking. Ultimately, this product growth boosts discoverability via search results and help acquire more users.
3. Maker Dashboard (Long-Term): Currently, makers do not have great visibility into how their listings are doing or the best way to optimize them. What if they could see how many clicks a certain item got? Or based on their skill set, make specific costumes that match the traffic the site is getting? These granular insights would help makers make better decisions and further improve their listings. In return, this feature will further attract makers to the platform and even keep them locked into the ecosystem.

More Features!

1. Reputation System (Reviews): Another problem is that since there is no reviews feature, users might not trust Coscove and deter away from the service. Building a reviews section allows users to build a reputation on Coscove. Moreover, marketplaces like Etsy and Airbnb form stickiness by helping users build a reputation over transactions. A positive reputation pays for itself, providing makers a reason to stick to the platform. When a maker is committed to enhancing their reputation on Coscove, they cannot afford to sell on other marketplaces. This reinforces the network effects and fosters trust for all stakeholders.
2. Buy Now Button: Maybe buyers just want to quickly purchase a product and not message the seller. Take this ax, for example. The listing page already clearly notes the materials, the character, and that it’s shipping from Florida. Instead of waiting to correspond with the seller, users can click “Buy Now” and complete the transaction immediately. This benefits sellers and immediately provides shoppers’ gratification.
3. Follow Makers + “Like”/Wishlist Listings: Lastly, another problem I see is that users can’t bookmark listings they might want to revisit later. As well, Depop and Poshmark gained massive traction as they operated as resale sites and also a place where sellers and buyers can message, follow, and “like” each other. Coscove already has the messaging feature, so allowing users to follow one another and “like” specific listings to save for later is the logical next iteration. This in turn can fuel retention and engagement for the platform.