Nowadays problems in freelance e-commerce business models

I would like to write about nowadays problems which are seen in current freelance/e-commerce sectors. As I mentioned in one of my previous articles, we are developing a blockchain-based freelance Busy platform, which will be free-of-charge and can eliminate and potentially make life easier for millions of people. But before I will write more about the unique Busy solution, let‘s get back to the problems.

If you are in hurry, check our YouTube video regarding this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcAyZG5Orx0

The most demanding problem on the current freelance platforms is either local or global approach, but both are centralized.

In the first case, users have to pay for an expensive membership; in the second case is a free registration, but the expensive fee is paid for every transaction made. The platforms are characterized by a simple registration, which is usually free, and where the fee for using the platform is charged as a commission from individual transactions.

That is why the platform may not care if it has 90% inactive or
low-quality users, because there is still some potential income. It is as if one successful user pays for placement on the platform and unsuccessful users are there just to be the artificial competitors. Also, it is known that the high number of users has a very positive effect on equity investors, who cannot effectively focus on user quality, so they focus on quantitative numbers.

From the above, it is clear that no one is forcing these platforms to change their strategy and approach the users differently. Indeed, this would mean admitting that their business model is not perfect, which logically is not a simple position for centralized companies valued by stock investors by billions of dollars. It is also predictable that any hesitation could cause an irreversible decline in the value of the company, which, of course, no one will risk.

But not to speak just generally, let me pick some problems and write about them in more detail.

Prices of the offers

Prices of the offers on the platforms are often completely random, regardless of the quality of the service provided. There are certainly some quality services on these platforms, but such a service will probably keep its price very low to be competitive with unqualified advertisers in its field.

Unfortunately, unqualified advertisers very often reduce the price because the quality of their services is very low, which leads to significant degradation of the market environment.

And it only brings additional problems. On the other hand, there can be seen several low quality, and even more so, often fraudulent offers, which set the price high to create the impression of the quality offer. They often do this by presenting a plagiarized portfolio.

Competition

As I have already mentioned in the previous paragraph, the prices refer to the freelancer’s self-confidence and willingness to work to complete the particular offer. Concerning that, another important problem is that high and quality adequately evaluated offer has a disproportionate amount of cheap and very often fraudulent competition. Unfortunately, to such an extent that the end customer does not even have a chance to register. And once he registers,

it is very difficult to distinguish a quality offer from low-quality and even overpriced offers.

In addition, the whole problem is compounded by the fact that it is not possible to use external links on freelance platforms (which makes it impossible to find any external references) because they are very often locked. This leads to the fact that the user himself is locked together with them on the freelance platform.

User rating system

The user rating system is for the end customers one of the last rescue points, and it should help to recognize the quality of the offer. However, the star-based rating system, which is supported on the current freelance platforms, often fails in its purpose.

Based on research, below are some points of why this is the case.

• The star-based rating system is not fair
  This means that a good and quality offer, which is only on the freelance platform for a short time, is at a great disadvantage compared to a lower quality offer because, for example, this lower quality offer can be on the freelance platform for a longer time.
• Every customer has different expectations
  Logically, it happens that a customer with lower expectations positively evaluates services that would be difficult for demanding clients to obtain. And this, of course, can be reflected in the number of evaluations, which can be misleading for someone and thus can create a false impression of “proven quality” in demanding clients.
• Customers may also rate inaccurately and unreliably against their complexity
  But it also happens that the customer evaluates only purely out of solidarity when the customer is simply “sorry” to give a bad rating to the person who tried, but unfortunately did not deliver the product according to the customer’s expectations and ideas. This situation again creates the impression of a better offer than is in reality. Which, of course, again confuses other customers.

Spam

Since access to the platform is free, spam on the platform is almost a cost-free affair, and users, often with fake accounts, overwhelm the freelance platform. It often happens that one user owns multiple accounts that they overflow even more and create confusion between offers. Then there is spam, which floods individual users with misleading and fake offers, making it nearly impossible to use the platform correctly and effectively.

Fees

I have already mentioned this problem at the beginning of this story, but I would like to write about it in more detail. So, platforms are often represented as free platforms.

However, the opposite is true.

These platforms claim high percentages of each order placed on the platform. Therefore, a successful advertiser often pays large amounts of these “percentages of sales”, which reduces the utility of these platforms. For this reason, the quality freelancer is not interested in staying on these platforms anymore. And as the service price would be increased by this, the platform fee would be significantly above the market value, making it less competitive. Again, that makes space for low-quality offers and advertisers who are willing to offer low-quality services but at the lowest costs.

User-experience

As the last problem, I would like to mention the user-experience. The end-user usually spends a lot of time on the freelance platforms to find the exact offer for their needs and requirements, in terms of both the quality and the price.

And as the offers are not very structured and not well arranged, the searching user is often forced to try several of them before finding a product or service that meets the needs. Due to the complexity of the complaint and the skepticism to fine-tune the final service with the seller, it also happens that the client pays for the service several times to several sellers. This, of course, leads to the overcharge of goods or services, several times then if he ordered it from an advertiser with a quality product and service.

Is Busy Technology the solution?

It is hard to effectively match customers’ demands with the best offers as the existing freelance platforms have not been conceptually designed for this yet.

But, Busy technology is, in my opinion, the solution!

The decentralized Busy solution gives the space to the best offers and eliminates bad, inactive, and possible spam offers. It can potentially save the user time and money.

It is hence an opportunity for people who have little or no trust in each other to create records in a completely secure way through blockchain — without any intermediary. The Busy platform will have no central administrator, so there will be no central authority — its users will be in a position of the service. This means that each user can verify transactions or, for example, monitor those who verify a transaction in a given blockchain. Besides, each such user contributes to the overall decentralization of the system.

Thanks to blockchain technology, it is finally possible to create truly transparent and decentralized platforms.

Are you interested in Busy technology? I will write about it in my next story so stay tuned!

Stay Busy & Join Revolution Today!

If you are interested in the Busy solution, check our website https://www.busy.technology!

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