The Medieval Bazaar

June 12, 2008
By Mukesh Chatter

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You may have traveled to one of the famous bazaars in Istanbul, Cairo or outside of Beijing. If not, you’ve probably seen vibrant images of brick streets filled with an unending variety of goods and people on television or in films – the famous scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” where Indiana Jones shoots the swordsman takes place in such an environment. By looking at this 1875 painting “A Cairo Bazaar” by John Frederick Lewis, one can see seller competition at its purest.

The beauty of the bazaar selling format is that buyers closely interact with sellers and can verbally express their needs and wants as well as their price limitations, thus affecting the ultimate outcome of the sale. That is what makes a bazaar so special: anywhere in the world, no matter what language you speak, one can always barter for a better deal at any bazaar. If you’ve never witnessed the back and forth haggling process between multiple sellers and a prospective buyer, it’s quite a sight.

In a bazaar, the seller is active, the competition fierce, and the buyer ultimately has the advantage. These fundamental characteristics are beginning to emerge on the Web, the largest marketplace in the world. Right now the Web is flooded with online auctions, but most fall far short of the purity of a medieval bazaar. Most of these online auctions give the advantage to sellers. Take eBay, for example. There buyers compete against each other for a desired object, driving up the price, and giving the seller the benefits of competition. So what is the true benefit to buyers on places like eBay?

At MoneyAisle, we want to recreate the medieval bazaar online. So we have created a fully automated process where buyers get to watch sellers bid against each other live to secure the buyer’s business. It’s fast, easy, and has all the advantages of a bazaar – without the shouting, of course.

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