The potential members will join your social media groups first, and once they are sure that your shopping multi vendor platform community idea resonates with their values, they will join the community as active members.
Besides that,
tap into existing communities that contain your targeted audience.
That's how Etsy
got thousands of users from the onset: a large crafting forum members registered for the multi-seller marketplace, started selling, and joined Etsy community.
Word of mouth is another successful strategy of the ecommerce marketplace center.
Etsy sponsors events, such as
New York's Renegade Craft Fair, which fit its targeted audience completely.
Also, the global multi vendor marketplace
hosts regional
street teams, where members get together to promote their wares and Etsy.
As a result, about 80 percent of Etsy members
learned of the site through word of mouth.
Getting off the internet helps many online marketplace shopping platforms to increase their communities.
Etsy
had a team attending craft shows across the US almost every weekend.
Airbnb built a team of few people and sent them to talk to locals, attend local events and distribute flyers.
It showed a significant result: the markets where Airbnb had a physical presence kept growing twice as fast as their other markets.