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Sales platform opens way to market for makers, start-ups

23rd April 2018

Mick Elliott

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A beta version of a significant new platform – DesignSpark Marketplace - has been unveiled by RS Components. It enables makers, pro-makers, start-ups and small businesses to promote and sell their own inventions and products to a wide audience of fellow makers and engineers, including more than 650,000 members of the RS DesignSpark engineering and maker community.

Potential sellers can list any product that is related to electronics or 3D printing as long as they have created it themselves.

This can include anything from add-on boards for single board computers such as the Raspberry Pi or Arduino platforms, to fun stand-alone projects, 3D printed items and wearables.

Anyone can register for free on the platform to sell their own creations or buy products from other sellers. DesignSpark Marketplace also enables buyers to purchase unique items that are newly developed and not yet available to a wider market.

Importantly, no fees or commissions will be taken for selling products on the DesignSpark platform, although payment platforms such as PayPal or Stripe will take a commission from the seller.

DesignSpark Marketplace is the latest major launch from DesignSpark.

Initially launched in 2010, DesignSpark offers free-for-download tools for PCB, mechanical and electrical design, as well as libraries, information repositories and the ability to share designs and other key know-how.

A further feature of DesignSpark is that sellers are not only able to list their products on DesignSpark Marketplace, but they can also submit an article about their creations for publication on DesignSpark.com, with the advantage of additional exposure through the DesignSpark marketing and social media channels.

“One of the biggest challenges today for makers, engineers and other budding entrepreneurs is getting their new products and creations in front of potential customers and being able to test the market before committing their design to mass production,” said Mike Bray, Head of DesignSpark at RS. “DesignSpark Marketplace is an innovative solution that enables makers and many others to list their products and promote them to a very wide audience. DesignSpark Marketplace also completes the concept-to-creation-to-market process for engineers, meaning that DesignSpark now helps engineers design, promote and sell their products across a single platform.”