College life isn’t cheap, and with rising living and education costs, most of us are constantly trying to stretch our budgets. Meanwhile, our closets and dorms pile up with stuff we don’t use anymore—like that barely-touched textbook or those clothes that just don’t fit our style anymore. At the same time, someone else on campus might be searching for exactly those things but ends up buying new because there’s no easy way to connect. This cycle leads to wasted money, wasted resources, and missed opportunities to help each other out—all while we’re already juggling tight budgets and busy schedules.
History and Background of the Problem
AFFINITY MAP
The Rise of College Pop-Up Stores
Uniflea solves this problem by creating a hyperlocal, student-focused marketplace that’s efficient, affordable, and sustainable. Here’s how:
Campus-Exclusive Platform:
Uniflea ensures you buy and sell only with your peers by verifying users through campus credentials. This keeps the platform safe, trustworthy, and community-focused.
No Shipping Hassles:
Forget shipping fees or long delivery times. Uniflea enables quick, face-to-face meetups within the campus for instant transactions.
Declutter and Earn:
Turn your unused items into extra cash. Listing on Uniflea is quick and easy, making it a perfect side hustle for student entrepreneurs.
Sustainability on Campus:
Encourage a sustainable lifestyle by reusing items instead of discarding them. Uniflea reduces waste while fostering a culture of mindful consumption.
The survey was conducted to understand the buying and selling preferences of college students, focusing on second-hand items and student-made products.
Key Findings
Students currently juggle between OLX, social media, and WhatsApp groups for thrift buying and selling. It’s a messy process—time-consuming, unorganized, and super inconvenient. Finding the right product or connecting with the right buyer often feels like looking for a needle in a haystack. The whole experience is just frustrating and scattered leading to wastage of items not required. Trading second-hand products is so hard where fresher’s can grab things for cheap and seniors can get rid of their stuff.
Key Findings
A dedicated app for buying, selling, and trading second-hand items and student-made products is highly desired among students. They value features like detailed listings, price comparisons, in-app chats, quality checks, secure payments, and a user-friendly, gamified interface. The survey also highlighted that student entrepreneurs face significant challenges with visibility and need better tools to promote their products beyond word-of-mouth and occasional pop-up stalls.
High- Fidelity wireframe
Empowering Students:
Uniflea opens up opportunities for student entrepreneurs to monetize their skills and products, whether it’s selling textbooks, custom creations, or other student-related goods, adding value to both sellers and buyers.
Strong Campus Community:
Offering users the option to reveal their profile after the chat empowered them to make decisions based on personality rather than appearance, creating a stronger sense of connection for those who chose to reveal.
Monetization Opportunities:
Uniflea has strong potential for future revenue generation through premium features such as featured listings, subscription plans for power users, or campus-specific partnerships with local businesses.