And, since launching in 2011, San Francisco-based Zaarly has seemed like one more startup competing with that crowd. But with a new feature rolling out Wednesday, the company is pulling away from those marketplaces of goods to really define itself as a marketplace of people.

Storefronts of people

Starting with San Francisco (but quickly moving on to other U.S. cities), the company is letting sellers on the site create “Storefronts” that showcase their talents and the goods and services they can provide – from a day of gardening to a hand-delivered homemade pie to a private yoga session.

“There are all kinds of cool things that are going to happen in the local space,” said founder and CEO Bo Fishback. “What we found in the last year is that this zone – finding talented people around and hiring them to do something great for you – this is where magic happens on Zaarly.”

As opposed to other local marketplaces that focus more on items that people want to sell, Zaarly has always listed items that people request, as well as goods and services people in a local area can provide. As some have said, it’s like a “reverse Craigslist,” which is compelling because you can ask for almost anything. But one of my chief frustrations with the site has been the difficulty in browsing for available goods and services and discovering possible items to ask for.

With the new Storefronts feature, that desire to browse and discover is satisfied, as you can scroll through dozens of people in a neighborhood (there are about 120 in the San Francisco area) across ten categories (including baking and cooking, custom creations, home repairs and lessons and learning) to see the kinds of things you can buy on the site as well as get inspiration for things you might want to ask for.  Sellers in different areas can apply to be showcased in a Storefront and Zaarly selects the best ones and then works with them on photography and marketing.

The importance of location, location, location

Even though the company’s Storefronts help distinguish it from competitors in local commerce, it will have to continue competing with historical rivals. And, with its new focus on people, Zaarly is a bit more competitive with services like errand-outsourcing startup TaskRabbit. But Fishback said Zaarly’s focus is more on helping people find specialists in their local area, not just anyone available to complete tasks. In some categories (custom creations, for example) Zaarly also competes with Etsy now, and Fishback said some sellers on their site use both platforms. But he added that while buying on Etsy doesn’t require that the buyer and seller actually meet, Zaarly’s platform encourages more in-person exchanges and communication.

Fishback said that when they launched the site, they didn’t have the vision for the Storefronts, but knew they wanted to create a local marketplace that prioritized people and transparency. When they added user profiles last March to downplay anonymity, he said, they realized that they had stumbled onto something promising and the Storefronts addition grew from there. Since launching, Zaarly has raised about $14.1 million and attracted just under half a million users. In the last year, it’s processed about $40 million in requests, the company said.

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And now Seattle-based OfferUp, expected to launch Wednesday, is the latest company to enter the increasingly crowded space. Despite the competition, the company’s founder and CEO Nick Huzar said he believes OfferUp can carve out a niche for itself with a mobile app targeting families that makes it dead-simple to buy and sell gently used goods in a secure way.

“We want to revolutionize e-commerce by not only making it as simple as taking a photo, but by making it a safe experience for the people using OfferUp,” he said.

Huzar said he came up with the idea after his wife told him their first child was on the way. “I immediately went into ‘dad mode,’ and had a roomful of stuff to sell,” he said. But he found that using first generation marketplaces took too long and raised safety and security concerns.

Average family has about $7k worth of unused stuff

Inspired to dig deeper, he said he learned that his family wasn’t the only one with roomfuls of unwanted stuff lying around. According to a 2011 study from research firm NPD, the average American family has about $7,000 worth of unused stuff.  A 2010 report from the Department of Energy found that one-quarter of families with a two-car garage can’t park in it because of all their belongings.

So, Huzar, who previously founded Konnects, a SaaS-model social media platform for traditional media companies, rallied a team of five, including his former CTO at Konnects, and started building OfferUp last year.

The mobile app lets users take photos of items they want to sell (from strollers and toys to clothing and furniture), include a price, brief description and their willingness to negotiate and then post the item to a variety of platforms. The app can list items on Craigslist, Facebook and Twitter (they’re looking to add Pinterest soon, Huzar said) but the transaction takes place on OfferUp.  Through the app, buyers can search for items in their area and can then see the items’ general location (although no finer than neighborhood level to protect sellers’ privacy). Right now, the app is only on iOS but Huzar said an Android version is in the works for later this year.

Security feature protects users’ identity

One of the app’s more interesting and unique features is its “TruYou” identity validation program. Through the program, both buyers and sellers provide information, such as their driver’s licenses, which OfferUp then cross-references against public records. Once the company verifies the identity of those documents, the user earns TruYou member status to give potential buyers or sellers added confidence in transacting with them. Another security feature is the ability to send private messages within the app so that buyers and sellers can remain anonymous until both parties are ready to share personal information (including email addresses).

The company said it doesn’t plan to charge for the TruYou program but will eventually allow users to make payments in-app and take a small cut of the transaction value. As it grows, OfferUp said it will explore other revenue options.

Huzar acknowledged that OfferUp isn’t alone in providing a Craigslist-like mobile marketplace, but argued that the company is different because of its focus on families, security and simplicity. Since the site is so young, it doesn’t have engagement or user numbers to share, but it said that a pilot program in the Seattle area earlier this year saw impressive organic growth.

Given the speed with which families with children can acquire and then outgrow stuff, I think the family angle is a smart one to take, especially when paired with the security features. But considering the number of different companies tackling the secondary market space, it will be interesting to see if it can cut through the crowd of recent competitors, as well as the old options. While Craigslist and eBay may be more cumbersome, they still have name recognition. (And, then there’s always the old-fashioned garage sale.)

Huzar said he’s been bootstrapping the company since last June but is about to close a round of funding that includes investors from the Seattle area and Silicon Valley.

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