Since the launch of our first university marketplaces last year, Paperclip HQ has been bombarded with requests for a new platform enabling school parents to buy and sell items for themselves or their children in a safe environment.

In short: you spoke, we listened.

After doing some digging online, we found that in a recent survey, almost half of parents stated that they had concerns about the cost of kitting out their children for the new academic year. That's no surprise considering things like uniform, classroom equipment and PE kit can quickly add up, with parents on average spending £250 on each of their children!

Paperclip set out to solve the problem faced by parents across the country. We wanted to create a platform that would save parents time and money, foster a sense of community and most importantly, ensure that children have all they need for school.

Building the school marketplace

Soon our Design and Dev' teams began working on safe and easy-to-use platform designed with the busy lives of parents in mind. Like our university marketplaces, we wanted their schools counterparts to be customised for who it'd be serving. This would allow for schools and colleges to have their own branding and colour scheme for the marketplace, as well as their own choice of URL.

Within a few weeks, we were testing the new platform internally. After some minor tweaks (and a few sleepless nights) we are able to announce Paperclip school marketplaces open for business!

On the new platform, parents can make offers on items from other parents nearby, or can add their own items for sale, swap or collection. The marketplace allows buyers and sellers to communicate via. our in-built messaging service, where they can agree terms of the trade themselves.

Like the global, corporate and university marketplaces, our school platforms allow users to join and create their own micro-marketplaces. These smaller marketplace groups can be based on interests, school year or just for general hobbies.

How to get started

You can get started in minutes, and it's totally FREE!

Creating a marketplace for your school could not be easier, all you need to do is follow the steps below:

1.) Complete the sign-up form
2.) Receive your marketplace within 48 hours
3.) Promote the marketplace to parents (don't worry we have you covered!)

Upon receipt of your marketplace, you’ll receive a guide on how to get the most out of the marketplace as well as some marketing material you can use to help spread the word around school!

Good to know

For every school that signs up before 31 July 2019, we will provide a FREE marketplace for the entire academic year. The trial ends 31 July 2020.

Paperclip takes care of the everyday running and maintenance of the marketplace. This includes; answering questions, solving problems and moderating the site. You just need to let your parents know about it.

With all our school marketplaces; safety and security are our key priorities. With a number of verification checks in place you can rest assured we'll keep you safe online.

Oh, and our legal team have assisted in ensuring that all of our data handling processes are completely GDPR-compliant.

Don't delay, register for a free marketplace today!