ethicalBay: The Coop Version of Amazon but for Ethical Goods

Summary

Imagine an online marketplace, similar to Amazon or eBay, that only sold ethical goods. Now make that marketplace a multi-stakeholder cooperative that involves sellers, consumers and the team building and running the platform along with other stakeholders. That’s the vision for ethicalBay.

An ambitious idea that came about over drinks at a UK pub, ethicalBay faces some hefty challenges, but it addresses a big need. Founding member Bob Thorp points out that finding ethical products online currently involves a lot of research. The plan for ethicalBay is to build a ubiquitous, global, ethical online marketplace that benefits sellers, consumers and local economies.

“We thought it should be, and could be, as easy to buy ethical goods as it is to buy unethical goods,” Thorp says. “It’s just that nobody has built the site yet—nobody has done an Amazon with ethical goods and services.”