RU Listings helps students buy, sell items to Rutgers community
A new website, RU Listings, aims to help students purchase or sell items in an efficient and easy-to-use manner.
Hooman Parvadeh, a Rutgers alumnus and member of the Center for Advanced Infrastructure Technology, along with Rutgers Graduate School—New Brunswick computer science students Ayush Jain and Mayank Gupta, founded the website for the purpose of creating a free space to sell used items, as well as providing a housing marketplace for Rutgers students, according to their website.
Anyone can view and search the listings, but in order to post an item, the user needs to be logged in with a Rutgers email, according to their website.
The Rutgers environment is becoming increasingly globalized, Jain said.
“Websites such as Craigslist and Amazon are created for the masses,” he said. “Rutgers has over 65,000 plus students and there is no single platform that is taking care of the needs of these students.”
Jain and the other founders wanted to make the process of buying and selling easier for students.
“We wanted to create a community where students can trust and list anything, regardless of the price,” Jain said. “RU Listings' main goal is to create a local community by connecting these students, so they can buy and sell in a hassle free and trusted environment.”
The process of creating the website has been interesting for the founders, Jain said.
“We have learned what students actually need and have come a long way in doing that, he said. “The biggest challenge we faced was with marketing.”
Students were accustomed to using Facebook groups to sell and buy items in an inefficient manner, he said.
“Kudos to our marketing team who worked really hard in creating physical awareness by tabling and participating in student events, and creating social awareness on Facebook and Pinterest," he said.
The site has received exceedingly positive feedback from the Rutgers community, Jain said.
“We have received an overwhelming response from the students, alumni and student organizations,” he said. “We have over 3,000 items currently being sold on our website. Since our launch, it has been used by over 30,000 users, and I am very happy to see the increasing usage of our website."
The founders are currently working on developing iOS and Android apps, Jain said. They are also continuously working hard to offer additional features, as well as improving their platform and making it easier for students to use.
“There is definitely a lot of new changes coming in the near future,” he said.
RU Listings is accessible from desktop, mobile and tablet platforms, according to its website.
Jason Lang, a Rutgers Business School junior, bought a textbook for his management class off of RU Listings and has only positive feedback of the site.
“RU Listings is a great platform for Rutgers students to exchange textbooks and furniture at a reasonable price,” Lang said. “It's convenience and great price makes RU Listings an ideal marketplace to find what you're looking for," he said.
This is a great way for students to help out students by buying and selling things without a middleman, said Ori Manahan, a School of Arts and Sciences junior.
“It seems like one of those great things that not enough people know about or use,” he said.
Noa Halff is a School of Arts and Sciences junior majoring in journalism and media studies. She is an associate news editor for The Daily Targum.
