How Marketplace Helps Sell Knowledge Without Your Own Website

The Russian EdTech project develops a platform for the sale of educational products and builds a single technological platform for authors, students, schools and businesses.

To sell your own educational course, it is not necessary to create a separate site, connect payment tools and independently build the entire infrastructure of online sales. It was from this idea that the Russian project “MarKurs” grew. - A platform where knowledge becomes a comprehensible digital product, and training can be selected in a general catalog.

The project already has a working marketplace, users, sellers, paid orders and a mobile application. At the same time, the team is creating a new version of Markurs 2.0: not just a catalog of courses, but a technological basis for several learning formats. The combination of an existing product and a promising development determines why MarCourse sees itself not only as a trading platform, but also as an EdTech project with the potential for scaling.

Why the Education Market Needs a Marketplace

The learning market is often arranged as a set of individual showcases. One author sells the program through his own website, another - Through social networks and messengers, the school uses landing, and the teacher negotiates with students directly. For the buyer, this means the need to search and compare offers on different resources. For the author - Start-up and sales support costs that are not directly related to the quality of educational material.

This barrier is especially noticeable for independent experts and small schools. A specialist may have a ready-made course, manual, or training record, but not a team of developers, marketers, and payment specialists. At the same time, it is important for the buyer to see the program, format, duration, cost and access conditions before placing an order.

MarCourse proposes to unite both parties in a single space: the author receives a ready-made accommodation infrastructure, and the buyer - A structured catalog of educational products. This is the basic logic of the marketplace.

How MarCourse Works for Authors and Buyers

For the seller, the path begins with registration on markurs.ru and filing an application for connection. The platform provides for moderation: after confirmation, the author or educational organization gets the opportunity to place offers, fill out course cards, indicate the price, program and format of training. Further, you can process orders and use the tools of the seller's office.

The buyer, in turn, finds the course through categories and search, examines the description and conditions, makes a purchase and gets the proposed access to digital materials. Different formats of educational products are supported: online courses, lesson records, methodological materials, PDF manuals, archives and access by link. For face-to-face programs, the information and mechanics of receiving training are determined by the terms of a specific offer.

It is important that MarCourse positions itself as a platform for different authors, not just for major educational brands. At the same time, access to the sale is not completely automatic: sellers’ applications are considered by moderators. Verification helps to assess the reliability of the information provided and to comply with the rules of placement, but in itself does not replace the evaluation of educational results or the independent accreditation of each course.

Value to the author. The ability to test and sell an educational product without launching your own online store. The value for the buyer is the choice of offers in one directory with clear conditions.

From idea to working product

Unlike concepts that exist only in presentations, MarCourse has already launched a working version of the platform. On the site, a catalog and cards of educational products, an ordering mechanism, user and seller offices are available. The company also created its own catalog. - There are about 200 courses that help fill the showcase and check user scripts to scale the connection of external authors.

According to the same presentation, the amount of the first sales of the project is about 30 thousand rubles. For the team, these numbers - This is not evidence of a mature commercial model, but confirmation that the basic scenario of placement, purchase and issuance of access is already working. Next stage - Researching customer acquisition and repurchase channels rather than trying to present early results as a large-scale business.

How the project makes money

In the future, the team plans additional monetization tools: expanded tariffs for sellers and schools, paid promotion within the catalog, partner solutions for academies and corporate training. These areas should not be confused with current revenue: subscriptions and promotional tools are stated in the plans, and not as existing mass services of the company's courses, where the economy is different from the usual commission transaction.

In the future, the team plans additional monetization tools: expanded tariffs for sellers and schools, paid promotion within the catalog, partner solutions for academies and corporate training. These areas should not be confused with current revenue: subscriptions and promotional tools are stated in the plans, and not as existing mass services.

The potential of the model depends on two interrelated processes. The growth of the catalog increases the likelihood that the buyer will find the right training; the increase in customer traffic, in turn, makes the placement more attractive for new sellers. This effect does not occur automatically. - It should be confirmed on real indicators of the cost of attraction, conversion and repeat purchases.

The mobile application has already been published

MarCourse develops not only the web version: the Android application of the project is published in RuStore. It presents the directory, search, favorites and user sections. The mobile channel expands the possibilities of access to the showcase and will become one of the directions of further work on the product.

Annex page: rustore.ru/catalog/app/com.markurs.app

Next stage - The single educational platform Markurs 2. 0

Now the team is developing a new technological basis. - Markurs 2.0. The key difference between this idea and a simple catalog extension is that different educational scenarios should work within a single platform core: with a shared account, orders, accesses, files, offices and support.

Marketplace continues to work and develop. The remaining declared modules are in the design and development stages: Repmatch is designed for the selection of teachers and individual lessons; S2S - for step-by-step learning with assignments, checks and progress tracking; Webinar - for online classes, webinars and live broadcasts. B2B/Academy is considered as a direction of work with educational organizations and corporate clients.

In a single model, the author will be able to sell records and materials, conduct classes and work with students from the same office. Buyer - See courses, classes, documents and educational progress in one account. This part still refers to the target state of the product: the team is testing the basis of new rooms and gradually creates the necessary modules.

From a technological point of view, the new version is built as a common platform with a single backend / API, and individual interfaces are responsible for the scenarios of the seller, buyer and administrator. This approach is designed to reduce duplication of components and simplify the further development of the product. At the moment, the work site and the new version exist as different stages of the development of MarCourse, and the functions of the future ecosystem cannot be considered already available to each user.

Who's behind the project

MarCourse develops a team that combines technical, managerial and marketing competencies. The project founder and technical director Andrey Serov is responsible for product, architecture and development. CEO and co-founder Pavel Kulikov oversees the company’s management, sales, partnerships and B2B direction. Co-founder, Marketing and Development Director Victoria Arsenina works on brand, content, engagement channels and audience development.

In addition to the founders, the project involves specialists in backend and frontend development, mobile applications, content, SEO, support and moderation. For the early stage, this is an important combination: the product simultaneously needs new technologies, quality catalog content and everyday work with users.

Investment Request and Growth Challenges

The development of the platform requires resources not only for programming. It is necessary to attract authors and schools, maintain a catalog, check advertising channels, develop a mobile application and accompany users. The investment presentation of MarCourse indicated that the team has already invested about 2.6 million rubles of its own funds in product, marketing and organizational training.

The project formulated an investment request in the amount of 32 million rubles with a horizon of use of funds for 12 months. The presentation provides funding for the development of Markurs 2.0, marketing tests, team, sales connection, content preparation, infrastructure and reserve. Equity participation, convertible loan and strategic partnership are considered as possible options for discussion, without predetermined valuation of the company or the investor’s share.

The main commercial issue for the next stage - How predictable the project will attract buyers and sellers The team is going to test SEO, content marketing, affiliate channels and paid advertising, estimating the cost of customer acquisition, conversion from visit to order and payment, average check, turnover and repeat purchases. The financial scenarios in the presentation are calculated models, not the promise of a specific return.

Early-stage open questions

MarCourse has already passed the stage of creating a basic showcase, but continues to work in conditions typical for a young marketplace. The project needs to simultaneously expand the supply of courses and attract effective demand. Individual tasks - quality of materials, transparency of conditions, support of sellers, development of customer trust and sustainability of payment and return processes.

The team relies on a step-by-step approach: first checking demand and marketing effectiveness, then increasing the number of active sellers and orders. - Expansion of training formats on a new technical basis. Such a path does not exclude risks, but allows us to evaluate results on the basis of actual data, not only on the basis of forecasts.

What next?

The story of MarCourse illustrates an important shift for EdTech: an educational product does not have to live on a separate site of an author or school. Marketplace can become a common entry point for the sale of knowledge, and with further development - The basis for interaction between teachers, students and corporate customers.

MarCourse already has a valid product and first commercial results. Next step. - prove the stability of attraction channels, increase the activity of sellers and implement a new technological core. It is at the intersection of these tasks that the potential of the project is located. - and his main challenge.

MarCourse is a platform where authors and educational organizations can post courses and materials without their own website, and buyers can search for training in one catalog.

Project contact

Website: markurs.ru

Annex: RuStore - MarCourse

Mail: info@markurs.ru

Telegram: @markursru

Company: LLC "MP MARKURS", INN 1658257127.

Sources of information: presentations “MarCourse – presentation of the project and investment request” and “MarCourse – presentation of the Unified Educational Technologies project”, provided by the team; public site markurs.ru and application card in RuStore. Numerical indicators and investment plans reflect these materials as of the date of their preparation and publication.