UCL PhD student Jaimin Shukla has founded Student Bay - an intercampus university marketplace

Jaimin Shukla (Mechanical Engineering PhD) launched

org/" target="_self">Student Bay in October, a website that enables UCL students to buy and sell a variety of items from furniture to course books, all without the hassle of postage.

Having spent the last nine years studying at UCL, as an undergraduate, then a Masters and now PhD student, Jaimin has seen countless numbers of students move in and out of halls.

His fellow student's struggle to sell unwanted items via posters on pin boards when they move out, as well as new students being forced to buy expensive brand new items when they first arrive, was the inspiration for Student Bay. He wanted to create a platform that would streamline the buying and selling process, to make things easier and cost effective for UCL students.

Buy. Meet. Receive

He explains, "I launched Student Bay last month as an experiment in Bonham Carter House. Creating websites has been a hobby of mine for years and I've always kept an eye on marketing trends. Student Bay has allowed me to combine my passion with an innovative idea. It uses the internal power of UCL which has over 30,000 students to provide a platform for buying and selling to each other without the hassle of postage, and then meet up on campus to receive their items. Buy. Meet. Receive. It's really that simple.

"I wasn't sure what sort of response to expect, but the immediate reaction from students was 'why wasn't this created sooner?' They really embraced the idea and quickly started to upload their items for sale, everything from mini fridges, to sofa beds and laptops. When the first sale went through, the feeling of achievement was unbelievable."

As a result of the positive feedback, Jaimin has expanded the marketplace to include Warwickshire House, College Hall, Connaught Hall, Garden Halls and International Hall, as well as making changes to Student Bay in order to improve the user experience. With nearly 100 items now for sale on the platform, Student Bay is moving from strength to strength.

Helpful feedback

He said, "I offered doughnuts to the first users as an incentive to critique the platform and it's worked really well, as I've received some really helpful feedback. Using similar processes, I was able to make further changes to keep improving the user experience. For example, initially students had to bid for items in an auction format, but they also wanted a buy now option, so that functionality has been added and we've also tightened up the sales funnel.

"The changes we've made are definitely working, as users are spending an average of five minutes on the website, which is a large time investment and definitely compares favourably to the general market. However, it's also important for me that students enjoy the process, so we've even embedded Secret Santa onto the platform to give a small gift to every resident who takes part this Christmas."

Reflecting on the experience Jaimin added, "Launching Student Bay has been one huge learning curve and so empowering. For years I watched ideas that I had been contemplating, being brought to reality by other people. Then it came to a point in time, where I said to myself, I just need to take a leap of faith and I am so glad I did. The results have been great so far and I would encourage other UCL students to make their ideas a reality."

For more information, please contact Jaimin.

Useful links

• Student Bay