Local Startup Canary Offers Trusted, Cause-Based Alternative to Local Consumer-to-Consumer Online Buying and Selling

Boston, MA (PRWEB) March 12, 2014

Canary, a fast-growing startup that helps people safely buy and sell furniture and household items locally while giving back to their communities, today announced significant security and ease-of-use enhancements to its website http://www.gocanary.com. The company upgraded the features based on feedback from the hundreds of buyers and sellers it has served over the past 2 years and will be expanding its offering from the South Shore throughout the Metrowest regions of the Boston area.

According to Mike Filbey, founder and CEO of Canary, the firm’s experience in the Massachusetts online resale industry has given it insight into where current online marketplaces are lacking. “The trust and safety factors are huge barriers for many consumers when it comes to using an online resale service,” said Filbey. “We’ve been successful because of the trust we’ve built with our customers and the way we take care of the entire selling process for our sellers. The new website is our opportunity to synthesize that dedicated service with a safer and more supportive local online buying and selling platform.”

The most notable upgraded features include:

•     Safety: buyers and sellers are required to create an account in order to buy or sell with Canary. Canary verifies the identity of all buyers and sellers before approving their account.
•     Credit card processing: Canary allows buyers to take an item with them after they see it, just as they would with Craigslist, and charge it to a credit card through the website.
•     A more powerful “for sale” page that allows users to search and categorize items.

The upgraded safety features will augment the steps Canary already takes to ensure their clients feel secure in their buying and selling experience. “I had heard horror stories from friends who had used Craigslist,” says Katie Daly, a client of Canary who sold over $2,300 worth of furniture and household items through the service. “Canary provided the security I was looking for. They only set me up with serious, legitimate buyers, and I felt comfortable every step of the process.”

ABOUT CANARY

Canary’s (http://www.gocanary.com) mission is to “revolutionize the way we buy and sell locally online, while supporting the community that supports us.” Canary helps clients sell their furniture and household items online by taking pictures of items at the client’s home, researching price, writing and managing a listing on http://www.gocanary.com, as well as other appropriate platforms, finding credible buyers, and setting up times for buyers to purchase the item. The seller keeps 60% of the sale, and 12% of each sale goes to the seller’s choice of one of Canary’s five charitable partners. To date, Canary has over 200 satisfied clients, $110,000 in sales, and $18,000 donated to charity. Canary was started by Mike Filbey, a Cohasset-native, his freshman year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He and co-founder Mohsin Khan are currently taking the year off of school to pursue Canary full time. In March, they joined 22 other startups at the PayPal Start Tank, a Boston-based startup incubator.

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