An international student in the UK who was inspired to start a trading website that enables students to buy, trade or swap items is keen to roll out his concept across the UK and internationally. He is sure his site, Student-to-Student or “StuStu” will be well received, particularly among the international education community, given many of them need items temporarily before returning to their home countries.
Working with a Cambridge-based company, World Study Solutions, Cédric Deur is now building exposure for his site after initially launching on-campus at Anglia Ruskin University, also in Cambridge, where he was an MSc Marketing Management student.
He said that he hit upon the idea for the site after seeking relevant textbooks, furniture and electronic equipment second-hand. “I was excited to create something that will help students,” said Deur, 27, from France. “At that time I forgot about my courses and just concentrated on this, but I realised that without marketing, this was just another empty url.”
“International students like it as they will not be able to bring back all their belongings with them”
Deur started by selling textbooks that his university library was keen to get rid of and once he built a daily stream of traffic on campus he recruited a team to approach Cambridge University students as well. “We found out that international students like it as they will not be able to bring back all their belongings with them.”
Cédric and his international team will expand in September to different universities and want to take “Stustu” overseas: “Our vision is to reach students before then even arrive at their university,” he said. His site currently has 2,100 monthly visitors.
