App to sell items online

ViperMAN

Hi there,

I have an idea for an app that might be useful to some posters here.

It basically allows people to sell items online quickly and easily.

I am hoping for some feedback on the idea. Would you use such an app? Perhaps you (or someone you know) could be a beta user?

Here is some background on the idea and how the app might work:

A friend of mine runs a small, boutique clothes shop. People can walk in off the street and buy in the usual way but she also sells items online. She hasn't quite got around to getting a website and adding an e-commerce section to it, so she just uses Facebook for now. She posts a picture to FB with the items price. Followers can call the shop and she takes orders with credit card.

My idea would be to create a service to help with this type of user. Users who don't know where to start when it comes to selling online and don't want to invest heavily in costly websites/ecomm platforms/payment gateways.

The user would download the app. Take a picture and add a description and price (and maybe variants like colour, size). This would create a webpage that allows people to buy the item with credit card. This webpage could be shared on FB, Insta, Pintrest, etc.

Once a sale is made, the user can attach their bank account to recieve their revenue. We would take a % on each sale. Later, we would implement a monthly subscription for professional users (website integration, gift cards, stock management, etc).

Thats basically the gist of it. What do you think? Good idea/bad idea? Would you use it? Want to become (or know someone) who would be a beta user?

Any feedback is welcome

Thanks

smash

Ebay, Etsy... I could go on.

jimmii

Is that not just Etsy, Folksy, not on the high st etc? I think to make inroads into this market now you need to spend heavily on marketing its a very tough nut to crack now imo.

ViperMAN

@smash + jimmii - thanks for both of your replies.

You are correct about Etsy, it is pretty similar. However, it is mainly geared towards handmade products.

Ebay does create a shop for its users and it is pretty similar but I believe that shop owners would prefer not to go onto ebay to sell online. A lot of boutiques have a brand - they don't want buyers to be taken to ebay upon buying. Does ebay still use PayPal as its primary source of payment? I might be wrong on that, but it was previously. Businesses want a polished credit card interface, not to have their users shipped off to PayPal for payment.

The proposed app would allow users to get their own website (personalised in time) where they could sell whatever they wanted without worrying about ecommerce, website creation, payment gateways. It would be simple to set up and in time, it would grow with the business in question: integrating into their existing website, gift cards, customer database.

On top of this - other opportunities could open itself up. For instance, a section where could be created where people could re-post and share items for sale and earn commission on items bought from their social media accounts.



I appreciate the feedback - please give more. I want to be sure the idea is sound before investing any more time. You guys still think its not a go-er?

I do agree that marketing would be the biggest problem

jimmii

I guess its a little different but if you are targetting people who aren't that web savvy how is their page on your site going to differ much from ebay, etsy etc with their logo in the corner or are you going to build a page for each sign up that has more of their branding?

Wouldn't be convinced about the commission aspect people basically shilling things to their friends via social media. Facebook shops has all but shown people don't want to buy on social media one of the big US retailers put it best when they said its like trying to sell someone something at a bar while they are chatting with their friends.

Paypal has it issues but the main plus is it is a name people trust which with a start up is obviously massively important.

If you are creating customer databases for retailers to really get value from that you would want to tie it into their existing systems which might be tricky retailers want as centralised a database as possible so if yours does has value then it would want to feed into whatever they are using already.

ViperMAN

Thanks jimmii - I have taken it all on board.

I guess you are correct. Is it different enough to build a new platform? I suppose in terms of what it actually does, no.

However, if you think about how to market it and who its for, maybe it might be worth building.

Although Ebay does allow shops to sell online - it might be perceived as a place where individuals sell their unwanted stuff by people not in the know.

Etsy seems like its just for homemade/antique items.

The other options are to get a web designer to create a website with stock and shopping cart facilities or use something like Shopify. But these two options might scare off users. It requires a lot of 'buy in'. They must choose a domain and get the credit card out straight away to use them. Shopify is great but its so configurable its crazy.

Surely a simple app where they add an image and price and they are off would be good? They don't even have to do any setup (regarding banking details) until a purchase is made.

Am I still just trying to convince myself to do or does it make a little sense?

jimmii wrote: »

I guess its a little different but if you are targetting people who aren't that web savvy how is their page on your site going to differ much from ebay, etsy etc with their logo in the corner or are you going to build a page for each sign up that has more of their branding?

Wouldn't be convinced about the commission aspect people basically shilling things to their friends via social media. Facebook shops has all but shown people don't want to buy on social media one of the big US retailers put it best when they said its like trying to sell someone something at a bar while they are chatting with their friends.

Paypal has it issues but the main plus is it is a name people trust which with a start up is obviously massively important.

If you are creating customer databases for retailers to really get value from that you would want to tie it into their existing systems which might be tricky retailers want as centralised a database as possible so if yours does has value then it would want to feed into whatever they are using already.

jimmii

ViperMAN wrote: »

Thanks jimmii - I have taken it all on board.

I guess you are correct. Is it different enough to build a new platform? I suppose in terms of what it actually does, no.

However, if you think about how to market it and who its for, maybe it might be worth building.

Although Ebay does allow shops to sell online - it might be perceived as a place where individuals sell their unwanted stuff by people not in the know.

Etsy seems like its just for homemade/antique items.

The other options are to get a web designer to create a website with stock and shopping cart facilities or use something like Shopify. But these two options might scare off users. It requires a lot of 'buy in'. They must choose a domain and get the credit card out straight away to use them. Shopify is great but its so configurable its crazy.

Surely a simple app where they add an image and price and they are off would be good? They don't even have to do any setup (regarding banking details) until a purchase is made.

Am I still just trying to convince myself to do or does it make a little sense?

I think people are more than used to ebay/amazon and how there are a ton of shops on there selling new things not just shifting second hand stuff. The successful people on Etsy are mostly craft suppliers but professional designers selling their wares on there also do well the hand made hobbyists don't get much traction really.

There may be a market for it but I think it would be a very long & expensive road to make profitable. If you went super niche then it could be easier otherwise you are trying to take on someone of the biggest websites there is which generally doesn't go too well and the only end game is to sell your site/app to them.

ViperMAN

Thanks for your honest feedback jimmii.

Everything you say makes sense - I guess I'll have to weigh up if I can differentiate or concentrate on a niche before continuing.

Thanks again!

jimmii wrote: »

I think people are more than used to ebay/amazon and how there are a ton of shops on there selling new things not just shifting second hand stuff. The successful people on Etsy are mostly craft suppliers but professional designers selling their wares on there also do well the hand made hobbyists don't get much traction really.

There may be a market for it but I think it would be a very long & expensive road to make profitable. If you went super niche then it could be easier otherwise you are trying to take on someone of the biggest websites there is which generally doesn't go too well and the only end game is to sell your site/app to them.

jimmii

ViperMAN wrote: »

Thanks for your honest feedback jimmii.

Everything you say makes sense - I guess I'll have to weigh up if I can differentiate or concentrate on a niche before continuing.

Thanks again!

Good luck with it. There is always room for someone who makes something better Apple have built an entire company basically doing that so if you can figure out how to do that then you could just be on to something.

Gareth Sherry

I think you could have something here with a slight change. How about building an app which retailers cab get to compliment their own site. Make it that when shop owner takes pic and post product it syncs to their site and social pages. You'd need to do a plugin for the site also. Though a neat service which would enable retailers to quickly add and edit products on their site on the fly would be cool.

ViperMAN

Hey Gareth,

Thanks for your input.

Having the products sync to their own website was part of the plan (I mentioned website integration above - but I can see now that 'website integration' could mean anything).

I do think sync'ing to their website would be important. I have worked on 'widgets' in the past where users just copy and paste a line of code to their website and items automatically appear.

Do you think a simple product that just allows users to post items for sale and sync's to their website + social media is enough for a stand-alone product?

What about price, would 5% on every sale be okay to charge? At least retailers aren't paying for anything unless a sale is made.



If anybody is a retailer and could give input on the features required or price point it would be ideal. Or even be a beta user?

Thanks!

Gareth Sherry wrote: »

I think you could have something here with a slight change. How about building an app which retailers cab get to compliment their own site. Make it that when shop owner takes pic and post product it syncs to their site and social pages. You'd need to do a plugin for the site also. Though a neat service which would enable retailers to quickly add and edit products on their site on the fly would be cool.

jimmii

If the 5% includes the card processing thats not so bad. I'm a retailer but not really your target market I think you need to go out into the wild and try find out directly from them I doubt the type of people you are looking to target is using the business forum on boards!

ViperMAN

Thanks jimmii,

5% would include card processing - I'd be hoping to get some users to a monthly monthly later which would include things for a a bigger business - gift cards, etc. You do say its not so bad - does that mean it could be higher?

I agree with you - I need to start asking actual retailers. Does anybody know a good way to speak to them? I know I can just go from door to door - but online. Is there a forum on boards or somewhere?

Thanks.

jimmii wrote: »

If the 5% includes the card processing thats not so bad. I'm a retailer but not really your target market I think you need to go out into the wild and try find out directly from them I doubt the type of people you are looking to target is using the business forum on boards!

jimmii

ViperMAN wrote: »

Thanks jimmii,

5% would include card processing - I'd be hoping to get some users to a monthly monthly later which would include things for a a bigger business - gift cards, etc. You do say its not so bad - does that mean it could be higher?

I agree with you - I need to start asking actual retailers. Does anybody know a good way to speak to them? I know I can just go from door to door - but online. Is there a forum on boards or somewhere?

Thanks.

This would be the forum i'm afraid! The sort of people this will help probably aren't using forums like this only way to approach them is likely to be Facebook or pop in.

5% would be at the top end you would want to be offering something premium to warrant any higher.

One worry with it would be the due to the pictures being taken in store it all ends up looking very untidy with lots of poor quality photos. The picture is a very important part of the eCommerce process.

Have you got as far as working out how much you would need to be processing to make this feasible? Say you can get a big bulk deal on the payments that you are able to get down to 2% so leaving 3% profit even if you were processing 100k of orders a month you wouldn't be making much money and to get to that level you would need a few hundred retailers on board.

ViperMAN

Thanks jimmii - I really appreciate your feedback on this.

I agree about the photos - although I do see a lot of boutiques now take photos of themselves wearing the clothes - it looks better then just trying to take a picture of the item against a white screen. I know what you mean though - the photo is important.

I thought about feasibility regarding price. I have come across card processing for 2.4% so that leaves 2.6% for me. You are correct, its not much. However, the cost to develop will be quite low as I am an app developer myself. Also, I would be hoping to have a few different pricing plans that would make up a lot of the revenue.

Marketing will be the big problem I believe in terms of cost and time/effort.

jimmii wrote: »

This would be the forum i'm afraid! The sort of people this will help probably aren't using forums like this only way to approach them is likely to be Facebook or pop in.

5% would be at the top end you would want to be offering something premium to warrant any higher.

One worry with it would be the due to the pictures being taken in store it all ends up looking very untidy with lots of poor quality photos. The picture is a very important part of the eCommerce process.

Have you got as far as working out how much you would need to be processing to make this feasible? Say you can get a big bulk deal on the payments that you are able to get down to 2% so leaving 3% profit even if you were processing 100k of orders a month you wouldn't be making much money and to get to that level you would need a few hundred retailers on board.

jimmii

ViperMAN wrote: »

Thanks jimmii - I really appreciate your feedback on this.

I agree about the photos - although I do see a lot of boutiques now take photos of themselves wearing the clothes - it looks better then just trying to take a picture of the item against a white screen. I know what you mean though - the photo is important.

I thought about feasibility regarding price. I have come across card processing for 2.4% so that leaves 2.6% for me. You are correct, its not much. However, the cost to develop will be quite low as I am an app developer myself. Also, I would be hoping to have a few different pricing plans that would make up a lot of the revenue.

Marketing will be the big problem I believe in terms of cost and time/effort.

If your initial costs are low and its not going to take much time you could develop it then see what happens but I can see a lot of challenges up the road that could be very costly. Once you did have a market ready product and a few customers to prove the concept I would probably think about approaching one or two companies doing something similar to see if they might be interested in buying the code instead of trying to scale it up on your own.

ViperMAN

I do think that making this into a massive company will be difficult.

However, there are other things to consider:

1) Say the product doesn't take off and become the next *insert big company here* - it will be a nice money earner as time goes on.

2) Mobile payments and mobile e-commerce are blowing up right now. There will be a lot of innovation in this area in the next few years. Sometimes, being in the right area can lead to bigger and better things. Sometimes. But if you aren't in you can't win!

jimmii wrote: »

If your initial costs are low and its not going to take much time you could develop it then see what happens but I can see a lot of challenges up the road that could be very costly. Once you did have a market ready product and a few customers to prove the concept I would probably think about approaching one or two companies doing something similar to see if they might be interested in buying the code instead of trying to scale it up on your own.

jimmii

ViperMAN wrote: »

I do think that making this into a massive company will be difficult.

However, there are other things to consider:

1) Say the product doesn't take off and become the next *insert big company here* - it will be a nice money earner as time goes on.

2) Mobile payments and mobile e-commerce are blowing up right now. There will be a lot of innovation in this area in the next few years. Sometimes, being in the right area can lead to bigger and better things. Sometimes. But if you aren't in you can't win!

Yeh you could always end up being in the right place at the right time you never know. Possibly a bit late with the mobile explosion that was a good 6 months ago really mobile transactions count for almost 60% of the total for us now. How long will it take to get it market ready?

ViperMAN

As a solo developer I think it might be a while before I can get something fully market ready with a lot of the features needed.

However, I think I could do a simple iPhone app with basic features in around 1 month. Add 2 weeks to get it through the app store.

I suppose I could test that simple version out before adding paid subscriptions, extra features and the android version.

Being in the retail space, do you know anybody that might use it as a beta user?

jimmii wrote: »

Yeh you could always end up being in the right place at the right time you never know. Possibly a bit late with the mobile explosion that was a good 6 months ago really mobile transactions count for almost 60% of the total for us now. How long will it take to get it market ready?

jimmii

ViperMAN wrote: »

As a solo developer I think it might be a while before I can get something fully market ready with a lot of the features needed.

However, I think I could do a simple iPhone app with basic features in around 1 month. Add 2 weeks to get it through the app store.

I suppose I could test that simple version out before adding paid subscriptions, extra features and the android version.

Being in the retail space, do you know anybody that might use it as a beta user?

I don't to be honest. The people I know would also be city centre and have pretty modern set ups already. I think go into maybe 4 or 5 local retailers and see what the response is like.

ViperMAN

Will do - thanks!

jimmii wrote: »

I don't to be honest. The people I know would also be city centre and have pretty modern set ups already. I think go into maybe 4 or 5 local retailers and see what the response is like.

The Corinthian

ViperMAN wrote: »

2) Mobile payments and mobile e-commerce are blowing up right now.

I've been hearing this for about 15 years. What makes you say it's true now?

jimmii

The Corinthian wrote: »

I've been hearing this for about 15 years. What makes you say it's true now?

Well web views from mobile are up around 60% now so I think it did happen in the end! For us we went from around 30% in November time to over 50% in January and payments followed with a similar sort of jump especially in January sales.

The Corinthian

jimmii wrote: »

Well web views from mobile are up around 60% now so I think it did happen in the end! For us we went from around 30% in November time to over 50% in January and payments followed with a similar sort of jump especially in January sales.

Does your CC merchant know you're taking in payments over mobile Web?

jimmii

The Corinthian wrote: »

Does your CC merchant know you're taking in payments over mobile Web?

Why?

The Corinthian

jimmii wrote: »

Why?

Many specifically disallow payments over mobile.

jimmii

The Corinthian wrote: »

Many specifically disallow payments over mobile.

Had never heard of that before good to know! Doesn't apply with ours they actively promote it so thats ok. Why would processors block that sort of thing? If companies do have that policy would they not just block payments coming from mobile devices?

The Corinthian

jimmii wrote: »

Why would processors block that sort of thing?

One reason I heard was because it's on your phone. Whenever they detect dodgy transactions, banks and credit card companies will tend to call up the card holder to confirm the transaction - when the eCommerce client and contact device are the same, this becomes problematic.

If companies do have that policy would they not just block payments coming from mobile devices?

You'd think so...

TBH, I suspect it has as much to do with control as anything else. Mobile operators, banks, credit card companies and now app stores have all squabbled with each other for over the last 15 years on who would control mCommerce - we've seen numerous 'standards' released by them all as a result as well as some serious price gauging (e.g. PSMS, in-app payments).

I suspect it's largely the politics of greed, rather than any technical consideration, that has kept mCommerce from taking off to date.

jimmii

Appreciate the info cheers.

ViperMAN

I do think that it has happened, or is just happening now. All the usage data points to it. Phones and tablets are becoming more and more popular.

Although it is too late to jump on the 'accept payments on mobile devices' bandwagon - there will be other opportunities related to it over the next few years. I don't know what they are but there will be - with one innovation, others will appear....usually.

The Corinthian wrote: »

I've been hearing this for about 15 years. What makes you say it's true now?

The Corinthian

ViperMAN wrote: »

I do think that it has happened, or is just happening now. All the usage data points to it. Phones and tablets are becoming more and more popular.

To surf - that does not mean that user behaviour on mobile will be a reflection of user behaviour on Web.

For example, even though there is both an app and a mobile site for Boards.ie, this does not mean that people post as much using mobile (or to the same volume of contributions) against browsing, as they do on the Web site? I don't have access to the metrics, but I could probably guess that on average fewer will post and when they do post, the word count of posts would be much shorter. Instead, on mobile, the majority would tend to mainly browse.

mCommerce is a lot better nowadays than it once was, but it still lacks a lot of usability, there are still security fears (some real, some exaggerated) and many potential means of taking in payments (e.g. in-app payments) are simply not viable for anything that has any real unit cost. All of these factors are holding back widespread adoption.

This is not to suggest that there is no increase or that widespread adoption won't eventually take hold (it's getting there), but in reality that may still be a bit off.

Although it is too late to jump on the 'accept payments on mobile devices' bandwagon - there will be other opportunities related to it over the next few years. I don't know what they are but there will be - with one innovation, others will appear....usually.

As I said, it's not a problem of innovation, but control and politics. For example, try taking in credit card payments through your app and you'll probably quickly get shut down by Google or Apple. They want to keep control of the 30% they get from app sales or in-app payments, and they're not going to worry about fairness or free market to do so.

Mobile operators used to do much the same. And this is what has slowed down the area unfortunately.