

Shoplocket partners with WordPress to enable blog-based ecommerce - peteforde
http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/28/shoplocket-blog-commerce/

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ninjakeyboard
For someone blogging about their latest scary teddy bear frankenstein creation
this may be a nice convenient way to hook in for a sale with little technical
knowledge or skill while still giving an ecommerce feel. It's simple so my
grandma could use it. Don't know why so much hate :) especially if partnered
with wp it should be easy and that will be attractive.

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chrisdinn
I couldn't agree more. At this stage they don't appear to be aiming at
professional retailers, but the market they're going after is interesting
enough. Stripe even recommends Shoplocket in its FAQ:
<https://stripe.com/ca/help/faq#not-a-developer>

A better looking, easier to use buy-now button doesn't have to increase sales
by much to offset the additional cost. Besides, pricing models can change
pretty easily.

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gesman
Nice site and great ideas.

Although I disagree with 2.5% per transaction + plus paypal fees. There are
plenty of embeddable, widgetized, turnkey ecommerce offerings that are not
trying to undercut every sale merchant is making.

Why would i want to give up extra 2.5% on top of payment processor's fees?

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astrodust
Convenience. If Shoplocket is costing you hundreds of dollars a month in fees,
you could pay to have your own widget built. If it's only _tens_ of dollars,
why fret?

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gesman
Well, web tools to build online stores today are dime a dozen, and few good
ones are actually free or priced flat (not as a percentage of business).

Percentage of sales works well when demand for tools exceeds supply.

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astrodust
If your time is free, this is true. Otherwise this will cost you a non-zero
amount of time and money.

It's the classic buy vs. build decision. Many companies do obvious things and
charge money for it, yet succeed because they do a better job than you could
do yourself for the same price.

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gesman
100% agree.

PS: 2.5% off every hard earned sale? Ouchhh....

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richardv
To a lot of sellers, this is going to be a non-starter... The pricing model of
2.5% per transaction plus paypal/stripe fees, means that in liklihood it will
only attract casual users who barely make any sales... The pricing is probably
fine for these users, but it's priced well beyond the convenience that it
offers for established sellers who might just be thinking, "let's give it a
shot".

Marketplaces go for the 4-10% per transaction.. but provide payments and the
actual exposure on their marketplace... Shoplocket is just providing a widget
to integrate...

So ultimately, I only see these guys as going after the _really_ (emphasis)
really, small fishes...

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gesman
That's a good point.

99% of wordpress bloggers are just going to consume widget delivery bandwidth
and make exactly zero sales. 1% who actually sell will go for services that
cost them less. And these would be the ones who are either flat fee (possibly
monthly) priced or free.

Today is the great business model to offer base functional services for free
and charge for perks and extras.

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arbuge
What's the benefit of this over just adding a PayPal button?

<http://en.support.wordpress.com/paypal/>

Sure, it opens in a new window, but is that really such a big deal? You just
pay PayPal fees this way...

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katherinehague
Katherine, co-founder of ShopLocket here. Generally PayPal buttons aren't
great when you start having more advanced product options (variants, taxes,
shipping etc). And creating a beautiful storefront full of products from
PayPal buttons is hard. Not to mention, the process isn't the most seamless
for buyers, especially when compared to how shoplocket works with Stripe (ex:
popslate.com or somawater.co).

Also, while it works, this WordPress 'integration' is more just a hack where a
button image is linked to a checkout page.

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gesman
Kat, take this:

1\. Average WP audience is spammer, player, lousy useless blogger (80%) or
wanabe affiliate for someone else.

2\. WP is a platform to support, but not a platform to be based on.

3\. Target people who sell stuff, not people who use wordpress.org blogs. Then
% off sale starts to make sense. But then these people start not liking giving
up % off their sales either.

4\. Whats your USP? My wife sells high end dog collars through ECWID. Make me
an offer. Don't just be "Yet Another". Be a "Wow!"

5\. You email is a win. Keep doing stuff this way and people and businesses
will turn your way big time. Why? Because anyone else is ignored by everyone
else. People (businesses) LOVE personal attention.

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tobin12345
awesome - nice move from ShopLocket

