

My startup pivot idea. Comments? - fezzl

Hi, I recently posted a thread to gather pivot ideas for my startup (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1734466). I got many ideas, and I thank HN for being so helpful.<p>Given our less-than-satisfactory traction, we would be willing to try a rather major pivot. Do give your feedback on this idea:<p>1) Imagine an Addthis/ShareThis button, made specifically for ecommerce. Just a sharing button on your store/product pages.<p>2) Anytime a visitor shares to Facebook/Twitter and that share results in new visitors/leads coming in, the sharer gets a discount coupon as an incentive.<p>3) Alternatively, the sharer gets a (bigger) discount coupon only for sales made by their friends, not merely visits.<p>4) For either scenario, the technology provider gets a cut.<p>Would you want to use a system like that, say, if you are a retailer?
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dminor
The problem with competing with AddThis and ShareThis is that they're dirt
simple to slap on a page and free (not to mention they target more than just
Facebook). The advantage you have is that their target is sharing web pages
and your target is sharing products - so make your widget dirt simple, free,
and very good at sharing products. Then add things like discounts and
analytics to a premium plan.

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minalecs
Usually this is a problem, of what can you do for them more than what can they
do for you. Your biggest issue as you pointed out is adoption by retailers,
and if really they have a problem with giving out coupons.

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Shooter
There are already several companies and scripts that do exactly this,
especially in the 'IM' space.

