

Swish (YC W13) Makes Selling Simpler For Inventors And Creators - lanthe
http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/01/yc-backed-swish-makes-selling-simpler-for-inventors-and-creators/

======
aviswanathan
There's definitely room in the market for several players (in terms of the
whole crowd-design/manufacturing space), but I think that down the road, there
will be one clear winner. At the end of the day, this industry is a network
effects game. Inventors/sellers will always flock to the service with the
largest user base to increase their chances of getting their ideas to market.
Right now, I'd say the frontrunners are Kickstarter and Quirky, although I've
personally seen inventors shy away from Kickstarter because of their
increasingly stingy policies. Quirky probably has the most unique model by
partnering with big box retailers and tapping into a much broader distribution
bottleneck.

~~~
czstrong
I don't think there will be one clear winner in the crowd-design/manufacturing
space, I think there is room for a site for each niche.

For example, <http://www.unbrandeddesigns.com/> is gaining traction as "Quirky
for furniture". I see many advantages. The submissions and participants are
more focused and passionate since they're only dealing with the type of
product they care about. And the team can source, build, sell, and distribute
more effectively because they are only working within one industry.

------
spangborn
The site itself is a bit weird. Most of the content looks like it's loaded in
via AJAX, and on a slower connection it's pretty jarring. Clicking on "See
All" initially shows the "About Us" section of the page, which caused me to
think I clicked the wrong link, and went back. It wasn't until I clicked it
again that I noticed what was going on. At least throw some kind of AJAX
spinner/placeholder or indicator that the page content is still loading.

Cool idea though.

~~~
Bradosaur
Thanks for the input! We're AJAXing in the product data, and then the browser
fetches the images from CloudFront. I'll add a spinner asap.

------
eaurouge
Sounds like a great concept. But 35% of markup is too high. Margins for
hardware goods are low enough already. Then you take 35% of that. I think
you'll end up with a bunch of overpriced items with inventors struggling to
make a profit.

~~~
HeatherBrundage
I can see why you might think 35% is high. Compared to Kickstarter or Esty who
only charge ~5%, we do take a larger percentage. But at the same time, we are
not just a platform like they are. We are actually a retailer, and we take
care of payment processing and fulfillment to consumers. Most retailers charge
50% of the retail price for these services (which cost real money).

Though Kickstarer only takes 5%, you pay another ~5% in payment processing
fees, and then you must set up and pay for fulfillment yourself, which is time
consuming and expensive! We think it is inefficient that every Kickstarter or
Etsy creator has to come up with a solution on their own, often at a large
expense. We want the creator to focus as much as possible on building the best
product they can, not on fulfillment, website, video, PR, etc etc.

You can read more about our wholesale pricing thoughts at:
<http://swish.com/wholesale>

~~~
eaurouge
I understand where you're coming from, but I would argue that your true value
add is discoverability or customer acquisition.

Payment processing can be added easily to any customer-facing website. One-
time product fulfillment for any number of customers, for completed products
all located at one place isn't too hard. Yes, packaging is a challenge, but
there are dedicated e-fulfillment services like Shipwire that don't cost so
much.

Assuming I have a product that I would like to sell for $100, after accounting
for payment processing and order fulfillment (let's say at 3% and 5%
respectively), that leaves around 27% for customer acquisition. So I have to
decide if paying more than $25 to acquire each customer is worth it. If we're
talking about Costco, Amazon, Walmart, maybe. Some inventors would give their
first born to get on a Costco or Walmart shelf, probably for good reason too.
I don't think Swish offers the same value proposition, at least not yet.

------
jgillman
I don't mean to be a yes-man, but just to offset some of the other comments:
The site is clearly an early (but totally functional) version. It will get
better + prettier + more ajaxy as time goes on. Bravo on your launch!

------
HunterV
It's like a mix between Quirky.com and Kickstarter if I'm correct?

~~~
lanthe
We're a degree or two away from several businesses... I'd say we were closer
to "Kickstarter meets Reddit".

------
kirillzubovsky
I like little niche markets like this. If Roots didn't beat you by two weeks,
I'd definitely get a cork wallet; seriously, a cork wallet! I like.

