I had this idea rolling around in my head for the last couple of years, and I finally decided to build the damned thing just to get idea relief.
The backend is a typical LAMP stack with the Symfony2 framework backing the P. Varnish sits in front of all the Chef managed Linode boxes. The site will work without Javascript (up until the checkout), and the style degrades really nicely depending on your viewport (try it out by resizing your browser).
I'm open to all comments and critiques, so let me hear them. And if you are into graphic t-shirts, here is a code for a Hacker News 20% discount: 4803-7940-0816-5604!
That's a heck of a cool idea, nice job! I visit a lot of t-shirt sites and my first thought was "Very clever!" which doesn't happen that often. :)
My only problem is that I already have enough of a t-shirt buying habit that spending $25 per shirt isn't going to happen very often, especially when I don't know the quality of the shirts. You might add more detail on the actual shirt quality and fit.
The email collection line on the homepage doesn't make it clear what kinds of emails you'll be sending. If it's a weekly (bi-weekly, whatever) showing of the new shirts I'd say something like 'Sign up for our weekly new shirt email' so it's more specific.
I checked out the new page with the extra information, and a new question formed: why so many brands for the shirts? Typically I'm used to seeing a shirt shop just say "we print on American Apparel".
Good question and obviously not an optimal situation.
Since I'm a small shop going through a third party printer, I am last in line for raw t-shirt supply. Mix in color and size availability, and it gets pretty tricky to rely on one brand. So for now, I am using a few high quality brands to make sure t-shirts get out in a timely manner.
Hey, best of luck with this - I really like the idea and it seems like something you're passionate about. Congrats for shipping it, I'm excited to see what reputation it builds.
That being said, I'm excited for my minimalist bicycle t-shirt!
Nice site, just wanted to say I really like the phrase "style degrades" instead of "responsive design." It's much more accurate and I will be using it from now on, thanks.
The full idiom is "graceful degradation". It's been common on the web since the 90s, but I think it actually came from networking jargon.
It's not the same as responsive design. Graceful degradation implies a sort of hierarchy, where you subtract features on platforms that don't support them. So if you're using an supercool advanced browser feature, like colored text, you don't break the site for older browsers.
The responsive design idea is really more about different use cases than adapting to a more primitive environment.
I'm actually disagreeing with what you are saying: responsive design is such a poor solution to the problem of providing a mobile or tablet site, that it is actually more accurate to refer to it as graceful degradation, rather than as addressing a new use case.
I believe the initial logic was due to legacy browsers such as IE6. These are browsers that aren't what you designed for, so the webpage degrades. Since you take some steps to mitigate this and optimize it when it degrades, it makes it "graceful degradation"
The purple t-shirt has the logo photoshopped on 100% identical for male and female. Destroys the illusion of actual product photography even for very gullible people.
I like the idea, but I have the feeling your t-shirts are overpriced.
I had what you could call a t-shirt problem, I purchased over 150 in the space of a year, anyway one common thing I noticed is that a brand (eg: Threadless, Bustedtees) that sold based on merit and not gimmick could sell at a much higher price than somewhere that was relatively unknown or sold based on some sort of gimmick. For example teefury.com is a site that does a sort of similar thing to you with time based sales, they sell at around $10 each but would never do well at $25 each.
My (anecdotal -- myself and friends) understanding of why people aren't comfortable spending $25 on a time-sale t-shirt is that you're selling selling based on 2 things, the t-shirt itself and the idea that it's time-exclusive, this adds pressure. If I purchase a t-shirt from somewhere like Threadless I know it's likely if I wait 2 weeks it's going to be there still, so I don't feel like "I must buy now!" and then I don't feel like I'm paying for something I might not want in a week, whereas if I see a t-shirt on your site with 1 day to go: "That t-shirt is cool! Hmm, but I have to buy it right now... and $25 is a premium t-shirt price... I might not like it in a few days... I'll skip". This behaviour is especially so with the added idea that I'm possibly buying a t-shirt nobody else likes, it makes me think maybe it's just a crappy t-shirt.
Your site is a site that customers would constantly be coming back to, so while you might not make such a good margin on a $12.50 shirt vs. a $25 shirt, it would be made up for in the average customer purchasing 20 shirts a year vs. 5 if they had to be considerate about their purchases.
I'm not sure if I explained that well, if not I can try and re-word it.
As a very frequent t-shirt purchaser myself, the reason sites like TeeFury (which I love) do not sell at $25 is because their t-shirt quality, design, and printing style is not anywhere near as nice as Threadless or DesignByHumans. I am hoping Nifty will earn a reputation more like the latter sites than the former.
With that in mind, I will definitely test price points and appreciate the perspective from a fellow t-shirt buyer.
$200 upfront for 12 months of shirts (works out at about $13/m), every third week of the month you generate a random shirt for me from that weeks shirts and if that shirt matches the least popular I also get a bonus shirt (fits with the theme of the main weekly sale) or maybe if I am a subscriber I get double the chance of a bonus shirt (maybe least popular and most popular or least popular and second least popular) or something.
You could even do it like a loss leader type deal, have a yearly subscription for $100 (which would be ridiculously low and pull lots of people in) and then use the marketing from that (people telling their friends about the cool shirt that just arrived, tweeting about it etc. every month).
Although I guess as you're doing t-shirts on demand there's probably not much financial outlay so cash up front might not be worth potentially losing profits.
If your shirt quality is good (I'm going to order a shirt later to find out) then I'd sign up to that sort of deal ($200, or $100) without a second thought because there's nothing better than getting a surprise t-shirt.
The subscription suggestion is great and might be a better fit for Nifty. I'll have to give some thought.
Another direction I am thinking of going is more clearly separating the purchase from the pick. So you pick your shirt to buy and then make a separate pick for the least popular. I worry the additional UI may complicate things, but it is probably worth testing.
No, regardless of UI, I think the dilemma of having to buy yourself the least popular one to get an extra t-shirt is important. And what would happen to your buisness model if everybody liked (and ordered) t-shirt A but nominated t-shirt B? You would have to ship two t-shirts to everybobdy, whereas your current plan guarantees that no more than 20% of customers get a free t-shirt --- which also makes it more challenging to play the game.
Maybe he calculated assuming a free shirt if you randomly get a least-popular? This means 14.4 instead of 12 per year, and truncates to $13 (rounds to $14).
I think you're right, but one quick note: there is actually an element of time pressure on Threadless; they print a limited quantity of each design (though popular designs are brought back as reprints). Also, they regularly (quarterly, I think) have $10 sales. T-Shirts are a crowded market, with some very strong existing players. It is an interesting concept though, best of luck to the OP!
I agree. I personally was about to pull the trigger on a T but the price point was juuuust beyond what I'm willing to pay. I doubt I'm alone in this thought.
I really like this. I found myself with a gradually widening smile as I realized the ramifications of the whole concept. The brilliance from the commerce standpoint is that the freebie is by definition minimized by the number of shirts sold, and a typical loser product will see more activity than usual. From a customer standpoint, you have effectively 20% chance of getting a freebie, making the perceived purchase price 80% of $25, or $20, a very reasonable price for a graphic t-shirt. However, since it's the least purchased number getting freebies, I'd expect your actual revenue to be more like $21 per shirt, thus creating profit out of thin air. Customer pays a decent marginal price (for a hopefully quality product), you get a built-in profit from the mechanics, and the game mechanics nearly guarantee a larger volume of purchases than normal. Overall, a great strategy!
I saw this site last week or maybe the week before, and to be honest, I was put-off by the obnoxiousness of trying to get people to buy the "least popular" t-shirt. To me, it came across as you trying to unload your shittiest product through some clever trick. It had a Zynga-esque feel to it, and I didn't like it at all. The fact you give a clue like "this was the worst selling t-shirt in the last hour" makes me feel like you're tricking me, and I'd rather do business with someone else than risk getting played or ripped off. Sorry, but that's the feeling I get when I see this site.
If you want some additional feedback:
Instead of the gimmicky "you lose I win", I think you need to make it some sort of win-win type gimmick. Like the price goes down the more people buy it, and whoever buys it earlier will get some money back on their next purchase.
You need to make the "game" shorter, I don't have patience to wait a week until I know if I "won".
$25 is something I would pay if the t-shirts were good quality, like American Apparel, but you didn't list the manufacturer.
You need a lot more designs. I was looking for the button for additional designs, but I finally figured out you only have those 5. If I hate all 5 of them, then I won't likely remember your site, and won't come back.
I think you are over thinking, overreacting, and being excessively negative, and I don't at all agree with the logic that led you to interpret this as a scam. You're looking at it from the perspective of buying a design that you don't like in order to win one that you do, but it doesn't make any sense to buy something that you won't use (entirely negating its value) to win something of equal value. Why wouldn't you just buy the product that you want in the first place? You're paying for the shirt you want either way.
In reality, the concept is very simple. You are buying a shirt, with a chance of getting a shirt for free depending on how the sales go. That's all there is to it. Is it a perfectly designed and executed marketing gimmick? Probably not, but any perceived deception is a result of your personal paranoia.
You may feel that paranoia is too strong of a word, but I find it quite appropriate to describe a fear of "getting ripped off" by purchasing a product at its advertised price.
A few other things. The price is $19 not $25. The brands are listed. The sale is 3 days, not a week. There are no previous sales displayed on the site, so I'm not even sure how you came to the conclusion that there will only ever be 5 designs.
Getting a shirt for free essentially halves the price for both shirts. So you're not looking at 5 equal shirts, you're looking at 5 shirts and one of them is half price. You just don't know which. This made me try to figure out which one people are least likely to buy (made easier with that star) and then evaluate whether the decreased appeal is worth the price reduction.
I guess that's the idea, but it's not a very positive experience for me. That's a lot of time thinking about the least appealing design.
But least popular does not at all mean "shittiest". Least popular means the fewest sales; if people were buying only because of the shirt they wanted, then you would indeed be getting the worst shirt. However, some people are buying based on what they think will be the least popular shirt, which changes up the mechanics quite a bit. In the end, the only good strategy is to pick the shirt you want to have, but not everyone will think that way. Some will settle for a less desired shirt in order to perhaps win the freebie. I don't see the same negativity in the concept you do.
The "intention" may not be "shittiest", but that's the impression I get. It feels like a trick or a game of 3-card monte in order for him to move his worst product. Possibly others might get the same impression as well.
In general, retailers discount the product that doesn't move, and raise or maintain the prices on the things that are popular. So, this is something that would appear to try to artificially increase demand on their worst selling product. Again, I'm not saying he that's his intention, but that's the general impression someone could get.
That's why I suggested changing the mechanics to something more win-win. I suggested something like the most popular t-shirt gets a progressive discount, and early adopters get a discount on their next purchase. This feels more win-win, and you have to do less mental calculations to try to figure out if you're getting scammed or not.
Below in the comments, I mention I am very curious to find out if people will take buying the least popular t-shirt as a positive (I'm unique) or negative (Why would I want a trash shirt). You clearly fall in the latter category, which is very reasonable. I am very open to tweaking the game mechanics so it is perceived as a win win by everybody while still a sustainable site.
The shirt and printing style are of high quality. I need to do a better job on the site emphasizing that.
Sorry you did not like this week's designs. Maybe next week (or not based on your comment =p)
The fact that you only reveal the last hourly sales, which really has zero relevance to total sales and whether or not you "win", makes it feel like a game of 3-card monte, as I mentioned in another comment.
Maybe you need to be more transparent and show the total sales or the ranking. This might help show you're not trying to scam anyone. Then, it turns into something more where people can decide "do I want to buy this t-shirt in a 2-for-1 sale" since they get the next shirt free.
Except that the changes you propose would take all of the fun out of the game for those of us who -do- like the idea.
Though in fact, if there was UK shipping I have a feeling I might've bought the Graphic Love T-shirt just because it's clever.
However, it seems to me very much like you really don't find the concept entertaining and thereby end up feeling like it's trying to rip you off rather than entertain you; I don't think the site's owner can solve that without destroying the things that make it potentially interesting to other people.
I think its just a matter of redoing the copy. At first I didnt realize it was a competition between the 5 shirts, I thought it was just an incentive deal to offload some inventory. I would walk through the process first, and bring up the least popular shirt part last.
I love the idea. It's really great to see something innovative here. I was almost going to say a little bit of genius, but i have a few more reservations now i have thought the idea over-- mainly that i don't think i'd see value in the 'game' (that is, saving potential) unless i really liked all the tees on offer. So that sets the proposition to me[1] as very close to any other online t-shirt retailer (would anyone suspect their favourite was going to be least liked?).
BUT in the very worst case scenario, you have a fantastic marketing gimmick to drive people to the site, and keep many of them coming back perhaps. I really wish there was a 'control' to compare this to, to see what effect this has on sales- it seems it will be hard to know how much the game is driving sales vs people just liking the tees. My current feeling is the idea might function better slightly tweaked.. eg. offer the shirts at $18 normally, or $20 with the freebie game.. only count the $20 sales toward the totals.. might offer some balance-- for example, the 'better' (popular) one won't currently have a lot of appeal WRT. the game, because most will rightly assume it wouldn't be least popular. Add the tweak and there is an element of double-guessing that might make more people believe they have a chance of 'winning'? Hope that made sense.. it's not a fully worked out idea, but worth thinking about perhaps.
Also, consider following OKcupid and having an onsite blog.
[1] perhaps not everyone is like me (or us here), though
Adding some type of effect to show that the shirts are actively being bought (I imagine every few seconds half a shirt 'flash') would give the sale more of an active-feeling. Right now I don't feel strongly urged to make a decision right now, but rather that I could come back later.
Second comment: Rather than giving away the least popular shirt, you could apply some type of variable pricing depending on when a user purchased a shirt given its popularity?
After you do this for a while, please please release your data. I'd love to see what kind of influence the star has on things, and the variation between least popular and most popular.
A story that comes to my mind is: there was a grocery store in London in the 1950s who didn't have the best of locations. They ran a contest: They would randomly select a half an hour time period (eg: 2.20 to 2.50pm). People who had shopped during that time on the previous day could come back with their time stamped receipts and get cash back.
The store tripled their number of customers per day.
This however worked because people didn't go out of their way to buy new things. They just went out of their way to buy the things they needed at a different store to get a chance to get cash back.
So my suggestion is this: source out the "winning" designs on threadless etc in the past 3 months. And list those t-shirts on your website only. Don't ask your audience to submit their designs.
And announce this fact. Re-assure people that they are buying the same "hot" stuff they would buy on other t-shirt sites. But they could just earn a free t-shirt too.
Take away the neg that comes with the "least popular tshirt" tag.
Cool idea, agree with the comment about regrettable purchases so I think you need to figure something out for that.
I think there's a lot of space to apply game theory / gamification in e-commerce. Still need to get a clear understanding on the regulatory framework for this.
Shouldn't that be "I mixed selling t-shirts with a little bit of gamification"? I don't really get the game theory angle (as in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory). Very clever idea in any case!
It actually is an interesting game (in the game theory sense). I make no claims about whether or not it is a good business idea, or how people will actually play, but a quick and incomplete theoretical analysis follows.
First, some simplifications:
* an infinite number of players
* everyone agrees on the ordering (quality, utility, etc) of shirts
* only look for symmetric equilibria (where everyone plays the same strategy)
Some notation:
Let there be N shirts (N=5 for this application). Order the shirts by their utility (that everyone agrees on). x1 < x2 < ... < xN. Let the utility from the bonus shirt be z, where z > xN.
The most simple strategy is for everyone to randomize and put equal probability on each shirt. If everyone plays according to that strategy, then the expected payoff for any given player is avg(x1, ... , xN) + z/N. But this can't be a Nash equilibrium because an individual player could deviate and choose xN with probability 1 and get payoff xN + z/N.
The (maybe not the only) Nash equilibrium is probabilities p1, p2, ..., pN such that sum(p1, p2, ..., pN)=1 and x1+p1z = x2+p2z = ... = xN+pNz. These probabilities make a player indifferent between choosing each shirt with certainty.
I haven't spent the time to see if there is a nice formula for the probabilities, but for the case of N=2, you get
p1=(x2-x1+z)/2z and p2=1-(x2-x1+z)/2z
This doesn't take into account that people have different tastes, or the sequential information that the star creates. The game gets very complicated with these added in.
Gamification is the method of adding carrot/stick mechanisms to actions in order to drive behavior; it's a trivial application of game theory, which is about asking how people make decisions in (very contrived) situations.
I'm friends with seekely, and we have gone back and forth about the idea of framing the "winner" as the "least popular", which as a negative connotation, vs. using terminology like "unique", which has a more positive connotation. It could be that by using the more negative language, people would believe that the free t-shirt is a consolation prize for having bad taste, as opposed to being excited about being special somehow. However, it's a completely subjective assessment in either direction. What did you all get as a first impression (or did it even register with you in that way)?
My take would be that i DGAF if other people on the internet/US share my taste in t-shirts. My sole concern in that area would be geared towards wanting a free one. Personally, I wouldn't buy one I wouldn't be happy to pay the full price for, and of course my brain sees it as very unlikely that this would be the least popular. Also, it seems a poor gamble to go for one I like less on the hope that I might get another free. So if i picked the least popular, my reaction would just be 'bonus, free tee!' (i wouldn't have any feeling of 'special unique little flower', either).
As for the language specifically, firstly, 'least popular' is functional. It tells me exactly what you are talking about. If i read 'most unique' i would have no idea how you were measuring that, and would probably feel uneasy about it-- like you were using the phrase as cover to pick whatever you wanted to. (Which is funny, since 'least popular' is already the best financial option for yous!). Secondly, it doesn't seem too negative to me (compare 'least awesome' vs 'worst'). That is for the landing page (and if any commiseration email), anyway. As far as congratulatory email, I would probably agree to frame it as 'most unique'.
Hope that helps!.. I know how difficult it can be to get basic perspective when you are too involved with something.
On first glance, I feel like people would simply choose the shirt that they think looks the least fashionable, which just leads to regrettable purchases.
I'm curious.. would you do that if you were buying?
I'll admit i had a think about which it might be, but then i think if i was going to put $20 down on buying one, I would just buy the one i wanted, and take any freebies as a bonus.
FWIW, my money is on #2. I only just realised they were all from photoshop, and i've used it quite a bit. It's also far too long for a 'geek humour' t-shirt- no one would read the whole thing, let alone understand it. Add to that a 'lovers' connotation which would limit the appeal even further.
But coming back to your point; I don't think i'd want it. So, IMO, for this to have value for me, I would need to like all the t-shirts. (FWIW, i like 1/3/5).
e: also, yes.. needs bigger images.. can't even read the whole thing on the modelled PS tee image, not good!
If everyone was a big-chooser, you get into a dangerous situation because rolls are being emptied at roughly the same rate.
Similarly, I am led to wonder what percentage of your users will be making their choice based solely on the coupon (i.e. least popular shirt at the moment). If it's a high percentage, then each shirt should approach 20% of sales. Hardly unique at all.
By the way, "Virgin" is an awesome design. Reminds me of Dali. I can't imagine opting for any of the other shirts in order to try to win a coupon.
I so wanted to buy the bicycle one for my girlfriend.
When checking out my cart, it didn't allow me to choose another country than US, and I'm in Europe. Too bad for me (and for her) (and also for you, who lost a sale ;) )
There are quite a few sources in this thread for quality t-shirts, but I don't wear cotton anymore.
Curious if there are any t-shirt sites that sell on Nike dri-fit, Under Armour style shirts. You know the kind, moisture wicking etc. They tend to be polyester or even bamboo.
Interesting idea! Graphic tees are a great market to do an idea like this, as well.
People who have the disposition to wear a lot of graphic tees seem like the same people who would spend $25 on some generic tees just for the game aspect. Personally, id rather bargain hunt on Gilt or something for some high quality, well designed t-shirts, but im not your target audience.
Interesting, but my reaction is, I'll just pick my favorite (if any) and not worry about getting the special. It's not worth buying one I don't really like just because it might turn out to be free.
On another note -- would really like to be able to pull up some much larger images of the shirts.
My hands are itching to write a scraper that checks the site every 30 minutes or so and tells me just before the countdown ends which shirt was the least popular.. What's stopping me from doing so other than not being a jerk?
The star only tells you the least popular in the last hour. The least popular overall wouldn't necessarily be the one that received the most stars, as all the shirts are likely to be more popular at some times than others.
What a fantastic idea, I am a long time customer of Threadless, TeeFury etc. You see a lot of clones springing up but you have done something really interesting and unique, will defiantly give it a go!
The backend is a typical LAMP stack with the Symfony2 framework backing the P. Varnish sits in front of all the Chef managed Linode boxes. The site will work without Javascript (up until the checkout), and the style degrades really nicely depending on your viewport (try it out by resizing your browser).
I'm open to all comments and critiques, so let me hear them. And if you are into graphic t-shirts, here is a code for a Hacker News 20% discount: 4803-7940-0816-5604!