7 ms·

Ok, so I am a consumer, not shop owner. Where do I find products that are offered using Shopify platform?

by tandr 6y ago

gokulj 6y ago
They've recently launched an app to help with this discovery. https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/28/shopify-launches-shop-a-new-mobile-shopping-app/ https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/28/shopify-launches-shop-a-ne...
ObsoleteNerd 6y ago
They're individual websites run by the stores themselves, so you need to find them the old fashioned way by finding the store that sells what you want. I definitely think there's space for "local" directories (eg by country or state maybe) for online stores. Google Shopping and all the big sites that attempt it are an absolute joke, full of SEO gaming and manipulation. An old school Yahoo-list style index of local stores that's searchable would be killer right now. Source: consumer who buys lots online, almost daily, and would absolutely love to support local (national) stores.
- eru 6y ago
  If you have any alternative that gets popular, it'll probably be full of SEO gaming, too? (Though, of course, the team behind the alternative might be better at resisting the gaming? Google, the company, isn't magic.)
  - dmix 6y ago
    You mean Shopify would need proper search/listing capabilities which handle gaming and spam if they were to do their own index pages?
    - eru 6y ago
      At some point, yes. Amazon needs them, too.
  - ObsoleteNerd 6y ago
    I think the main problem is both Amazon and Google (and all the similar ecosystems) have a vested interest in rigging the results towards personal profits. I see this more like an open index of local online stores, curated and not using scrapers/bots to index but by stores submitting their URL and search endpoint for meta-search across all their products. Let the user sort the results by price, location, etc. Obviously there's always going to be people trying to game the system but it would still be better than what we have now, which is us consumers needing to use Google/DDG/etc to scrape through the 99:1 noise:signal ratio of search results these days just to try fluke upon a local online store that has what we want.
- hardwaresofton 6y ago
  Solving this seems like a lay up for Shopify. Some sort of "shopify universe" product that takes products & categorization information and brings it all together would be a huge move forward. Amazon's interface, without the centralization.
  - ckdarby 6y ago
    It also lets them start going into Etsy's space of marketplace
- vizzah 6y ago
  They've just launched an app for that. Shop.app. An aggregator of all Shopify merchants searchable and proximity-aware. Haven't tried it yet though, if it's any good.
  - tjbiddle 6y ago
    Took a very quick glance at this. I expect that it's limited to those that are running Shopify POS, rather than all Shopify stores.
    - Rafert 6y ago
      It's not limited to POS - it has a way to pay during online checkout and tracks package deliveries.
  - WhyNotHugo 6y ago
    Seems to be US-only, and mobile only. I can use a 34" for Amazon, I'm not gonna switch to comparing products on my phone. Especially given that I'm locked so my computer is always nearby.
mrighele 6y ago
On websites specialized on comparison shopping. I don't know about the US, but when I was in Italy I used to use a lot one of such websites [1]. Think like shopping on Amazon except that you are redirected to the seller's website for details and actually buying the product, no ads, no SEO, and the rating is about the seller, not the product. On the other side, you no longer have a central entity helping you with issues such as warranty, scams etc, but given the behavior of late of Amazon, I don't think that it is a big deal. [1] https://www.trovaprezzi.it https://www.trovaprezzi.it
- m4rtink 6y ago
  Same thing here in Czech Republic - you go to a comparison website, check the prizes, availability and reviews of both the think your are looking for and the shops selling them. Then you pick a shop and go to their website (in some cases there is also integration for buying directly via the comparison site). The main Czech sites: https://www.heureka.cz/ https://www.heureka.cz/ https://www.zbozi.cz/ https://www.zbozi.cz/ It kinda seem like Amazon has been a bit too successful in some parts of the world, to the point people can't imagine alternative online shopping workflows.
literallycancer 6y ago
In countries with a functioning market and healthy competition (high number of online stores per capita), there are online store aggregators where you just search for the product you want and it gives you links to all the stores. Sorted by price, rating, etc. https://geizhals.at/ https://geizhals.at/ https://heureka.cz/ https://heureka.cz/
wic8 6y ago
I made a shopify global search [https://snapshop.netlify.app https://snapshop.netlify.app]. Hastily completed just for this post but it should work.
- jcbrand 6y ago
  Nice! I'd use something like this, but it's not very useful to me currently if I can't search by region or country.
  - wic8 6y ago
    Planning to do that, try searching for "product <location>" for now. Should work to some extent.
- WhyNotHugo 6y ago
  Searched for "elastic laces", and 2 out of 3 results are 404. For other keywords, there's a very high ration of 404s. I'd also like to filter by region, since I don't want to buy small, cheap items from the other side of the world.
  - wic8 6y ago
    Yeah, it's quite fragile and hacky at the moment. A quick abstract from a portion of an old project. Will probably do this properly this weekend. Filter by region/country is doable.
- wjziv 6y ago
  Give it a test; the short-form URLs shown in each card are also referred in each href, so "website.com/your_prod..." is what's literally provided as the url when you click through.
  - wic8 6y ago
    Thanks for that, fixed now
- 6y ago

Ok, so I am a consumer, not shop owner. Where do I find products that are offered using Shopify platform?

by tandr 6y ago

Ok, so I am a consumer, not shop owner. Where do I find products that are offered using Shopify platform?

They've recently launched an app to help with this discovery. https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/28/shopify-launches-shop-a-new-mobile-shopping-app/ https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/28/shopify-launches-shop-a-ne...

ObsoleteNerd 6y ago

They're individual websites run by the stores themselves, so you need to find them the old fashioned way by finding the store that sells what you want. I definitely think there's space for "local" directories (eg by country or state maybe) for online stores. Google Shopping and all the big sites that attempt it are an absolute joke, full of SEO gaming and manipulation. An old school Yahoo-list style index of local stores that's searchable would be killer right now. Source: consumer who buys lots online, almost daily, and would absolutely love to support local (national) stores.

eru 6y ago
If you have any alternative that gets popular, it'll probably be full of SEO gaming, too? (Though, of course, the team behind the alternative might be better at resisting the gaming? Google, the company, isn't magic.)
- dmix 6y ago
  You mean Shopify would need proper search/listing capabilities which handle gaming and spam if they were to do their own index pages?
  - eru 6y ago
    At some point, yes. Amazon needs them, too.
- ObsoleteNerd 6y ago
  I think the main problem is both Amazon and Google (and all the similar ecosystems) have a vested interest in rigging the results towards personal profits. I see this more like an open index of local online stores, curated and not using scrapers/bots to index but by stores submitting their URL and search endpoint for meta-search across all their products. Let the user sort the results by price, location, etc. Obviously there's always going to be people trying to game the system but it would still be better than what we have now, which is us consumers needing to use Google/DDG/etc to scrape through the 99:1 noise:signal ratio of search results these days just to try fluke upon a local online store that has what we want.
hardwaresofton 6y ago
Solving this seems like a lay up for Shopify. Some sort of "shopify universe" product that takes products & categorization information and brings it all together would be a huge move forward. Amazon's interface, without the centralization.
- ckdarby 6y ago
  It also lets them start going into Etsy's space of marketplace
vizzah 6y ago
They've just launched an app for that. Shop.app. An aggregator of all Shopify merchants searchable and proximity-aware. Haven't tried it yet though, if it's any good.
- tjbiddle 6y ago
  Took a very quick glance at this. I expect that it's limited to those that are running Shopify POS, rather than all Shopify stores.
  - Rafert 6y ago
    It's not limited to POS - it has a way to pay during online checkout and tracks package deliveries.
- WhyNotHugo 6y ago
  Seems to be US-only, and mobile only. I can use a 34" for Amazon, I'm not gonna switch to comparing products on my phone. Especially given that I'm locked so my computer is always nearby.

mrighele 6y ago

On websites specialized on comparison shopping. I don't know about the US, but when I was in Italy I used to use a lot one of such websites [1]. Think like shopping on Amazon except that you are redirected to the seller's website for details and actually buying the product, no ads, no SEO, and the rating is about the seller, not the product. On the other side, you no longer have a central entity helping you with issues such as warranty, scams etc, but given the behavior of late of Amazon, I don't think that it is a big deal. [1] https://www.trovaprezzi.it https://www.trovaprezzi.it

m4rtink 6y ago
Same thing here in Czech Republic - you go to a comparison website, check the prizes, availability and reviews of both the think your are looking for and the shops selling them. Then you pick a shop and go to their website (in some cases there is also integration for buying directly via the comparison site). The main Czech sites: https://www.heureka.cz/ https://www.heureka.cz/ https://www.zbozi.cz/ https://www.zbozi.cz/ It kinda seem like Amazon has been a bit too successful in some parts of the world, to the point people can't imagine alternative online shopping workflows.

literallycancer 6y ago

In countries with a functioning market and healthy competition (high number of online stores per capita), there are online store aggregators where you just search for the product you want and it gives you links to all the stores. Sorted by price, rating, etc. https://geizhals.at/ https://geizhals.at/ https://heureka.cz/ https://heureka.cz/

wic8 6y ago

I made a shopify global search [https://snapshop.netlify.app https://snapshop.netlify.app]. Hastily completed just for this post but it should work.

jcbrand 6y ago
Nice! I'd use something like this, but it's not very useful to me currently if I can't search by region or country.
- wic8 6y ago
  Planning to do that, try searching for "product <location>" for now. Should work to some extent.
WhyNotHugo 6y ago
Searched for "elastic laces", and 2 out of 3 results are 404. For other keywords, there's a very high ration of 404s. I'd also like to filter by region, since I don't want to buy small, cheap items from the other side of the world.
- wic8 6y ago
  Yeah, it's quite fragile and hacky at the moment. A quick abstract from a portion of an old project. Will probably do this properly this weekend. Filter by region/country is doable.
wjziv 6y ago
Give it a test; the short-form URLs shown in each card are also referred in each href, so "website.com/your_prod..." is what's literally provided as the url when you click through.
- wic8 6y ago
  Thanks for that, fixed now
6y ago