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Except that Bolt has no network effects. It's literally you drop it in to your website and it improves your checkout experience. And I imagine they acquire cu

Except that Bolt has no network effects. It's literally you drop it in to your website and it improves your checkout experience. And I imagine they acquire customers by ringing them up and showing them improved conversion stats.

nrmitchi 5y ago
Half of Bolt's thing is "our existing network of customers will be able to buy stuff on your site easier". They can only build a network of customers by having a network of merchants dumping customers into their system. The article in qusetion literally includes the line: > Because Bolt’s business relies on having a large network of consumers
rsanek 5y ago
Have you ever used Shop Pay or Square checkout (the online version)? There is actually a massive network effect.
- variaga 5y ago
  I've used Square checkout. I honestly have no idea what "network effect" you're referring to. It has literally never occurred to me to select/deselect an online store or purchase/not-purchase something based on who the payment processor is. I usually don't even know that until after the decision has already been made and I've hit the "proceed to checkout" button. Who are these people who are like "well, I wanted (or didn't want) $THING but then I saw which of the many basically identical forms I'd be filling out to complete the purchase and changed my mind"?
  - rsanek 5y ago
    It's possible you didn't pick the "remember me" option -- the network effect I get is that once I've used that payment network once, I can one-click purchase from any other merchant on the network (that is, I skip the "forms I'd be filling out" because the service already has a cookie and knows my payment/shipping info). I know I personally am more likely to finish a checkout flow if it is easy, and Shop Pay in particular is crazy fast when it's one-click even at merchants I've never before shopped at.

nrmitchi 5y ago

Half of Bolt's thing is "our existing network of customers will be able to buy stuff on your site easier". They can only build a network of customers by having a network of merchants dumping customers into their system. The article in qusetion literally includes the line: > Because Bolt’s business relies on having a large network of consumers

rsanek 5y ago

Have you ever used Shop Pay or Square checkout (the online version)? There is actually a massive network effect.

variaga 5y ago
I've used Square checkout. I honestly have no idea what "network effect" you're referring to. It has literally never occurred to me to select/deselect an online store or purchase/not-purchase something based on who the payment processor is. I usually don't even know that until after the decision has already been made and I've hit the "proceed to checkout" button. Who are these people who are like "well, I wanted (or didn't want) $THING but then I saw which of the many basically identical forms I'd be filling out to complete the purchase and changed my mind"?
- rsanek 5y ago
  It's possible you didn't pick the "remember me" option -- the network effect I get is that once I've used that payment network once, I can one-click purchase from any other merchant on the network (that is, I skip the "forms I'd be filling out" because the service already has a cookie and knows my payment/shipping info). I know I personally am more likely to finish a checkout flow if it is easy, and Shop Pay in particular is crazy fast when it's one-click even at merchants I've never before shopped at.