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I'm a bit naive on this space so forgive if this is an ignorant question; Can anyone explain how any of these companies (Bolt, Fast, 1o) are doing anything dif

by sparrc 4y ago

I'm a bit naive on this space so forgive if this is an ignorant question; Can anyone explain how any of these companies (Bolt, Fast, 1o) are doing anything different than "checkout with paypal"? What exactly is wrong with paypal that would make a merchant want to use Bolt instead?

GenerocUsername 4y ago
Is Pepsi not just Coke?
Aeolun 4y ago
Customers do not like paypal? At least I don’t like Paypal.
- boardwaalk 4y ago
  I don't either. On the other hand, it's more of a known quantity than one of these startups.
- Semaphor 4y ago
  Curious, why? I could understand it as merchant, but as customer, PP has great customer protection (including partial chargebacks, free return shipping, etc.)
  - lazide 4y ago
    They’re notorious for freezing peoples accounts for no reason or recourse and generally being terrible to deal with.
    - Semaphor 4y ago
      I wouldn’t call it notorious. I have almost never heard of non-merchants being fucked over by them. And for customers, they are the opposite, super easy to deal with because, like Amazon, they decide in favor of the customer when in doubt.
- mpalfrey 4y ago
  I quite like Paypal. I often use it as Paypal accepts Amex when a merchant may not. Works well and I've never had an issue.
aeyes 4y ago
And since Amazon now also came out with such a payment button, how are they going to compete against a company which already has an enormous user base with their credit card data on file? That they were able to raise 1B$ is a true dotcom era déjà vu.
- twodave 4y ago
  Amazon built the original. I think these copycats have sprung up as a result of a patent expiration the early 2000s.
- vishnugupta 4y ago
  Amazon's multiple attempts to foray into payments as a service have been failures. For multiple reasons. I know this because I worked on one of their largest payment services; it was meant to be part of AWS offering but disbanded since. Since then they have attempted checkout button; payment button; square like device and what not.
pbreit 4y ago
That's like asking how is Amazon different from Barnes & Noble.
olliepop 4y ago
Essentially, Bolt (and Fast etc) are offering the convenience of a "1-click checkout" identical to Amazon's 1-click checkout button. If you transact with Bolt at least once through any of their merchants, then Bolt will have saved your billing and shipping information so that future purchases are instant and do not require checkout forms to be completed. Theoretically with the reduced checkout friction there is a reduction in abandoned carts. Makes no sense to me either.
PragmaticPulp 4y ago
The idea is that a central 1-click checkout provider will store your payment information, shipping address, and other details after the first time you use a site with their checkout. The next time you checkout on any website that uses the same 1-click checkout provider, they already have your information for “1-click” checkout. The investment thesis is that if 1-click checkout were to take off, it would become a winner-take-all market where every shop wants to use the 1-click provider with the largest customer base. This is the magical “network effect” that investors want to see. If it works and becomes ubiquitous, the network effects would be massive. So far, none of the providers have managed to get much traffic at all. The common theme is that integrating 1-click checkout into everyone’s different web store has been a much bigger engineering challenge than they expected. They’re burning cash at shocking rates to do all of these custom integrations but not getting enough return on investment. It’s also entirely unclear why Shopify or Stripe or another provider wouldn’t just step in and use their scale to make this happen themselves. I kind of suspect few people actually want 1-click checkout to begin with.
- koreth1 4y ago
  > The investment thesis is that if 1-click checkout were to take off, it would become a winner-take-all market where every shop wants to use the 1-click provider with the largest customer base. Not saying you're wrong about that being the thesis, but the thesis makes no sense to me. It assumes that consumers are selecting shopping sites based on which payment service the sites use rather than on, say, price or selection. The target market this investment thesis depends on is people who say, "I found a site with just the thing I wanted, but to buy it, I would have to enter my payment information! Guess it's back to Google to see if someone else has it at a similar price, and if not, I just won't buy it at all." Because the moment you give in and enter your payment and shipping details into a second checkout provider, that provider becomes just as convenient for future purchases as your first one.
  - kadoban 4y ago
    I've definitely bailed on purchases before due to the purchase flow being too annoying, and either found another site or gave up. Usually this is due to having to type in all my data just to figure out what shipping options are, but I'm quite sure every step you make people do to check out results in x% fewer sales.

by sparrc 4y ago

GenerocUsername 4y ago

Is Pepsi not just Coke?

Aeolun 4y ago

Customers do not like paypal? At least I don’t like Paypal.

boardwaalk 4y ago
I don't either. On the other hand, it's more of a known quantity than one of these startups.
Semaphor 4y ago
Curious, why? I could understand it as merchant, but as customer, PP has great customer protection (including partial chargebacks, free return shipping, etc.)
- lazide 4y ago
  They’re notorious for freezing peoples accounts for no reason or recourse and generally being terrible to deal with.
  - Semaphor 4y ago
    I wouldn’t call it notorious. I have almost never heard of non-merchants being fucked over by them. And for customers, they are the opposite, super easy to deal with because, like Amazon, they decide in favor of the customer when in doubt.
mpalfrey 4y ago
I quite like Paypal. I often use it as Paypal accepts Amex when a merchant may not. Works well and I've never had an issue.

aeyes 4y ago

And since Amazon now also came out with such a payment button, how are they going to compete against a company which already has an enormous user base with their credit card data on file? That they were able to raise 1B$ is a true dotcom era déjà vu.

twodave 4y ago
Amazon built the original. I think these copycats have sprung up as a result of a patent expiration the early 2000s.
vishnugupta 4y ago
Amazon's multiple attempts to foray into payments as a service have been failures. For multiple reasons. I know this because I worked on one of their largest payment services; it was meant to be part of AWS offering but disbanded since. Since then they have attempted checkout button; payment button; square like device and what not.

pbreit 4y ago

That's like asking how is Amazon different from Barnes & Noble.

olliepop 4y ago

Essentially, Bolt (and Fast etc) are offering the convenience of a "1-click checkout" identical to Amazon's 1-click checkout button. If you transact with Bolt at least once through any of their merchants, then Bolt will have saved your billing and shipping information so that future purchases are instant and do not require checkout forms to be completed. Theoretically with the reduced checkout friction there is a reduction in abandoned carts. Makes no sense to me either.

PragmaticPulp 4y ago

The idea is that a central 1-click checkout provider will store your payment information, shipping address, and other details after the first time you use a site with their checkout. The next time you checkout on any website that uses the same 1-click checkout provider, they already have your information for “1-click” checkout. The investment thesis is that if 1-click checkout were to take off, it would become a winner-take-all market where every shop wants to use the 1-click provider with the largest customer base. This is the magical “network effect” that investors want to see. If it works and becomes ubiquitous, the network effects would be massive. So far, none of the providers have managed to get much traffic at all. The common theme is that integrating 1-click checkout into everyone’s different web store has been a much bigger engineering challenge than they expected. They’re burning cash at shocking rates to do all of these custom integrations but not getting enough return on investment. It’s also entirely unclear why Shopify or Stripe or another provider wouldn’t just step in and use their scale to make this happen themselves. I kind of suspect few people actually want 1-click checkout to begin with.

koreth1 4y ago
> The investment thesis is that if 1-click checkout were to take off, it would become a winner-take-all market where every shop wants to use the 1-click provider with the largest customer base. Not saying you're wrong about that being the thesis, but the thesis makes no sense to me. It assumes that consumers are selecting shopping sites based on which payment service the sites use rather than on, say, price or selection. The target market this investment thesis depends on is people who say, "I found a site with just the thing I wanted, but to buy it, I would have to enter my payment information! Guess it's back to Google to see if someone else has it at a similar price, and if not, I just won't buy it at all." Because the moment you give in and enter your payment and shipping details into a second checkout provider, that provider becomes just as convenient for future purchases as your first one.
- kadoban 4y ago
  I've definitely bailed on purchases before due to the purchase flow being too annoying, and either found another site or gave up. Usually this is due to having to type in all my data just to figure out what shipping options are, but I'm quite sure every step you make people do to check out results in x% fewer sales.