6 ms·

Lot18 raises $30M series C led by Accel, 3rd round this year

33 points by elliottcarlson 15y ago

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
taylorbuley 15y ago
Tricia spends a couple grafs on the shipping costs. I'd be interested to see a pricing curve for mail related operating expenses for lot18. Reminds me a bit of Reed Hastings' Quora reply on how much NFLX spends on shipping ($500m to $600m http://www.quora.com/Netflix/How-much-does-Netflix-spend-on-postage-each-year http://www.quora.com/Netflix/How-much-does-Netflix-spend-on-...)
AznHisoka 15y ago
I would be very interested in knowing the open rate for these type of emails as well as the unsubscribe rate. I mean, are there really people interested in buying wine each and every single day? Seems like something you buy for a special occasion or once in awhile... If you buy once, you probably won't buy for a long time.. and if you get a lot of emails and don't buy, chances are you'll lose interest and unsubscribe
- wahnfrieden 15y ago
  A lot of people cook at home and drink wine with their food. It's not reserved for special occasions for many people.
- JonLim 15y ago
  I'm a member, but unfortunately I am in Canada. However, if their deals were opened up to us, I would definitely buy a bottle every so often. They have awesome deals and wine isn't just for special occasions! The numbers from the site said 600,000 members who have purchased 500,000 bottles of wine. That's not bad, but I would assume it's a smaller chunk of the 600,000 members who buy multiple bottles of wine. Just a hunch.
- vaksel 15y ago
  I'm subscribed to a bunch of these, and it's just a case of me being too lazy to unsubscribe. In fact, I even end up opening a bunch of them by mistake when trying to open a different email.
xpose2000 15y ago
Nice job Philip & company. lot18 has grown so much, its crazy.
wavephorm 15y ago
Flagged. Why is a wine store on the front page of "Hacker News" ?
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- johnmurch 15y ago
  It's not any wine store - it's a daily deals wine store that just raised a massive round. I have ordered from them before and got some amazing wines for dirt cheap. I highly recommend them.
  - wavephorm 15y ago
    Oh wow they have coupons on the internet. There is no technology or hacking going here other than the fact that they take orders from the internet. Whoopty-do.
- osdifjsdofi 15y ago
  Its a VC funded startup which uses technology as its primary business model and has several interesting problems to solve? Seems like normal "Hacker News" fare...
  - wavephorm 15y ago
    You mean they use amazing high technology like a website, like 99% of businesses in the world now do? You have to be kidding me. Not every company that has a website is a technology comapny. This is a wine company. They sell wine. They did not invent any technology or hack abnything. This isn't Techcrunch. We know the difference between Venture Capitalism and technology.
    - elliottcarlson 15y ago
      Actually our technology stack is quite impressive and we are solving problems that are not quite apparent when simply viewing it as an ecommerce site. Your arguments would go against Gilt Groupe, BuyWithMe (when they were around) and Groupon. There is always more than meets the eye - I would hope that someone working in the technology sector would realize that.
elliottcarlson 15y ago
On a related note, we are hiring: http://www.lot18.com/careers http://www.lot18.com/careers
parfe 15y ago
How is sales tax calculated? The sales tax quoted at checkout is based on the shipping address you provide. The amount includes both state and local taxes, when applicable. Looks like Lot18 solved a problem amazon claims it cannot.
- jcampbell1 15y ago
  Looks like Lot18 solved a problem amazon claims it cannot. 1) Amazon has never claimed this. Amazon wants to be taxed the same as other e-commerce competitors. 2) It is far easier to calculate sales taxes in the 500 or so jurisdictions if you only sell one type of product.
  - parfe 15y ago
    A message seeking comment was left Thursday on a media telephone line at Seattle-based Amazon.com. Amazon spokeswoman Mary Osako said last month the company believed "the sales tax issue needs to be solved at the federal level." And that was just today. Amazon does not want to pay local taxes at all. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_INTERNET_SALES_INDIANA http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_INTERNET_SALES_IND...

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

Tricia spends a couple grafs on the shipping costs. I'd be interested to see a pricing curve for mail related operating expenses for lot18. Reminds me a bit of Reed Hastings' Quora reply on how much NFLX spends on shipping ($500m to $600m http://www.quora.com/Netflix/How-much-does-Netflix-spend-on-postage-each-year http://www.quora.com/Netflix/How-much-does-Netflix-spend-on-...)

AznHisoka 15y ago

I would be very interested in knowing the open rate for these type of emails as well as the unsubscribe rate. I mean, are there really people interested in buying wine each and every single day? Seems like something you buy for a special occasion or once in awhile... If you buy once, you probably won't buy for a long time.. and if you get a lot of emails and don't buy, chances are you'll lose interest and unsubscribe

wahnfrieden 15y ago
A lot of people cook at home and drink wine with their food. It's not reserved for special occasions for many people.
JonLim 15y ago
I'm a member, but unfortunately I am in Canada. However, if their deals were opened up to us, I would definitely buy a bottle every so often. They have awesome deals and wine isn't just for special occasions! The numbers from the site said 600,000 members who have purchased 500,000 bottles of wine. That's not bad, but I would assume it's a smaller chunk of the 600,000 members who buy multiple bottles of wine. Just a hunch.
vaksel 15y ago
I'm subscribed to a bunch of these, and it's just a case of me being too lazy to unsubscribe. In fact, I even end up opening a bunch of them by mistake when trying to open a different email.

xpose2000 15y ago

Nice job Philip & company. lot18 has grown so much, its crazy.

wavephorm 15y ago

Flagged. Why is a wine store on the front page of "Hacker News" ?

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
johnmurch 15y ago
It's not any wine store - it's a daily deals wine store that just raised a massive round. I have ordered from them before and got some amazing wines for dirt cheap. I highly recommend them.
- wavephorm 15y ago
  Oh wow they have coupons on the internet. There is no technology or hacking going here other than the fact that they take orders from the internet. Whoopty-do.
osdifjsdofi 15y ago
Its a VC funded startup which uses technology as its primary business model and has several interesting problems to solve? Seems like normal "Hacker News" fare...
- wavephorm 15y ago
  You mean they use amazing high technology like a website, like 99% of businesses in the world now do? You have to be kidding me. Not every company that has a website is a technology comapny. This is a wine company. They sell wine. They did not invent any technology or hack abnything. This isn't Techcrunch. We know the difference between Venture Capitalism and technology.
  - elliottcarlson 15y ago
    Actually our technology stack is quite impressive and we are solving problems that are not quite apparent when simply viewing it as an ecommerce site. Your arguments would go against Gilt Groupe, BuyWithMe (when they were around) and Groupon. There is always more than meets the eye - I would hope that someone working in the technology sector would realize that.

elliottcarlson 15y ago

On a related note, we are hiring: http://www.lot18.com/careers http://www.lot18.com/careers

parfe 15y ago

How is sales tax calculated? The sales tax quoted at checkout is based on the shipping address you provide. The amount includes both state and local taxes, when applicable. Looks like Lot18 solved a problem amazon claims it cannot.

jcampbell1 15y ago
Looks like Lot18 solved a problem amazon claims it cannot. 1) Amazon has never claimed this. Amazon wants to be taxed the same as other e-commerce competitors. 2) It is far easier to calculate sales taxes in the 500 or so jurisdictions if you only sell one type of product.
- parfe 15y ago
  A message seeking comment was left Thursday on a media telephone line at Seattle-based Amazon.com. Amazon spokeswoman Mary Osako said last month the company believed "the sales tax issue needs to be solved at the federal level." And that was just today. Amazon does not want to pay local taxes at all. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_INTERNET_SALES_INDIANA http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_INTERNET_SALES_IND...