5 ms·

Shoplocket partners with WordPress to enable blog-based ecommerce

32 points by peteforde 14y ago

tobin12345 14y ago
awesome - nice move from ShopLocket
gesman 14y ago
Nice site and great ideas. Although I disagree with 2.5% per transaction + plus paypal fees. There are plenty of embeddable, widgetized, turnkey ecommerce offerings that are not trying to undercut every sale merchant is making. Why would i want to give up extra 2.5% on top of payment processor's fees?
- astrodust 14y ago
  Convenience. If Shoplocket is costing you hundreds of dollars a month in fees, you could pay to have your own widget built. If it's only tens of dollars, why fret?
  - gesman 14y ago
    Well, web tools to build online stores today are dime a dozen, and few good ones are actually free or priced flat (not as a percentage of business). Percentage of sales works well when demand for tools exceeds supply.
    - astrodust 14y ago
      If your time is free, this is true. Otherwise this will cost you a non-zero amount of time and money. It's the classic buy vs. build decision. Many companies do obvious things and charge money for it, yet succeed because they do a better job than you could do yourself for the same price.
      - gesman 14y ago
        100% agree. PS: 2.5% off every hard earned sale? Ouchhh....
richardv 14y ago
To a lot of sellers, this is going to be a non-starter... The pricing model of 2.5% per transaction plus paypal/stripe fees, means that in liklihood it will only attract casual users who barely make any sales... The pricing is probably fine for these users, but it's priced well beyond the convenience that it offers for established sellers who might just be thinking, "let's give it a shot". Marketplaces go for the 4-10% per transaction.. but provide payments and the actual exposure on their marketplace... Shoplocket is just providing a widget to integrate... So ultimately, I only see these guys as going after the really (emphasis) really, small fishes...
- gesman 14y ago
  That's a good point. 99% of wordpress bloggers are just going to consume widget delivery bandwidth and make exactly zero sales. 1% who actually sell will go for services that cost them less. And these would be the ones who are either flat fee (possibly monthly) priced or free. Today is the great business model to offer base functional services for free and charge for perks and extras.
arbuge 14y ago
What's the benefit of this over just adding a PayPal button? http://en.support.wordpress.com/paypal/ http://en.support.wordpress.com/paypal/ Sure, it opens in a new window, but is that really such a big deal? You just pay PayPal fees this way...
- katherinehague 14y ago
  Katherine, co-founder of ShopLocket here. Generally PayPal buttons aren't great when you start having more advanced product options (variants, taxes, shipping etc). And creating a beautiful storefront full of products from PayPal buttons is hard. Not to mention, the process isn't the most seamless for buyers, especially when compared to how shoplocket works with Stripe (ex: popslate.com or somawater.co). Also, while it works, this WordPress 'integration' is more just a hack where a button image is linked to a checkout page.
  - gesman 14y ago
    Kat, take this: 1. Average WP audience is spammer, player, lousy useless blogger (80%) or wanabe affiliate for someone else. 2. WP is a platform to support, but not a platform to be based on. 3. Target people who sell stuff, not people who use wordpress.org blogs. Then % off sale starts to make sense. But then these people start not liking giving up % off their sales either. 4. Whats your USP? My wife sells high end dog collars through ECWID. Make me an offer. Don't just be "Yet Another". Be a "Wow!" 5. You email is a win. Keep doing stuff this way and people and businesses will turn your way big time. Why? Because anyone else is ignored by everyone else. People (businesses) LOVE personal attention.
LilValleyBigEgo 14y ago
Shop drop and locket.
ninjakeyboard 14y ago
For someone blogging about their latest scary teddy bear frankenstein creation this may be a nice convenient way to hook in for a sale with little technical knowledge or skill while still giving an ecommerce feel. It's simple so my grandma could use it. Don't know why so much hate :) especially if partnered with wp it should be easy and that will be attractive.
- chrisdinn 14y ago
  I couldn't agree more. At this stage they don't appear to be aiming at professional retailers, but the market they're going after is interesting enough. Stripe even recommends Shoplocket in its FAQ: https://stripe.com/ca/help/faq#not-a-developer https://stripe.com/ca/help/faq#not-a-developer A better looking, easier to use buy-now button doesn't have to increase sales by much to offset the additional cost. Besides, pricing models can change pretty easily.

32 points by peteforde 14y ago

awesome - nice move from ShopLocket

Nice site and great ideas. Although I disagree with 2.5% per transaction + plus paypal fees. There are plenty of embeddable, widgetized, turnkey ecommerce offerings that are not trying to undercut every sale merchant is making. Why would i want to give up extra 2.5% on top of payment processor's fees?

astrodust 14y ago
Convenience. If Shoplocket is costing you hundreds of dollars a month in fees, you could pay to have your own widget built. If it's only tens of dollars, why fret?
- gesman 14y ago
  Well, web tools to build online stores today are dime a dozen, and few good ones are actually free or priced flat (not as a percentage of business). Percentage of sales works well when demand for tools exceeds supply.
  - astrodust 14y ago
    If your time is free, this is true. Otherwise this will cost you a non-zero amount of time and money. It's the classic buy vs. build decision. Many companies do obvious things and charge money for it, yet succeed because they do a better job than you could do yourself for the same price.
    - gesman 14y ago
      100% agree. PS: 2.5% off every hard earned sale? Ouchhh....

richardv 14y ago

To a lot of sellers, this is going to be a non-starter... The pricing model of 2.5% per transaction plus paypal/stripe fees, means that in liklihood it will only attract casual users who barely make any sales... The pricing is probably fine for these users, but it's priced well beyond the convenience that it offers for established sellers who might just be thinking, "let's give it a shot". Marketplaces go for the 4-10% per transaction.. but provide payments and the actual exposure on their marketplace... Shoplocket is just providing a widget to integrate... So ultimately, I only see these guys as going after the really (emphasis) really, small fishes...

gesman 14y ago
That's a good point. 99% of wordpress bloggers are just going to consume widget delivery bandwidth and make exactly zero sales. 1% who actually sell will go for services that cost them less. And these would be the ones who are either flat fee (possibly monthly) priced or free. Today is the great business model to offer base functional services for free and charge for perks and extras.

arbuge 14y ago

What's the benefit of this over just adding a PayPal button? http://en.support.wordpress.com/paypal/ http://en.support.wordpress.com/paypal/ Sure, it opens in a new window, but is that really such a big deal? You just pay PayPal fees this way...

katherinehague 14y ago
Katherine, co-founder of ShopLocket here. Generally PayPal buttons aren't great when you start having more advanced product options (variants, taxes, shipping etc). And creating a beautiful storefront full of products from PayPal buttons is hard. Not to mention, the process isn't the most seamless for buyers, especially when compared to how shoplocket works with Stripe (ex: popslate.com or somawater.co). Also, while it works, this WordPress 'integration' is more just a hack where a button image is linked to a checkout page.
- gesman 14y ago
  Kat, take this: 1. Average WP audience is spammer, player, lousy useless blogger (80%) or wanabe affiliate for someone else. 2. WP is a platform to support, but not a platform to be based on. 3. Target people who sell stuff, not people who use wordpress.org blogs. Then % off sale starts to make sense. But then these people start not liking giving up % off their sales either. 4. Whats your USP? My wife sells high end dog collars through ECWID. Make me an offer. Don't just be "Yet Another". Be a "Wow!" 5. You email is a win. Keep doing stuff this way and people and businesses will turn your way big time. Why? Because anyone else is ignored by everyone else. People (businesses) LOVE personal attention.

LilValleyBigEgo 14y ago

Shop drop and locket.

ninjakeyboard 14y ago

For someone blogging about their latest scary teddy bear frankenstein creation this may be a nice convenient way to hook in for a sale with little technical knowledge or skill while still giving an ecommerce feel. It's simple so my grandma could use it. Don't know why so much hate :) especially if partnered with wp it should be easy and that will be attractive.

chrisdinn 14y ago
I couldn't agree more. At this stage they don't appear to be aiming at professional retailers, but the market they're going after is interesting enough. Stripe even recommends Shoplocket in its FAQ: https://stripe.com/ca/help/faq#not-a-developer https://stripe.com/ca/help/faq#not-a-developer A better looking, easier to use buy-now button doesn't have to increase sales by much to offset the additional cost. Besides, pricing models can change pretty easily.