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Weebly (YC W07) Launches E-Commerce Tools To Lure Entrepreneurs From Amazon

36 points by drusenko 13y ago

ilaksh 13y ago
I think Weebly is a great product, but I believe that there is an enormous opportunity for a truly open-source component-based system, that otherwise works very similarly, to take its place. To me, the whole idea of drag-and-drop components is a no-brainer, and its amazing that open source web developers haven't caught on to that yet.
- gmays 13y ago
  WooCommerce (http://www.woothemes.com/woocommerce http://www.woothemes.com/woocommerce) is built on WordPress, open source, and free. I know there's work being on WordPress to make it easier, like adding front-end editing and likely drag and drop. Websites are so commoditized these days it seems inevitable.
  - ilaksh 13y ago
    Does it support drag and drop components? From the contributing page it looks like things are fairly centralized.
websitescenes 13y ago
People don't always have the time or budget to work with me or the company I work for. When that is the case, I always recommend Weebly. It's nice that I can also recommend them for ecommerce sites as well.
jonny_eh 13y ago
Why not just use Shopify? Shopify is way ahead in this area.
- dannyv 13y ago
  Shopify offers a great product and has been innovating in the eCommerce space for years. We think what they've done is very cool, but we also think there's a lot of room for improvement. So far we've focused our efforts on building an intuitive way for anyone to create a high quality site. Our new eCommerce offering is the best of both worlds, mixing our easy drag & drop interface with the power of a fully-featured eCommerce platform. This is useful, for example, when dragging a video into your product description -- it all just works. Check out the demo video we put together below. Would love to hear your feedback. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnqEB0XxAbM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnqEB0XxAbM
dsugarman 13y ago
is there a commission? who is used for credit card processing? what are the processing fees like?
- dangrossman 13y ago
  These questions are answered in the article. 3% commission to Weebly. Stripe or Authorize.net in addition to the past PayPal/Google Checkout options. Stripe and PayPal start at 2.9% + $0.30/trans.
  - drusenko 13y ago
    Actually, the 3% commission is only for free users. If you're on the Business plan ($19-29/month depending on term) there is no commission at all to Weebly.
Oculus 13y ago
This is way less of a competitor to Amazon then it is to Shopify. Shopify just got a new direct competitor.
matmullen 13y ago
Not sure the value prop for anyone to use Weebly over Shopify to sell something. Their admin is incredibly intuitive and they don't charge an additional commission if you use their payment system.
- dannyv 13y ago
  We actually do not charge an additional commission with our Business Plan, priced at $29/mo, and we integrate with Stripe, PayPal, Authorize, and others to come. Making things as intuitive as possible is something we lose sleep over. Check out our demo video and let me know what you think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnqEB0XxAbM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnqEB0XxAbM
- drusenko 13y ago
  Like Dan said, we think that mixing a very intuitive CMS with a powerful eCommerce platform is really compelling. We compare really well to Shopify on a feature basis, but have some other cool things, like secure checkout on your own domain, faceted search (e.g. http://www.dangshades.com/apps/search?q=polarized http://www.dangshades.com/apps/search?q=polarized) and an amazing mobile checkout.
abuehrle 13y ago
I don't quite understand the comparison to pricing at Amazon and Etsy.[1] Amazon and Etsy are marketplaces, which justifies their commissions. Weebly's product lets users create their own sites. The pricing makes sense for Weebly (users can waive the commission by paying a flat monthly rate), I'm just confused by the comparison in the article. [1] "Weebly takes a 3% cut of sales, while competitor Etsy takes 3.5%. Amazon charges 6-15% of a seller’s sale price, and so does Buy.com, which in addition takes a flat 99 cent commission from each sale."

36 points by drusenko 13y ago

I think Weebly is a great product, but I believe that there is an enormous opportunity for a truly open-source component-based system, that otherwise works very similarly, to take its place. To me, the whole idea of drag-and-drop components is a no-brainer, and its amazing that open source web developers haven't caught on to that yet.

gmays 13y ago
WooCommerce (http://www.woothemes.com/woocommerce http://www.woothemes.com/woocommerce) is built on WordPress, open source, and free. I know there's work being on WordPress to make it easier, like adding front-end editing and likely drag and drop. Websites are so commoditized these days it seems inevitable.
- ilaksh 13y ago
  Does it support drag and drop components? From the contributing page it looks like things are fairly centralized.

websitescenes 13y ago

People don't always have the time or budget to work with me or the company I work for. When that is the case, I always recommend Weebly. It's nice that I can also recommend them for ecommerce sites as well.

jonny_eh 13y ago

Why not just use Shopify? Shopify is way ahead in this area.

dannyv 13y ago
Shopify offers a great product and has been innovating in the eCommerce space for years. We think what they've done is very cool, but we also think there's a lot of room for improvement. So far we've focused our efforts on building an intuitive way for anyone to create a high quality site. Our new eCommerce offering is the best of both worlds, mixing our easy drag & drop interface with the power of a fully-featured eCommerce platform. This is useful, for example, when dragging a video into your product description -- it all just works. Check out the demo video we put together below. Would love to hear your feedback. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnqEB0XxAbM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnqEB0XxAbM

dsugarman 13y ago

is there a commission? who is used for credit card processing? what are the processing fees like?

dangrossman 13y ago
These questions are answered in the article. 3% commission to Weebly. Stripe or Authorize.net in addition to the past PayPal/Google Checkout options. Stripe and PayPal start at 2.9% + $0.30/trans.
- drusenko 13y ago
  Actually, the 3% commission is only for free users. If you're on the Business plan ($19-29/month depending on term) there is no commission at all to Weebly.

Oculus 13y ago

This is way less of a competitor to Amazon then it is to Shopify. Shopify just got a new direct competitor.

matmullen 13y ago

Not sure the value prop for anyone to use Weebly over Shopify to sell something. Their admin is incredibly intuitive and they don't charge an additional commission if you use their payment system.

dannyv 13y ago
We actually do not charge an additional commission with our Business Plan, priced at $29/mo, and we integrate with Stripe, PayPal, Authorize, and others to come. Making things as intuitive as possible is something we lose sleep over. Check out our demo video and let me know what you think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnqEB0XxAbM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnqEB0XxAbM
drusenko 13y ago
Like Dan said, we think that mixing a very intuitive CMS with a powerful eCommerce platform is really compelling. We compare really well to Shopify on a feature basis, but have some other cool things, like secure checkout on your own domain, faceted search (e.g. http://www.dangshades.com/apps/search?q=polarized http://www.dangshades.com/apps/search?q=polarized) and an amazing mobile checkout.

abuehrle 13y ago

I don't quite understand the comparison to pricing at Amazon and Etsy.[1] Amazon and Etsy are marketplaces, which justifies their commissions. Weebly's product lets users create their own sites. The pricing makes sense for Weebly (users can waive the commission by paying a flat monthly rate), I'm just confused by the comparison in the article. [1] "Weebly takes a 3% cut of sales, while competitor Etsy takes 3.5%. Amazon charges 6-15% of a seller’s sale price, and so does Buy.com, which in addition takes a flat 99 cent commission from each sale."