4 ms·

I don't really have a complete idea of how the customer journey works for the time being. But basically the customer would come to the website and tell me what

by sksa 12y ago

I don't really have a complete idea of how the customer journey works for the time being. But basically the customer would come to the website and tell me what he wants to buy. I'll then create him a lower priced offer that's only for him. There wouldn't be a bartering phase. Instead, he gets a fixed price from me, one that's lower than what he has found earlier from Amazon.

svisser 12y ago
That has been done before: see Flubit.
- sksa 12y ago
  How are they doing?
  - svisser 12y ago
    Not sure, they weren't always invite-only. You can find mixed opinions about them online. Things used to be more open but now they've put various restrictions in place so you can view that as you will: either they're very popular or things aren't going very well.
    - tim333 12y ago
      They seemed to be going ok as of a year back: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/flubit-london-start-up-aiming-next-amazon-453092 http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/flubit-london-start-up-aiming-next-... It's a little odd that they've gone invite only
k__ 12y ago
How do you generate this personal-price? Why should this remove the bartering phase and not transform it to a "hey lets look what prices my friends would get" or alternative services, where people post their personal prices for products to compare them?
duckingtest 12y ago
>But basically the customer would come to the website and tell me what he wants to buy. I'll then create him a lower priced offer that's only for him. So... a worse version of a price comparison website? Instead of showing the best price, you want to show only a price better than customer's previous? Why wouldn't people just use a normal price comparison website which shows the cheapest offer?
- sksa 12y ago
  I think there's a misunderstanding here. The price will not be found elsewhere. It will be a price that's created by me based on several factors - one being the lowest price available in the market.
  - duckingtest 12y ago
    >It will be a price that's created by me based on several factors - one being the lowest price available in the market. If a supplier has the best price in the market, it makes sense for him to advertise this fact. So either a supplier is losing potential money by listing minimum price only with you, which is extremely unlikely, or your lowest price will be equal or higher than the lowest on price comparison websites, thus making your website useless. The same people who may use your site are already using price comparison websites. I can see your idea working if you could somehow display your offer to people who aren't shopping for lowest price while they're buying somewhere else, but how? I think some adware did exactly that... An another existing variation of that idea is decreasing the price when customer changes his mind at the last moment.
  - turtles 12y ago
    Stores often try and sell things as cheap as possible, so being able to beat this is going to be difficult, especially against the likes of amazon. There is a reason they set those prices! There is a company in Australia called bing lee (http://www.binglee.com.au http://www.binglee.com.au) that allows you to do this. You can either barter in store or via their chat on their website. I don't see this idea being successful easily. Driving people to your site and making them interact with you would be difficult. I personally couldn't bother with such a site, too much effort. I'd rather see whatever is cheapest on a few different sites and go from there.
striking 12y ago
Amazon's prices are already dirt cheap because of their economy of scale. You'll find it hard to compete with them for very long except where they have loss leaders. Same with eBay. eBay would be even harder because most things are way cheaper than market price or eBay exclusive. N.B. Amazon has never really made profit because Bezos keeps pouring profit back into Amazon to make prices lower and to keep customers happier.
sciguy77 12y ago
How are you going to be able to sell items for less than Amazon?
- sksa 12y ago
  By working within the commission charges by Amazon. I know this is hard.
  - jfoster 12y ago
    Read Amazon's terms carefully. I suspect they forbid what you are planning. You could try to do it against the terms, but I don't think you would get too far.

by sksa 12y ago

svisser 12y ago

That has been done before: see Flubit.

sksa 12y ago
How are they doing?
- svisser 12y ago
  Not sure, they weren't always invite-only. You can find mixed opinions about them online. Things used to be more open but now they've put various restrictions in place so you can view that as you will: either they're very popular or things aren't going very well.
  - tim333 12y ago
    They seemed to be going ok as of a year back: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/flubit-london-start-up-aiming-next-amazon-453092 http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/flubit-london-start-up-aiming-next-... It's a little odd that they've gone invite only

k__ 12y ago

How do you generate this personal-price? Why should this remove the bartering phase and not transform it to a "hey lets look what prices my friends would get" or alternative services, where people post their personal prices for products to compare them?

duckingtest 12y ago

>But basically the customer would come to the website and tell me what he wants to buy. I'll then create him a lower priced offer that's only for him. So... a worse version of a price comparison website? Instead of showing the best price, you want to show only a price better than customer's previous? Why wouldn't people just use a normal price comparison website which shows the cheapest offer?

sksa 12y ago
I think there's a misunderstanding here. The price will not be found elsewhere. It will be a price that's created by me based on several factors - one being the lowest price available in the market.
- duckingtest 12y ago
  >It will be a price that's created by me based on several factors - one being the lowest price available in the market. If a supplier has the best price in the market, it makes sense for him to advertise this fact. So either a supplier is losing potential money by listing minimum price only with you, which is extremely unlikely, or your lowest price will be equal or higher than the lowest on price comparison websites, thus making your website useless. The same people who may use your site are already using price comparison websites. I can see your idea working if you could somehow display your offer to people who aren't shopping for lowest price while they're buying somewhere else, but how? I think some adware did exactly that... An another existing variation of that idea is decreasing the price when customer changes his mind at the last moment.
- turtles 12y ago
  Stores often try and sell things as cheap as possible, so being able to beat this is going to be difficult, especially against the likes of amazon. There is a reason they set those prices! There is a company in Australia called bing lee (http://www.binglee.com.au http://www.binglee.com.au) that allows you to do this. You can either barter in store or via their chat on their website. I don't see this idea being successful easily. Driving people to your site and making them interact with you would be difficult. I personally couldn't bother with such a site, too much effort. I'd rather see whatever is cheapest on a few different sites and go from there.

striking 12y ago

Amazon's prices are already dirt cheap because of their economy of scale. You'll find it hard to compete with them for very long except where they have loss leaders. Same with eBay. eBay would be even harder because most things are way cheaper than market price or eBay exclusive. N.B. Amazon has never really made profit because Bezos keeps pouring profit back into Amazon to make prices lower and to keep customers happier.

sciguy77 12y ago

How are you going to be able to sell items for less than Amazon?

sksa 12y ago
By working within the commission charges by Amazon. I know this is hard.
- jfoster 12y ago
  Read Amazon's terms carefully. I suspect they forbid what you are planning. You could try to do it against the terms, but I don't think you would get too far.