From where Hamster Marketplace will attract manufacturers of DIY and indie electronics
In modern retail, the main question is the search for buyers. Nobody thinks about the importance of producers of goods: why bother with what comes to you? So argues the vast majority of large online retailers, as well as almost all existing offline networks. The struggle is only for large players: the possibility of receiving direct supplies from Apple or Samsung at the original purchase price is the blue dream of any player in the trade market. However, nobody takes into account the interests of small producers (vendors). The main reason is that there is usually nothing left to take from them. A small producer is only interested in the same small or local retailer, which does not have enough positions or has a unique audience.
See the indie maker? And I do not see, but he is.
But in small manufacturers — yesterday's startups — there is tremendous potential for both the market and consumers. Hamster Marketplace is aimed just at small producers of unique products, but in order to fill the site to meet the expectations of the audience, these same manufacturers must also be found: many of them are hiding in their own cocoon of a business card site that serves as a store for a single product on the contrary, Chinese replicas and similar positions in Amazon and AliExpress catalogs are drowning in the sea. So how to get them out of there?
The first two and most important platforms for the Hamster Marketplace, both in terms of attracting vendors, and in terms of attracting customers, are the crowdfunding giants Kickstarter and Indiegogo. It is there that the authors of the project plan to find most of the first wave of manufacturers who will directly sell their goods on the site. Every day, hundreds of projects are successfully completed on Kickstarter, that is, they managed to collect the stated amount.
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Some official statistics of the site itself: during the existence of Kickstarter, more than 130 thousand projects were successfully completed and a total of $ 2.86 billion was raised with the support of 13 million backers. This is an impressive figure. At the same time, projects from the “Technologies” section account for a fifth of all site fees. Instead, startups offer real goods to backers. Now on Kickstarter, more than 4 thousand projects in all directions are in the active fundraising stage.
Regarding Indiegogo, there are no live statistics, but this platform is even more popular with various technological projects and just interesting devices. The monthly unique audience of the resource is 15 million visitors, which is a huge indicator for such a specialized platform. Since 2008, many technological projects have been financed by users at Indiegogo. At the same time, some of them looked not so much funny and curious as crazy.
Take as an example one of the high-profile projects of Indiegogo, which in 2014 successfully collected almost 400% of the originally declared amount, the XM42 is a project of a manual mini flamethrower. Three guys from Detroit were able to raise $ 157 thousand for the development and launch of their production with the support of 248 Becker. The project was good for everyone: from idea to successful implementation. True, according to the laws of a number of countries, the team’s products fell under the definition of “other weapons” and are prohibited for sale and shipment.
But the most interesting thing for a seemingly successful and interesting project to the market began after the end of crowdfunding - the guys were faced with the problem of retail. As a result, over the past years they had to move away from the sales model through their own website and deliver their products for sale to dealers in stores across America:
Map of stores with XM42 flamethrower
Judging by the project site, the team is still looking for new sales channels , as clearly indicated by contact details and relevant information.
The situation is even worse for less high-profile projects, whose fees range from $ 50 to $ 400 thousand. This money is usually enough to start production and send copies to the backers, but not to marketing and sales, followed by growth and scaling of the business.
Hundreds of successful crowdfunding projects simply disappear after fulfilling commitments to the backers who supported them. Because buying through the hastily put together business card sites of each individual project is trivially inconvenient, there are problems with accepting payments, shipping to other regions and just trust. And on large sites, as we said earlier, these products are simply lost in the presence of numerous Chinese consumer goods.
Hamster Marketplace offers such vendors:
Small producers are in a state of stagnation or decline just as small retail. Modern retailers, which are huge retail chains or giants, simply “strangled” this sector. A consumer, even if he would like to support a private producer selling its own products on his own, often simply cannot find it or is not aware of the possibility of a direct purchase. This situation is beneficial only for retailers and dealers who, for their outbidding services, raise the final cost of goods by 35-400%.
We believe that attracting even a few percent of manufacturers from among those successfully launched through crowdfunding is a great start for the Hamster Marketplace and a unique opportunity to announce a new approach to retail sales. This applies both to working with small-scale producers and to the issues of the retail organization itself - when the founder of the site does not become the owner of the cash cow, but only organizes the work and as a successful manager moves aside, letting his creation continue to exist independently without additional supervision.
See the indie maker? And I do not see, but he is.
But in small manufacturers — yesterday's startups — there is tremendous potential for both the market and consumers. Hamster Marketplace is aimed just at small producers of unique products, but in order to fill the site to meet the expectations of the audience, these same manufacturers must also be found: many of them are hiding in their own cocoon of a business card site that serves as a store for a single product on the contrary, Chinese replicas and similar positions in Amazon and AliExpress catalogs are drowning in the sea. So how to get them out of there?
Engaging vendors with Kickstarter and Indiegogo
The first two and most important platforms for the Hamster Marketplace, both in terms of attracting vendors, and in terms of attracting customers, are the crowdfunding giants Kickstarter and Indiegogo. It is there that the authors of the project plan to find most of the first wave of manufacturers who will directly sell their goods on the site. Every day, hundreds of projects are successfully completed on Kickstarter, that is, they managed to collect the stated amount.
')
Some official statistics of the site itself: during the existence of Kickstarter, more than 130 thousand projects were successfully completed and a total of $ 2.86 billion was raised with the support of 13 million backers. This is an impressive figure. At the same time, projects from the “Technologies” section account for a fifth of all site fees. Instead, startups offer real goods to backers. Now on Kickstarter, more than 4 thousand projects in all directions are in the active fundraising stage.
Regarding Indiegogo, there are no live statistics, but this platform is even more popular with various technological projects and just interesting devices. The monthly unique audience of the resource is 15 million visitors, which is a huge indicator for such a specialized platform. Since 2008, many technological projects have been financed by users at Indiegogo. At the same time, some of them looked not so much funny and curious as crazy.
Take as an example one of the high-profile projects of Indiegogo, which in 2014 successfully collected almost 400% of the originally declared amount, the XM42 is a project of a manual mini flamethrower. Three guys from Detroit were able to raise $ 157 thousand for the development and launch of their production with the support of 248 Becker. The project was good for everyone: from idea to successful implementation. True, according to the laws of a number of countries, the team’s products fell under the definition of “other weapons” and are prohibited for sale and shipment.
But the most interesting thing for a seemingly successful and interesting project to the market began after the end of crowdfunding - the guys were faced with the problem of retail. As a result, over the past years they had to move away from the sales model through their own website and deliver their products for sale to dealers in stores across America:
Map of stores with XM42 flamethrower
Judging by the project site, the team is still looking for new sales channels , as clearly indicated by contact details and relevant information.
The situation is even worse for less high-profile projects, whose fees range from $ 50 to $ 400 thousand. This money is usually enough to start production and send copies to the backers, but not to marketing and sales, followed by growth and scaling of the business.
Hundreds of successful crowdfunding projects simply disappear after fulfilling commitments to the backers who supported them. Because buying through the hastily put together business card sites of each individual project is trivially inconvenient, there are problems with accepting payments, shipping to other regions and just trust. And on large sites, as we said earlier, these products are simply lost in the presence of numerous Chinese consumer goods.
Hamster Marketplace offers such vendors:
- humane conditions of entry to the site;
- neighborhood with the same projects;
- the absence of Chinese consumer goods at the “AliExpress catalog” level;
- lack of fees for the site itself for profit;
- informational support;
- transparent blockchain based interaction system.
Small producers are in a state of stagnation or decline just as small retail. Modern retailers, which are huge retail chains or giants, simply “strangled” this sector. A consumer, even if he would like to support a private producer selling its own products on his own, often simply cannot find it or is not aware of the possibility of a direct purchase. This situation is beneficial only for retailers and dealers who, for their outbidding services, raise the final cost of goods by 35-400%.
We believe that attracting even a few percent of manufacturers from among those successfully launched through crowdfunding is a great start for the Hamster Marketplace and a unique opportunity to announce a new approach to retail sales. This applies both to working with small-scale producers and to the issues of the retail organization itself - when the founder of the site does not become the owner of the cash cow, but only organizes the work and as a successful manager moves aside, letting his creation continue to exist independently without additional supervision.
If you want to get more information about Hamster Marketplace first hand, welcome to our Russian-language channel in Telegram .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/339734/
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