what would you do next with this site?
Hello all, my biz partner and I spent a few good weeks putting this together - it is for manufacturers who have people selling their items on amazon - the manufacturer simply inputs their items (UPC code or amazon ASIN) and it outputs if their items are getting sold below their MAP (minimum advertised price) on amazon.
Manufacturers are finding it impossible to manage and enforce this manually.
There are other similar apps out there but this one is the easiest (simply enter or upload items) and it ranks the violations by % (for example, this item is getting sold 50% of your MAP, and it shows the sellers name). The user can get it sent to their inbox daily or weekly to get a glance of how much violation is going on.
(from a consumer point of view it may be seen as good to have lower prices but it does mess up the whole distribution for manufacturers if sellers of the same exact items are competing with each other).
We tested it with a few manufacturers (my suppliers in my import business) and they found it very useful. We gave the 3 manufacturers free trials. Some requested a feature to add enforcement (the ability to contact the abusers and keep track of that).
Before we went ahead to add more features we wanted to prove it out more by getting some actual paid users.
I was not sure how or where to market it - and how to price it. I was not about to start writing content about this before we got some paying customers as my regular job/business keeps me way too busy.
So I guess I got stalled at the marketing phase. And also I can say now after reading up on IH that I may not have confirmed enough the actual need and audience in advance.
Eventually we got busy and stopped paying the $45/month to amazon API for the data and so now it is basically on hold (can be resumed anytime though)
I have a slew of ideas to help manufacturers with various pain points they experience. I guess this is a cry out for thoughts as in the current situation nothing is happening.
Best to All,
Hi @stevenedo looks like a solid product for a specific niche.
With regards to reaching out to potential customers, here are few ideas:
By the way, any ideas on how to find the relevant facebook groups or organizations where I can find relevant manufacturers? I have suppliers of pet products but I would prefer to market to a more diverse group of suppliers. On facebook a lot of manufacturer groups seem to be dominated by suppliers in India and China who tend to produce commodities without much brand value to protect.
Here are a few places I'd look to connect with American manufacturers:
http://www.ama50.com/directory/category/usa-made-household-appliances
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Association-Manufacturing-Excellence-730737
https://www.ame.org/corporate-member-companies
http://www.americanmanufacturing.org/made-in-america
Hi Vanesssa, helpful again. You have a grasp of the service and potential customers. I signed up for your outbound newsletter.
So like, do you offer a service for someone like me who may be too busy to gather up the emails and cold email them about the service? We would turn back on the switch to the site's service, and update our pricing in advance of any campaign.
Brilliant. I especially appreciate your advice on pre-qualification questions. thank you.
I think you might be on to something here. I wouldn't be too concerned about how to price it. Just make sure it is not zero and make sure it is not too high that you are losing customers.
Your next step is to get more customers using it and to validate that they are willing to pay some non-zero amount for it.
Some questions / ideas for next steps:
If your suppliers found it very useful, why did you stop the service?
Did you ask your current suppliers if they would pay and how much?
Did you ask your current suppliers for testimonials for the landing page?
Have you tried asking your suppliers to refer you to their supplier friends?
thanks much for checking it out and for the feedback.
To answer your questions, 1) at the time we figured we were too busy to add the requested features so we put it on hold. But recently I am realizing we should have just gotten more people to use it more in its current form which is still useful - I am going to resume things from where we stalled.
2) I didn't ask them but should have
3) I didn't but should have - thanks again for good advice
4) One manufacturer actually did recommend another user to us
I think we were to caught up in the fact that we were going to need more time to keep adding features and felt too overwhelmed. Since then I've learned a lot reading through IH examples that we were thinking too far ahead
yeah, the key is to build as little as possible to get someone to pay you. good luck!
This comment was deleted 8 years ago
Regarding enforcement of MAP, the FTC actually recognizes it as below:
Reasonable price, territory, and customer restrictions on dealers are legal.
"Or an agreement to set minimum (or "floor") prices or to limit territories may encourage dealers to provide a level of service that the manufacturer wants to offer to consumers when they buy the product. These benefits must be weighed against any reduction in competition from the restrictions."
From the FTC
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/dealings-supply-chain/manufacturer-imposed
thanks,
This comment was deleted 8 years ago