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10 Comments

Ask IH: Why would you start with this product?

Hi all,

I've been working on a weekend project but I would some advice from others to gain attraction. It's a service that allows customers to purchase products online $30 or below with just one (without going through the long process).

Where would you start?

Link: https://www

  1. 1

    One question that I think would be vital to businesses being willing to partner with is, would you give them the data for that user? Businesses want to know info on their customers and have a way that they can retain them . Thats why they want customers to make an account on their own site. I think that would be a big negative to businesses if that wasn't the case and they wouldn't want to use it.

    Also businesses are probably not going to want to give up another 40 cents for a feature that they can most likely make themselves pretty easily. I think the only seller point for them would be if you were getting them more customers some how. But then you're going to have the chicken and the egg problem.

    1. 1

      Although it's possible with the current state, I would need to make a check request. The 40 cent was something lurking in my mind. I think this should be reduced like 10/20 cents. What do you think?

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        You have to think about the value you're bringing and who is your customer? If your customer is a developer I don't think people would pay anything for customer info unless you are getting them new customers like I mentioned.

        If your customer isn't a developer type maybe there is something in your solution that could make building their product easier. But It seems like they would have a lot of other options to build their e-commerce product as well.

  2. 1

    Here are my comments, questions, and suggestions:

    • Simple design and easy to understand copy.
    • As a user, I don't want to register unless it is supported by multiple businesses. As a business, I wouldn't adopt it unless it decreases time to purchase, i.e. users should already be registered with Liroop.
    • As a business, why should I choose Liroop, when other more mature platforms such as amazon, paypal, securion pay, shopify, offer one click payment?
    • As a business, I am not ready to pay $0.40 per purchase in addition to the credit card transaction fee.
    • Is there a reason to target both USA and UK? I would suggest focusing on one market.
    • I'd focus on one side of the marketplace until a critical mass is reached. I'd start with businesses, make this product completely B2B facing, and acquire users at the time of purchase.
    • I'd reach out to the following target businesses and get their feedback:
      • Businesses with inherent repeat orders (some examples: groceries or personal care products)
      • Businesses which currently do not save credit card or address of their customers
    • Also, the USA links for get started and learn more, are broken and show not found pages.
    • So the user can just provide the email address to purchase anything <= $30? How do you ensure security?

    Hope it helps, let me know if I am missing something.

    1. 1

      Thanks for your reply.

      "As a user, I don't want to register unless it is supported by multiple businesses. As a business, I wouldn't adopt it unless it decreases time to purchase, i.e. users should already be registered with Liroop."

      OK, the way I've designed it will definitely decrease time purchasing products online but I think I'm not explaining it right.

      "As a business, why should I choose Liroop, when other more mature platforms such as amazon, paypal, securion pay, shopify, offer one click payment?"

      These businesses don't let you share the same details from the same source to many business and purchase products at the same time. You always require to process a long process in each of those websites. Customers need to register for each of them. On here, you register once and other businesses retrieve process your order without going through the normal process.

      "As a business, I am not ready to pay $0.40 per purchase in addition to the credit card transaction fee."

      Is $0.40 too much?

      "Is there a reason to target both USA and UK? I would suggest focusing on one market."

      We also record the address of customers so when they are purchasing a product, the website gets all the information from one source. For now, USA & UK addresses are supported.

      "I'd focus on one side of the marketplace until a critical mass is reached. I'd start with businesses, make this product completely B2B facing, and acquire users at the time of purchase."

      This is what I expected, I've started cold emailing some businesses.

      "So the user can just provide the email address to purchase anything <= $30? How do you ensure security?"

      The payment process is encrypted and we go through a bank service to make sure of it. When a customer purchases a product, the customer provides their information, then it will do a deep check on the customer and collect all information which is all encrypted. The business website then collects this information and process their order. It's all done in the background.

      1. 2

        Maybe I am misunderstanding the value proposition, but here are my clarifications:

        "As a user, I don't want to register unless it is supported by multiple businesses. As a business, I wouldn't adopt it unless it decreases time to purchase, i.e. users should already be registered with Liroop."

        OK, the way I've designed it will definitely decrease time purchasing products online but I think I'm not explaining it right.

        What I meant here was - as a user, I wouldn't register by visiting your landing page (Liroop.com). I would register only at the time of purchase. i.e. I do not see the value at this stage, by making your landing page end-user focused, it should be B2B focused.

        Now, as a business, since Liroop is just starting out, most of the users will be first-time users and they still need to go through the long checkout process. Whereas, in the case of Amazon pay, most of the users are already Amazon users, and can utilize the benefits the first time they go through the checkout process.

        "As a business, why should I choose Liroop, when other more mature platforms such as Amazon, Paypal, securion pay, Shopify, offer one-click payment?"

        These businesses don't let you share the same details from the same source to many business and purchase products at the same time. You always require to process a long process in each of those websites. Customers need to register for each of them. On here, you register once and other businesses retrieve process your order without going through the normal process.

        Maybe I am wrong, but I have used Amazon pay both as a user and as a business. https://pay.amazon.com/using-amazon-pay. As a user, I have ordered on multiple websites using Amazon pay. The process is just to log in using my Amazon credentials, select my card, and shipping address from my Amazon profile. If I have signed up for Amazon one-click, then it automatically selects the card and shipping address as well. How is your checkout flow going to be different?

        "As a business, I am not ready to pay $0.40 per purchase in addition to the credit card transaction fee."

        Is $0.40 too much?

        Amazon pay charges 2.9% + $0.30 for each transaction and this includes credit card transaction, there is no additional fee for using Amazon pay. Will your service be 2.9% + $0.30 for credit card processing + $0.40 as Liroop fee?

        "Is there a reason to target both the USA and UK? I would suggest focusing on one market."

        We also record the address of customers so when they are purchasing a product, the website gets all the information from one source. For now, USA & UK addresses are supported.

        I was saying this from a user experience, effort, and marketing perspective, as it might be better to focus on user experience and marketing to one market, making your product simpler, and easier for you to handle.

        "So the user can just provide the email address to purchase anything <= $30? How do you ensure security?"

        The payment process is encrypted and we go through a bank service to make sure of it. When a customer purchases a product, the customer provides their information, then it will do a deep check on the customer and collect all information which is all encrypted. The business website then collects this information and process their order. It's all done in the background.

        What I meant here is - Is just an email address enough to process my order, without any login credential? If yes, can anyone that knows my email address place an order?

        1. 1

          Liroop isn't a payment gateway service, it's a service that stores customers details like address, card details and businesses can retrieve customer information without the need to have an account. This allows businesses to process an order without the customers going through the purchase process. Amazon pay is a payment gateway. The problem I want to solve is letting customers pay products without signing in accounts, going to the checkout, etc...

          This, of course, will benefit businesses as orders are processed quicker (more sales).

          Amazon pay is a payment service. This is not what I'm aiming for. Businesses charge gets charged for retrieving the customer details and do all the payment process in the background.

          If the purchase is under 30 dollars, then you require your email but if it's beyond, it requires email and password. In the UK, there are bank cards that you can swipe without entering any pin code if the purchase is £20 or below. So far, the number of frauds has been rare. At the moment, I'm assuming it can work with online purchases. But if not, then adding the password would definitely help.

          It sounds like I'm not spreading the right message.

          1. 3

            ok, I understand now...Liroop is a customer data vault...so as a business I will use Liroop only to save my customer details, such as shipping address, credit card etc, and use any payment gateway to process the purchase.

            I do see your value prop now, i.e. as a business, I can make the customer checkout process fast no matter what payment gateway is chosen. But, I am not sure if businesses would be ready to pay an extra $0.40 every order for that...you would need to test it out by reaching out to customers.

            But again, even though you are focusing on just the customer data storage and retrieval aspect, you are still competing with Amazon pay, paypal etc....because they provide both customer data vaults and payment processing.

            And yes, probably need to change the copy, and provide a how it works illustration...If you want website copy, flow, and design feedback, I am happy to help.

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              Yes, that would be great. I guess my niche is how the details are used that makes it unique. That was something I was expecting about the $0.40 charge? What do you think? I'm not 100% sure about this part? I might need to research this topic.

              In some way, I agree with the competing part. But I don't it will be a big deal because those companies make money when processing a payment while mine will be requesting/retrieving customer details.

              1. 1

                I am still not sure who the target audience here is? For e.g. is it, someone using a platform (wordpress, shopify) or someone who knows to code...?

                If they can code, then stripe and braintree already provide this service along with payment gateway. If it is a platform you might want to publish an app there.

                I think the most important thing at this stage is to talk to customers and get their feedback on pricing as quickly as possible.

                Either way, I have posted my feedback using a free tool I discovered at https://via.hypothes.is/https://www.liroop.com/

                I have posted the feedback privately instead of publicly...hence you need to join this group https://hypothes.is/groups/kjYbkZry/privy, to view the comments...Let me know if it helps.

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