I'd love some feedback on my side project

May 9, 2018

https://www.getfeenix.com/

Hi folks,

I’ve been working on an app to allow Amazon Sellers, who partake in retail arbitrage, to scan a select set of retailers and compare prices against the related items on Amazon (UK only at the minute).

I’ve built the beta of the app and it is live here: www.getfeenix.com.

I’d love some feedback on what you think of it.

I’m now at the stage where I need to figure out how to get some sales - this is NOT one of my strong points. I’ve been reading a lot of Amy Hoy’s + Alex Hillman’s stackingthebricks.com - which is great. However, I fear I’ve stumble upon the customer first approach a bit too late (given I’ve built most of the product already). So, any tips here would be really useful too.

Thanks!

Phil McClure

Say something nice to overture8…

Post Comment

2
Definitely second Bart's suggestion to put this in front of some potential users to get their feedback. Given that this is a niche product, I suspect you'd get pretty far on word-of-mouth, so I'd start engaging the existing communities.

A few thoughts on that:
- If you're in a place with local RA meet-ups, going to those can be a great way to get some quick in-person feedback.
- Connect with RA bloggers/writers/YouTubers. I'd wager many are always looking out for content or the thing that'll give them a leg-up on competition. You can help with both.
- There are lots of RA/Amazon Merchant communities, with some particularly active ones on Facebook. I believe there's a pretty active FBA Reddit community too. Check out their rules before posting, since some will likely have rules around solicitation. You'll likely be safer pushing it as you'd like feedback than getting customers. You could start replying to threads first to get more introduced to the community first.
- You can try the Amazon Seller Forums, but most likely a mod will remove your post as solicitation. They are generally pretty strict about posts like this (you can blame me, I used to run those forums, heh).
A thought on your product:
I'm not a seller, but I am familiar with the Amazon Marketplace and RA in general. I'm guessing your tool matches products found on retail websites with the Amazon listing and will then identify where there's an arbitrage opportunity. For example, Argos sells X for $10 while it is $20 on Amazon.

If so, I think you can make your value pitch much more specific by showing an example. It doesn't have to be a screenshot of your app, but could be a simple table of each retailer with price and then the Amazon price (and if you’re really fancy, including fees, so you can show net profit). I had trouble understanding what was going on in the top app screenshot, so the table could replace the screenshot.
Darren Krape

·
8 years ago
·
Reply
1. 1
  
  Regarding the solicitation issues. Do you think it would it be worth offering the product for free while in beta?
  
  Phil McClure
  
  ·
  8 years ago
  ·
  Reply
  1. 2
    
    I'm not sure there is a single right answer. You could try both: Reach out to some specific people directly and offer a free beta, and see if anyone sign-ups for the paid via your site.
    
    Darren Krape
    
    ·
    8 years ago
    ·
    Reply
2. 1
  
  Really great tips! Thanks for taking the time to write up your thoughts - I really appreciate it.
  
  Phil McClure
  
  ·
  8 years ago
  ·
  Reply
2

While in BETA, have your say in what features we prioritise

I personally think you should remove this line. It makes it look like your product vision hasn't been decided.

A product video showing you quickly using the application would also be helpful.

Rick Metzger

·
8 years ago
·
Reply
1. 1
  
  Thanks for that. I'd stuck the BETA line in there because I want people to actively guide me on what direction the product should go in. But yeah, maybe not a good place to put that.
  
  Also, thanks for the video suggestion - this would probably help things.
  
  Phil McClure
  
  ·
  8 years ago
  ·
  Reply
1

Yeahhhhh. I feel like I'm in the exact same boat. I'm reading The Mom Test too at the moment which is all about which types of questions to ask in order to get valid data and which types of questions give you either useless data or dangerously wrong data. If you've not read that book, I highly recommend it.

James Tayler

·
8 years ago
·
Reply
1. 1
  
  Sounds interesting - I'll give it a read. Thanks!
  
  Phil McClure
  
  ·
  8 years ago
  ·
  Reply
1

Have you tried reaching out to any of the potential customers yet? Like checking Amazon forums to get potential leads to test your tool?
It will be difficult for you to find people here for such a niche tool and test it properly.

Bart Boch

·
8 years ago
·
Reply
1. 1
  
  I haven't. I've been agonizing about whether the product isn't polished enough. I guess I should probably just bite the bullet. Thanks for the tips.
  
  Phil McClure
  
  ·
  8 years ago
  ·
  Reply
1

This comment was deleted 8 years ago

·
8 years ago
1. 2
  
  Thanks for the UX tips. I was aware of some of them - but just haven't got around to fixing.
  
  Regarding Jungle Scout. Feenix is a bit different in that it focuses specifically on retail arbitrage. I've thought about focusing on users who are beginners in the Amazon Seller world - mainly because the learning curve is quite significant. I still need to test if there is demand for that though.
  
  Thanks for the feedback :)
  
  Phil McClure
  
  ·
  8 years ago
  ·
  Reply