Re: GNOME Store

[Paul Cutler <pcutler foresightlinux org>]

Dave, thanks for linking the lgo page below, that was very helpful.

I guess the first question I have is, are we unhappy with Hackerthreads?  Specifically, financially?  Has anyone reached out to them to see if it's possible to assort more merchandise, and change the look and the feel of the store?

As far as more merchandise goes, looking at their other stores / affiliates they host, I don't think there is, as they appear to specialize in t-shirts.

I don't think any of the requirements have changed much in the last 5 years sine that was put together.

Looking at the work that was done back then, and the stores that were under consideration:

* Zazzle: Still in business, now has Mozilla as a client
* Cafepress - the wiki page mentions
* OpensourceFactory:  Specializes in books and software only
* Sorucewear  / Mayopi:  Don't appear to be in the merchandising business anymore


Other than that, the only other site that was similar that I could find was Printfection.com.

Paul

On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 6:01 AM, Dave Neary <dneary gnome org> wrote:

Hi,

While the project didn't go through to completion because the company we
signed with went out of business, we have gone through this process
before - I documented the process and hit on some of the very same
issues you mention - gnome.org URL, selection of products, and Zazzle
was among the companies I talked with.

The process is documented in
http://live.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/MerchandisingAgreement

As I understand it, Zazzle will do specific custom deals for high volume
brands. For lower value brands such as our, you can easily set up a
custom shop-front with the Zazzle store management software like this:
http://www.zazzle.com/southpark

I also understood from our discussions that Zazzle could set up vhosts
for a store.gnome.org sub-domain, but that they couldn't do a fully
custom interface for us - it would be a standard Zazzle shop-front.

Cheers,
Dave.

Paul Cutler wrote:
> Hi, I wanted to continue a conversation regarding a GNOME store that I
> had sent to the foundation-list
> (http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-list/2009-April/msg00060.html)
> and per Stormy's last email in the thread, continue it in marketing.
>
> We currently have an affiliate store set up at Hackerthreads:
> http://www.hackerthreads.com/items.asp?Cc=GNOME&Bc=
> <http://www.hackerthreads.com/items.asp?Cc=GNOME&Bc=>
>
> I'll be the first to admit I don't have all the information on the
> current setup, including adding products and the revenue model.
> However, in my experience at a former employer running e-commerce sites,
> having a punch out site with a different URL decreases customer
> conversion to buy.
>
> One alternative that came up in #marketing in IRC last week was using
> Zazzle, who manages the Mozilla store (http://store.mozilla.org/).
>
> Some ideas around a GNOME store, that may help increase sales & revenue:
>

> * GNOME URL (store.gnome.org <http://store.gnome.org>)

> * User generated logos / content that can be added to merchandise
> * Limited edition merchandise (Could we create demand by having certain
> artwork / logos available for a limited time?  Or create a campaign or
> use merchandise to support a larger campaign for GNOME)
> * Greater selection of products
>
> Of course, this would probably cause more work - setting up the store,
> managing inventory (Mozilla has a clearance store), HTML, requesting and
> approving logos and artwork from the community, etc.  My idea may be
> totally crazy considering all the other work around the website that's
> going on as well.
>
> I'm not sure what value added services Hackerthreads or Zazzle can offer
> around these ideas, or what other ideas the community may have to add,
> but these were some things I thought we may want to think about.
>
> I'd like to gauge if there is any interest in the community around this
> idea?  If so, we may want to create a small team that can help screen
> artwork, choose what kinds of merchandise to sell in conjunction with a
> fulfilment partner, and work with the web team to get a store implement.
>
> Thoughts or concerns?
>
> Paul
>
>

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--

Dave Neary
GNOME Foundation member
dneary gnome org