The making of…

Creating a leather strap with a simple LED light and a metal encasement is not a simple task especially when you want to make it elegant and simple by embedding all the electronics perfectly.This week I am taking the role of the CTO in order to research about other alternatives to produce a high-fi prototype for Raiden.

The LED light that we bought from spark fun electronics a couple of weeks ago is powered by a 12V battery.The only batteries that come in that voltage are super bulky and will look very ugly on the leather strip.

I decided to experiment with other type of LED called 4 Warm White 5050 SMD LED that I preordered from super bright leds.

Fig1. SMD LED

What is great about this type of LED is that you could use a 3V battery that comes in a  circular cell shape that could be easily embedded into the leather strap.The only problem is that the intensity of the light is very subtle. They are 19 Lumins only.

It would be possible to use this if we could create something called a parallel circuit where we could place 3 LEDs lights, add 3 batteries that would be connected to 3 battery holders. Since 3V batteries are super small, they would perfectly fit into the leather strap.

The light costs 0.65$ each

The batteries costs 0.77$ each

The battery holder costs 2$ each

Fig2. Battery holder

I found out that these batteries were very practical since they are very popular on alibaba.com which is a great manufacturer resource.I tried to see if anyone was selling this type of light that was already made but couldn’t find anything online. They sell these type of lamps where 20 or more of these LED lights are embedded into the lamp.I decided to go to a store called Canal lighting and parts on Canal Street and found out that they sell these LEDs ribbon strip lights.

Fig3. LED ribbon strips.

The great thing about this type of lights is that they are already made: soldered and attached to a plastic 3M strip. Daniela and I will be working together this week to combine the leather straps with these LED strips in order to make a high-fi prototype for Raiden.

 

1 subscriber = more validations + more research

After last weeks validations, we got our first customer who subscribed to our list:  Alessandro, was one of the people we extensively talked to when we were in Soho last week.

We were super excited when we received the email of our first customer but we realized that this was not enough. Ashley and I, ventured to Williamsburg in Brooklyn to conduct more validation and discover if  what we call “hipsters” were actually our target audience.

First of all, people were not very friendly over there and didn’t even want to give us two minutes to talk. People were frustrated, in a hurry and pissed off. We found a few generous ones and got good feedback from them. We decided that that we were going to ask very casual questions. All of the people we talked to were commuters, and used the cheapest bike lights and didn’t really care about the aesthetics. We ran into columbian tourists that didn’t even use bike lights but liked our product because of its aesthetics.

We ran into a group of British girls who didn’t carry bike lights but wanted stylish ones and others who were just interested in buying the cheapest bike light.

They were all interested in our product, but were concerned about the price. We tried to gear them towards the site to subscribe but nothing happened.

We realized that we were wrong with our assumption that Williamsburg hipsters were our target audience.

We decided that we are going to target people in Manhattan and especially the ones who live downtown: east village, west village and lower east side .Our target audience are  people who have short commutes, live in the city and like fashionable accessories.

We are officially done doing this informal interviews and need to make the product in order for people to see it live. We will try this method again once we have a high-fi prototype to show.

I have been helping 0ut Daniela and Joe by researching about manufacturers that could potentially make our leather strap and metal encasement.

I subscribed to Makers row: http://makersrow.com and contacted all the following companies:

For leather I contacted:

Walcoleather: http://www.walcoleather.com

Sherryacc: www.sherryacc.com

For metal:

Earwingsnyc: http://www.earwingsnyc.com

Here are general questions I asked in my email and the answers and/or other questions they provided:

-Do you perforate on leather?  Yes but what is the perforation pattern? And are you going to use our leather or ours? If it is yours what type of leather is it?

-Do you perforate thick leather? Yes but please give me the specifics of the thickness and the type of snaps that you are going to use.

– Do you cut leather? I need to create  20 leather straps that are 2.5/6 inch? Yes but please be aware our MOQ is 50pcs/item/color

– I need to produce 50 metal encasement that are 1/1 inch with a 0.16/0.16  cut in the middle, how much would this cost to make? What metal would you need this in? Can it be pewter or white metal ? how will it be used? does it need to be plated? what is the thickness ?

I have also been researching about that and stumbled upon a great website called board of innovation: http://www.boardofinnovation.com/business-revenue-model-examples/

Also, when I went to the field trip at ERA NYC a couple of weeks ago, they had a great system to represent revenue models and showed their financial spreadsheet after each pitch.

It would be great if we can go over this in class for more information.

Little bits and pieces

After our talk with Grace, the founder of Lean startup, we decided to try new experiments with our validation process by using spontaneous and creative methods.

On Monday 22nd of April, Ashley and I took a long walk from Union square to Soho in order to interview strangers riding their bikes in the city. Our goal was to learn about our different customer segments by interviewing commuter bikers, stylish and fashionable people and even leather enthusiast dwellers.

We used different techniques to do so:

We waited on the sidewalk to catch bikers that were locking or unlocking their bikes to talk to them and show them our product with our mockups on an iPad, we used a guerrilla marketing strategy by stopping at street lights and handing bikers a card that had the name of our brand, contact information like our email and website and we stopped pedestrian on the streets when we saw that they had some leather accessory on them.

At the end of the conversation we handed to everyone a business card in order to check later if they saw our website or ordered our product.

Monica, an integrated design student at Parsons owned a blue Linus bike and she had it accessorized with a wooden basket, looked very fashionable with a spring dress.

We though she was our perfect target audience but it seems that she didnt buy her bike for the style but only because she likes to wear dresses and this bike had a female rack, we showed her our mockup and she thought it was an interesting idea but wouldn’t personally wear it because she didn’t like wearable accessories.  She would like to have a light that is securely attached to her bike instead.

Zoe, a women that was just finishing up her workout from Soul cycle in Soho, also owned a Linus. She was the commuter/sporty kind. After showing her our product, she told us that she loved it, she always looses her bike lights and she was into the leather aesthetics and the functionality of it.

Bob was a student sitting on the bench of La Colombe coffee shop in Soho with a very sleek leather backpack, so I asked him if he biked and he said that he did. He loved our idea and wanted to purchase it on the spot.

Cole, has been a biker for 25 years, he owned a old bike and told us that he loved to accesorize it and keep it safe by rapping the seat, the wheels, his lights around with a leather material. He loved our idea because he thought that snapping it in and out from the bike handle to his backpack would be a great idea.

Greg was another stylish potential customer, he had a leather bag, we approached him on the sidewalk as he was coming back from work. He was from Seattle and loved to bike. He also liked the idea of the snaps that strap on and off and the aesthetics of it and told us that it was like a torch light.

Alessandro, a very stylish Italien biker, really liked our idea and told us that he would share it with all his friends. We even told him to sign up for the pre-order list in order to give him a discount.

Deji was a real deal sport enthusiast, he was wearing professional biking accessories and told us that he would try out our product because he liked new things.

Monica and Maggie, were walking their Schindler bikes home and questioned why we were using leather material to make our bike light. We told them that we were going for a certain type of biker and thought that leather was in style this season.

They also asked us for the price and if we had a website or some contact information. We handed out our cards after that.

Luis, was a freestyle cyclist, he loved speed and adventure. He really though that making the light with leather was unique. Coincidentally, he was also working on a accessory for bikes, so we shared some references and he gave us the contact of his friend that was making neon clothing for bikers.

His company was called Ice cold Nyc

We got very good feedback from people who generally loved the idea, the aesthetics and the functionality but realized that they wouldn’t wear it as a wrist band. The idea of clipping in and out or strapping in and out was more attractive. People could potentially put it anywhere: on their belts, back back and pockets.

After that we got some activity on the website:

-5 people logged in to our website from 6:30 to 8:30 pm, this is when we were on the streets doing interviews

-10 people visited that night.

Since no one has been purchasing our item we decided to add a feature in order for people to subscribe to a mailing list. If they did subscribe, they would get a 10 dollars discount.

We created this feature  last night, so we will wait to see what type of results we get.

As for making our prototype, we decided to make the strip smaller, something that can be snapped in and out from a handle of a bike to a backpack or a pocket.

Because our light is 120 Lumins, we needed to get a 9V battery. These types of batteries are usually rather bulky , the challenge is going to find one with the right shape in order to fit in the strap.

We put together a first prototype, connected all the circuits and really loved the brightness of it.

We posted a picture on Facebook and got great feedback on the intensity of the light.

We would need to research more about the batteries and are thinking of moving toward soft circuits to conduct the electricity with conductive fabric and thread.

Raw data from Interviews

Business Interviews at Bicycle Habitat with Store representatives

Interview 1:

Name: Edward

Age: 32

Position: Sales representative

-What is the type of customers that come to your store?

We have all types of customers that come here: Hobbyist, commuters, hybrids and sport enthusiasts.

-How often do you sell bike lights?

Since having a light at night is a legal requirement, we sell a lot of them. I would say that I sell at least two(front and gear) with every bike I sell.

I sell mostly to commuters. I would say that I sell  60% to commuters and 40% to the rest.

– How much does a bike light cost in average?

30-250 dollars. The USB rechargeable ones are the most expensive.

-Are bike lights popular accessories?

Yes, definitely

-Would you say that a bike light is an accessory or a utility?

Both

-What brands are the most popular in your store?

Bontrager, Light & Motion 550 Commuter Combo

-What are the main concerns customers have when purchasing a bike light?

Price

– When you remove your light where do you put it?

I just lock it.

Would you use a bike light as a wearable accessory?

Yes

General feedback:

A couple of years ago some brand , I don’t remember  the name, did a bike light that can straps on your arm and another one that can strap on your leg, it was made of a  lithium bike light. I think that having a bike light is important and shows power.  You  have more prescence as a biker, you will blend in with cars and have more respect.

With a bike light you can see the ground.

Interview 2:

Name: David

Age: 30

Position: Sales representative and repair

-What is the type of customers that come to your store?

We have two stores. In the retail one, which is this one, a lot of sport enthusiast customers come in. In the other store next door which is basically  to repairs bikes, a lot of commuters come in.

-How often do you sell bike lights?

I sell it very frequently, I would say with every bike that is sold.

– How much does a bike light cost in average?

2 for 30$ is the minimum, then you can find others at 100$.

– Do customers come back to but the same bike light? Why do they come back?

Yes they do. They stick to what they have usually. They come back because their lights got stolen.

-Are bike lights popular accessories?

Yes

-Would you say that a bike light is an accessory or a utility?

A utility.

-What are the main concerns customers have when purchasing a bike light?

They want a light with good intensity to be safe.

– When you remove your light where do you put it?

I put it in my bag usually.

Would you use a bike light as a wearable accessory?

Not really, but not because it is not a good idea but just because I don’t like to wear things on my body

General feedback:

I would recommend this to my friends once it is out. Please let us know.

Business Interviews at Hudson bikes with Store representative

Name: Sara

Age: 30

Position: Daughter of owner

-What is the type of customers that come to your store?

Mostly commuters, tourists that want to rent a bike and hobbyist.

-How often do you sell bike lights?

It is a seasonal business, we sell the most in summer and spring.

– How much does a bike light cost in average?

Minimum 15 dollars for 1 bike light and max 50 dollars.

-What are the most popular brands?

Knog and Linus lights

-Do people come back to buy the same bike light they previously bought? Why do they come back

Yes , especially the knog ones because they are so simple and practical. They usually come back because people stole them.

-Are bike lights popular accessories?

Not really, I would say that baskets and bags are our most popular accessory here.

-Would you say that a bike light is an accessory or a utility?

A utility.

-What are the main concerns customers have when purchasing a bike light?

They want a simple , smart and stylish light like the knog light.

– When you remove your light where do you put it?

I put it in my pocket or bag

Would you use a bike light as a wearable accessory?

No . I personally don’t think it is a fashion statement but my customers would think that it is.

General feedback:

Some people want to be seen rather than actual see, so a lot of people buy really nice light like the linus ones but , I personally don’t think its a bright light. If you can make a light fashionable with a strong intensity, I think that that would be a good idea.

A fashionable and bright light

Last week I conducted interviews with three store representative to validate if people would be interested in a wearable, fashionable bike light accessory.

One of the most important facts I wanted to learn about was the target audience of each store. I assumed that commuters and hobbyist would be more interested in fashionable bike lights than a sport enthusiast that would like to buy simply functional accessories. My assumption seems to be true, at bicycle habitat (http://bicyclehabitat.com), a more sports centered store, most of the consumers who buy bike lights end up buying more functional lights.

One of my hypotheses was that most consumers would purchase bike lights often since they are easily lost or stolen, after checking back with store managers, I found out that most of the customers come back to buy the same light they previously bought because it was stolen.

I also wanted to know what kind of characteristics people looked for in bike lights they purchase, and in this case opinions varied widely. Some people were concerned about the price, others were concerned about the intensity and others were concerned about the aesthetics. But over all, people wanted a combination of the three. A smart, simple, beautiful, cheap bike light.

Sara, the  daughter of the bike owner at Hudson Bikes said that the most common one was from a brand called knog (http://www.knog.com.au) since it had all of these factors. A clear silicon bike light, with great LED light embed into the enclosure, a great attachment to the handle of the bike and only for 15 dollars the piece.

Another aspect that I wanted to validate is if a bike light is actually a necessity. And indeed, it is, by law you are supposed to use a bike light at retain hours.

In general most of my assumptions were correct, some of the people I spoke to didn’t like the fact that it’s meant to be a wearable,but thought that it would be a great idea to limit theft.

This week, I was in charge of putting together an e-commerce website(fig 1) using squarespace, an easy service to create e-commerce platforms in order  to validate if people would actually buy this accessory online or would it be best to sell it physically in store, in fairs or by word of mouth.

Fig 1: Raiden website, landing page: https://raidennyc.sqsp.com

I designed the page by making a mockup of a logo, a simple and sleek landing page with a image of the product which is shown from back and front and a simple button in order for customers to preorder the bike light. Leather background, fat type and  a simple navigation.

Since we are aiming to sell this as a fashionable accessory , I wanted the page to look aesthetically nice and show the luxurious image of the brand. I also thought that our brand should have a signature and something unique this is why we came up with a slogan that is : Raiden, made to ride with style.

We also designed a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Raidennyc) and created a digital pamphlet (Fig 2) with the features of the product which are the leather straps, oxidized metal and Bright 120 lumins white leds. We wanted to show to the customers that this bike light is unique in a sense that it utilize the finest materials ,  that the product is purely handmade and that it is worth the price.

Fig 2: Digital pamphlet posted on Facebook

So far, the activity of the website has been great according  to square space:

– 10 unique views in 4 days.

– 30 views which means that people came back to our site.

– The most popular content resides on the the home page: 77.77% of users landed on the homepage (Fig 3)

Fig 3: Analytics of Popular content taken from Squarespace

According to Goggle analytics:

54.17%Returning Visitor

-45.83%New Visitor

-88.90 % of visitors are from NYC

– 6 people accesed the site from Facebook

According to Facebook:

-32 likes in 4 days

As for the price we decided to sell it at 30 dollars for now, since the cost of production is the following :

Leather strap: 0.5 cent / unit

LED: 6$ / unit

Heatsink/thermal(optional): 2$/ unit

Enclosure (metal or plastic):2$/unit

Snap fastener clasps: 0.04 cent/unit

Snap buttons: 0.04 cent/unit

3V Batteries(this price will vary as we go into production):0.16 cent/unit

Total: 10.74$

But we estimate it to be another 10 dollars. The total cost of productions comes down to 10.74 which excludes the cost of laser cutting of the leather and metal inclosure, and the machine to pierce the strap which we are not sure yet about.

If this is the case, the total cost of production would be 20.74 and the product would be sold at 35 dollars which gives us 15 dollars of profit.

We are also thinking of selling sets of two which we will not cost the double but producing larger quantities will lower our costs due to buying in bulk.

In conclusion, I was very satisfied by these results and I am really excited to continue to design the website and the product, because I really believe in it.

I think that we are doing something unique that hasn’t been done yet.

In comparison to our old business called pony press we have reached more people in less time with more interest.

Leather goods are back

As the CFO of Raiden, a product based startup that focuses on producing hand crafted, sleek and  fashionable bike lights for the everyday commuter, I was interested in researching about the trends that exists within the urban cycling community.

Several trends are converging that have led us to believe that a hand crafted, leather bicycle accessory light would be highly desirable in the growing cycling commuter market in NYC.

Some indicators that are worth mentioning are:

– Over one hundred thousand leather bracelets are being sold on Etsy. (Fig 1)

– Over 227 bicycle accessories are being sold on Etsy,

– The cheapest simple leather bracelet being sold on Etsy is sold for 26 dollars.

– The cheapest bike leather accessory costs 24.95 dollars  (Fig 2)

 

Fig 1. Etsy Leather Bracelet Fig 2. Etsy Leather bike accessories 

Over the course of the last few days I went to two commuter-centric bike shops in the Lower part of Manhattan, NY called Hudson Urban Bikes (http://hudsonurbanbicycles.com) and Bicycle Habitat(http://bicyclehabitat.com) and have talked to several bike shop owners , sales representatives and customers and have found that hand crafted and leather goods are popular among bike owners, two of the most popular bike brands in NYC are Linus (http://www.linusbike.com)(Fig 4) and Brooks (http://www.brooksengland.com)(Fig 3)  which sell european style bicycles which have leather made seats, handles and ornaments.

Fig 4. Linus Bicycle / Fig 3. Brook Bikes saddle 

All the accessories produced by these brands are hand crafted, made such as canvas and leather. All bike shop owners encourage buyers to purchase bike lights, and bike lights are one of the top selling items since they’re easily stolen and or lost, also by law bike riders need to use a bike light at night.

In general leather is fashionable even outside the cycling industry, people are attracted by simple natural materials and hand crafted goods, this trend goes hand in had with the observations we made about products being sold at bicycle shops.

Bike lights on the other hand seems to have become very simple and streamlined, consumers are willing to pay a higher price for a simple portable, easy to use light, something that is not too bulky and that is easy to strap on and off, it is imperative that any bike accessory be easily detached since bikes are prone to theft.

After looking at all this data we think that bike commuters and people who buy Linus and Brooks bikes could be potentially interested in a simple, fashionable wearable accessory light.

We estimated the cost of producing one bike light as follows:

– Leather: 0.50 cent per unit

– LED light $6.00 per unit

– Humidifier : $18.00 per unit

– Copper Enclosure $2.00 per unit

– Battery: 0.16 cent per unit

– 2 sets of Snap buttons $4.00 per unit

Total Cost per bike light: $30.66

We are aiming to sell each bracelet at $45.00 generating a revenue of $15 dollars per product.

Another round of validations and more research

Delivering our product poses some interesting challenges that will be difficult to overcome.

Two weeks ago, after our midterm critique we realized that our product wasn’t a product of convenience. The average person can buy stamps very easily and people actually enjoy going to stationary stores to select their paper and envelopes. What is really important for them was to touch and feel the paper they were going to send out.

But we also found out that most people don’t really send letters. They prefer sending an email than writing a personalized letter. When we talked to people, they mostly liked to send cards for special occasions. Selling cards is a very sustainable business. Managers at stationery stores mentioned that their best selling item was thank you cards.

Going from there, we decided to go for another run of validation, but in this case we wanted to see if people were into customization.

We thought about a new idea, we would sell a booklet of postcards where each person could customize his or her postcards using an image, a picture, a graphic or anything they consider special to them through our website. We would print a booklet of tearable cards using their images and ship it to them, they could later give away these cards for any occasion. If you forgot an event or a birthday, you would have a set of postcards that would be sitting at home and that you could give out at anytime.

Last week, in the latest round of interviews I was involved in extensively discussing with potential customers if they would be interested in buying our product, as it stands people seem to have a keen interest in the idea of customizing cards, however most of them enjoy the tactile quality of paper and for that reason buy all their stationery at stores where they can actually touch and feel different options.

It seems like customization might be the best feature we offer and that which helps us differentiate our product from what’s already out there, however it’s hard to say if potential customers will be willing to sacrifice their current purchasing patterns especially if it is online and would instead purchase our booklet. We need to further experiment and validate interest among these potential buyers.

As the CTO I’ve been researching on practical ways to create a platform where potential customers could upload images that could later be used to produce the booklets, I was hoping to find a pre made template or a tool that offers this service but have as of yet not found any, however, I’ve come up with two strategies to get users’ images:

By email We contact prospective customers by email and have them send us a series of high resolution images which we will use to produce a booklet and ship it back to them, this method is simple and quick, however it’s not friendly for users, although it is personal and for that reason might be successful.

Online submission We create an online form where we gather users’ images, these images are stored in a server and later on we retrieve them to produce the booklets, this method is friendlier for users but it requires us to build a website from scratch which will be costly in terms of time and money.

Given that we’re at the early stages of this idea and we’re not certain of how people will respond to it, I suggest staying away from building a website, since it will be an arduous process and it might now be worth it in the end.

Midterm assets

Presentation:

Ponypress_midterm_presentation

Business Model Canvas:

https://bmfiddle.com/f/#/b4gK6

 

Description of  the idea:

Sending a physical letter is a slow and difficult process.If the process were more convenient, people may prefer to mail a handwritten letter than send emails.

Pony press is a tool that will make the process of mailing letters easy and efficient. It’s an all inclusive stationery kit that will come with all the basic materials you need to send a letter: a pen, a letterhead, and envelope and of course a post stamp.

With pony press, there’s no waiting in line or running from one place to an other. All you have to worry about is writing the letter, and sending it to your loved one

Ideally we would like to make $1,500 through the sales of the kits and advertisement on the e-commerce website.

Validation Research paper:

Ponypress_validationresearch_revised_final

Lean Validation Board:

Data from Interviews:

Ponypress_data_from_interviews

Landing page beta /

For the past week, I have been focusing on designing/coding the landing page for our online store PonyPress. In order to do so, I have been playing around with Content Management Systems such as Shopify, WordPress and Squarespace.

We decided that Shopify is not the right fit for our project. People usually use it to sell  big quantities of products.

We decided to prototype the first iteration of the landing page using Squarespace. We are using the 13 day trial in order to test the interface out and conduct our validations.

As for the design, I wanted the landing page to be as straight-forward as possible.

In the header, you would find the name of the product, with the tagline of the company and a background image.

In the body you would find the title of the kit, a short description of the product and an image of the kit.

And finally, in the bottom, there will be a call to action button in order for the customers to immediately buy the product. (Once we will get into the User experience of the site, we would change the disposition of these elements in order for the buy button to stand out)

After clicking the first entry, you will be sent to the detail description page of the product and learn about what is included in the basic kit.

After that, you will have the option to add your item to your cart and finally checkout by entering your purchase information.

What is great about squarespace is that we could easily get access to the back end data of the site in order to store the customers information and orders.

Once the site will be up to the public, we will be tracking the activity through google analytics and squarespace analytics.

We will be comparing the number of visitors coming into the site and clicking on the -Buy now- button versus the visitors that would be just viewing the content of the page. We will also be looking at the time they spent on the landing page and if they made it to the last entry that will be -Add to cart- and actually purchase the item.

We are hoping to calculate the numbers of viewers who are really willing to purchase this kit by the end of this week. If the number is good enough, our assumption that this product is interesting to the public will be valid.

Another thing we did to promote Pony Press and see if people are interested in our idea is that we created a social presence  by setting up a Facebook account. We asked people to like our page and give feedback on the idea.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pony-Press-Easy-Letter-Mailing-Kits/516084391788607?fref=ts

We will be also setting up a twitter account as well.

Something that we though that could be interesting is to create a feature where people could subscribe to the service by providing an email address.

By wednesday, we will be inviting people to access our site and evaluate and observe the purchase activity online.

We will be creating a post on Facebook in order to promote this beta-site.

Here is the link to the page: https://ponypress.squarespace.com

Because we registered our account as a trial for now, you will have to click on the visitor access and follow the instructions.

Here are a couple of the images of the interface:

Concept / E-commerce research / Survey /

As Joe mentioned earlier, I will be responsible of Customer relationships and E-commerce.

My first exercise for this week was to to reformulate our concept and articulate it as a mini-pitch

Concept/Pitch

Sending a physical letter is a slow and difficult process. People would rather send emails because it’s fast and efficient, however, as a gesture, a handwritten letter can be more meaningful.

Pony press is a tool that will make the process of mailing letters easy and efficient. It’s an all inclusive stationary kit that will come with all the basic materials you need to send a letter: a pen, a letterhead, and envelope and of course a post stamp.

With pony press, there’s no waiting in line or running from one place to an other. All you have to worry about is writing the letter, and sending it to your loved ones.

E-commerce research

Since we are going to be dealing with sales, delivery and customer relationships we will need to set up an e-commerce website for these transactions.

We have been researching about the easiest and quickest way to prototype an e-commerce platform and we have found a couple of services that can help us achieve this by using customizable CMS ‘ s

Here are a couple of options:

http://www.shopify.com

http://volusion.com

http://www.3dcart.com

http://www.prestashop.com

http://www.magentocommerce.com

These services provide us with the tools to create an online business without worrying of hiring a developer or designer. It is the best solution to create a quick prototype for our product and test it around the world.

What is great about these services is that if you know the basics of visual design and front-end development, you will be able to manipulate the template by choosing from different designs and customizing the HTML and CSS.

With these services, we don’t have to worry about the back end because they provides you will a powerful database where you can keep track of the profile of your customers: their emails, physical adresses and of course purchase history.

What is great about these services is that we could keep track of sales trends and look into the sites analytics to see the day to day activity of the website.

With these services a customer can purchase with any credit card and PayPal.

We also found out that the service squarespace enables users to set up a shop and use e-commerce facilities.

http://www.squarespace.com

Since we already used the platform and are familiar with the interface, it can be one of our best options.

All these services provide us with 15 days trials and have a variety of prices.

We are leaning towards using shopify or squarespace. We are going to use the trials to test out the interface and play with the code and designs.

Shopify is more expensive then squarespace. The basic package costs 29$/mo. For Squarespace the basic package is 8$/mo and the business package is 24$/mo

In the next few weeks we will be choosing which one is worth it.

Our next step is to set up a domain name. We have been thinking and brainstorming about several names and checking if they are available online.

So the possible names are the following:

press.it

ponypress.com

ponypr.es

paperpr.es

ponyletters.com

ponypost.it

ponynote.com

e-lope

printmatters

retrostamp

retromail

thebrightside

moondance

smokesignalpress

sincerely.com

withregards.com

retropost

 

And the domains that are available are the following:

ponyletters.com

ponypostit.com

ponynote.com

boxofnotes.com

ticktockpress.com

skippingbear.com

printedmessage.com

giddoupress.com

retrostamp.com

brightside.com

moondancepress.com

backtopress.com

For next week’s deliverable, I will be working on setting up the website and designing basic wireframes for the landing page of our site.

Surveys

I conducted a couple of surveys with friends to validate our idea

-Oskar Von Hauske, 27 years old

-Do you like mailing letters?

No

-Do you like receiving letters from family/friends/anyone on the mail? If so, do you enjoy them more than emails/digital cards?

Yes

-When was the last time you mail a letter? How did you find the process of mailing? (Boring, exhausting, slow, time consuming?)

Time consuming, and painful

-How many times a year would say that you mail letters?

None, usually just checks

-Where do you buy your stamps?

Local bodega or post office

-Where do you usually like to buy your stationery supplies?

Letterpress shops or card shops

-If you had access to a service that could allow you to mail a letter as easy as sending an email, would you be interested in it and/or pay for it?

Yes definitely

-Tom Lawrie, 30 years old

-Do you like mailing letters?

No

-Do you like receiving letters from family/friends/anyone on the mail? If so, do you enjoy them more than emails/digital cards?

I like receiving cards, prefer/enjoy emails more

-When was the last time you mailed a letter? How did you find the process of mailing? (Boring, exhausting, slow, time consuming?)

I have to mail my rent and national grid bills at the end of every month. I find the process to be wasteful both with time and money, would prefer to pay online.

-How many times a year would say that you mail letters? about 20-30, which includes birthday cards, christmas cards, mother’s day/father’s day etc..

-Where do you buy your stamps?

Interesting question, used to buy them at my bank’s atm but they discontinued it, so now i have to go to the post office, so annoying

-Where do you usually like to buy your stationery supplies?

Staples or the $0.99 store, whatever is the closest to school or home

-If you had access to a service that could allow you to mail a letter as easy as sending an email, would you be interested in it and/or pay for it?

Yes, just tell me where to sign, have you heard of Outbox? interesting company – http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/25/outbox-digitizes-sf-snail-mail/