Comment by dejan | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dejan | Hacker News Reader

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Good point, but why isn't it already if so? E.g, Shopify? Shopify actually lacks even per-item discount codes.

Group buying isn't a proven feature for websites, nor is it cross-site interaction universal. Visitors have to know what it is and trust it in a form of knowing what to expect and what not. That is the space SyncFu should occupy.

Basically, SyncFu is just a free* version of Groupon, Buywithme etc. The main reason for developing it is bringing this feature to any website without the 20-50% fees that these sites snatch. The only cost is the reservation fee, and it is charged to the customer, which is a dissolving cost.

You are certainly right about big vendors, if you throw a bunch of resources, it is too easy - but most little/medium web-shops deploy custom, features-less shopping carts - e.g. all the customers of Groupon and BuyWithMe.

Plus, I have no clue how would any company justify any costs of developing such a concept / experimental "feature". Well, for sure it isn't happening since there is very little innovation in online payments. Therefore this simple thing is isolated for any company to deploy on chosen products/services in a very simple manner.

Besides, this little component offers more than just group purchasing. Promotions are easily made, e.g:

- free signup for the first 100 reservations (price goes down to 0)

- pre-orderings of future books, directly by the author

This is of course my personal opinion, but SyncFu was built to verify the hypothesis :)

Thanks for the comment, and regarding the too easy, well, it took a long time to ditch features and shape minimal single feature product - praising Unix philosophy. The js code is of course publicly available:

http://github.com/dejanstrbac/SyncFu-Widget/blob/master/widg...

I see the case where someone using shopify could want to do something like this. If enough shopify users ask for it, they could add it, but it's a pretty esoteric feature needed by relatively few shops, because traditionally, individuals shop individually, rather than with a group.

Group buying isn't an unheard of concept. Many buying groups pool their resources to receive discounts on large orders from manufacturers. This could be a feature for such manufacturers to add to their ordering systems.

Still, the hurdle if integration is going to be a big one for you. For example, how do you let syncfu know how many products you still have to sell? How does the store owner coordinate sales such that they don't sell more than have been requested to buy from syncfu? Why would a seller want to sell their goods at a reduced price to the same individuals who are likely to buy it individually anyway? Also, you still have the logistics problem of shipping all those orders from the "group" to the individuals who grouped to get the discount so as a store, your margins decline due to increased overhead for lower sales. Discounts for large orders are usually only possible because there is reduced overhead in shipping and account management.

I think you may have a hard time selling this feature to stores. However, if you create a competitor to shopify that has this as a feature, then all the shopify customers who want to sell this way could be potential customers for you.

Great comment, highly appreciated!

"because traditionally, individuals shop individually, rather than with a group"

Exactly, but if there was a possibility in general to buy in bulk with random people at the same moment, it wouldn't be traditional? I agree with your view, but one just has to disagree with the traditional in order to see what is possible today with all this social bits flying around.

As I've mentioned group buying exists in GroupOn for example, but it is insanely how much the sellers lose. With such a component they could provide the same services. Yet, there is no "target" quantity where the discount becomes available, as it happens immediately with each reservation. The quantities are set by the seller, and for sure are not infinite. The seller really has all the power over the group purchasing.

Once the item is closed with either its deadline or maximum quantity, the seller can provide with payments instructions and a deadline for actual payment. I doubt all will complete the payment, but most of them will. The seller of course counts on this when setting the price, so the risk is the least.

I've been digging a long time, but I haven't seen the concept with "reservations" as SyncFu. Do you know any? All of them I know would take your CC info first, and charge once target is met. (That is one way how SyncFu reduces friction in comparison)

The whole point with SyncFu is about laying down some grease in online payments. There is a lot of space for innovation in online payments as well usage of micropayments as sales catalysts, not actual charges.

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