An important question from a recent telegram, and my (rather lengthy) response. The tl;dr is, "Shopomy is fundamentally different from others.":
What is Goodomy/Shopomy's value proposition?
How is this different than what Storiqa is doing?[/b]
It's also almost exactly the same value proposition as Amazon and Walmart, but Shopomy and Storiqa have different interpretations of this successful model. They are not doing what we are doing anymore than Amazon is doing what Walmart is doing.
Storiqa is actually trying to do what Amazon does without much difference, complete with tremendous overheads and distribution centers. They're also focusing on the $2 trillion ecommerce market that Amazon leads, whereas we are focused on the $30 trillion local retail market that no one leads (because it is likely that only distributed ledger technology makes it possible).
They seem to have fulfillment centers as part of their logistics, so stores will ship to them first, they will check for quality, then ship to the buyer. From their front page, "...the item shipped to you is tested at the Storiqa verification center." It's not really clear how it will work, but it sounds like a logistical nightmare that won't actually add much value.
Can you imagine if Amazon did this for each one of their products? Or even 5% of their products? This is a highly inefficent way of doing things. How is this cost-effective? Amazon leverages its ratings and review system to bring the better retailers to the forefront of listings and it costs them nothing.
They seem to be focused on tokens and their ICO rather than the utility of their product and why users should care. For example, in their FAQ they state that users will have to pay their own gas on the Ethereum network. This tells me that they're not thinking about the mass market, and therefore it would be very difficult to get the momentum they need to have buyers and sellers on the platform at the same time.
Another way that Shopomy isn't like Storiqa is that we are mobile and local. They are not.
On the somewhat-amusing side of things, they are using a strategy that I invented to raise funds.
I prefer to lead, not follow. That being said, it is best to go with what is proven to work already but doing it in a new way. I can't think of any successful product or service that isn't a new interpretation of an already-successful model or thing. I don't see their unique value proposition and how it solves the problem that Shopomy is designed to solve.
It also doesn't seem to save the buyer any more money. So why should buyers care? Because they can buy something with their NXT or DOGE coins? The market is far too small for this.
They have so far raised over $5M and they will need far more than that with all of their overhead. That won't even cover the cost of one of their distribution centers. (And right now they have a staff of 24.. and that's just for management and developers. They'll need to hire lots more people for shipping, logistics, inventory, quality assurance, etc.. at each distribution center.)
Shopomy: "What if you took the outrageously successful Amazon business model, removed the need for warehousing and logistics, opened it up to a consumer market nearly 15x bigger, made it mobile and local, and attached it to a blockchain?""
Storiqa does not remove the need for warehousing and logistics, nor are they going after the same market, or focused on local businesses (again, the largest goods and services market in the world).
Very different. But they also don't have the secret sauce that I invented (which see)
But I am sure they will be following that, too, in a year or so. By which time they may be just a footnote in crypto-history.
Further, I don't think they understand what decentralization means. From their FAQ, "Decentralization and the opportunities presented by the use of cryptocurrency in the project can cover the needs in speed, global market access and transaction security." Yet, they will have warehouses and shipping centers. How much "speed" is there when there are so many factors involved such as currency conversions, shipping, customs, quality control, warehousing, etc?
They will also charge a fee to list products. 1 token per item per DAY to list your product.
They will also allow buyers to pay in a variety of fiat and cryptocurrencies, which will be a tremendous accounting headache for sellers (and confusing for buyers, perhaps)
Warehouses are expensive to run and ship from. They need at least $100M for this if they want to expand to more than a couple of cities. Are sellers in Singapore supposed to ship their products to Russia for the first year? The mark-ups will be huge if tremendous economies of scale are not employed (which is something only the very big companies can handle).
I'm not sure they thought it through.
Storiqa will have:
Payments in cryptocurrencies and fiat money. [probably a bad idea; see above]
Low fees and transaction costs. [Shopomy is free to use, with premium features. Sellers must first purchase 1 of their tokens in order to simply list a product on their system in the hopes that someone will buy it. And that's AFTER paying their 18,000 STQ yearly fee. Already too much friction even with one token, and far more with an additional 18,000 needed]
24/7 customer support for customers. [I can't imagine the headache in handling customer support for "1,000,000 shops", or even 100 shops]
They're solving a problem that doesn't really exist, I think...and charging sellers for it.
The way Shopomy is designed, sellers won't need to think about cryptocurrency. (The average person doesn't care about buying something with cryptocurrency, either.)
Their platform doesn't seem to have any benefits for buyers. But the benefits for sellers and shops seems okay. Without buyers, though, there is no transaction.
Shopomy is fundamentally different.
Again, Amazon focuses on the 7% retail market (ecommerce) and leads it. Amazon = platform for retailers, supported by distribution centers and requisite logistics
Shopomy will focus on the 93% retail market (physical stores). Shopomy = platform for local retailers, supported by mobile and blockchain with a little 'secret sauce'
"Local" being wherever the retailer happens to be.
DLT technology (distributed ledger) makes things possible that could not be conceived before. This means that there will be a tremendous amount of innovation in the coming years. What Shopomy will do is one of those DLT innovations, I believe.
Others have tried to do what Shopomy will do and have failed because they could not conceive of how to leverage DLT to make it work. This isn't just about putting stores online or allowing people in the neighborhood to find stuff locally.
Amazon has warehouses. We will have the distributed ledger. The blockchain is our "warehouse".
It's really just the same thing that works for Amazon, with updated execution, rather than trying to copy Amazon directly like Storiqa is trying to do. There's no need to add more friction and make the selling process far more complicated than it needs to be. Nor is there a need to make the operations more complicated that it needs to be (unless they made it that way in order to justify their ICO?)
Blockchain is supposed to make things more efficient and decentralized, not more complicated and centralized. I guess not everyone got the memo, however.
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