Validate your problems, startup ideas to create products which people want

Shopify alternative #eCommerce #website

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 15:51:00 +0000

The story is same as with Patreon ( /problems/390 ) and Gumroad ( /problems/399 ) with Shopify, The small businesses are at mercy of obscure policies and lackluster support often leading to payment delays and account blocking.

Famous TV critic Matt Zoller Seitz had recently shared his ordeal with Shopify where it froze his bookstore account while continuing to take payments from his customers.

There are numerous other stories from those who have faced similar issues with Shopify. It's clear that there's large need-gap in the space of eCommerce websites in-spite of numerous alternatives.

3 points posted by Abishek Muthian

Small business's dependency on eCommerce giants #eCommerce #SelfReliance

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 05:10:00 +0000

Small businesses sell their product on large eCommerce websites for their discovery and ease of use but are subject to their monopolistic behavior and loose out when the algorithms of the giants decide that their product is not good enough for their profit margin.

The solution for this has been for the businesses to have their eCommerce platform and there have been plenty of hosted or self-hosted tools to enable that.

Yet vast majority of small business are yet to venture into having their own eCommerce platform for various reasons such as,

Awareness: Many just don't know that they can have their own eCommerce platform where they have better control over their sales.
Discovery: They feel their product wouldn't be discovered on their own platform and they could be right. So discovery for products from small business needs to be addressed.
Setup & Maintenance: Although the barriers to setup eCommerce platforms have come down drastically, It's still not accessible to someone who's not technically inclined. So they are forced to spend money on companies which would do it for them and often lock them to sub-par proprietary software and expensive life-long maintenance fees.

3 points posted by Abishek Muthian

Selling hardware products as a solopreneur #sales #ecommerce

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 14:16:00 +0000

I want to sell hardware products internationally, But as a solopreneur meeting compliance for hardware locally and internationally is a nightmare and hence I settle for building SaaS products like most other indie hackers.

There are hardware product marketplaces like Tindie which help solopreneurs get their customers, But the seller has to still maintain the inventory and ship directly to the buyer. Today hosting a eCommerce website as an individual is not the limiting factor even for those who don't know to code, So the real need gap exists in removing the compliance and shipping hurdles.

With tough competition in SaaS industry, Building hardware products is a great way to differentiate our product line-up. With the rising number of solopreneurs I think it's high time this need gap gets addressed.

I have couple of ideas to address this which I'll share in the comments and would like to hear more from you.

3 points posted by Abishek Muthian