Five years ago in a galaxy far far away an idea was being conceived over the course of several happy hours in some of the most pocket book friendly taverns in Calgary. It was exciting, it was new, it was such a simple idea...shhh...don’t tell anyone or they might steal it. The best part was, that after each beer the idea became easier, better and more brilliant. Make retailing easy by solving the supply chain issue, make building stores simple so our users could focus on the part of retailing they were best at.
I am of course talking about Shopster.com
Looking back on 2004, when an idea became a company, I see the delusion in all its glory, the delusion of entrepreneurs about to start a bold adventure.
Delusion? Sure! We thought it was going to be easy. We thought we had all the problems thought out. We thought this would be quick and successful and like the conquering heroes, three young(ish?) men would shake up the retailing world.
Over the next few months Shopster is going to undergo a massive transition. I will be sharing the goings on here on this blog, if for no one else, than my mom.
(As always, with each major new release, our existing customers get to move onto the new product with bonuses. We don’t forget where we came from.)
The next release of Shopster is the culmination of 5 years of tireless effort to create a retail business system that transforms the entire industry. Many facets of retailing haven’t been sustainable. The recent crash and upheaval in the industry has been a catalyst for Shopster, driving both our customers and us faster towards the Shopster Power Merchant Network.
Today I want to talk about delusion and those first days.
Our first real (lots of test orders before) sale didn’t occur till October 29, 2005. One of our websites – gamingforless.com – sold an iPod – yes an apple iPod – the classic, the first and already a global phenomenon.
The website went live and magically out of the internet forest someone found us and went shopping. In 12 not so easy steps...
- They looked around and added an iPod to cart. Check
- They hit checkout. Check
- They entered their personal info. Check
- They entered their credit card. Check
- Order came to Shopster. Check
- Order passed fraud review. Check
- Order was sent to supplier. Check
- Order cancelled by supplier – out of stock.
- So, pull out personal credit card. Check
- Go to Amazon.com. Check
- Buy more expensive iPod. Check
- Ship it to the customer. Check
All done… nope, not yet
All done… nope, not yet
All done. Nope.
When will supplier get next shipment of iPods – 2 - 4 weeks…? Oh crap.
Now what? Cancel the order? Not our first one!!
That was our first order.
The heady rush of going live, of watching our first customer buy something, followed quickly by anger and dejection of being out of stock, followed by a rueful acceptance of having to pay more for an iPod than your customer paid you just so you don’t let the customer down. Followed 42 months later by regret at realizing that the company never did re-pay you for buying an iPod on your personal credit card.
That wouldn’t be the first time or the last we lost money on a sale... but there were some valuable lessons learnt along the way. Today we have a custom fraud detection system to protect our customers, real time integrated ordering with suppliers, and detailed reporting on supplier performance, which allows us to identify potential problems before they become serious.
Getting into business isn’t for those that can’t deal with emotional ups and downs. Even when you try to do the right thing, customers can get mad, but many times, sometimes quite unexpectedly customers shower you with praise.
Comments