6 ms·

Shopify’s Frenzy – Sell to the most loyal customers in a new way

143 points by umedzacharia 10y ago

umedzacharia 10y ago
Here is the news coverage: https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/22/shopifys-experimental-product-shop-launches-flash-sales-app-frenzy/ https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/22/shopifys-experimental-prod...
joenot443 10y ago
Damn. Wonder if we'll see any merchants using this on Black Friday.
- nchlswu 10y ago
  Shopify has been piloting the app with retailers that have the same target market as Restocks (YC W16). The first pilot was with Kith in October sometime and now they're definitely doing some Black Friday stuff and are launching Yeezys for Off the Hook today.
- tuckerschreiber 10y ago
  Stay tuned! Lots more to come.
Awk34 10y ago
I see that it's iPhone only. Does anyone know if they are making an Android app?
- hooksfordays 10y ago
  Yes, the team did an AMA on /r/sneakers yesterday: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sneakers/comments/5e5d9a/ama_were_the_team_behind_frenzy_ask_us_anything/da9tvjn/?st=ivv33gyy&sh=1318be75 https://www.reddit.com/r/Sneakers/comments/5e5d9a/ama_were_t... Disclosure: I'm at Shopify, but not part of the Frenzy team.
brianbreslin 10y ago
I think this is a brilliant move. I've seen people lining up around the block at the sneaker shop near my house for a new release, so I'm sure there is the online equivalent.
- kawsper 10y ago
  It happens online as well, some people build "snipe" browser plugins to put shoes into baskets as fast as they become available. These scripts are used both by fans and resellers, but there is another angle: The developers behind the plugins include their own reseller-id in all orders, so they get a bit of money for every sale. The reseller ids is given to these developers, which makes me think that the brands are in on it as well, they don't care who buys the shoes, as long as they sell them, and they maintain scarcity.
thebestagency 10y ago
This looks cool. Shopify seems to be one of / the most competent players in the eComm space. Wonder if it will pan out successfully.
- misterhtmlcss 10y ago
  I don't see why not. Their customers appear quite loyal and their product features continue to expand in a way that hasn't added too much complexity for people new to the platform and since their brand recognition in their vertical is so positive and we'll communicated I don't see that added complexity turning off to many new users, because their experience of that complexity appears to be, 'well because it's powerful and awesome, so I expect I'd have to spend some time learning it and I'm prepared for that', versus 'ughh I don't get it and it costs and I don't know if it'll deliver what I need so I'm going to quite right now... Company-x sucks'. Just commenting on what I'm seeing from others.
- thefalcon 10y ago
  They have some incredibly frustrating brick wall limitations that you find once you start really working with the platform, but it's still the best I've used by an order of magnitude. And the "there's an app for that" mantra totally holds true, which is often convenient for rapidly growing or testing features.
  - _kyran 10y ago
    What limitations have you hit or found to be the most frustrating?
    - prawn 10y ago
      No native support for multi-tier pricing is the most frustrating thing I come up against. Often have clients wanting a wholesale/reseller tier. There are add-ons for it and kludges, but it'd be great to have even basic built-in options.
      - 10y ago
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
neutronicus 10y ago
This sounds exciting specifically for selling tickets to anticipated events. The amount of servers crashing under load is too damn much in my experience.
- tuckerschreiber 10y ago
  Thanks! We hope to ease some of that pain soon.
mywacaday 10y ago
Seems to be like ibood.com but as a service. Really like the ibood concept as its European based, a lot of the deals you see online are exclusive to the US, hope that won't be the case with getfrenzy
camwest 10y ago
I wish Amazon used this for their sale of the Classic NES (https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/11/nintendowned-amazon-sells-out-of-nes-classic-editions-in-null-seconds/ https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/11/nintendowned-amazon-sells-...) flash sale.
- tuckerschreiber 10y ago
  That would be sweet!
tuckerschreiber 10y ago
Hello! I'm Tucker, Product Manager on Frenzy. Frenzy came to be from one of Shopify's quarterly hackdays projects, with the goal of changing flash sales for both merchants and consumers forever. Frenzy is the best way to buy from brands you love. Whether you’re looking to buy rare products, discover new ones, or learn about new brands, Frenzy is the place to do it. Rather than waiting in line at a retail store, missing out online, or simply forgetting about a sale – Frenzy puts the hype of the best product releases in your pocket. When you buy from a seller on Frenzy, it’s just like buying from them in person – but you can do it anywhere in the world. Frenzy will be launching this week with merchants Kith, Love Your Melon, Raised by Wolves, Off the Hook, and more, who will be selling products exclusively on the app. Happy to answer any questions!
- chinathrow 10y ago
  > When you buy from a seller on Frenzy, it’s just like buying from them in person I think shopping online is great, but calling online flash selling "just like bying from them in person" is a bit of an exaggeration.
  - heroprotagonist 10y ago
    That's because most of his post was just marketing patter copied and pasted from their FAQ page: https://getfrenzy.co/faq https://getfrenzy.co/faq
- themgt 10y ago
  Working at a Shopify expert company [1], I'm curious about Frenzy's relation to / integration with the rest of the Shopify platform, and e.g. whether it will be possible to manage via (additions to) the Shopify API? Is this currently intended only for high-volume retailers, or the entire long-tail of the Shopify customer base? Thanks! [1] https://experts.shopify.com/pogodan-dev https://experts.shopify.com/pogodan-dev
- thedangler 10y ago
  Out of curiosity could anyone build an app like this with Shopify's apis? Or does it rely on internal private Shopify functionality? I've wanted to integrate with Shopify but seem to get confused by the limitations. For one, it would be cool if the sellers had the options to let their products be on an open market place where anyone could write an application and sell their products for commission.
ybrah 10y ago
Ottawa tech :)
rhizome 10y ago
This seems oddly worded: "With Frenzy, there’s no limit to your sales volume, the number of products you can sell, or the bandwidth you need." [emphasis added]
- alexbeloi 10y ago
  I guess they're playing on the idea that some people like to see big traffic spikes during sales.
- brianwawok 10y ago
  Add a 1 GB image to your store and watch how the no limit thing plays out...
- im_a_bug 10y ago
  Let's not get pedantic! Sales of limited-stock goods will ideally run their course in a super short span of time. For example if I am running a Magento site and am anticipating 100k+ visitors per minute, then I have to start worrying about the need for load balancers, etc. Shopify removes this burden. I think it's clear that that's what they're saying.
shmatt 10y ago
you guys need to read up on QA The only way to use it between launches is to delete app and re-download from the app store And the only way to figure that out was to follow them on twitter, 4 minutes before the launch. Anyone else just couldn't open the app Awesome work guys, how about testing on "normal" products before asking companies to give you their most important launches of the season

143 points by umedzacharia 10y ago

Here is the news coverage: https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/22/shopifys-experimental-product-shop-launches-flash-sales-app-frenzy/ https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/22/shopifys-experimental-prod...

joenot443 10y ago

Damn. Wonder if we'll see any merchants using this on Black Friday.

nchlswu 10y ago
Shopify has been piloting the app with retailers that have the same target market as Restocks (YC W16). The first pilot was with Kith in October sometime and now they're definitely doing some Black Friday stuff and are launching Yeezys for Off the Hook today.
tuckerschreiber 10y ago
Stay tuned! Lots more to come.

Awk34 10y ago

I see that it's iPhone only. Does anyone know if they are making an Android app?

hooksfordays 10y ago
Yes, the team did an AMA on /r/sneakers yesterday: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sneakers/comments/5e5d9a/ama_were_the_team_behind_frenzy_ask_us_anything/da9tvjn/?st=ivv33gyy&sh=1318be75 https://www.reddit.com/r/Sneakers/comments/5e5d9a/ama_were_t... Disclosure: I'm at Shopify, but not part of the Frenzy team.

brianbreslin 10y ago

I think this is a brilliant move. I've seen people lining up around the block at the sneaker shop near my house for a new release, so I'm sure there is the online equivalent.

kawsper 10y ago
It happens online as well, some people build "snipe" browser plugins to put shoes into baskets as fast as they become available. These scripts are used both by fans and resellers, but there is another angle: The developers behind the plugins include their own reseller-id in all orders, so they get a bit of money for every sale. The reseller ids is given to these developers, which makes me think that the brands are in on it as well, they don't care who buys the shoes, as long as they sell them, and they maintain scarcity.

thebestagency 10y ago

This looks cool. Shopify seems to be one of / the most competent players in the eComm space. Wonder if it will pan out successfully.

misterhtmlcss 10y ago
I don't see why not. Their customers appear quite loyal and their product features continue to expand in a way that hasn't added too much complexity for people new to the platform and since their brand recognition in their vertical is so positive and we'll communicated I don't see that added complexity turning off to many new users, because their experience of that complexity appears to be, 'well because it's powerful and awesome, so I expect I'd have to spend some time learning it and I'm prepared for that', versus 'ughh I don't get it and it costs and I don't know if it'll deliver what I need so I'm going to quite right now... Company-x sucks'. Just commenting on what I'm seeing from others.
thefalcon 10y ago
They have some incredibly frustrating brick wall limitations that you find once you start really working with the platform, but it's still the best I've used by an order of magnitude. And the "there's an app for that" mantra totally holds true, which is often convenient for rapidly growing or testing features.
- _kyran 10y ago
  What limitations have you hit or found to be the most frustrating?
  - prawn 10y ago
    No native support for multi-tier pricing is the most frustrating thing I come up against. Often have clients wanting a wholesale/reseller tier. There are add-ons for it and kludges, but it'd be great to have even basic built-in options.
    - 10y ago

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

neutronicus 10y ago

This sounds exciting specifically for selling tickets to anticipated events. The amount of servers crashing under load is too damn much in my experience.

tuckerschreiber 10y ago
Thanks! We hope to ease some of that pain soon.

mywacaday 10y ago

Seems to be like ibood.com but as a service. Really like the ibood concept as its European based, a lot of the deals you see online are exclusive to the US, hope that won't be the case with getfrenzy

camwest 10y ago

I wish Amazon used this for their sale of the Classic NES (https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/11/nintendowned-amazon-sells-out-of-nes-classic-editions-in-null-seconds/ https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/11/nintendowned-amazon-sells-...) flash sale.

tuckerschreiber 10y ago
That would be sweet!

tuckerschreiber 10y ago

Hello! I'm Tucker, Product Manager on Frenzy. Frenzy came to be from one of Shopify's quarterly hackdays projects, with the goal of changing flash sales for both merchants and consumers forever. Frenzy is the best way to buy from brands you love. Whether you’re looking to buy rare products, discover new ones, or learn about new brands, Frenzy is the place to do it. Rather than waiting in line at a retail store, missing out online, or simply forgetting about a sale – Frenzy puts the hype of the best product releases in your pocket. When you buy from a seller on Frenzy, it’s just like buying from them in person – but you can do it anywhere in the world. Frenzy will be launching this week with merchants Kith, Love Your Melon, Raised by Wolves, Off the Hook, and more, who will be selling products exclusively on the app. Happy to answer any questions!

chinathrow 10y ago
> When you buy from a seller on Frenzy, it’s just like buying from them in person I think shopping online is great, but calling online flash selling "just like bying from them in person" is a bit of an exaggeration.
- heroprotagonist 10y ago
  That's because most of his post was just marketing patter copied and pasted from their FAQ page: https://getfrenzy.co/faq https://getfrenzy.co/faq
themgt 10y ago
Working at a Shopify expert company [1], I'm curious about Frenzy's relation to / integration with the rest of the Shopify platform, and e.g. whether it will be possible to manage via (additions to) the Shopify API? Is this currently intended only for high-volume retailers, or the entire long-tail of the Shopify customer base? Thanks! [1] https://experts.shopify.com/pogodan-dev https://experts.shopify.com/pogodan-dev
thedangler 10y ago
Out of curiosity could anyone build an app like this with Shopify's apis? Or does it rely on internal private Shopify functionality? I've wanted to integrate with Shopify but seem to get confused by the limitations. For one, it would be cool if the sellers had the options to let their products be on an open market place where anyone could write an application and sell their products for commission.

ybrah 10y ago

Ottawa tech :)

rhizome 10y ago

This seems oddly worded: "With Frenzy, there’s no limit to your sales volume, the number of products you can sell, or the bandwidth you need." [emphasis added]

alexbeloi 10y ago
I guess they're playing on the idea that some people like to see big traffic spikes during sales.
brianwawok 10y ago
Add a 1 GB image to your store and watch how the no limit thing plays out...
im_a_bug 10y ago
Let's not get pedantic! Sales of limited-stock goods will ideally run their course in a super short span of time. For example if I am running a Magento site and am anticipating 100k+ visitors per minute, then I have to start worrying about the need for load balancers, etc. Shopify removes this burden. I think it's clear that that's what they're saying.

shmatt 10y ago

you guys need to read up on QA The only way to use it between launches is to delete app and re-download from the app store And the only way to figure that out was to follow them on twitter, 4 minutes before the launch. Anyone else just couldn't open the app Awesome work guys, how about testing on "normal" products before asking companies to give you their most important launches of the season