Will Dash Evloution be Shoppable?

[rafique]

Maybe you could help us understand "shoppable" can you give a clear description of what that means.

What would this look like for example a small online retailer that today uses wordpress woocommerce / paypal to sell artwork. How do you see them selling through evolution.

By selling their products directly on the Evolution platform to users of Evolution which would mean Evolution will need to have a shopping cart feature of it's own.

For example, If I were a merchant (say a Converse) and I wanted to sell on Evolution I would connect my platform (in this case Woocommerce) to Dash Evolution via the API or DAPI and push my product data into the DE via JSON which will include product information (Sku, price, qty etc).

Now a user should be able to search for a merchant then browse their products in the same way we do on an Amazon and purchase using DASH since that is the Platform currency.

Order informaiton will then be sent back to the merchant platform in order for it to be fulfilled i.e packed and shipped to the customer.

That's how traditional ecommerce marketplaces work with current payment methods.

 

[rafique]

I think he is asking about the "Evolution marketplace", a term I have heard used sometimes by Evan and others. Evolution obviously is not responsible for selling products but the question seems to be more about what is the marketplace experience like when someone uses Evolution. Is there a decentralized, searchable marketplace stored in DashDrive? Or do merchants just add in a snippet on their own websites to integrate dash as a method of payment from an evolution wallet? (Trying to get at what the OP is actually asking here...)

The second question was about how Dash intends to onboard new merchants (or how does evolution bring merchants and customers together) and that has not yet been addressed in this thread.

That is the second part but you would bring merchants and users together via a marketplace asking merchants to stick an iFrame or some other widget in their exisiting shopping cart will not yield the result everyone wants.

 

[joemoraca]

I understand that you can have a "shop" on Amazon / Ebay other marketplaces and manage the products using their individual APIs - so my small store owner has to know how to use each API - or you or someone is building an easy to use "middleware" that the non-technical store owner can use to create multiple storefronts.

 

[rafique]

By selling their products directly on the Evolution platform to users of Evolution which would mean Evolution will need to have a shopping cart feature of it's own.

For example, If I were a merchant (say a Converse) and I wanted to sell on Evolution I would connect my platform (in this case Woocommerce) to Dash Evolution via the API or DAPI and push my product data into the DE via JSON which will include product information (Sku, price, qty etc).

Now a user should be able to search for a merchant then browse their products in the same way we do on an Amazon and purchase using DASH since that is the Platform currency.

Order informaiton will then be sent back to the merchant platform in order for it to be fulfilled i.e packed and shipped to the customer.

That's how traditional ecommerce marketplaces work with current payment methods.

This will provide Dash and merchants with enough quatative data to substantiate how much user adoption there is for digital currency use to warrant any alterations to their exisiting checkout. At the moment Dash has none.

 

[rafique]

I understand that you can have a "shop" on Amazon / Ebay other marketplaces and manage the products using their individual APIs - so my small store owner has to know how to use each API - or you or someone is building an easy to use "middleware" that the non-technical store owner can use to create multiple storefronts.

Well, I would propose to build the middleware as I am a ecommerce developer and have experience in this field. But it seems there is no plan for an ecommerce shopping layer which I think is a mistake.

The middleware would be "Plug n Play" to push product data and pull order information into the merchant store.

This will also answer the question that I get whenever I send someone Dash "Where can I spend it"?

 

[joemoraca]

My advice would be stick around and follow the development process you may see a good opening for yourself. Could open bazaar be a "shoppable venue" that could be tied in with Dash?

 

[rafique]

My advice would be stick around and follow the development process you may see a good opening for yourself. Could open bazaar be a "shoppable venue" that could be tied in with Dash?

Yes it could but why send users elsewhere?
That's a bad business model in my opinion...

 

[joemoraca]

Yes it could but why send users elsewhere?
That's a bad business model in my opinion...

This has been a good discussion - including what has been posted on slack. As a Dash wallet user now or evolution - I don't see it as sending a user elsewhere - my money is here in my local bank (wallet) - me buying socks at your online store doesn't impact me deciding to use Dash or Bitcoin or USD so I don't think I lose a Dash customer when they go to "socksonline.com." - even if they clicked on an icon for your "featured store" in their wallet.

I do like your concept of "shoppable" but I don't think I want amazon / ebay / etsy directly in my wallet (maybe I would like it after I saw it) -- but I do want to be able to pay with Dash at as many existing online stores as I can. Thus the need to have a Dash payment gateway for every ecommerce platform possible - that stays in the store owners workflow with no extra work.

 

[rafique]

This has been a good discussion - including what has been posted on slack. As a Dash wallet user now or evolution - I don't see it as sending a user elsewhere - my money is here in my local bank (wallet) - me buying socks at your online store doesn't impact me deciding to use Dash or Bitcoin or USD so I don't think I lose a Dash customer when they go to "socksonline.com." - even if they clicked on an icon for your "featured store" in their wallet.

I do like your concept of "shoppable" but I don't think I want amazon / ebay / etsy directly in my wallet (maybe I would like it after I saw it) -- but I do want to be able to pay with Dash at as many existing online stores as I can. Thus the need to have a Dash payment gateway for every ecommerce platform possible - that stays in the store owners workflow with no extra work.

I agree it has been a very good discussion, if I were a merchant I would be reluctant to have Dash added to my checkout as I wouldn't want to have my customer service people spend time explaining to customers what the new payment option in the checkout is. It would be costly for merchants to explain what a crypto currency is to staff first and then to spend more time on customer queries. For example, how will my CS team issue a refund? What about a parital refund? How will my accounts department reconcile DASH for reporting?

I previously worked with Klarna AB in the UK as an Integration Specialist, they offered "Pay After Delivery" which caused some merchants to remove the option as customers didn't know what it was and bombarded their CS team with queries.

Merchants just want to sell products they don't care about decentralisation or any of that.

The average shopper is not as savvy as we all hope so there needs to be something in place to mitigate that.

That leaves two options in my opinion:

1. Maket Dash Evolution shoppable
2. The Dash MasterCard that should have been here already

Or all of the above would be the killer app that could bridge the gap between ecommerce and the world of digital/crypto currencies. If I could shop on a platform that was purely for Dash I would and it would also help to prove the concept while allowing me show new users and merchants that this thing is real not just another fancy payment method like Stripe, PayPal, Braintree and countless others that are all competing for a place in merchants checkouts.

Whatever happens I would like to be able to tell everyone that I introduce to Dash where they can spend it because I am always asked that question.

 

[joemoraca]

As I think back in about 2012 Roger Ver started bitcoinstore.com which if I remember correctly was basically selling amazon.com electronics but priced in bitcoin - he did it to drive bitcoin adoption - his pricing was basically break-even.

 

[rafique]

As I think back in about 2012 Roger Ver started bitcoinstore.com which if I remember correctly was basically selling amazon.com electronics but priced in bitcoin - he did it to drive bitcoin adoption - his pricing was basically break-even.

I think he had the right idea, I think Dash has to think in terms of ecommerce in parallel with the other fantastic stuff that it is doing because to think merchants (and I mean the big merchants) are going to start adding a new methods to their cart overnight for a technology that hasn't been proven en mass and has a steep learning curve is naive in my opinion.

Overstock added Bitcoin as a method years ago and still we don't see adoption en mass.

Dash needs to answer this question and this question only:

"Where can I spend it?"

If it can't answer that question we might as well go home.

 

[djcrypto]

I think DASH Evolution will miss a massive market but it's not my project so I'll hold fire on my proposal since it doesn't support a shoppable inteface.
I will still look forward to shopping with Dash in traditional brick n mortar stores though

I think you will find it very difficult to convince ecommerce merchants to add anything to their shopping carts that will confuse users which will only make adoption on the ecommerce side slower.

It's the cart before the horse in my opinion (no pun intended).

I think a banking app (Evolution) should be separate from an Amazon app type store.
Like Joel said, it would be a mega project and IMO having one or a few suppliers could decrease competition and increase prices.
Merchants "will have incentives" to accept DASH, according to Ryan Taylor.
That's enough for me ! And merchants, I believe.
BTW already rumors that amazon will be accepting bitcoin with no incentive, so, why not DASH?

 

[rafique]

I think a banking app (Evolution) should be separate from an Amazon app type store.
Like Joel said, it would be a mega project and IMO having one or a few suppliers could decrease competition and increase prices.
Merchants "will have incentives" to accept DASH, according to Ryan Taylor.
That's enough for me ! And merchants, I believe.
BTW already rumors that amazon will be accepting bitcoin with no incentive, so, why not DASH?

The Amazon rumours have been around for years!
Overstock accepted bitcoin before Dell etc...

For merchants to agree to integrate DASH as a payment method in their checkout will depend a number of key factors.

From my experience doing implementations for one of the biggest ecommerce platforms merchants asses whether there will be any benefits to their business.

For example:

1. Will it increase converstion?
2. Can DASH sit along side our current payment methods
3. How easy is it to integrate?
4. Who pays for the integration?
5. Are there any examples of merchants using this new method of payment
6. Can it handle high transaction volumes

Merchants will be reluctant to adopt a new method of payment because another merchant (Amazon) is using it unless there is a network effect of users that will lead to increased conversion at the checkout.

ecommerce is only about conversion and every method on the market seeks to optimise the checkout experience across all plaforrms - desktop, mobile and tablet.

Of course when I speak about merchants I am talking about enterprise websites with high transaction volumes.

 

[stan.distortion]

Can you pull product data from merchants sites? Evolution doesn't have a client, it's something like logging into a user account with nothing to download so the "user wallet" is a web page interfacing though the DAPI and there could be any amount of them. If a merchants listings can also be interfaced via an API then there's no reason you couldn't have a one stop shop, wallet interface and merchant listings all in the one place.

 

[julianeon]

The thing about Amazon is, it's hard for a payment method change to move their massive bottom line. Plus they generally don't want to be the first mover. We may need to focus on smaller merchants first, and work our way up.

 

[rafique]

Can you pull product data from merchants sites? Evolution doesn't have a client, it's something like logging into a user account with nothing to download so the "user wallet" is a web page interfacing though the DAPI and there could be any amount of them. If a merchants listings can also be interfaced via an API then there's no reason you couldn't have a one stop shop, wallet interface and merchant listings all in the one place.

I work with the Magento ecommerce framework which is one of the biggest platforms outhere and yes you can get any data from the platform in both directions. Dash will certainly need to have some sort of integration into that platform but they need to consider what merchants want not what Dash wants which is mass adoption.

 

[chenriquelira]

I remember Evan had said in the past that on the Evo wallet we would be able to search the merchants, but I don't remember if anything about listing was said and I think it would not be a good idea to clutter the main wallet with this, a 3rd party could do that. Also, what are you thinking with the merchants just making a listing through the dapi? They do that and would still receive on USD? And about the merchants don't willing to integrante on their ecommerce you forgot about the infinite advantages that dash have, much lower fees than CC and also you are your own bank, you would not pay taxes while using it for your sales, if a merchant doesn't want to integrante it after knowing it's advantages he's really dumb.

 

[rafique]

I remember Evan had said in the past that on the Evo wallet we would be able to search the merchants, but I don't remember if anything about listing was said and I think it would not be a good idea to clutter the main wallet with this, a 3rd party could do that. Also, what are you thinking with the merchants just making a listing through the dapi? They do that and would still receive on USD? And about the merchants don't willing to integrante on their ecommerce you forgot about the infinite advantages that dash have, much lower fees than CC and also you are your own bank, you would not pay taxes while using it for your sales, if a merchant doesn't want to integrante it after knowing it's advantages he's really dumb.

I don't think calling a merchant "dumb" for not wanting to integrate is a convincing argument. Rather, you have answered your own question. Merchants will want to be paid out in their local currency because their suppliers take USD, GBP or EUR as do their staff, stakeholders and shareholders - the complete supply chain!

Failing to consider all these factors is a flaw that affects the crypto currency space because the currenct ecommerce model was built around credit card transactions and it works perfectly. Prior to ecommerce it was mailorder catalogs and telephone order or DRTV. With each new medium of transacting money the exisiting framework for selling goods and services had to change or upgrade.

If Crypto currencies like Dash were suited to the current ecommerce model adoption would have happened or at least we would see the signs that it is going to happen. Truth is the average ecommerce customer doesn't own any Dash or earn it so have no desire to shop with it online.

Therefore, a merchant will be smart to not integrate because there is no reason to. There is no demand for it so why add it? There maybe low fees but what good is low fees from zero transactions?

The crypto space are fixated with being your own bank and low fees but neglect to figure out why ecommerce works the way it does. I am not having a go at the technology, my intention is to provoke thought and vision for how this project can be executed with precision so it is time to seriously think about how one change can impact something else which aslo impacts something else and so on...

An alternative which is more realistic is to get exisitng payment methods to support DASH as a currency...

 

[chenriquelira]

I don't think calling a merchant "dumb" for not wanting to integrate is a convincing argument. Rather, you have answered your own question. Merchants will want to be paid out in their local currency because their suppliers take USD, GBP or EUR as do their staff, stakeholders and shareholders - the complete supply chain!

Failing to consider all these factors is a flaw that affects the crypto currency space because the currenct ecommerce model was built around credit card transactions and it works perfectly. Prior to ecommerce it was mailorder catalogs and telephone order or DRTV. With each new medium of transacting money the exisiting framework for selling goods and services had to change or upgrade.

If Crypto currencies like Dash were suited to the current ecommerce model adoption would have happened or at least we would see the signs that it is going to happen. Truth is the average ecommerce customer doesn't own any Dash or earn it so have no desire to shop with it online.

Therefore, a merchant will be smart to not integrate because there is no reason to. There is no demand for it so why add it? There maybe low fees but what good is low fees from zero transactions?

The crypto space are fixated with being your own bank and low fees but neglect to figure out why ecommerce works the way it does. I am not having a go at the technology, my intention is to provoke thought and vision for how this project can be executed with precision so it is time to seriously think about how one change can impact something else which aslo impacts something else and so on...

An alternative which is more realistic is to get exisitng payment methods to support DASH as a currency...

If you are thinking that dash would include that on the evo wallet, just for the ones that seems to doesn't want to use the currency, you can turn around and already start thinking on your own 3rd party market place wallet, dash would never spend it's time on someone that have no interest on it's technologies, which would ultimately nullify it - if there are no advantage using dash for the merchant there won't be one for the buyers as well. And I won't even respond to the part you talk about zero transactions. I have already responded why dash would be attractive to merchants and therefore to the customers, dash doesn't needs to spend it's time for someone who can't see it's advantages - plus you can't see that the integration would be almost effortless because that's the reason it exists on the first place. For adoption, dash only needs of awareness and be on all major exchanges/easier to get. And about your alternative: seriously? You seem to don't understand why cryptocurrencies were created on the first place.

 

[rafique]

If you are thinking that dash would include that on the evo wallet, just for the ones that seems to doesn't want to use the currency, you can turn around and already start thinking on your own 3rd party market place wallet, dash would never spend it's time on someone that have no interest on it's technologies, which would ultimately nullify it - if there are no advantage using dash for the merchant there won't be one for the buyers as well. And I won't even respond to the part you talk about zero transactions. I have already responded why dash would be attractive to merchants and therefore to the customers, dash doesn't needs to spend it's time for someone who can't see it's advantages - plus you can't see that the integration would be almost effortless because that's the reason it exists on the first place. For adoption, dash only needs of awareness and be on all major exchanges/easier to get.

I hope DASH doen't share that mentality !!

Why do you think PayPal became so successful?

Because it was bought by eBay and became the preffered payment method on the auction/markeplace website. As ecommerce and online shopping continued to grow individual merchants saw the benefit of adding PayPal to their own websites as it was used so widely on eBay where some were already selling their goods and services anyway so it was guranteed to convert well - this is known as "the network effect".

DASH doesn't need to sell it just needs it's own eBay but a slick design and UX/UI non of the crap we've seen so far.

The eBay/PayPal story is a really good case study.