MetaFilter posts tagged with ecommerce

He Who Hesitates is Disincentivised

idontlikewords — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:02:15 -0800

Omaha rockers Cursive are selling their new album for just $1... No wait, it's $2... $3... $4... WTF?? In yet another twist on the whole, name-your-price (Radiohead), fan-financed (Jill Sobule), take-shrooms-and-cruise-hollywood (Josh Freese) tiered pricing experiment being carried out by what's left of the music industry, Cursive are increasing the price of their new record by $1 each day until its "official" release. Given the popularity of sites like Did it Leak (and the corresponding file-sharing forums that I won't link to here) it seems to me like this is a pretty good way to reward well-intentioned but impatient fans who might otherwise resort to less honorable means of getting the latest stuff from their favorite bands. Or maybe it's just another hare-brained scheme that will only hasten the end of record labels as we know them. Either way, they got my $1... And that was after I already got my hands on the mp3s!

Just how long can that tail be?

Grrlscout — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:50:56 -0800

10 out of 13 million tracks available for purchase online didn't sell a single copy. Jut how Long can that Tail be, after all? Is the length of the tail mentioned in the article down to piracy or the state of the music industry as a whole? Is it possible to make a profit or break even on a niche website based on sales alone, and not on advertising revenue?

Ask not for whom the tail wags

patricio — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 02:20:58 -0800

The Long Tail wags no more - Chris Anderson, Wired editor and populariser of the Long Tail concept admits that "radical inequality is increasingly the norm as markets get more networked", though it may still persist in some industries. [via]

The Internet in Canada’s far north

joeclark — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:46:53 -0800

Using the Web to buy a carton of milk in Nunavut. Satellite Internet in Nunavut (Canada’s newest territory – the White Stripes played there) is slow and has such draconian bandwidth caps (2GB a month) that nobody downloads audio or video. But they use it for every kind of online banking and E-commerce in a territory with barely any retail stores. Revel in the irony of listening to a podcast interview (regular Web page with links to high- and low-bandwidth MP3) that Nunavummiut could barely justify downloading. (That’s where the carton of milk is mentioned.)

You've Been Left Behind & I Nailed Your Wife

jonson — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:06:15 -0800

We all know The Rapture is coming soon (although "no one knows the day or hour"), and many of us will want to send out appropriate taunting messages from our heavenly perch to our loser buddies that didn't get chosen. At last, a service provider has arisen to serve this need. At You've Been Left Behind, you can store up to 250 MB of documents to be sent to up to 62 separate emails addresses in the event of the Rapture. Rapture is determined to have occurred when 3 of the 5 team members fail to log in to the site over a 3 day period.

The Something Store

jonson — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:54:20 -0800

Why don't you get yourself a little something? It's only $10!

Shopping in Web 2.0: sucks

psmealey — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 12:28:58 -0800

HowItSucks.com rates products based on recent reviews from other users. The rating system is simple: the longer the red bar, the more it sucks. Just in time for Xmas. Also, comes free of charge with blog, which also sucks. Example: Sony NW-E005 2 GB Flash Digital Music Player (Black) Summary: only kinda sucks "The only thing I was disappointed about is the number of songs it holds." (4 weeks ago @ Amazon) "I hate this thing." (2 months ago @ Amazon) "What a horrid product." (5 months ago @ Amazon) BUY IT ANYWAY

107 'Add to Shopping Cart' Buttons

dbarefoot — Tue, 15 May 2007 11:22:28 -0800

Add to Cart, Buy, Buy Now, Add to Brown Bag? 107 clickable shopping cart buttons on one page. Most popular colour: red. I only recognize the Amazon button--clearly I need to hone my online shopping-fu.

Not everybody is an expert on everything

zabuni — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 13:54:34 -0800

Don't Buy this Book! Seth Godin, author and marketing guru, has his book, Everyone is an Expert, for purchase on Amazon. The problem? He wrote it as an ebook in 2005, and it is downloadable for free. And it isn't even illegal, as it was licensed under a Creative Commons license that allows for for profit reproduction.

Delicious Pregnant Crickets!

jonson — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:47:08 -0800

The whiskey containing the scorpion is left for several months, which then imparts a unique flavour into the whiskey; it is quite an acquired taste. Tasty pregnant small crickets in salt water brine. Real Cobra Snake whiskey is infused with a real farm raised Cobra snake, ginseng roots and seed pods. All these and more, sold here.

And all I got was this crappy...

patr1ck — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 09:49:58 -0800

T-SHIRTS T-SHIRTS T-SHIRTS! Funny T-shirts, user-designed-and-voted T-shirts, artistic T-shirts, geek T-shirts, just cool T-shirts, hacker T-shirts, more artistic T-shirts and even offensive T-shirts (NSFW). Like comics? web comic T-shirts. Still not right? make your own T-shirts. Or maybe you'd just like to read about t-shirts.

the blogosphere is for sale

bliss322 — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 09:05:13 -0800

Polluting the blogosphere businessweek is writing about a new company that is basically paying bloggers to write about products --- disclosure is optional... congratulations marketers --- you ruin everything

Flash based Ikea catalog

jonson — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 10:15:30 -0800

This flash demo for IKEA's kitchen stuff is kinda fun to play with. Takes a bit of time to load, when it does, click the mouse & hold down on the right or left halves of the photo, it's interesting. Note - the flash stuff contains audio, so careful with speaker volume

That's Seargant Pug to You, Dammit

jonson — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 17:36:07 -0800

As a proud patriot & supporter of our nation's armed forces, my greatest personal shame comes from the fact that my pugs aren't fit for service (Lola has cuddling issues that would prove a hindrance on the battlefield, whereas Oscar would run afowl of the "don't ask, don't tell" laws). Fortunately, the good people at Pets In Uniform will gladly do an awful photoshop job to make it look like they actually served their nation proudly.

Woot

blue_beetle — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 08:00:09 -0800

woot.com One item per day, until midnight, or until they run out of stock. Innovative ecommerce at its best.

Candy for your Crib

jonson — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 16:12:28 -0800

CribCandy.com is a thumbnail blog of cool stuff for your house, like Uncrate, but just for house related purchases.

On sale now for only $6.66!!!

Man O' Straw — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 13:19:09 -0800

Buy a celebrity's soul! For the demon that has everything.

How to Sell Your Book, CD, or DVD on Amazon

iffley — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 06:59:22 -0800

How to Sell Your Book, CD, or DVD on Amazon [From Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools: he has a knack for asking the best questions]

Now THIS is a shopping cart

spock — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 13:56:07 -0800

Now THIS is an eCommerce shopping cart. Holy crap. Ruby and Ruby on Rails: You officially have my attention. (Documentation includes a free first edition book. Intro for OS X ~~friends~~ fiends) and all.

The touchy-feely web

Human Stain — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 07:43:26 -0800

Thingster is an open-source weblogging service for locative media. It's also the backend for BooksWeLike, which describes itself as "activist e-commerce" and is sponsored (partially) by AlterNet. It's part of a movement for social sharing services, which seems to be an extension of what was previously discussed here.

hi mom!

Espoo2 — Tue, 07 Sep 2004 02:21:57 -0800

Russian may have solved Riemann hypothesis. Financial disaster ensues.

Fame vs Fortune: Micropayments and Free Content

Blake — Sat, 13 Sep 2003 17:52:26 -0800

Scott McCloud and Clay Shirky are trading ideas on Micropayemnts again. Clay Says user-pays schemes can't simply be restored through minor tinkering with payment systems, because they don't address the cause of that change -- a huge increase the power and reach of the individual creator.. Scott Says micropayments, well, BitPass are here to stay this time.
As a content producer I like the idea, but as a content consumer I'm just not sure yet.
If mefi went Micro, would you pay?

mathowie — Thu, 24 Oct 2002 11:02:12 -0800

A small company with an obscure patent is suing e-commerce site owners. If you sell something on the web, you may be next. It's hard to tell if they have any legitimate claims or if they're simply extorting money from the people they threaten.

srboisvert — Tue, 09 Jul 2002 14:07:23 -0800

Escrew Service. Worried about getting scammed on an Internet auction? "Just use an escrow service," is the customary advice. Not so fast. The latest auction scam is an elaborate swindle involving creation of fake escrow services, complete with convincing Web sites like www.escrow-is.com

jcterminal — Wed, 20 Mar 2002 17:23:16 -0800

The Shy Girl's Guide to becoming a Whore is an online tutorial for women considering becoming an escort by using the technologies of the Internet. The web has changed the nature of prostitution offering women more opportunities than the traditional street walker, escort. or brothel models. We now have the 21st century CyberWhore model, and this is an overview as to how it is done.