I could be over estimating the importance of this. Perhaps I've spent too much time working on this and my judgement has been clouded. I've considered that I'm envisioning grandiose things that won't come to fruition. Maybe this really isn't all that important after all. Conceivably, this could be an entire waste of the last 7 months I've been putting this together. I'm inclined to think this has the potential to live up to these expectations though...
A few years ago, I added a new section on the forum called "New Product Research & Development". During the time frame leading up to that, I saw more and more parts and products for three-wheelers originating in our little community. We had numerous committed individuals working on making cool stuff for our machines that wasn't available in the typical aftermarket. There were brand new products that to my knowledge were never offered before being made in small production runs. There were also various reproduction parts being made to replace the stuff that the OEM's had discontinued. The R&D forum served as a way for people interested in making and marketing new and/or reproduction parts to really check the pulse of the market and see whether there was interest or not. It has served that purpose, of checking market interest and appeal in products and services quite well since then.
However, I've noticed over the years though that the next step of the process, marketing and getting the word out to riders about what exactly was out there and available to purchase has been a bit lackluster. Not everyone knows the forum and its membership here in and out. From time to time, you might need something and remember that SOMEONE made it and was selling it, but you couldn't for the life of you remember whom. Great products and services have gotten completely buried in the forum. Some products that I think with a little bit of extra exposure would have really taken off, but instead they sort of petered out...
There is always of course, the 1000lb Gorilla in the room called eBay, that we've all dealt with from time to time. eBay is great, and its been an absolutely invaluable part of our community from the very beginning. There have been some very important, historical auctions (The new in crate 250R as just one example). But I know I've had my frustrations with eBay, and I know many of you have too. Some of you have expressed them from time to time on the forum. I'm not crazy enough to think we can replace eBay (Nor would I want to), but most of you have mentioned and said that you wished there was a more community oriented option, where we could sort of all band together and have three-wheeler parts offered by three-wheeler enthusiasts. And for years I've agreed with you and threatened to follow through on that idea. Look out ladies and gentlemen, because I made good on that threat and its HERE!
Introducing, the 3WW Shop!
The 3WW Shop!The 3WW Shop I believe is one of the first ever community supported online storefronts, and shopping carts. There are numerous places online of course that sell parts and accessories. You can even break that down into another sub category and say trike related, there's a few of those floating around that offer three-wheeler parts too. But what there aren't any other of is a market place that allows part time manufactures and vendors from within this community to list their products for sale in one centralized location.
During the testing and initial setup of the idea, I worked with a few close friends of mine and people that I knew to make awesome parts. And during that time I was amazed that some of these people offered and had things available even *I* wasn't aware of! It just totally proved my point to myself even further that these guys and their products were not getting the recognition they needed.
Over the last few months we've worked to have a select few, but I believe very talented individuals have products listed at the launch of store. At this time we are focusing only on specialty made/manufactured parts offered by people in the trike community, but anyone can apply to be a seller. I've been asked about expanding the idea to include other non specialty items, and there is a good possibility of that in the future
If your a buyer at the 3WW Shop, here's how it works:
You can browse the store and find threewheeler parts that interest you either by Categorically listed models of machines on the left, or you can hit the "New Products" button in the upper right of the tool bar. As you browse, you can add products to your shopping carts from different sellers. You may add parts from up to 5 different sellers into your shopping cart at one time. Once your ready to purchase these items, you fill in some shipping details, and you'll be able to checkout with PayPal. The 3WW Shop ONLY uses Paypal as our payment gateway.Its easy for buyers and sellers, and they handle the financial transaction.
The best thing is, you only have to do one checkout to order stuff from multiple different people! Once you've checked out, the seller gets paid immediately, you get a receipt for your purchase, and the sellers gets notified they've made a sale. They ship your parts, and you've successfully contributed to the community by purchasing from people within it. No longer do you need to wade through a ton of seemingly irrelevant search results, or have your eyes glaze over trying to figure out who made what exactly, and how to get a hold of them so you could buy one.
Lets face it, The main reason people shop online is because of convenience. Our little community has lacked this for many years. I'm hoping that this store is going to provide buyers, and sellers, with an easier more efficient way to deal with parts.
If your a seller at The 3WW Shop, here is what is available to you, and why I think you'll benefit from being one:
Because every seller's items mix together under whatever category of machine you've listed your parts under, everyone that has parts listed in the store benefits from each others traffic. For example; if I have a 250R frame/gas tank strap for sale, and someone browses the 250R section of the store to buy that, they might also see a cool Stainless Steel 250R Brake Rotor that they want too. Or maybe they happen to browse the Tri-Z section and find that the discontinued Yamaha Tri-Z chain slider they've been dying to find a replacement for is actually available too! Every time someone comes on the shop to take a look at a single part, your products are right there next to it getting viewed as well.
- To re-iterate above, Because everyone's products are in one centralized location, we all benefit from the exposure each part gets in the store.
- You get payed instantly at the time of the buyer's checkout, directly to your paypal account.
- Easy way to showcase a portfolio of parts you offer and have available (So when you get asked "What do you make?" You can say, here ya go!)
- Listing parts is easy. If you can use the big auction site, you can use the 3WW Shop. And its even simpler, trust me!
- Low overhead to market and sell your products and parts.
- Simplify communication with prospective purchasers by offering an ad with the details that answers all the general questions. Save yourself from 10 "New Private Message" notifications when your trying to sell something!
- Full integration with 3WW: The shop is going to be fully integrated into the site. A link added to the top of every page, and certain keywords posted on the forum will direct people to the store.
- Advertising: There will be from time to time (Especially this first week at launch of the store) some external advertising done throughout the internet to draw traffic to the store.
If you've had short production runs of parts made to finish off a restoration that you started and ended up with left overs, or if you've taken it upon yourself to re-make something the manufactures have discontinued and forgotten about, if you've come up with a kick ass product to enhance the performance of our machines, or any other product that can benefit other three-wheeler riders, I would like to welcome you to the 3WW Shop. You can find information on how to sign up to be a seller on actual Shop website, http://shop.3wheelerworld.com
The 3WW Shop is open and fully functional now. We have a limited supply of left over Trikefest '11 T-shirts, Some of our very popular black Flex Fit hats available in the store right now. We have more stuff in the works and in the coming weeks will be introducing it as well under our "3WW Outlet Store". Other Vendors have parts and products listed and ready for you to browse at this time also. I'm confident you, and others, will see the value in this and that we will continue to add community vendors and products to the store in the coming days and weeks.
I hope that you find this to be an exciting and worthwhile new addition to 3WW, I've spent many countless hours working on and tweaking this as I really do feel that the community needed a better way to showcase and make available all the jam-up stuff that we're able to make.
Navigation
vBulletin Message