Shapeways has a new development we are considering that would allow you to embed your shop (or part of it) using a HTML snippet into almost any page such as a on your own website, blog, forum post and possibly sites such as Facebook or MySpace.
This would work in much the same way as you can embed an Etsy Store, a YouTube video, a Kickstarter Project or a Facebook badge.
Before we go down the development path we would like some input form the Shapeways community.
Is this something you would be interested in using?
What features would you like to see implemented within it?
Where would you use the application and how?
Any suggestions what we should call it?
Any other suggestions you may have along these lines we would be very interested to hear from you..
Definitely. I will embed it in my websites and my blogs.
people should be able to rotate the product. and then they could buy it using a button.
try go to http://www.spoorobjecten.nl
and see where you end up 😛
I guess there is no reason to have a link in your Shapeways shop back to your website then? 😉
I think this is a great idea.
Is this something you would be interested in using?
Yes
What features would you like to see implemented within it?
Look at the vimeo widget, i really like theirs. It has customizable colors, overall size, autoplay (skips thru videos on/off). Also to show cost or not, be able to select which images from each product and which products to show, not all of them.
Where would you use the application and how?
1st and foremost on my personal website. I’d use it to fill the gap between looking at products on my website and ordering them on shapeways.
Facebook too maybe.
Any suggestions what we should call it?
Shapeways 3d kiosk? I don’t know.
Most definately something I’d be interested in.
Absolutely, absolutely. Embedded in my site would be great, one other way to implement this would also be something along these lines:
– customer goes to amazon.com (or any other commercial channel)
– buys something from my store
– instead of me manually making the sale/imputting the data in SW, the data goes straight to shapeways, sw does all the handling.
There would be a few haken en ogen (hard to translate from Dutch, tricky things or something) around this, I can see that,… but that would be ideal in many cases.
One thing to think about is that many of these commercial sites take a cut (which would come out of my profit of course, not SW’s), and I’m not entirely sure how that cut would get to them.
Cheers, Michidl
Yes please! I think it would be best if it were at least very clean and at best totally invisible to the customer. That is, they will be buying from us, not shapeways.
Thanks,
JON
Yes I would be very interested in using this!
Features to include:
-3d rotation
-Render animated .gif’s of turntables for Shapeways shop owners
-Allow customers to shop on Facebook without leaving Facebook
I would use this on my blog.
Call it Shapeways Satellite Shop
1. Is this something you would be interested in using?
– Yes. Most definitely. I haven’t really pushed putting any 3D items up for sale because I don’t know how to get people here without losing my potential at making money.
2. What features would you like to see implemented within it?
a. Direct interaction through PayPal and Google Checkout would be nice, as they are two of the major online retail shops (in my book).
b. Allow me to stylize it. Either use SMARTY (http://www.smarty.net/) or something like it so I can colorize and add images to each viewing. That would be nice, then I could theme it to look like part of my site (or wherever I post it) as needed.
c. If possible, and I realize it might not be, make it so that the transaction doesn’t require a visit to Shapeways for much, or if it does, open a new window to do it. I don’t want to lost site-visitors just so they can complete their purchase.
3. Where would you use the application and how?
– I would use it on TUMBLR.com, Facebook, my personal website, and probably setup a Tweetbot to post daily notices about new items and such pointing to my site.
4. Any suggestions what we should call it?
– I don’t think the name would matter too much, but if it does:
“Ship-Shape-Shop”
“3D and Me”
“Shopways”
5. Any other suggestions you may have along these lines we would be very interested to hear from you..
– My thoughts are Facebook, MySpace (does it still exist?) and MyYearbook apps would be great. Something that I could setup on my Facebook or Facebook Page would be awesome. Easy for the creator / shop owner to set up.
This would be great! I would most like to see it on esty.com but they don’t let you embed html so i don’t know if it’s realistic…unless you can work directly with the people at etsy. But really embedding my shop in my own website and/or facebook would still be great even if etsy isn’t feasible. I know it’s been mentioned before, but it would be great if I could divert certain items to be shipped to me for assembly before they go to the customer. Currently I don’t sell some of my products on shapeways because they require additional parts and assembly that I can’t do if someone orders straight through my shapeways shop.
THUMBS UP! I’ll use it.
-Whystler
Hi,
I would be interested to integrate a shop on my website with 3d models, with the paypal terminal. But the main problem for me is SW theme style. I like SW site elegant style but I can’t integrate it on my web pages. I would like something more customisable. Is it possible to go directly from my website to Paypal for a SW model ?
Thanks,
There seems to be some real interest, and we will look at all your suggestions and what we can integrate.
Keep any more ideas coming.
Is this something you would be interested in using?
Absolutely.
What features would you like to see implemented within it?
3D preview and direct buy from the pluging without going to the shapeways shop
Where would you use the application and how?
Plug in in website and portfolio, maybe also a virtual museum
Any suggestions what we should call it?
ShapeShop sounds nice
Extra comment:
it would be nice if there was a verification system so that shop owners can allow other people to imbed their shops and thus create “themed” ShapeShops (lets keep the name), like a shapeshop for lego parts, or another one for jewelry.
What about calling it something funny like
“shapeways-mycelium” or “shapeways-mycel” ?
It’s will spread through the net first unnoticed like a mycelium through the the soil.
Then it will pop up to everybodys awareness like mushrooms.
Love “Shapeshop”
For title, why not :
Shape’s
(I still sure that wordplays too demonstrative are not the best titles)
,)
Go for it!
I would be happy just to show a list of models on my personal website, retrieving them from the list at Shapeways. I’d still want to send customers to Shapeways to have them ordered.
The other feature I wish I could use it for is a way to retrieve the list of models, along with cost vs markup, so that I can review all of the models at once, rather than having to bounce between the various pages.
Wouldn’t it be simplest just to make an RSS feed for a shop?
Too funny, just the other day I was searching Shapeways to try to find some way to embed my designs on my website. 😛 So this is perfect timing!
If I may make a suggestion, could you add a feature to the shop that would allow Tabs to separate types of work? For example if I had some models that were jewelry based and others that were miniatures, I would prefer to keep them apart so that people could easily shop for what they are looking for and not have to wade through everything I have.
Thanks Brian, Multiple shops even on Shapeways is something we get requested ‘occasionally’. Will put it on the list.
if i could just organize my own work into folders i would love you forever. having 5 sizes of every ring makes my stuff so hard to sort through. doesn’t have to appear that way to customers.
Go for it Shapeways! That would be great!
PayPal integration would be great as well.
Brilliant. Mini-shapeways has been some time coming, and I’m looking forward to it.
Simple version:
An embeddable “frame”, parameters in the html would instruct the frame to display either all objects (fixed size, expand to fit, scrollable, auto scrolling), contents of a particular section, or models that have a certain tag, order etc.
When I click on an item it should take me to that product’s page on shapeways.
Ideal version:
Embeddable frames showing range of models, clicking on a model expands to show detail of model, mainly photographs. Choosing to “buy” adds to a basket (“powered by Shapeways”) but does not redirect to shapeways main site. Not sure where the basket lives…
Powerful version:
Proper open API for shops including an RSS feed per section and per shop (and per tag?), allowing me to run my own shop with basket on site, and then have the order automatically sent onto shapeways when complete. MAybe this could integrate with Magenta or something. I do have a little php script that extracts the contents of my shop into something I can display or keep in a database, but I’d prefer a more sensible way of doing it.
A deep integration with an existing service (Bigcartel or something) would be great, or an automatic listing tool.
Great Idea!!!
But make sure prospective customers can use their cards( Visa Card, MasterCard, Paypal etc). Restricting only to paypal as you have done with ordering and shop Opening on shapeways is really affecting some of us. Uptil now i can’t open a shop because i don’t have a paypal account (I live in Nigeria). Also majority of my propective customers will definitely be friends & family with the same issue. So even if they like my designs, they can’t order immediately cos the bank charges for bank transfer (optional to paypal) is killing.
Guys, Kindly take this into consideration.
Oh! before I go, “Shapes Mall” sounds nice.
Cheers