Shapeways Live is Tomorrow!

Discussion in 'Official Announcements' started by 9694_deleted, Nov 22, 2011.

  1. 9694_deleted
    9694_deleted Member
    Who has questions for me, or things they'd like me to discuss?

    Chat with you then!

     
  2. stonysmith
    stonysmith Well-Known Member Moderator
    Let's start with a very simple question: What time does the call start tomorrow?

     
  3. 9694_deleted
    9694_deleted Member
  4. stop4stuff
    stop4stuff Well-Known Member
    The Shapeways meetup page shows 8pm (20:00) but no time zone :rolleyes:

    Will Shapeways Live be texty chat or will we see you on our screens Ana?
     
  5. Magic
    Magic Well-Known Member
    Some questions about materials:
    - I understood that there is little chance we can see Polished Alumide. But what about Polished Dyed Strong and Flexible and Polished Full Color Sandstone? Any idea when they would become available?
    - Some competitors offer plastic plated with metal. Is this an option Shapeways is considering?

    About the website:
    - Has Shapeways the ambition to make their shops become a marketplace as known as Etsy or eBay (or do they rely on shop owners to create their own website or to use other channels) ? and if the answer is yes, what are the means to achieve this goal (viral communication, advertising,...)?
     
  6. I don't have any specific questions to ask, but I think I'll try to peek in, just out of curiosity! Too bad it's just a tad early, I should recieve my first 3D print in a day.
     
  7. MitchellJetten
    MitchellJetten Shapeways Employee CS Team
  8. Nope, no problem! I'm a freelancer so I work at home anyway. If nothing comes in between I'll watch, and I'll try to get some others to watch along too.
     
  9. stop4stuff
    stop4stuff Well-Known Member
    Time until next webcast
    324 days + 3h : 04m : 57s

    ;)
     
  10. Yeah, that's what it says in Internet Explorer, and when I try Firefox, it says the stream is online right NOW. Interesting.
     
  11. tebee
    tebee Well-Known Member
    I'd like the option to be able to do full drop shipping via Shapeways, so that we can order something to be delivered direct to a third party.

    We can sort of do that now if they live in the same country - the only slight problem is Shapeways encloses a nice invoice with the package showing what we paid them rather than what the client paid us through our website.
     
  12. 35112_deleted
    35112_deleted Member
    3 questions for Live

    1) I posted on the forum yesterday about pre-paid vouchers, but could you give some views on expanding the voucher system a bit, i.e. more/or variable values (not just $25, $50 and $100) and currency options for those looking for vouchers in euros (or maybe even in other currencies such as Pound Sterling?). Also confirmation that a fully electronic version is in use, or planned.

    As the number of home designers, as opposed to just shop customers, within Shapeways community continues to grow, it would allow for easier mini crowd sourcing of a project, for example I design a sci-fi vehicle, ten friends then each send me a $10 pre-paid voucher so I can get all the bits of it printed in FUD (hopefully, if not then in WSF :D ) and then arrange cast copies for them.

    2) What are the planned production holidays (if any, we know you're all too dedicated to ever take a break :) ) likely to create in the way of delays to the various materials in the post Christmas/New Year period?

    Editied: Ana - I'll move the next paragraph to your feedback thread as that seems the best place for it:

    3) With the "My Models" page will there ever be the option to select multiple models from the rows view, then click a single add to cart button, then click a single material choice, before then going to the checkout? It may just be the way I work, but after uploading a batch of new designs I basically want to order one of each, all in WSF at the moment, and it takes ages to click on each one, click add to cart (assuming the default material is the one you want) and then go back to the row view to select another model?


    Looking forward to the chat or should we call it friendly Shapies banter?

    Andrew
     
    Last edited: Nov 23, 2011
  13. 9694_deleted
    9694_deleted Member
    Hi guys, we're going with the full livestream action! Using the Livestream is the default, and in the future, if we're doing the chat instead, I'll be sure to let you know ahead of time.

    Paul and Stony, Meetup doesn't allow us stop specify time zone, but I put it into the events description.

    These are some good questions. Looking forward!
     
  14. stop4stuff
    stop4stuff Well-Known Member
    It was good to see you again Ana, and then good to chat when the stream died.

    If you don't mind, could you please post the time in GMT or UTC for future broadcasts.

    :)

     
  15. 35112_deleted
    35112_deleted Member
    Ana

    Thanks again for tonight's chat session.

    I've posted twice in your Feedback thread, 1) as we discussed tonight about designer names, 2) moved one question from my earlier post in this thread.

    Many thanks

    Andrew
     
  16. 9694_deleted
    9694_deleted Member
    Hey Paul, Absolutely. :)

    @ancientbuzzard many thanks. Glad you could join us.

    As I mentioned during our chat (after the Livestream died...) I'd circle back on the questions in this thread. Here goes!

    @Magic, we went over your materials question, but I wanted to followup on your website query.

    The simple answer is yes. We want to enable people to make anything they desire. We believe that a marketplace is a powerful way to drive inspiring content and help people profit off their creativity, which helps the message spread. What are we doing become a known marketplace like Etsy or Ebay? To start with, we're reorienting a lot of our design to optimize for a shopping and browsing experience and are working on putting captivating content into high impact places (like the Wired store). More thoughts and questions on this are welcome

    @tebee
    Before I weigh in on that, I want to make sure I understand. You're primarily talking about an option to send shipments without an invoice, right? P.S. How are your travels going?

    @ancientbuzzard

    Again, want to make sure I understand. What's the difference between a voucher and a gift certificate in this case?

    The only adjustments in production that you'll need to be aware of are in the Holiday Planning Page, and the materials status page. Take a break? Nah...

    Thanks again for joining, everyone!
     
  17. 35112_deleted
    35112_deleted Member
    Ana

    I was thinking of a "something" that someone can purchase as an item through the Shapeways store front end, with no need for contacting the likes of Customer Service, that can then be sent to a Shapie or potential Shapie, just like an Amazon gift voucher, with it all done electronically.

    Definitely not thinking of a "something" that would require Shapeways to escrow money on behalf of several people to be released to a Shapie when a total reached. Any arrangement would be purely based on the trust between the Shapie and those who want to club together to buy something. It could be done just via a PayPal transfer outside Shapeways, but it just seemed to me to be another way to use a "something" system to promote Shapeways' business.

    There could also be an option for Shapeways to post out a physical card/gift certificate for those who want one, but for that I would suggest a very reduced postage rate (or none?) would be appropriate.

    Hope that makes it clearer, if not let me know!

    Andrew
     
  18. tebee
    tebee Well-Known Member
    n

    I also want the ability to be able to ship to counties other than the one I'm in. Let me explain why I want this. I'm in the middle of setting up my own website, partly because my Shapeways shop does not let me organize things the way I would like and frankly needs more maintenance than I have time to spend on it.

    Also some of the stuff I'm currently designing has working parts that need to be printed in BSF and body parts that need printing in FD. To add to the confusion there are several items that share common parts so I need to add these to each order somehow. So I would need to put links in saying what the other parts were that need to be ordered at the same time.

    The other solution would be to have them order from my shop, then I order all the required parts from Shapeways get them shipped to me then I ship them on to the customer.

    But this has several problems, firstly there is 2 lots of postage incurred and all the extra time this incurs unless I spend a lot of money to keep all the parts in stock. Also most of my customers ( about 70%) are in the US and as I'm in Europe,that adds 20% vat to the costs as I'm too small to reclaim it on exports.

    So what would be nice is if an order came into my website and I could just order all the parts from Shapeways for direct shipping to the customer. BTW I'll probably do this manually even the geek in me wants to set up an automated system.

    [​IMG]

    I know there are problems with Shapeways systems in that they can't cope with the vat in this situation but I'm sure the extra flexibly this would give us shopowners would result in more orders which would pay for the costs of re-writing them. I've also heard tell that payment processors may object, but Paypal seem quite happy to take orders from my French account for delivery to Thailand.

    As regards my travels I'm still at home :( Things have conspired to delay me, I had to have my six-monthly meeting with the French business support organisation and the earliest appointment I could get was 28th November - They don't give me any financial support , but I got some free courses from that about running a business in France ( and on those found out all the things I'd done wrong trying to run my first business in France!) and will get some tax concessions for the next 3 years - assuming I manage to make a profit before then.

    I also did some commissions and some website to help fund the trip - I'm still waiting for the payments for two of those to come in as I don't want to end up a burden to her while I'm there(though she does earn more money than me !)- I could just go and hope that they pay me while I'm away, but I know I'll be much easier to forget about when I'm 3,500 miles away.

    As it happens the waters only just gone down in her house and she still can't get to it as the (lower) road is still flooded. She's had the car towed off to be cleaned and repaired but we are not certain what state it will be in after 4 weeks underwater.

    Tom