**UPDATE: NOW LIVE!! **First To Try & Beta Products**

I agree with many of the above posts that 'first to try' will be detrimental to designer sales. Shapeways staff is saying the phrase is positive, but most of us don't agree. It seems like shapeways is 100 percent set on their course and has no intention of changing any of the new 'improvements,' they just want to have a place where we can vent and they can explain. That said, I can't help but add a couple suggestions:

A straightforward way to increase customer satisfaction: search results should show successfully printed products first (in any material). I just searched 'coffee,' 'ring,' and 'toy' and a large portion of the initial results are rendered pictures. Wouldn't a customer feel more secure if when they searched they found actual products?

Since shapeways isn't budging on this 'first to try' idea, will shapeways listen if we brainstorm some more positive phrases? 'First to Try' seems like one more obstacle for making a sale. 'Be the First' or something that encouraged the customer to continue with their purchase might work better for us, while not hurting shapeways.

What about items with different sizes like rings and bracelets? It seems unfair that we have to print all our sizes in all our desired materials.

"Be the first" .... is much better!!!!

Also agree with different sizes. For real shop owners and users handling their shops that might be a real issue.For unmanaged products/shops it's not.
Recently setup a cocreator item where SW solution stopped on the half way. Size could be a cocreator parameter as long as the wall thickness check succeeds (but needs to be reflected in the pricing afterwards)

I really like the new render option since it helps a lot ...
Also I understand the issue of rejected models and guaranteeing a proper print. But needs some adaptations for different sizes and new uploaded versions of an item.
Based on the status change table I have published in the threads I would propose:
Product (new upload, wall thickness ok) => Product
Product (new upload, wall thickness nok) => Be the first

BE THE FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Awesome, Sloris.

*Be The First' as suggested by Sloris is a brilliant suggestion. This is a clear example of how the meaning of words can cnange into a positive message and in fact encourage the customer to buy rather than the 'First to try' which most likely will stop the customer from buying.

Change the words... that will help the shop owners a lot.

Another suggestion would be to actually offer the first costumer a discount/credit for being the first to try out a print in a specific material. This could be set under the new 'Selling' (old 'pricing') tab under edit model.

SW could add a new 'first print markup' which should only apply to the first print in any material. The base price would still be the same so Shapeways would loose anything by doing so. Only one to loose a little markup would be the shop owner but he/she will get rid of the 'Be The First' label.

Mike

People sell private stuff in here , so having that limited markup will not be for use.

Be the first ... can be a better thing.

Rather `first to try , first to cry , first to die` ...we can become `first to say bye bye` ... err (kidding)

Another awesome idea!

Shapeways, we need NOW a designers to customers discount tool.

This is a suggestion in this thread from a month ago

https://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=19701 &start=0&

but only Andrew from Shapeways write a reply, but with an interim solution that many designers is doing now, and that is useless with the new "First to Fail" banner of our models.

MEANING OF WORDS: BE THE FIRST!

For what it's worth, I'll add my voice to those agreeing with Sloris' suggestion of "Be the First" instead of "First to Try." One of the cardinal rules of marketing is be positive. "Be the First" is encouraging, yet still potentially warns the customers of printing issues.

Out of curiosity: As I understand it, Shapeways is implementing this warning in order to reduce the number of rejected models and disappointed purchasers. If, after the change, the number of customer complaints does not change, would Shapeways consider removing the warning?

I doubt! It is a legal thing to to warn people that the product they get can be affected by production ... we can see that on some car adverts too ... but with a little little little 0.2 sec text.

While I agree that "be the first" sounds much better than "first to try", the problem remains that as a customer one cannot see when a model was uploaded - so does "be the first" mean "... after the designer finished working on this last night" or "...in all these years who actually buys this thing" ?

And I still think that this is not the right solution to the problem - I believe it is not so much the new models that one needs to worry about, but rather the new customers. One can have 20 technically successful prints of some WSF ring that is represented by a flashy photorealistic render, and get 19 disappointed customers who never saw "first to try" but are not likely to try again when the costume jewelry they looked forward to suddenly looks like something out of a chewing gum vending machine. What is needed IMHO is a big disclaimer page presented somewhere in the checkout process that reminds people that they get something printed on demand, with specific process restrictions, and in the case of plastics comes unpainted and possibly even improperly cleaned no matter what colorful pictures were to be seen in the shop.

Here a `first to try` like product that never printed and client ordered it and printed 100% in Polished Silver.



Now I`m back to my question ... why this it is separate from precious family when it is Silver ?

"First to try" is such a disaster in its current state. One of my cufflinks was 3d printed 3 times successfully, I've improved the cufflink back, everything is the same, just the back changed, and now better and Cooler, and it's a minor change in terms of printability. Now it says first to try, there are real photos of it. A disaster for designers.

Also it's mind boggling for customers. What? Wait a minute. You're emphasizing the fact that the products they order have a chance of not being able to be produced. And many of the products in this website should be like this, that the website owner was overwhelmed to put this remark.

And even damaging to shapeways reputation.

And you're again drowning the average customer with too many details.

And the printability rate: You incept this idea deep down in the customer's mind: "This thing can be printed 10 times, 9 times successful and that 1 time unsuccessfull may come to me, I'm already an unlucky person. I should not take this risk."

Give us a break, we are already dealing with issues like low traffic to the website, not being able to have stocks, etc. This is a backwards step.

Best regards.

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the constructive feedback. Please know that we're taking it all to heart, and it's really helpful to hear your suggestions. We've been thinking about some of these ideas already like...
- @inspired_by_architecture 's idea to be able to run promotions on your early stage products
- We're also looking into ways to surface more relevant and nuanced information to your customers about both the product (versions, history, etc) and you as a Shop Owner (what you've done on SW, and some of the things that make you human and awesome). The more your stellar reputations shine through, the more customers will purchase your products.

Regarding "First to Try," if it's helpful context, I wanted to share that we've done a TON of market research to inform the features and also the communications around them.

Why might someone buy a First to Try product on Shapeways? Well...turns out lots of reasons:
- They want to a support you, and are also excited about being able to talk to you (creators and designers aren't always this accessible)
- They want to be a part of a creative process
- They care about products with a story behind it, and being the first is definitely a part of the story.
- For the early adopters shopping on Shapeways, being first is a badge of honor (like @stonysmith mentioned)

Right now, though, the experience of buying an untested product is very mixed for shoppers. Sometimes, they get an amazing product and are seriously WOW'ed. Other times, they're so unhappy they send us notes saying things like: "This was nothing close to what I thought I was getting. I'm totally disappointed"

I know you can all understand why having disappointed customers is not great for your business. What's worse, they often tell their friends not to buy, which can hinder your growth. We really really want to make sure we set the right expectations for customers so they're always wow'ed, tell all their friends to check out your product, and ultimately, grow your sales.

To help spur excitement, we'll be doing some things like sending follow up emails to those folks who bought in Beta or First to Try to encourage them to support you with photos, feedback, and general high fives.

Regarding the name, "Be the first" is definitely something we can incorporate into the language explaining what they're doing -- we'll try to weave it into the text that explains First to Try on the product page and elsewhere.

As background, we got feedback from potential shoppers on various names and learned that "try" was important for expectation setting, and "first" really helped set a positive connotation. Here's just a glimpse into one step in the naming process:


I know this a big change...please trust that we made these decisions with your sales in mind. If you don't succeed, Shapeways doesn't succeed.

Thanks again and here if you have any more ?s or concerns!
Carine

Here what my client said

"Well, here they finally are.
The Lucky Love pendant is great. I love it.

The white background might not have been the best choice for taking pics.
If you want I can make some more with a dark background, so the pendant stands out more.

I bought it in polished silver and it really is like a mirror as you can see in the pics. "

I have renamed it to Lucky Love Splash to reflect the collection it is part of.

I understand that not all designers lands with so much positive feedback , and they try to make it work.

Even Facebook has "be the first to like" ...


Nice wall! I love it! Looks like my drawing paper full of ideas!

THe topic of updating items needs a concept with "first to try" otherwise all invests we as designer take is senseless

Thanks everyone for your feedback and suggestions— we have addressed a number of oddities, confusing bits, and bugs that you have pointed out. I know you all care deeply about how your products are displayed on Shapeways, and we want to be good stewards to the products that you have designed. We are planning to start showing these features (Beta, First To Try & Material Renders) to everyone who visit Shapeways late next week, incorporating more positive messaging and fixing many of the bugs along the way. We will also be releasing an option for you to opt out of displaying renders on your shop early next week, before we short showing renders publicly.

As for "Be the First", thanks for the suggestion! I'm using that phrase prominently in the description and how we tell Shoppers about it. As Carine shared, we put a lot of thought into the words and names we are using here, but are still considering how we can make sure the name is positive and exciting to customers who are looking to be one of the first to buy your product.

Wgseligman is close— we're implementing this to set expectations for our customers. We have to create a product from nylon powder (or acrylic, or stainless steel power... ) every single time a customer buys a product. At Amazon, the products you buy exist already and are waiting in a warehouse for a customer to purchase it. Customers expect that, and we have an obligation to let them know that we are different. So it is about exposing ideas such as rejections to shoppers, but also help them understand the process so if they happen to get a rejection (something we are working hard to making sure doesn't happen to anyone), they understand why. It buys forgiveness, instead of anger. That being said, if this doesn't help our customers understand the challenges of 3d printing better, and doesn't make them happier with their Shapeways purchase, we still need to solve that problem for our entire marketplace to grow. We are successful if you as Shop Owners are successful. If the warnings don't work, we'll certainly consider removing them or how we can approach the problem differently.

Numarul7: We are looking at Premium vs Polished silver with our production teams now to see if the print success rate can be combined. The polishing is slightly different, but you're probably right that they should be combined. Stay tuned...

MayCrown: as Carine mentioned, today we have customers who come to our site and don't understand the complexities of 3D printing. ALL items at Shapeways start out with a chance that we might not be able to make them— 3D printing is hard, and as Designers you all understand the complexities, but many of our customers do not.

Sloris: We've considered removing never printed before products from search, but we ended up not moving forward as we want all products to have a place on Shapeways, regardless of if they have been printed before or not! Also, it didn't make the search results any better

Thank you!

PS: Prepares for gremlins... next week... I hope it won`t rain!!!

To the shapeways team...

I can understand that the new shop features will be implemented next week so I just want to summarize all the issues I believe is important:
1) in my case the shapeways renders looks really bad... They don't look like the real products and more crucial they render some triangulation and stud that is not a part of the inal product. Therefore I hope the renders wil be improved. In any case shop owners should be able to disable the renders if they decide to do their own more realistic renders (not sure if this is the case at the moment)
2) with all the new renders there are many photos/renders attached to each product... Therefore it is more important than ever to be able to control the display order of photos/renders. As it is now you would have to delete all photos and re-upload which is NOT good enough.
3) the first to try really alls for a solution for multiple ring sizes before it goes live. It's not ok that a product printed in various materials successfully but offered in 5-8 sizes will display first to try. Therefore it should be possible to somehow group/link products that are the same but different sizes in the print succes rate calculation.

Mike

I really like the renders for my products and see a real advantage. Since I have already played around a lot I also have to support Mike and many others:

1) we need a way to sort the images.
2) printed for different sizes ore very similar things is a issue.

By the way: why do I see 100% success for pWSF and "never printed" for colored pWSF. Does that make sense?

Woody64

Polishing it is mechanical on the colored WSF ...some design can crack! "grin"

No, there's 100% for polished WSF and never printed for the colours ...