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I didn't dig in, but in that above scenario, does the "supplier" dropship directly to my buyer or does it come to me and I reship it?
The change in your past HN posts from "open source order management system" to "open-source Amazon" is a great case of vision selling better than the product itself.
Those efforts look impressive but no service will be a version (open source or otherwise) of Amazon until it can place a single tube of toothpaste in my garage 18 hours after I ordered it, which it just did thirty minutes ago. Amazon’s “tech” stack, both consumer- and seller-facing is horrible and borderline irrelevant. Their fleet of trucks and aircraft is not.
Those efforts look impressive but no service will be a version (open source or otherwise) of Amazon until it can place a single tube of toothpaste in my garage 18 hours after I ordered it, which it just did thirty minutes ago. Amazon’s “tech” stack, both consumer- and seller-facing is horrible and borderline irrelevant. Their fleet of trucks and aircraft is not.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I admire your ambition, but perhaps rein it in a little ? Maaaan if we were in the same room. Don't belittle someone who's trying to accomplish something (and following through with it).
> Maaaan if we were in the same room. Don't belittle someone who's trying to accomplish something (and following through with it). I'm not belittling. I'm just saying set realistic goals. "Build an open-source Amazon" without the budget or the manpower ? Its simply not realistic unless you have very deep pockets and a team of hundreds of full-time staff. If you think I'm being unduly harsh, what sort of grilling do y…
I might agree that the characterization is a little bombastic, but:
1) It is oddly good marketing if mildly misleading ( as discussed in other posts it is not exactly a 'replacement for Amazon store for seller' as I would have initially thought from the initial presentation )
2) Here we are discussing its merits or lack thereof
In short, I agree with your general point, when compared to today's Amazon, but I think it was more of a rhetorical device rather than a 'factual statement'.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think of it this way. Launching a marketplace today is very difficult, but what if we made the backend of a marketplace open-source and used that as leverage. One that could be your backend for all operations. You can choose to enable the integrated marketplace or not, but the system is yours. It’s about bringing power back to the sellers. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change t…
> It’s about bringing power back to the sellers. But let's be honest here. What sellers really want are buyers. That's why sellers list on Apple, Amazon, Ebay etc. despite the fees. They are paying for the virtual equivalent of a shop-front in the premium mall. They get the payment handling. They get the anti-fraud technologies. And with Amazon they get the forward and reverse logistics. Its about SO much more than h…
I stopped putting stuff on Ebay due to ridiculous fee schedule ( listing is free, but then you get hit with tons of seemingly random invoice, which is automatically deducted without a real way to challenge it ) and I was regularly thinking of putting a store up myself, but I don't sell often enough to justify it. I once played with an idea of a weird garage sale app that basically let your address list what you have available for sale, but it seemed like a lot more work than I was willing to put forth.
This.. could work. I will admit I am tempted to try the self-hosted version.
edit: changed sellers to buyers
Love open source projects in the eCommerce domain, especially ones that are JavaScript instead of PHP! Two pieces of feedback: - Using a copyleft license like AGPL makes this an automatic non-starter for most businesses, no matter how impressive your tech might be. You'll have a lot more luck with mid-size and enterprise adoption with an MIT license. - You've really built an Order Management System for marketplace us…
[0]: nowadays i prefer ruby/rails, which can also get you pretty far before needing extra help.
What makes people buy from Amazon is the speed in which you get your product and their customer service.
Those efforts look impressive but no service will be a version (open source or otherwise) of Amazon until it can place a single tube of toothpaste in my garage 18 hours after I ordered it, which it just did thirty minutes ago. Amazon’s “tech” stack, both consumer- and seller-facing is horrible and borderline irrelevant. Their fleet of trucks and aircraft is not.
A lot (most?) of that is contractor based now, though. At least the last mile. And from the sounds of it, most of the contractors aren't huge fans of Amazon anyways. Seems like it would not be insurmountable to leverage that market for similar delivery times.