We normally get an average of 3 orders a day, but in the past 4 days there have only been one order in total, while analytics still shows the usual amount of site traffic, and usual number of unique visitors to /checkout/cart/ and /checkout/placeorder/ per day as well. It looks like there are many users attempting to checkout but could not complete the checkout process compared to before. We have not made any changes to our products that can explain this issue. Has there been a site change recently? Anyone else seeing a sudden decrease in orders?
Thanks
My sales numbers are not high enough to be significant by themselves. But yes it’s been a bit slow.
Aug. 20, 2021 - Oct. 20, 2021
I started an order and put things in the cart, because I did not see a way to have a list or bookmarks. I needed to ask a question of the builder, but I wrote and have not gotten any response at all. I find the site has very specialized products. What I was hoping was to find someone willing to make a slight modification to something they had already made. I have been on Hackaday.IO for some time, and most of the projects I want to try, I get stuck quickly because I lack particular skills, knowledge or tools. I cannot afford to buy a 3D printer and spend the time to learn it, just to print one thing that stops me from even beginning something. So there is no way to hire someone on H.IO, and the process of finding and getting people to join projects is obscure to non-existent. If I were H.IO or Tindie, I would find good project, get a crew of people to tackle it together, make sure there is a market for it, ask for crowdfunding, get some people to test it and make suggestions for improvement. Get some more people to buy and give feedback, build the required community, and see if that product – and the design service behind it would make a sustainable group. Hardly anyone can afford to pay for design time. A large market that is easy already has ten or a thousand groups going after it. The only thing I can find that might work, looking at the whole Internet, is very long range problems like climate change, food and nutrition, care for the sick and elderly and disabled, low cost training and jobs for billions in the world needed it, shared research across the whole world, and solar system colonization.
If things are not selling on Tindie, put them back on H.IO and ask for help to define a market. If you just sell to a few people, how will anyone find this site. I was looking for a very specialized part, for a quick problem. The commercial one costs about $130 and this one might cost $50 but I cannot be sure it is what I need. And I saw two other sites here they said it can be 3D printed, but I don’t have a printer or time to learn and I could not figure what the heck they were selling. I just know what i needed. If there were a group that would help for free, it could ask for donations and supporters. That is the way the Internet seems to be going. Lots of people want the next generations to have the tools to be creative, AND to make things that work and help people. The large corporations are all about money and volume. Every day I see groups of all sizes forming on the Internet. Most fail. If I had to bet on Tindie, it is not likely to survive. Not enough outreach, no real focus, not much community interaction, pages and site too diffuse. Not tied to the hundreds of thousands of schools online. Not supported by a wide range of donors. Not showing the designers well. Not putting out turn-key well designed and executed solutions for large enough markets. Not tied to research networks. Product and method and algorithm development not well documented, shared and open.
I am writing quickly and know there are nuances and exceptions. But in general a good group of creative people doing a good job and reaching out, should be able to make a sustainable living — IF they can help people solve real problems affecting many people. Look at the traditional consulting groups and professions. They gather expertise, find problems to solve, work really hard to gain credibility, then find another problem and keep going. I see such groups - if they show themselves well, if they have clear goals and clean business processes - they grow and really help in the world. The ones that attract investors and media get short bursts of interest, too much money and fame, and die overnight. Or don’t have the stamina to keep working. I have problems I worked on for 40 years before I solved them. And I don’t have the tools to build them. If you go on the Internet there millions of groups where they get stuck for little things they cannot do themselves, and it it horrifically expensive in time and frustration to locate good and trustworthy solutions on the Internet.
Right now, in addition to my regular project that have been going for many years, I am trying to find solutions for people with spinal cord injury. A friend of mine husband broke his neck in September. I heard about it on my brothers birthday, Oct 17. My brother broke his neck and lived, completely paralyzed and on a respirator for 18 months before he died. So I know well what he could have used - sensors, computers, stimulators, control algorithms, 3D imaging of several types, massive amounts of correlation and experiments and feedback from a global community about what people are trying and what works.
For 24 years I have studied groups of all sizes on the Internet every day. From indidivuals just starting out, to global communities struggling to combine hundreds of thousands of individual efforts. To large corporations and governments who have reach the limits that can be reaches with system where all the coordination is done word of mouth through human brains and memories.
Richard Collins, Director, The Internet Foundation
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Hello everyone.
Quick ping to @hcxqsgroup and @hagster. You may want to check this thread (link below), it may be related to your completion rate.
https://discuss.tindie.com/t/checkout-button-is-disabled/249952/5
Please note: I am just a new user. I haved placed my first 2 orders here today, but if other new users have a similar experience to what I had (Checkout button disabled), that could potentially explain why your sales numbers are lower than usual.
Sellers, you might be able to contact Tindie’s support to see what’s going on?
Regards,
Flukester
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If you’re logged in, you can add items to your wishlist by clicking the heart near the top of the product page.
You can get to your wishlist from the account menu or via this link https://www.tindie.com/profiles/wishlist/
N.B. the wishlist is different from the wait list. You can join a wait list fo any out of stock product on Tindie.
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This week was abnormal again - 32 unique visitors to /checkout/placeorder but only 14 actual orders. Normally when we get 25 unique placeorder visits we would get about 22 orders.
Can you tell us if there are any site changes this week? I see that parts of the site were down for maintenance for a day, presumably to roll out an update?