Acorn Commerce

[andybraren]

Commerce v0.1 - "The IT Crowd"

This first iteration of Commerce will allow users to charge for access to digital members-only content and capabilities. It will use Stripe for transactions along with Apple Pay.

• Features
  • Look at Offscreen
    • Transaction emails (receipts, renewals, confirmations)
      • Via SMTP in WordPress?
      • https://sendy.co/
      • Mailjet Kirby plugin
        • Plugin
      • Postmark, Elezea works there, seems good
      • Mailgun, code example
      • https://github.com/atech/postal
      • Look at Offscreen's implementation of receipts and checkout flow using only an email address
      • Dyson's checkout page has a very nice single field you put your address into and it takes care of the rest automatically. Basically like searching for your address on Google Maps
    • Auto-renew (yearly for now)
    • Subscriptions & Memberships
      • https://mobile.twitter.com/fortelabs/status/1086116486618345472
      • Above Avalon believes a strong voice, a unique perspective, and going deep is important to drive subscriptions
      • Members-only pages and file downloads
        • Prevent visitors from being able to directly access files by URL
        • A Kirby forum thread with a solution to check the privacy setting of the page to determine whether the firewall should be up
        • Members should include "account longevity" data to reward long-term memberships with future features
      • Decent solution for magazines, products, digital newsletters, digital content etc.
      • https://lifehacker.com/pay-artists-or-get-paid-using-these-platforms-1823013540
• Resources
  • HN thread discouraging home-grown eCommerce solutions. Also has informal lists of feature requirements and considerations.
• Useful links
  • Payment Request API intro
  • Kirby Stripe plugin
  • Forum thread on accepting a variable number for the payment
  • https://forum.getkirby.com/t/ecwid-online-store-new-shopping-cart-plugin/8387
  • https://baymard.com/blog/rei-product-page-ux
  • https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2017/04/ultimate-guide-e-commerce-software-platforms/
  • https://forum.getkirby.com/t/using-kirby-for-ecommerce/6484/2
  • https://snipcart.com/blog/case-study-less-effort
  • https://snipcart.com/pricing
  • https://cashnotify.com/
  • http://chrisdianamedia.com/simplestore/
  • https://baymard.com/blog/current-state-ecommerce-product-page-ux
  • Handling chargebacks
  • https://patreonhq.com/chargebacks-tips-to-fight-friendly-fraud-and-get-your-money-back-14647949d0e9
• More features to organize
  • https://pippinsplugins.com/products/
    • http://pca.st/episode/3343f3a7-6cca-44be-b31e-9b991c0f68ff
    • https://restrictcontentpro.com/
    • https://affiliatewp.com/
    • https://easydigitaldownloads.com/downloads/

Commerce v0.2 - "Ship it"

The second iteration of Commerce will add support for PayPal payments (likely via Braintree's simpler API) and allow users to sell physical goods.

https://dribbble.com/shots/3527513-Check-Out
https://dribbble.com/shots/3644145-Furniture-Website-Product-Detail

• Features
  • For admins
    • Monthly subscription pricing
    • Coupons
    • Refunds via the site
    • CSV order export
    • Per-user recurring discounts
    • Per-user commerce activity
    • Manually update a user's credit card info (probably not secure, PayPal allows this?)
    • https://mobile.twitter.com/brad_frost/status/1006955144641241090
    • Fraud prevention
      • Shopify's fraud prevention tips and risk analysis tool
  • For users
    • Change auto-renew date (paying the difference in the meantime)
    • Shopping cart
      • Nice UI concept from Tympanus
    • Checkout page
      • Collection of checkout pages
      • According to Baymard's research, the number of fields required for checkout should be kept to a minimum (~7) to improve its usability and increase conversions
      • And Gordy has written about a decent prototype.
      • Allow the user to easily create an account after placing an order
        • https://baymard.com/blog/delayed-account-creation
• Useful links
  • Users should be able to check out without creating an account, and be able to easily create an account at the end of the checkout process for faster checkout next time. Jared Spool explains why.
  • A few screens of Shopify's new UI
  • Chargebee, a platform for subscription payments
• Notes to self
  • Physical shipments involve a ton of stuff, like order fulfillment, subscription management, etc.
  • https://www.offscreenmag.com/blog/magazine-subscription-management-system
  • http://www.shipstation.com/
  • https://www.blackbox.cool

Commerce v0.3 - "Creative funding"

• Features
  • Crowdfunding
    * Goals, no charge until reached, etc.
    * Examples
    - DonorsChoose, for teachers and classrooms
    - https://www.frontstream.com/
    - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/faq
    - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16485272
    - Open Collective
  • Crowdfunding fulfillment
    • BackerKit
      • They take 2% of Kickstarter campaign funds or 5% of funds raised on your own site, with Stripe's transaction fees separate
      • Digital downloads, preorder support, backer management, shipping integration, special postage, surveys
• https://merx.wagnerwagner.de/

Patreon integration

• Hinted at here https://caniuse.com/feed/158
• Discourse offers some integration
• Patreon WordPress plugin
  • Case study