Why Kit Works as a Product and Business
It is not every day that I find a product that makes an immediate impression on me like Kit did the other day. I’m not writing this as a love letter to Kit, since I am just starting to use the platform, but take this as a form of praise for making a connection with me within the first moments of using the website. This is a fairly uncommon event for me as I regularly churn apps after the first test run.
Kit, for those who are unfamiliar, is a community-based, product discovery platform that groups products based on specific themes like everyday activities. Users create a kit by providing it with a name and description, and then fill the kit with products associated with that theme. The products added are typically accompanied with a comment or back story and contains a link to purchase the product. Once a kit is posted, users are able to discover the kits and discuss the products with the creator and other users.
The idea of a community-driven start up in 2016 is nothing original and possibly considered a saturated idea, but where Kit differentiates itself from the pack is with its focus on product curation based around a common theme or story. You may say that this is something that comes off like an advertorial or affiliate marketing ploy, but I feel that Kit drives home that it is a community-first platform.
Yes, affiliate marketing might be a major factor in the business model down the line (I will get to that soon), but the product keeps its focus on the kit creators and letting them share their stories about the individual products they recommend. The creator personalities are prominently displayed along with a description section that matches the product image section in size and gives off a feeling that the story is as important as the product itself. This type of feeling is key in removing users from any thought that they will be taken advantage by product placement.
What I Find Addicting
It is Pinterest meets Product Hunt meets Kinfolk
Okay, so I was reluctant to use the Kinfolk reference because I’m not a fan, sorry :( , but it aligns perfectly with the products mission and the minimalistic design. The interface is simple enough to get the full picture quickly and the product images and captions are displayed in an elegant and non-intruding manner. All of the products from a kit are displayed without having to click on an image, the right hand side is solely dedicated to product discussions and a large link to purchase the product rounds out the simple interface.
There is no visual noise or clutter like you would find with a website like Pinterest. The amount of actions that a user has to take to have a rewarding experience is one and the inventory of products is so diverse that you are bound to discover something new every time you enter the site.
I would never say that there is a one size fits all guide to running an online community, but Kit has hit on all of the ingredients to make a user’s experience pleasurable enough to give the community a chance. The user experience couldn’t be easier to master and has all of the elements to drive virality.
Where There Could be a Business
It is rare to immediately find a logical business model for a community-based start-up. Among many reasons, I find the following two to be the biggest hurdles in communities finding business model success.
- If users immediately feel like their community is being invaded by brands and advertising then there will almost always be a large public uproar about the platform skewing away from being about users. This will send away the early-adopters who have the largest impact on growth and without them, the product is likely to die.
- Most online communities have a very diverse group of users with varying interests that make it extremely difficult for advertisers to advertise to the masses because of audience targeting inconsistencies.
Kit defies these common pitfalls by already having a solid user base of curators who are either experts or internet personalities with a large early-adopter audience. This audience has trust in what these figures have to recommend and have a high likelihood of making impulse purchases. By having a large end of the funnel user base, it is likely that pursuing the avenue of affiliate marketing would end up being slam dunk for Kit, which seems like the logical choice for primary revenue.
The reason why I say “logical” is because the purchase button is the only transactional action on the site and the e-commerce affiliate marketing industry has been booming in the last few years (See How Gawker Brings In Millions Selling Headphones, Chargers and Flashlights & How a Small Tech Site Found a New Way for Publishers to Get Paid).
The industry is no longer a laughing-stock for revenue generation and the most important factor for generating this type of revenue with an online community is that it doesn’t require audience targeting and vanity metrics are non-existent. If Kit can produce hundreds of thousands of users who trust the curators recommending the products, then they will have the ability to drive revenue at a scale like publishers, Gawker and Wirecutter are currently doing and have a pretty looking business.
Thank you for reading and make sure to follow me on Kit! http://kit.com/connor
