Introducing… the New Really Simple Store
When stores sell together, everyone wins
The goal of Really Simple Store is to help makers make a living doing what they love.
That goal is why I built a simple ecommerce platform- to sell online without the time and headspace commitments of more “advanced” ecommerce sites.
In the next few months, I’ll take another step toward that goal by allowing stores on the Really Simple Store platform to sell each others’ products.
This means that makers who are selling their own products can have collaborators and peers sell for them (more sales), and it means they can sell other stores’ products (more inventory/selection).
Really Simple Store v2 and RSS Tokens
The only way to implement this feature and stay true to Really Simple Store’s goal is for the original maker to get 100% of their revenue- even when someone else makes the sale. No commissions. No consignment. No discounted wholesale rate.
But why would one store sell another store’s product without getting a cut?
To incentivize sellers, I’m introducing a blockchain-based crypto token into the Really Simple Store system. It’s backed by the ERC-20 token OST and built on their platform.
When this feature launches, stores will be able to “offer” RSS tokens for any product, which puts that product in the public marketplace for other stores to find and sell.
Any store on the Really Simple Store platform can browse the marketplace and add products to their own store. If they sell one, they get paid the RSS tokens that the original maker offered. That maker receives the order as if they sold the product themselves.
The idea is that makers and brands, who already collaborate and cross-promote on other mediums, can now sell together, exposing new products to existing audiences and existing products to new audiences.
“Makers tend to struggle with sales, but now stores can gain exposure and increase their sales, as a reward for helping other stores sell.”
-Drew Thomas, Founder
It’s a new, forward-thinking twist on commissions that better aligns incentives for both parties.
This entire system will be optional, so stores that aren’t interested can still benefit from the simplicity that Really Simple Store offers, and they don’t need to care about tokens or cryptocurrencies.
Since RSS tokens are real crypto tokens, backed by value-based tokens on a public blockchain, they are valuable in places outside of Really Simple Store’s platform. They can be traded, exchanged, and “cashed out” for whatever currency a store pays its bills in.
Over the next few months, as the token economy comes together, I’ll be sharing more about what’s going on behind the scenes, and why I think it’s the future of the platform. I stopped adding new stores in preparation for this change (it’s a complete ground-up rebuild), but there’s a waiting list to sign up for new stores at reallysimplestore.com.
Thanks for reading! I’m very excited to be making this announcement. If you want to get updates, sign up for the waiting list. There’s no obligation to get a store, but you’ll get updates when things happen! You can also follow this publication on Medium 👆.
If you have thoughts about this idea or how it could be better implemented, I would love to hear them. Even if it’s something small. Seriously! Please email me. My email is drew@reallysimplestore.com.
I really believe in this idea as a way to help makers earn more income, and I think it helps solve a huge problem that every maker has- selling. It’s a challenge to balance Really Simple Store’s simplicity with something like cryptocurrency, but the benefits to makers and brands on the platform are worth the effort of figuring everything out.
