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Boost — Buy and sell everywhere with smart #hashtags.
Generate smart #hashtags for your products that anyone can text to buy in seconds. No websites, no apps, no checkouts. www.boo.st
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Matt
Love the demo video! Nice work. Did you make it in house?
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@professorz Hi Matt, thank so much! The video was made by our friends over at @lonelysandwich. Incredible team and experience.
Bravo! Been looking forward to this! As you're aware (#katch #cough) we're big fans of packing app functionality into hashtags and messaging. What platforms might we see beyond IG and Twitter?
@tarikh . Short answer is ALL OF THEM. To be less dramatic, we are rolling out support for YouTube and Facebook in July and have a roadmap of all your favorite networks lined up after that. I'm sure we will be back here to announce them soon.
Great idea, saw this a few times as hackathon projects for all kind of networks - good to see it actually bcame reality :D
We built Boost to shorten the distance to the purchase. Our entire goal is to connect brands with their buyers at the places where they are already overlap. No more need to send someone away from social to make a purchase.
OS agnostic, cross platform, global purchasing embedded in #hashtags. Boost!
We will be around all day, please ask questions.
Thanks @rrhoover / @jakecrump
@mrdobelina Hi Filippo,
I should have mentioned. We are U.S. right now but supporting international in the very near future.
@jmacias Would love to help consult for you guys on the international side of SMS, can definitely prevent you from some typical pitfalls in scaling globally. Fire me an email taylor.hook@infobip.com
- Duplicating a Q/A from the Twitterverse: https://twitter.com/umarsaeed28/... -
@umarsaeed28: how do you guys handle product variations(size, color etc)?
@jmacias: We provide a option tree via SMS to select options inherent to the product. Then we present your final selection to confirm. So the #hashtag is general to the product and the specifics are customized in the confirmation step.
Ha, this is a walk down memory lane. I helped build this same product for Chirpify a few years ago. https://www.chirpify.com/chirpif...
Hey everyone, we’re thrilled to launch today!
Boost enables end-to-end transactions to occur everywhere using #hashtags. Buyers see the #hashtag, comment, tweet or text it within the apps they love, confirm via SMS and are charged instantly - no apps, no stores, no checkout.
Boost integrates with Shopify and Magento, or can be used as a stand-alone e-commerce solution. Happy to answer any questions and here’s our blog for more details - http://bit.ly/28Mxdv0
This is big! It looks so simple from the outside but I imagine lot of stuff going on in the background. Most user-centered approach to e-commerce so far. Congrats!
Fantastic product video, well done guys, I completely understand the product, one question though:
How does Boost know the difference between me wanting to buy a product and me just using a hashtag to show support?
@gregjwww Hi Greg, we work with the sellers to generate product specific hashtags. They are slightly different than normal as they are comprised of a prefix and a numerical suffix. A boost hashtag might look like #acme654 for example. We also check for pre-existing usage to make sure we don't generate something already in use.
Very interesting workflow from a legal/consent point of view. I understood the buyer will have to sign-up just once (like in Apple's or Amazon's one click pay), right? What evidence would you be able to provide the seller for it to prove the buyer consented to buy?
@iherreros Hi Ignacio, the buyer also confirms every sale by replying in the affirmative to an explicit purchase offer. In effect they indicate interest and then confirm purchase.
@jmacias So the flow is: buyer indicates interest via HT and then needs to confirm by sending an SMS?
@iherreros yes sir. Every transaction is confirmed via SMS. Check out the video posted above for a walkthrough.
@rickats yes Rick, plugs directly into inventory on Shopify and Magento. Or can be managed independently with our own inventory solution.
Very cool idea, very cool video. But do you have something to prevent abuse? For example, one of my friends keep buying stuff with my phone, or worst, it was a thief, what do I/You do?
@tsunaze Pierre, to make a purchase the person would need access to your social accounts, and your SMS. Boost also directs the brands to ship to the address you add during sign-up. These measures make it very unlikely that someone would use your account without access.
Congrats on the launch. Sounds very familiar. We enabled this in 2011. P2p and social commerce via hashtag across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. We have a patent on the application. Here's some early coverage. https://techcrunch.com/tag/chirpify We pivoted away from commerce in 2013 because brands were, and remain, not set up internally for social commerce. ie: there is almost no buyer and no market for this type of solution. The commerce and social teams are not connected, and it's a monumental slog to get them to be. Not trying to rain on your launch parade at all. Actually trying to give you honest feedback. Let me know if you'd like to hear more about the lack of market or advice on navigating the social commerce waters.
@jmacias are you open to partnerships of some sorts in Africa, specifically in Nigeria? You power the tech and work with a local payments startup to power payments/operations?
@dapoolapo we are open to discussing anything. However, we are pretty committed to our Stripe partnership so there would have to be a really good reason to diverge from that. If you have specific thoughts feel free to e-mail me at Jaime@boo.st
@jmacias issue with using stripe in Nigeria is currency conversion - even though stripe let's you present charge currency in NGN, the local banks will charge customer card in USD and usually at stupid high rates.
Also, merchant acceptance fees are highly regulated in the Nigerian market by the country's central bank. It's pegged at capped 1.5% of gross transaction value.
Hence the need for a local payment processor to make this happen.
@dapoolapo thanks for illuminating the local issues. Our system is built in such a way that it is extensible in that way, so it is possible. We are focused on US now at launch but with all the international interest we are hearing I am prioritizing this conversation internally.
I really love the idea of selling and buying through Hashtags. I would really love to see Boost grow.
This is what I always wanted. Buy with a Hashtag.
This is a major opportunity for eCommerce sites.
Is it available worldwide?
PS: The video is awesome.
@mohitgangrade Hi Mohit, thanks so much for your vote of confidence and interest. Currently, we're supporting US only, but we will be rolling out Canada and international very soon. Please follow us @boost for more updates.
@betowmx Hi Beto. Thanks - drop me a note with who you are using, we are always listening to feedback.
Does the seller always have to mention Boost so the buyers know it can be bought this way? Are you hoping a #boost tag become synonymous with a buy button with the understanding of "buy using boost"?
@chris_lawson Hi Chris, it is not something that we are requiring. Enabling the interaction between the seller and the buyer is our focus. We are always curious and learning from the way the system is being used however so we aren't ruling that out.
@chris_lawson1 their is an explicit offer within the caption or message itself with a corresponding 1st time buyer message - i.e. "respond with #acme555 to purchase or text it to 81000 to register".