* for sale: every comic book and graphic novel in print, 20% off, and free shipping on every order
* socialize: every customer has an optional “profile” page where they can talk about themselves, link to their friends, send blurbs to other users, list their favorite comic books and authors, upload a snapshot (or a drawing!) and more. Find out who else likes the same comics you do…and who has got horrible taste and insists on slagging on your favorites.
* talent pages: interested in Warren Ellis, Todd McFarlane, Paul Pope, or anyone else? See what they’ve worked on, what other people think of them, and more.
* forums: discuss your favorite comics, authors, artists, characters, or anything else related to comics or HeavyInk.
* comments and reviews, not just on issues, but on authors, artists, titles, and other people’s reviews.
* personalized recommendations: if you review or rate a few comics, issues, or people, we’ll have enough data to start making recommendations to you about what else you’ll love!
* a great looking website with snappy response. Do you like the five second load times for pages at the other internet comic book shops? Yeah, neither do we.
* the best search interface in the business. Accidentally type “Gaimann” (with two ‘n’s) at us, and we know what you mean (the competition doesn’t). No “pogo sticking” using the browser’s back button and then forward again to get to where you want to go. And, speaking of search, Firefox users can download our search plugin!
* personalized RSS feeds. At HeavyInk every single customer has their own personalized RSS feed. Get as much information, or as little, as you want in your RSS feed – track just your shipments, so you know when to keep your eye on the mail…or add in information on new titles by your favorite artist, or new comments on a discussion thread you’re active in, or all new titles by genre (interested in hearing about new science fiction comics?), and more.
Features that will be coming soon:
* quizzes. Answer a few questions and find out which super hero you are, or what authors and artists you should check out, what high tech weapon you’d wield if you were a comic book character, and more. Want to create your own quizzes? We’ll let you!
* all the data available at Wikipedia about your favorite authors, artists, and comic book titles.
* subscriptions to authors and artists. Like a certain cover artist? Click one button and receive everything by him or her (you can always cancel a specific item before it ships, though!)
* wish lists
* gift cards (actual hold-in-your hand ones, so you don’t look cheap at the holidays)
* who’s in your neighborhood? If you’re arranging a carpool to Comiccon or GenCon, or if you just want to get an AD&D or GURPS game going, you’d like to find other HeavyInk customers nearby.
Why HeavyInk It Might Be A Killer
Comic books and associated items are a $500+ million market growing at 10+%
/yr. The field is also growing in mainstream acceptance. The demographic
is male, 20-40 years old, very computer literate, and has high
discretionary spending. Comic book enthusiasts tend to purchase for years,
and have very decent lifetime values.
The industry is dominated by fragmented, under-capitalized, technologically
unsophisticated brick-and-mortar players. The majority don’t even have
point of sale tools, and manage their inventory using paper and pencil.
Fulfillment is problematic (customers often fail to receive items they have
subscribed to), most stores don’t carry the long tail of products, staff
recommendations are often not appropriate, and many stores are unkempt and
feel like ghettos to those not already deep in the subculture. Customer
satisfaction is low.
Online competition is limited. Even the very best competitors do not
have recommendations, discounted shipping, competent use of Google
ads, upselling on checkout, etc.
There is one social networking website (comicspace.com) for comic book
enthusiasts, and it is an undercapitalized one-man show.
There is one leading collection management tool (comiccollectorlive.com),
but it is an undercapitalized two-man show and the software is poorly
designed, buggy, and runs on Windows desktops.
Our experience launching SmartFlix.com make us well versed in running
an ecommerce site, data mining, analysis, and doing fulfillment based
on three years running SmartFlix. We already have office space and
are already staffed with engineers, customer support, and fulfillment
people.
We have surveyed approximately 500 comic book purchasers, identified
the most profitable clusters, and analyzed the deficiencies they see
in competitors, and figured out what features would excite them.
In the 10 days since launch, we’ve exceeded our four-month customer
signup projections, and the email feedback has been phenomenal.
