Announcing Pinside Shops!
Pinside Shops is a brand new section of the Pinside Marketplace aimed specifically at aftermarket pinball parts and mods (new, from stock or built to order). It’s the counterpart of the Classifieds section in the Pinside Marketplace (which is meant for second-hand listings).
Background
When we set out to create our Marketplace, our intention was to build a platform for used games and parts where Pinsiders could list their games for sale (or place wanted ads). But since the mods and aftermarket parts “industry” has really set off, we are seeing an huge surge in new/original items placed on the Marketplace. From flipper bat toppers to led kits, illuminated aprons and mirror blades. As well as many game-specific mods: we love them! But they do conflict with what our original intent for a secondhand marketplace - plus they’re a pain for sellers to maintain due to the auto-expiring nature of Marketplace ads. A brand new section of the Pinside Marketplace, aimed specifically at aftermarket pinball parts and mods Enter Pinside Shops. Shop items are the counterpart for classified ads and are meant for listing new aftermarket parts and mods in a sellers own little space on Pinside. Essentially anything that is newly created and probably delivered from a stock supply.
Imagine being able to see everything sellers on Pinside are offering for the games in your collection. Go ahead and check out the personalized shops offerings for games in your collection!
Pinside shopping cart
One of the cool features of Pinside Shops is that Pinsiders can immediately add items to their shopping cart on Pinside. Pinside handles orders, payments and tools for communication between shop owner (seller) and Pinsider (buyer). Your cart is persistent (i.e. "remembered" as it does not time out) and doubles as a wishlist: you can hold as many items from as many shops in your cart as you wish. But don’t wait too long with ordering for items can still sell out regardless of having them in your cart! Another advantage of the Pinside shopping cart is that Pinside remembers your shipping address(es), which can then be used for any order at any shop on Pinside. .
Product and shop reviews (coming soon)
This is a planned feature that will allow customers to place a review about their experience with a shop as well as review the shop items they bought. Pinside is a community and we feel that reviews/ratings are an important aspect of our shops ecosystem. On the other hand, we also believe in protecting shops from foul play and therefore only actual customers can review items. Plus we offer the shop the option to reply to any feedback that gets published.
Promo boxes: displaying relevant cool items throughout Pinside
Much like classified ads (and especially featured ads), we try our best to make shop items appear everywhere where people may be interested in seeing them. The archive page for any particular game (e.g. Wizard of Oz or Ghostbusters). But since a lot of these items are such a large part of the hobby we also wanted them to be more visible. We came up with the concept of a cool little promo box which will be shown in forum topics and contain relevant items that may interest you (we hope!). The appearance of this box can be managed in your forum settings (for plus members only). We try our best to make shop items appear everywhere where people may be interested in seeing them.
Launch partners!
We are very proud to be launching Pinside Shops with some of our favourite mod makers: Ulek Store, Modfather and LerMods as well as the great aftermarket parts from Kahr.US Circuits and PinSound.
Creating a shop
If you are a parts/mods manufacturer, chances are that you are already registered in the Pinside Biz index. From your biz profile, it’s easy to create your own shop. It’s as simple as configuring some settings (like your shop name, shipping etc) and then you can start adding your items. Visitors will now be able to easily browse your inventory in one central location and your items will pop up in all the relevant places on the site.
How do payments work?
All payments, whether via Credit Card or a Paypal account, are handled by Paypal (using their “adaptive payments” system). It’s important to note that whenever you place an order, the total amount is immediately sent to the shop owner and NOT to Pinside. This is important because it also means all orders fall under Paypals protection and potential disputes will also be handled by them. Pinside does not get in the way and only serves as the shopping/e-commerce platform. Go ahead and check out the personalized shops offerings for games in your collection! When you place an order:
- Your payment is sent directly to the owner of the shop where you ordered.
- The order is created in the Pinside order management system.
- Both you and the shop owner get notified via e-mail about the order.
- Both you and the shop owner can view the order in the Pinside order management system.
- Communication about the order is done in the Pinside order management system.
- Pinside automatically charges a fixed percentage over the order total, our platform fee, to the shop in question.
More information about the terms, conditions and inner workings of the Shops system (Pinside Shops Policies and Seller Quick Start Guides) can be found here in the help section.
Future plans
If you already have an existing e-commerce solution, you may be hesitant to add another shopping system that needs managing (although that drawback may not weigh up to the amount of added exposure Pinside generates). We are considering adding an option for cart-less shops if there is interest. We are also considering adding options for game distributors to have a presence on Pinside where they can list stock games. More on this in the near future.
Pinside shops are in beta. Please report any issues, bugs or feature requests - PM Robin!