Folksbay is a social storefront that makes online shopping easy by delivering the best offers from reputable retailers based on a user's preferences and social connections. It provides a personalized shopping experience through smart search and recommendations. Folksbay aims to commercialize the Pinterest model of bookmarking and sharing by integrating e-commerce functionality to allow one-click purchases at the lowest prices. It compares to both comparison shopping sites and social bookmarking sites but seeks to offer a new approach that combines the best of both.

1. DRAFT
Revision #6a
Folksbay.com
WHERE RIGHT FOLKS MEET RIGHT STUFF
DisRaptor Team
Stanford Technology Entrepreneurship Class
arrr.partners@gmail.com
May 19, 2012

2. Value proposition
Folksbay is a social storefront that makes e-shopping
easy and fun, while keeping it pragmatic by
delivering the best offers from the most reputable e-
retailers. In a nutshell, Folksbay is a wish list that
magically happens be yours, plus a one-click way of
turning the wishes real at the lowest possible cost

3. Distinctive features
 Smart
 Personalized buyer’s storefront and search, which takes advantage of all
available marketing information, from Facebook Open Graph to country-
level marketing stats
 Pragmatic
 Only best-priced offers that are in stock of most reputable
suppliers, with shipment available to the user’s particular destination
 Clear
 Refined showcase, smart search, minimalist design, no ads, no
“sponsored products” pop-ups
 Honest
 Folksbay is a place for buying fast and at best prices, not a bookmarking
tool
 Social
 Fully integrated to major social networks and mobile space. Rewards
sharing - buy, rate and share products and earn bonuses and gifts

4. Comparative standing
E-retailers Comparison Bookmarking Folksbay
shopping *
Smart No No No Yes
Pragmatic Yes Yes No Yes
Clear No No Yes Yes
Honest Yes Yes No Yes
Social No** No Yes Yes
Reputable Yes Yes No (yet) No (yet)
Large Yes Yes No (yet) No (yet)
* Pinterest and alike
** besides small e-commerce businesses

5. How it works
Folksbay.com
Matching engine
Referral
Product
traffic
Customer preference
aggregation,
processing
screening
Personal information
Friends information
Demographic, social, … and other main stores
cultural and economic data

6. Market size
Top-down approach Bottom-up approach:
 US 2011 online ad market: $32bn  US comparison shopping
 Display ad: 35% cumulative monthly visitors (top-
 Performance-based: 65% 5 sites): 60mn
 Retail: 22%  Assuming:
 Intersection: $1.6bn (5.1% of  It’s only 1/5 of global referral
online ad market) traffic
 2014: $2.6bn (c.60% 3y growth)  1 click a month per visitor
 Based on 2011 actual data (PwC) and IAB projections  5% conversion rate for shopping
sites
 180mn purchases a year
 At $20 avg check, it’s $3.6bn
revenue
 Indirectly supported by estimates
of the “affiliate marketing”
spending mentioned in the
articles ($3-4bn)

7. Peers – summary
PRICES & VARIETY EXCITEMENT
Pragmatic consumer Emotional consumer
Comparison shopping Bookmarking & Sharing
[>60m*] [>20m]
Emerging class
* unique visitors a month, aggregate of top sites

8. Peers – summary
$3bn ad market $?? bn ad market
Bizrate.com /
Shopzilla.com, Pinterest.com, T
Nextag.com, S heFancy.com,
Repinly.com,
marter.com Clipix.com, Sumally.com,
Wookmark.com, fffffound.com, Mista
, Shopping.com, Pric sh.com, Gimmebar.com, Likabl.es, L
ookk.com
egrabbler.com,
Epinions.com...
Emerging class

9. Peers – Folksbay model
Emerging class, aiming at commercializing Pinterest
model
 Svpply.com [75k]
 Nuji.com [3k]
 Refer.ly (micro-affiliate model, startup)

10. Peers – Comparison shopping
E-commerce aggregators often referred to as “Smart
shopping” (they shouldn’t )
 Bizrate.com and Shopzilla.com [c.27m]
 Nextag.com [16m]
 Smarter.com [8m]
 Shopping.com (eBay company) [7m]
 Pricegrabbler.com [3m]
 Epinions.com [2m]

11. Peers – Bookmarking & Sharing
High concentration, still low competition
 Pinterest.com (pinned stuff) [20m]
 TheFancy.com (fancy stuff) [108k]
 Repinly.com (rated stuff) [47k]
 Clipix.com (clipped stuff) [5k]
 Sumally.com (all stuff) [1k]
 Others: Wookmark.com, fffffound.com, Mistash.com
(pivoting), Gimmebar.com, Likabl.es, Lookk.com