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Since 2008, we have notices that multiply has created revenue generating schemes sourced mainly from online sellers such as:
- Multiply Premium (799 php/year) - Online Sellers subscribe to this because they do not want ads to be seen within their multiply site and also for their product images to be able to be zoomed in
- Multiply Promote™ - Online Sellers advertise depending on their budget so that their ads will be seen in the non-premium users multiply sites (This is similar to facebook ads)
- Multiply Trust: Trusted Seller (1,999 php/year) , Trusted Merchant (2,999php/year), Trusted Business (4,999 php/year) - Online Sellers pay for them to be verified by multiply and trusted by online buyers because if something goes wrong the buyer gets a refund
We first noticed about the new feature when we saw this on our multiply page. It got us really interested so we instantly tried it out.
As we clicked on the "add product" it brought me to a new categories called "Stock Room" which requires your bank details before you could proceed.
As can be reasonably expected, the service charges a fee. The basis of the fee was unlike other schemes previously introduced that involved fixed payments. This service costs 3.9% of the total sales price. Therefore, if you do not sell anything then you don't pay anything. On the other hand, if you do sell something and your sales price is high then your fee will be expensive.
When we proceeded to the product listing, we had the impression that Multiply studied very well about the issues at hand. We were impressed with its flexibility. It allows sellers to state whether the product is actively for sale, on hold or out of stock. It embeds both pictures and videos. There are two payment models available: buy it now and invoice. They even considered pre-orders, down payments and installments. They also added options for variations such as sizes and colors. In addition, it also has an automatic update in Facebook, twitter and yahoo! function.
The product layout looks professional. It reminds me of the interface of amazon where customers choose different view points and zoom on the image they want. The price is indicated and customers can select the quantity. An "inquire" or "add to cart" button is shown depending on the payment method.
Once the buyers add to cart and then proceed to check out, they will be asked to choose shipping options. In either options, they have to pay in advance to multiply. They can pay via BDO or BPI bank deposit, Gcash or paypal.
If buyers choose invoices, they will receive an invoice in their inbox.
The "Stock Room" has more functions than just product listings. It as its own menu located at the left side. The most interesting function we found new was the Badges. Badges can now be embedded on other sites to direct them to your multiply site. However, we did not like how the flash badges worked especially when showing the latest products. It would scroll upward to shift between products then scroll to the right or left to shift to product images. It made us dizzy...
We also find the new statistics quite useful. We could now easily monitor our visitors and study which of our products are appealing to our market.
Overall, we think Multiply hit the right mark and at a great start. Now, anyone can create their online stores with professional interface even without programming knowledge. This will probably captivate more people to start online selling. We will be looking forward to more improvements in the coming months. However, we also have to consider what type of product we are selling. If the sales price is high, then this system would be impractical unless Multiply implements other fee arrangements. But considering most online sellers sell low priced goods, many would certainly opt to embraced the current scheme.