A New Social Shopping Tool Disappoints: A Review of Lemonade.com
An interesting new social shopping approach launched today in the form of Lemonade.com, a service billing itself “eCommerce for Everyone.” Users can set up their own “lemonade stand” and post it on a blog, Facebook account, etc. - then select their favorite products across the web to showcase there. The catch is, when a friend or reader buys a product through a user’s stand, they get a cut of the profits.
“I think this will drive some sales,†said Gene Alvarez, an analyst with Gartner, a consulting firm. “Word-of-mouth referrals tend to close more deals, and when you’re on my Facebook page and I’m selling something, you’ve gotten to know me. You don’t think of me as a dark, evil corporation.â€
It’s an intriguing concept, and so I started my morning by creating my own stand. The interface seems easy-to-use and attractive… I had my stand created and customized in minutes. However, the actual products themselves turned out to be a large letdown. I started by searching for Harry Potter books, because they’re popular products that I know would appeal to the friends that I’ll be marketing to. But I got zero results. When I expanded my search for to All Products, all I got a couple of Potter video games and a shirt. No books. A search for iPod brought up the entire Sharper Image catalog… but not an iPod product in sight. The 30 Rock: Season One DVDs? Brought me to a random Bob Dylan CD.
I want to like this service… it’s got a beautifully designed interface and great idea driving it. But, as in any eCommerce venture, it’s the products that drive success… and if you can’t find your favorite product to showcase? The appeal doesn’t last long.
Posted by Chris | September 10, 2007
Anonymous Coward September 10th, 2007
I’m interested in your opinion, and I trust you have a good grasp of what the e-commerce market demands — but when you review services like this one doesn’t it call for a disclaimer that you are developing your own e-commerce products and services? Don’t pull punches, but make sure your readers know you’re an e-commerce shop with your own product to sell. By not making such a disclaimer your call your motives into question.
Dan Shields September 10th, 2007
If anything Coward, their clients would benefit from this tool, so I don’t see how this product is any kind of competition for varien, it is actually more of a tool they could utilize.
Shannon, isn’t this service like CSE’s where people merchants have to submit their product. Maybe since it just launched today, it needs some time for people to actually submit their feeds or whatever. I’m not sure I didn’t take a look at it yet, but just went on what I saw at another blog about the product.
Shannon September 11th, 2007
Hey Anonymous,
Our service and their’s really have nothing to do with each other, and like Dan pointed out, this is something that our clients could very well benefit from. It’s a really cool idea that I want to see work!
Hey Dan,
That’s a good point. My opinion on the service was based on the the multitude of stores that they advertised on their frontpage as carrying products from, (Walmart, iTunes, etc.) so I honestly may have expected a greater variety than I should have. We’ll take another look at the service in a month or so.
Dan Shields September 12th, 2007
Did you see anywhere on how you can become one of the stores submitting products. I looked everywhere and didn’t see any documentation.
Shannon September 14th, 2007
Dan,
I looked too, and it doesn’t seem to be anywhere! I sure hope they can turn this service around…
Scott Wilson October 6th, 2007
The launch date was only mid-September, according to killerstratups.com
http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/lemonade–Set-up-a-digital-Lemonade-Stand-and-Make/
so you might just be experiencing some teething pain.
I agree with Dan, that the first commenter is way off in his criticism. Lemonade and Magento (and Varien’s other offerings) serve completely different markets.
I would like to see more analysis of the true competitors in this cart-less selling space, such as Lemonade vs. WidgetBucks.
Cart-less selling, monetization and Lemonade : The Cart Blog October 6th, 2007
[…] As I said in my last post, I am a huge fan of utilities that let non-software-developers (i.e. “the ungeeked”) create a revenue stream from their website or blog.  I like the idea of WidgetBucks, and I like the idea of Lemonade (they’re a bit different - WidgetBucks selects products based on page analysis, where as Lemonade lets you choose your favorite products).   The Varien guys were negative on Lemonade because of poor product choices, but this has to be something that they’re working on. I think that for people who don’t want a cart or an Amazon store, simple options like this - used in moderation - could be a successful monetization mechanism. We’ll see. […]
Jane Schneider February 7th, 2008
Greetings,
I see it’s been a long time since the beginning and initial review of the Lemonade.com website. I suggest another review may be in order.
While it appears some people new in the process last fall may have benefitted from suggestions via their stands it appears to me that the site is now saturated with sellers and no buyers.
I give my own case as a point of reference. On December 29, 2007 I set up my first stand. I quickly realized that once you are off the first page or so know one really sees the page and you drop into Lemonade obscurity unless you have a lot of friends willing to look and buy or are linked to other available sites such a Facebook.
I tried an experiment and worked for at least 2-3 hours a day researching and creating stands. To date I have rotated in and out over 20 stands, had over 50 ‘clicks’ registered but no payouts. I know the payouts are sometimes delayed up to 2 months so that is really not my issue.
I believe in order for this site to be successful it has to re-tool, getting rid of sites not active say, otherwise the stands continue to grow (now over 27,000) and there appears to be fewer and fewer views on everyones stands.
I was really interested in this concept, knowing I would not pay for a vacation but hoping at least to pay for some E-Bay purchases. In my humble opinion the site is now over-saturated and will soon become stagnant.
Perhaps the developers can take their money and run.
My 2 cents (or clicks)
mercury auto insurance california allstate car insurance February 17th, 2008
I love this site, there is so much information to be found. Thank you.
Gail August 27th, 2008
Perhaps they already have taken their money and ran. I am unable to log in today and I have three emails in the queue with them. I have written but no response. Is anyone having issues with Lemonade.com? I was hoping to update my stands but am unable to do so, and some items appear not to be available any more. I guess I will just drop the stands from my site……………