Ask HN: Rate a StartUp Zatista.com
zatista.com
zatista.com
This is a great way for individual artists to get paid for their work. The only thing I can really think of is for more sub-categories: you currently have type -> medium -> style, but take a look at InterfaceLIFT's tag browser criterion: http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/tags/
Color — Scene — Location — Medium — Event — Equipment — Subject. Some are irrelevant, but if I'm looking to drill down even further, these could really help. And, along with your explorer, it could drive a thing I call the Clicker User: the guy that clicks around the site looking for awesome random stuff to pop up.
+1 for favorites functionality. Dunno why, but a lot of startups seem to forget about the power of favoriting. There are some sites that I wish allowed favoriting that don't do it, which I can't understand.
I don't know about others, but I'm always looking for art to fill my pad with. Awesome startup, awesome execution. Startups should look to this co for some execution inspiration.
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Viaweb wasn't the first startup Robert Morris and I started. In January 1995, we and a couple friends started a company called Artix. The plan was to put art galleries on the Web. In retrospect, I wonder how we could have wasted our time on anything so stupid. Galleries are not especially excited about being on the Web even now, ten years later. They don't want to have their stock visible to any random visitor, like an antique store. [2]
Your site is also easy to navigate and clear in what it provides.
Keep talking to your users... you seem to be on the right track.
I'm curious, how did you market to artists? You seem to have a lot of variety on your site so I'd like to know how you got so many artists to agree.
Edit: I like the Art 101 section as well. Especially this: http://www.zatista.com/art101/getting_started/good_art
Edit 2: On this http://www.zatista.com/art101/getting_started/hanging_art
Some pictures might be helpful.
My perception was that the art market has two main categories:
a) Original art (no prints or reproductions), which is sometimes bought as an investment or by people who think they are art experts and can buy something unique from and up and coming young artist. It's not just a market, it's a community with its own reputation mechanisms and fashions. Nothing coming from that direction is ever being sold for $75 online.
b) Mass prints of stuff to decorate rooms.
It seems to me that you are trying to invent a new market. But it may be that I'm just not sufficiently familiar with the art scene.
In any event, I wish you luck and congrats to your high quality website.
also, we bought a couple of paintings from a similar site about 8 or 9 years ago, so this idea has been around a while (no idea of they still exist - cannot remember the site's name; the artists were from ex-soviet block countries, if i remember right).
love the site, btw.
when we bought something (from a similar site) we were a bit surprised by what we received - we had no idea that one work included some collage, or that it was so textured. showing that kid of information on a computer screen isn't trivial. might be something to worry about (we kept both and still have them, and really like them).
I know a little bit about Etsy - just enough to know that artists like the ones on Zatista complain about being undeserved by Etsy. There are lots of individual artists out there that don't want an art gallery for their works, they want a boutique store that sells unique paintings.
The site looks great and I wish the founder huge success!
My first impression of the site is that I see a big blank white space on your home page (next to the green holiday gift certificate). That feels like a glaring hole, especially above the fold on your front page. Perhaps you could use that space to emphasize the relatively small text above it: "Real art, from real artists. No prints, no reproductions."
Speaking of the holiday gift card, the green banner says I can save $100 on a purchase over $500, then the product details page says, "Holiday Special: Get $50 off a $500 order."
The "Zoom & Explore" feature isn't useful. The magnifier shows me a pixelated version of the regular image. I think I would prefer to just see a higher-resolution image with your watermark. Also, the first time I opened the "Zoom & Explore" feature, I couldn't move the magnification and magnifier size sliders.
Going back to your site's strengths, I like that on the product details page, there is a picture of the artist with their name and location. It gives a nice personal touch.
I hope you keep up the good work, and I wish for the best for you.
Glad someone beat me to it though, since maybe now I can find an easy avenue to sell some paintings on if I ever get back into it.
I agree with others about how awesome the speed of the site is. It really makes a big difference, especially on a graphics-intensive site.
What are you using for hosting? Or are you guys running your own hardware?
But I wonder how sales in the higher price range (> $500 or so) are going. Historically, fine art pricing (especially as prices move out of the range of the casual shopper) has been very much tied to the identity of the artist. Am I going to pay $2000 for a painting from an artist that I know next to nothing about? And from a virtual gallery? Probably not.
The brick and mortar gallery model relies on this kind reputation and identity. And even when an artist is unknown, the reputation of the gallery is shared with the artist.
So I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not sure about the consumer fundamentals here. Etsy's pool of sellers is quite different in that prices stay for the most part under a hundred bucks. With lower prices comes higher volume. And Etsy's model ($.20 per listing per four months) exploits that volume. Etsy also takes a percentage of the sale, which Zatista is doing.
Sorry for a little ambivalence.
A few notes:
It would be nice to have the AJAX search stuff change the URL so searches can be linked to.
(I have a lot of minor design quibbles. If you'd like I can go through more of them. These next two are the first things that jumped out at me.)
The 'get live advice' widget seems very out of place to me in terms of design. The stock photo is annoying me particularly.
There are at least four different button designs on the front page. Some difference is ok, but I think they need to have something in common.
On my screen (1680 x 1050) the "live chat" graphic overlaps the "My Account" link & text in top header.
Because, you're selling high ticket priced items, I would recommend you place a seal or two in the footer. Possibly near the "add to cart" & checkout buttons as well. I know it may sound silly, but a mcafee seal (as much as i hate this fact) can impact conversions significantly in certain industries. Do lots of testing before committing to any seal.
I'm curious, was your cart completely built in house or is it based on some cart out there. I'm truly impressed with the sites performance.
Some \n\n in http://www.zatista.com/product/details/4155/sequence-10
I'd horizontally mirror the "why buy art here" bubble, so it does not look like the content is asking but someone from the outside.
You need some <noscript> hints.
Nice!
Explorer didn't seem to really show me things I liked, I think that's going to be really tough with art, as each piece is unique and things that may seem similar evoke quite different reactions.
Still, the site has me seriously considering buying something. So there you go.
Being a data guy myself, it would be nice if you could build in some light algorithms to hide all the art that I find distasteful, but I guess that is a task for another day!
Good amount of pieces, btw. How did you manage to get that many people on board?
I'm on Firefox 3.5.5.
Here's a screenshot: http://i45.tinypic.com/awywcw.png
Other than that great site.
I notice if I choose a large picture, and then view it in a virtual room the picture overlaps the furniture instead of hanging behind it.
Pete Borowsky Founder/CEO, Zatista
As a complete philistine, I really like the search feature (http://www.zatista.com/search). It's powerful, without being overwhelming.