I don't know how profitable it is for Amazon (since the items are 15% off and they ship free), but it has worked out well for my fiancee and me. For things that we would have bought at Costco (shampoo, toothpaste, lotion), we are saving a little and we don't have to make that extra trip to Costco or carry heavy items from the car.
I hate running out of toothpaste, and you probably do too!
Every month or so, I use up all of my toothpaste, and have to run out to the store to pick some more up. This annoys me every time - toothpaste is NOT an impluse buy!
I mean, I've used the same brand for a decade. I brush my teeth twice a day. Clearly, toothpaste (and all of my other toiletries) is something I shouldn't have to worry about - it should just appear in my bathroom when needed!
My startup pitch is this:
A service that would, once a month, deliver by mail ALL of your needed toiletries - toothpaste, shampoo, shaving cream, deodorant, soap, etc. These would be the products you use normally - Old Spice, Colgate, Gillette, etc. The prices would be equal to, or often less than the store prices.
The response was overwhelming - 81.2% of respondents said that they would subscribe to the email list if Deals for Hackers existed.
So, keeping with my Customer Development approach, I'm now going to try to close 5 deals. These should be deals that the Hacker community cares about - books, tech conferences, gear, cool startup stuff, etc.
If you subscribe to the list (and please do), you'll start to receive deals if and when I can close them.
Totally agreed - I think that books will be a big part of the service. Wholesale books aren't too expensive when bought in bulk, and the savings can be passed on to users / customers.
What about "International Edition" textbooks? For example, the site could offer an international edition of a textbook for 1/10 the cost of the US edition. The International Edition textbooks are paperback, and of lower quality, but contain the same information, and are MUCH cheaper.
My understanding is that these are meant for developing nations, and the lower cost is an incentive for inducing education over there. Although it may be cheaper in the short term, in the long term you may be jeopardizing the business model and thus reducing developing nations' ability to obtain textbooks. Just throwing that out there.
I've heard a little about those editions but don't know much about them, so I think you might have some user education necessary. But it sounds great on the whole.
Great idea regarding the consultants. I'm sure there are a ton of consultants who would be happy to work with startups for cheap, in order to build long-term relationships.
