Shapeways Community Earns $100,000

April 20, 2011

From the truly-amazing-department: you guys have earned over $100,000 with your Shapeways shops, counting from the moment Shapeways started back in 2008. That’s true earnings, not just revenue. I think that deserves a round of applause! How about we aim for another $100,000 in just 6 months from now? 😉

(Picture: record shipment of 136 orders in one day, last month. From left to right: Egbert, Petra en Ramon)

Comments

• mitchell
  April 21, 2011 at 10:37 am
  Woe congrats all! Seems I have about 9% of the Shapeways earnings! 😮
  How about a celebration at Shapeways HQ Eindhoven?

• fx2
  April 21, 2011 at 11:42 am
  I’m wondering about the kind of distribution involved. My bet, based on my observations: top 15 shops earned 75% of the total sum. The next 100 shared 20% and all others the remaining 5%.

• Mitchell Jetten
  April 21, 2011 at 12:19 pm
  Fx2, don’t think that’s really true! Cause if you ask a lot of markup, you earn a lot as well, even if you’re not in the top 15 shops! (if you mean popular shops?)

• fx2
  April 21, 2011 at 2:10 pm
  Mitchell, I meant Top 15 shops by the amount they earn. Nothing to do with the Shapeways sorting “by popularity”

• Dizingof
  April 21, 2011 at 1:01 pm
  Congrats Shapeways, Very nice number! Another $100k in 6 months – it's doable!

• Todd Blatt
  April 21, 2011 at 2:36 pm
  If you take into consideration the fact that many designers are purchasing their own products en masse to sell offline, or on other sites, then you’ll find that the $100k number was surely surpassed back in 2010.

• Vijay Paul
  April 21, 2011 at 2:40 pm
  In addition to designers selling from their shops and through other agents, there are also design fees from people hiring modelers, good job well done.

• Gijs
  April 21, 2011 at 3:17 pm
  Somehow I had expected that to be more, but still it’s a great achievement! Congrats Mitchell for your massive contribution to this success 🙂 Party in Eindhoven sounds like a good plan.

• Mitchell Jetten
  April 21, 2011 at 5:33 pm
  Thanx Gijs! Of all my sales, 65% are made in my Shapeways shop I think! The other 35% are made by selling my stuff on trade fairs! I’ll ask tonight on the Shapeways live (the meeting).

• Glenn Slingsby
  April 21, 2011 at 10:15 pm
  I’m curious to know if Shapeways can tell us what the OVERALL most popular (in sales terms) sorts of items are that sell. I’m not asking for the names of the top shops. It’s along the lines of what I’ve been wanting to see for a while – a sort of “trending now” list. Is it jewelry, gadgets, toys, trains(!), etc?

• Gijs
  April 21, 2011 at 10:39 pm
  Most likely I think popular things are hobby related, like trains, collector things like puzzles and dice, jewelry of course and apple related accessories. Overall, the popularity of items (gallery sorted on popularity) will pretty much relate to what sells as well.

• duann scott
  April 21, 2011 at 11:54 pm
  Hey Gijs, you got it, the things people are passionate about are what sells the most so far. Dice, puzzles, trains, miniatures, and jewelry are all quite popular, selling well with a small mark-up, so lots and lots of sales. There is also growing interest in gadget accessories, especially if they are Apple flavored.

But we are constantly excited by the new niches that are opening up, robots, dinosaurs, steampunk, bike accessories, lego hacks, and more.
Also note that sales are not happening with linear growth but with spikes that are based on the popularity of individual items, that spreads throughout the Shapeways shops, then levels out at a higher point than previous sales. The more you promote your items, the more interest in Shapeways, the more sales for everyone. The next 100k is doable in the next 6 months if you all promote yourselves. Please feel free to contact me if you need any help.

• Dizingof
  April 21, 2011 at 11:30 pm
  My guess is puzzles are #1, trains, tiny figurines/sculptures (I foresee an explosion of sales in that area now with the new ultra detail material – it’s time to ride the ZBrush wagon), jewelry, dice, and gadgets.

• Glenn Slingsby
  April 22, 2011 at 1:16 am
  I’m really surprised that we don’t see more of the hard-core modelers from the ZBrush forums over here…

• pete
  April 22, 2011 at 1:47 am
  Agree on the Z-Brush modelers! Perhaps you should nudge them over? 😉