Honey Comb Commerce - Shopify Partner App Network
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If you are on the Shopify platform or work with customers who are then this tool might be of interest.
Honeycombcommerce handles all the back end logistic when partnering with another store to sell complimentary products or services. In addition the have a network of stores and you might find someone to partner with.
Many Shopify stores specialize in something the store owner does very well, this creates unique opportunities for partnering with others. The challenge is in the details which this app takes care of.
Speaker 1: (00:02)
This is digital marketing tool talk, never miss out or fall behind on the latest digital tools for social media, SEO content reviews, and the entire digital marketing space. I'm your host, Brandon Hughes. Welcome back everyone. I hope you really enjoyed that last episode with get carol.com I really would like to know if any of you were able to partner or find an Instagram influencer that was already a part of your system. Well, there's an old proverb that says, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. And today's tool I'm going to talk to you about is basically a switchboard that allows two online stores to connect and have commerce flow between them. So imagine for a second I sell work boots and you sell work clubs. We have the same customers and we're probably reaching out to the same people on a day to day basis. Wouldn't it be great if you could feature your gloves on my website and I could feature my boots on yours or at checkout before they leave. We offer them an upsell that shows another quality vetted product. Well today I want to talk to you about a tool called honeycomb commerce that will do just that.
Speaker 1: (01:40)
Okay. Honeycomb commerce. Uh, what is it? What's going on? First off, let me tell you, it is a Shopify only app at this point. So if you're not there, go ahead. I'll see you in the next episode. But for those who are on Shopify, thinking about Shopify or maybe have clients on Shopify, then listen here. So the first thing you're going to do with the honeycomb commerce, you know, obviously besides downloading the app is you're going to apply to the network. Yeah. There is an application process that you need to do, um, just to verify that you are something that will work within the system. Now, what's interesting here you'll see is, you know, earlier I mentioned, Hey, if I have boots and you have gloves while what a great fit, but maybe you don't know anyone out there who sells the boots and you have these gloves and you want to make this connection, the network will show you other people who are out there on it currently.
Speaker 1: (02:45)
So there may be ideas out there that you didn't even think about today that you can connect with other suppliers or retailers, uh, to make that connection, uh, find, you know, a brand partner. So yeah, if you have someone in already, great. If you don't, just getting into the network might expose you to somebody who would be a good, uh, brand fit. Now, you don't have to sync all your products. Maybe there's just one or two things that you have, um, maybe it's your favorites or something you want to push or something that you can, uh, you know, come up with more supply you can ramp up quickly for. So you can add in sync the products that you want, uh, through there. And then a honeycomb will automatically inject the items sold on the retailer store as a new order in the suppliers, Shopify admin.
Speaker 1: (03:37)
So it kinda handles all the backend of everything that's going on. So, so once you put this in and you're in the network, let's say your the retailer. Okay? So you're the person who's making the sale. Now when I say retailer, that doesn't necessarily mean you have to be a brick and mortar. The retailer is just a person who is making the sale. So you may have a website and a person comes to your website and purchase his, the product that you would be the retailer. So, um, as of this example, you would keep a portion of the sale. So for this example, let's use 33%. Okay? That can be negotiated between the two of those partners. But for this example, 33% that you're responsible for taking the order and any customer service inquiries at that point in time. Okay? Now the supplier, the person who's supplying the product would be responsible for fulfillment, for handling the shipping and any returns they would keep.
Speaker 1: (04:45)
In this example, 60% of the sale. So if you do a little quick math there, you'll see, okay, that's 93% where's the 7% go? Well, honeycomb commerce got to make some money. They're grabbing the 7%. Now the 7% decreases as your volume goes up. So that's kind of nice. If you're doing more volume through the network, then the percentage of their taking will go down, then you can pocket that or you can use that to negotiate, uh, as needed. So that's basically how the network kind of works. You get in there and you partner with somebody and that's the process that goes through. So I want you to consider a couple of things here that I found very interesting. You know, um, I'm here in Hawaii and we have a lot of tourist shops and a lot of these are just specialty shops, you know, soaps and a lot of shell type of items.
Speaker 1: (05:36)
And these are brick and mortar places and I know they pay big money to have these brick and mortar shops in these high traffic areas. If not brick and mortar shop is using the Shopify POS system. You can connect with them. So you may just provide that supplier with a sample that they display in their store and then the purchase is done online and you shipped direct to wherever that customer may be. That could really give you some amazing exposure to some foot traffic. So, you know, not only is it a partnership, but it's, it's as marketing, this is getting that out and displaying your product in front of physical people in a showroom. Um, you know, some of these showrooms, there's a lot of extra space that's available and if you present it and you match their decor and you maybe match their brand or the level of quality that they have in their shop, I'm sure you could negotiate something with them in order to get your product in there so that, uh, that's what honeycomb commerce calls showrooming.
Speaker 1: (06:48)
You're taking your item, you're putting it in there. It's just a sample. They don't have it available on the spot, but they can make that order. Okay. Uh, the other is, um, if your product is a onetime purchase, okay. Uh, creating automated flows through your CRM to put CRM to put these complimentary partner products is a great add on. Okay. So if you're selling something already and it's going out and you're like, okay, you know that they already have their credit card out, you're making the sale, you've collected their information to present them with some sort of complimentary product and add on that you don't currently have is something that a network like honeycomb commerce could be perfect for you. So if you, if you know you're driving traffic and you're already making the sales and you're missing out because you don't have something complimentary to that, um, let's say maybe you're selling chocolates, I think it would be great to just add on some custom coffee, you know, to that, to have that available.
Speaker 1: (07:57)
And if you're selling high end quality level chocolates, then you'd want to partner with somebody who's selling a well packaged well presented type of coffee that goes with that. Now, when I first looked at honeycomb commerce, I said, ah, you know, why, why, why, why do I want to use them? It sounds like something that I could just kind of do on my own. I could just go up to somebody and say, Hey, you know what, let me just put myself in your showroom or your store or Hey, here's my images. Could you include it on your website? And whenever you sell one, I'll go ahead and give you a commission. I'll give you a cut. It sounds like something that I could just go ahead and do on my own. Well, as I was going through their website and I, you get down into the FAQ, this is where you realize you want to have this network in there because there's a lot of things that come up.
Speaker 1: (08:48)
Uh, some of the items that, that, that they bring up is how is inventory going to be handled, right? So that's already a huge issue. If they're selling and you run out who's communicating that? You call them, they don't answer the email, they don't read it. Um, inventory is something that needs to be managed. Uh, so honeycomb does that. They kind of sync that. Uh, then there's the issue about mortar. If you change prices, right? Raise them, lower them. What if there's a store wide sale, uh, discounts that may be offered? Does that include yours? So these are things that kinda need to be brought up, need to be addressed. Uh, who's responsible for shipping fees and costs? That's huge. It's even bigger if international orders are allowed. Are they, uh, who's going to discuss that? How is that handled with the taxes, the fees, VAT, it goes on and on, uh, refunds, returns.
Speaker 1: (09:46)
Who handles that? Who's responsible for it, who's paying for it, who's doing the shipping on and on and on and on. If you guys do eCommerce or if you sell, um, anything online or through a retail, brick and mortar type of situation, you know, returns and refunds need to be detailed and outlined specifically because it's just part of what happens. Then of course, there's a questions about revenue. So that's all discussed. Um, out front you talk about brand and, and all of these other things that come into play. It's important that all of this is addressed, that it's clear that you have a go between in between the two of you so that it works and it works out well. Um, it's a great idea, a lot of time and, and there's a lot of ideas out there that are great, but it's the execution is where we tend to stumble.
Speaker 1: (10:43)
So I think partnering with people is a great idea, especially if you have a complimentary product or service or that a partner can expose you to new traffic or a new region or a new type of customer, but handling the details, that's the critical part. I think honeycomb commerce might be the tool you'd want to try out if that's something you've thought of doing. If you like what you heard today, please rate review and subscribe to this podcast. If you have a digital marketing tool that you like or you use or even one that you've created, let me know in the comments or send me an email@brandonpokumarketing.com. I'll see you on the new school flip side.
