Everybody Helps: A Crowdpromotion Platform for Merchants

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  platform roadmap

Consider the following example which illustrates how to increase word-of-mouth about a merchant to attract new customers and increase the consumption of its current customers in order to support crowdfunding projects.

In this example, a current customer of the merchant uses an app to recommend its product.

Every time a new customer recommended by the current customer consumes the merchant products, the merchant compensates both, (1) the current customer (i.e.: token, discount, gift) and (2) supports a crowdfunding project.

In this particular example, current, new customers and the merchant have an economic incentive to support a crowdfunding project iff the software is prosocial by nature.

Within a platform, instead of calling this promotion approach crowdfunding, I call it crowd-promotion because many clients and merchants interact to promote and eventually support a crowdfunding project through a referral marketing program.

For example: https://www.moneynomad.com/over-100-referral-programs-that-pay-you-to-refer-a-friend/.

You can find here some referral programs. However, there is none that can adapt to small merchant needs (i.e. small retailer) and only a couple that are somehow prosocial.

Small merchants will need to reactivate their businesses due to Covid Impact. Yet, what kind of business are good for society, planet, etc...? Which tools are for consumers be strategic and support small local merchants?

As a small merchant, I need a software in which I can easlily create a referral promotion in which for every new customer I can compensate my current customers, and at the same time, I can allocate a small portion of earnings to support crowdfunding projects.

Do not confuse crowdfunding with crowdsourcing. They are two different things.

Current referral platforms seem too expensive and hard to use for small merchants. For example, https://www.getambassador.com. Extremely expensive. A little bit cheaper: https://www.omnistartell.com/. Their cheaper plan is 47 /month.

I believe that a simple software solution should base the earnings on a fee based on a comission directly to the referral campaing. That is, if the merchant is successfully then a comision is charged. No fix cost to enter.

For example, a carpenter that sells good quality chairs. If a current customer finds him a new customer that buys 100 chairs, the current customer can earn the money of/or 2 chairs, Crowdfunding program X can earn 2 chairs and the "referral" software can earn 2 chairs.

The key is to make it so simple that a not-hi-tech-lover carpenter will find it irresistible to adopt and try for free a prosocial referral promotion.

The biggest challenge this project faces is programming and assembling a team. Data protection can easily be solved with social network invitations... Then, other challenges appear such as creating AI algorithms to select to which people to send money and in which currency (i.e. criptocurrency).

I submit the idea here with a small prototype in the design as for simple consumer interface.

Congratulations to all EUvsCovid19 initiatives!