Spyderco App enhancements

[pantagana23]

I've been scrolling through the Android app for some days now, and the first thing that I could not find - dealers exclusives. It would be great if you could put this in.

One other thing that comes to mind on top of that - if you could put links to sites of authorized distributors/dealers for standard editions/sprint runs/exclusives.

This could be of interest to both sellers and the factory (to factory especially if you charge a small fee if we order through the link in the app :D ).

What do you think?

Anyone else with some other ideas?

[p_atrick]

You can do so many things with an app, the choices are almost limitless. I guess the biggest question is, why install the app? What do you get with it that you can't easily do elsewhere? Once you answer that, then it gets easier to determine what enhancements are needed. If the purpose of the app is to help with purchases, then I would like to see the following:

• When you search for a knife, the results are a list of retailers who have the knife in stock. This reduces the amount of sites you have to visit to find the knife you want.
• Be able to purchase the knife in the app from your retailer of choice. I would hate to see Spyderco charge a fee for this. Adding fees is an incentive to not be a part of the app search results. Spyderco already sold the knife to the retailer, so they've made their money. If Spyderco can help their retail partners with a sale, then everybody wins.
• Get push notifications when a knife on your wish list is back in stock. These notifications can be general (i.e., the knife is available at any retailer) or specific to a particular retailer (I know some are loyal to certain knife shops).
• Provide prospective viewers with information to help them with their purchase. Perhaps embed reviews about the knife and maybe the official disassembly videos we've been seeing. You could also link those quick product overview videos as well.
• Provide some sort of official communication between the Spyderco community and retailers with regards to exclusives. That is, a retailer could post polls about possible exclusives. Asking a retailer (especially a small one) to make a large purchase with the hopes that we will go crazy for an exclusive is risky (see the Fradon Lock company and their CF/HAP40 Delica). Having an idea of what the public wants reduces (somewhat) the risk of placing a larger order. Best case scenario, we may see more exclusives (but probably not).
• The photo thread on the forum is amazing. Maybe create a way for users to upload photos (with tags) to the app*.

* I am a bit leery of having app specific content, like the photos and communication about exclusives. The benefit of this forum is that a website can be crawled by search engines. This content is viewable by anyone with an internet connection. That means people who are not already into Spyderco (they probably wouldn't have the app) can stumble onto this great community. With an app, however, that information is outside the view of search engines. That information is restricted to the app, and I would guess that the number of people who have installed the app is much less than the number people who visit Spydero's website and this forum.

[jabba359]

I would prefer the app to *not* be a point of sale. I'd rather have it be a sort of ultimate Spydiewiki in app form, with information on all the models, their variants, release dates, prices, pictures, etc. There are enough other things out there trying to constantly sell me stuff that I don't need yet another.

I don't think having the app be a point of purchase to various vendors is realistic. Trying to integrate the stock levels of so many different stores would be a monumental task, not to mention that filtering everything through a single point of sales would restrict each seller's ability to distinguish themselves. I don't see the dealers getting on board with this.

[p_atrick]

I don't think having the app be a point of purchase to various vendors is realistic. Trying to integrate the stock levels of so many different stores would be a monumental task...

I've never done this, so I could be misrepresenting the following process. Basic "in stock" and "out of stock" information is already given on a retailer's website. The number of Spyderco retailers is finite. You could scrape all of these pages for the "out of stock" message. Yes, Spyderco has lots of models and there are many retailers, but computers are great at repetitive tasks.

...not to mention that filtering everything through a single point of sales would restrict each seller's ability to distinguish themselves. I don't see the dealers getting on board with this.

That's probably the biggest reason why a retailer would not want to participate. I wonder what the most popular manufacturers (in terms of knives sold) are for each retailer. I don't think Spyderco sales alone could prop up any one retailer. Blade HQ does a good job at trying to stay relevant in the age of Amazon. They have exclusives with many companies, offer freebies with the purchase of a knife, have an active YT channel, etc. They work hard to stand out as a unique retailer and they try and build an online relationship with customers. I could see how integrating their sales with an app would strip them of all that they have done to set themselves apart from the others. I'm sure other retailers do similar things, I'm just most familiar with Blade HQ.

[pantagana23]

I would prefer the app to *not* be a point of sale. I'd rather have it be a sort of ultimate Spydiewiki in app form, with information on all the models, their variants, release dates, prices, pictures, etc. There are enough other things out there trying to constantly sell me stuff that I don't need yet another.

I don't think having the app be a point of purchase to various vendors is realistic. Trying to integrate the stock levels of so many different stores would be a monumental task, not to mention that filtering everything through a single point of sales would restrict each seller's ability to distinguish themselves. I don't see the dealers getting on board with this.

Fair enough.

Hoewever, a mirror from the website, which also shows exclusives, would be needed if the app would be a wiki.

[Frozenspyder]

I hope that sprints, exclusives and discontinued models are eventually added. I'd also like to see some kind of comparison tool. It would be nice to be able to compare two models if you're trying to decide which to buy or comparing a model you already own to a new release to get an idea of the size and weight.

A little off topic, but are the weights off on everyone's app?

[JuPaul]

I hope that sprints, exclusives and discontinued models are eventually added. I'd also like to see some kind of comparison tool.

The app's "New App Features" section says they're working on adding all the exclusives, sprints and discontinued models to the app catalogue.

I'd also like to see a comparison tool to do side-by-sides of both knives and steels. Blade HQ has a steel comparison section on their website that's formatted in a really helpful way - basically it rates the edge retention, toughness, sharpenability, and stain resistance of common knife steels from 1 to 10. I'd love to see spyderco do something like that based on its own internal testing of the steels it uses. At the very least, I'd like to see more of a written description of each steel they use beyond the chemical makeup, and brief comparisons with other steels they use.

I think it'd also be cool to link to the forum from the app.

[TazKristi]

Thanks much, everyone for your thoughts. Great thread! I can't tell you what's to come, but I can tell you this app was a few years in the making. We have a very long list of enhancements and new features that we have planned. Some take more Developer Magic than others, but the app will not stay static. It will be something we continue to apply CQI to, just like everything else we do.

Please keep sharing your thoughts. Your feedback and ideas are important to us.

Kristi

[Doc Dan]

I would really like to see spydiewiki on the app.

I would like the app to work on my iPad no matter what.

[jabba359]

And I don't know where the rights for The Spyderco Story reside, but since it's out of print and not likely to come back, it would be cool if the models that are covered in that book had the info ported over to the app. So, for instance, if I go to the Delica page on the app, I could access the chapter about the Delica from The Spyderco Story. Even if that required an in-app purchase, it might prove a popular option.