Atom / Atom.com - Marketplace (formerly Squadhelp)

[JudgeMind]

Hey Folks,

I've just started using squadhelp.com to list some of my brandable. So far I have 76 domains listed, there is no fee to list. I've had some decent action so far in the way of interested buyers but no sales as of yet. I've only been with them for 1 week now.

A bit of a summary review of SquadHelp:

PROS

• No Listing fee
• No Logo design fee
• Ability to submit your names to end users holding naming contests
• Ability to chat directly or send a message directly to end users.
• Stats of your marketplace domains are shown in the marketplace dashboard.
• Their customer service and support has been great, 24hr a day chat.
• Ability to increase or decrease the list price of your domains or to show a discount. You can decrease or increase the price yourself by $200. If you want to lower more, you can contact support.
• End users can shortlist your domains before they make a decision on which they want to purchase. The number of shortlists is shown in you marketplace dashboard.
• When you submit your names you get to set the price you wish to get. Because their commissions are high I recommend listing at a higher price to offset the commission costs.
• Their landing pages are fairly basic but they work. Because the marketplace is fairly new, I'm sure we will see style improvements in the future.
• One thing I really like is they accept multiple extensions. I have listed .co and .io along with .com
• Each seller gets a direct link to their marketplace portfolio, HERES MY PORTFOLIO. It is handy if your trying to p[promote your portfolio through social media.
• I like that their marketplace doesn't have tens of thousands domain listings like BB. They are fairly strict on the domains they accept to list and so this helps keep the number of domains in the marketplace down and gets your listings more exposure.

CONS

• Their commissions are very high, depending on the domain name they are usually between 30% and 35%. However, there are no listing fees, no logo design fees, so in the end their commission is very similar to brand buckets.
• Their logos are not top quality, in fact I requested to have some of my logos remade.
• I think they have a big backlog of logos to design, the wait time for logo design has been around 1 week, but your names are still listed while the logos are being designed.
• After your names are accepted you need to agree to their commission rate, at this point you also need to apply your own keywords, descriptions etc. I found this was very time consuming.

 

[myfavorite]

Is this normal???

It's normal for name with high interest, but at the end what is needed is sales.

 

[myfavorite]

I opened an account 4 weeks ago and submitted 12 names and they approved 5 of them and today I received an email that one of them was sold

Congratulations. Some of us are still expecting our congratulatory email

 

[BrandCougar]

Hi all,

I would like to chime in here with one clarification. Our 6 month sell through rate calculation is actually a bit understated. Here's why:

Currently, our 6 month sell through is calculated based upon the names that were added to the marketplace atleast 6 months ago. So if you had 100 domains listed as of 6 month ago, and 6 of those domains sold, you will see a 6% sell through. However, in many cases, domains are being sold within few weeks of being listed. If a domain was added to the marketplace less than 6 month ago, and it sells, it does not get included in the sell through % for 6 months or 12 months.

We plan to correct this formula to provide a more accurate view of the sell through rates. It is also important for us to ensure that these metrics are not misleading or overstated in any way, therefore, we prefer to be more conservative in these calculations.

I would also like to point out that the size of individual seller portfolio has no bearing on the sell through rate for the platform. This is because we are computing the overall platform metric based upon total number of domains that sold (across the entire platform), after being listed for 6 months. So while it is possible that some of the sellers with smaller portfolio may see an exceptionally high sell through rate, this does not play a role into the calculation of the overall sell through rate for the entire platform.

Having said this (and to be fair to other marketplaces), we do expect our 6 month as well as 12 month sell through rates to decline a bit over time as our marketplace continues to expand.

@GrantP -

Thank you for sharing the model used to calculate the SQH trailing 6 month and 12 month Sell-Thru rate metric.

The model you mentioned makes sense and provides much needed clarity. Well done!

This also answers a question I had to why I had a sale over this summer, yet my 6 month metric %percentage does not reflect this sale in its calculation.

Grant - I am curious - does the formula being used include Retail (end user) external sales only? Or does the formula also include "Wholesale" sales that occur within the internal Wholesale market? (it seems to me the metrics should reflect external - Retail - sales only as internal Wholesale sales are only an inventory ownership shift and not an external Revenue event for SQH) [please advise]

Thank you again for providing clarity on how the calculation model is defined.

I hope you will continue to use this specific model so that we (inventory providers) can track Sell-Thru rate trending over time with an Apples-to-Apples formula calculation model being used. Changing the model would skew trending results. Many of us are metrics driven decision makers.

What would also be extremely insightful would be a 3 year trend line graph for members showing how the 6 month and 12 month Sell-Thru %percentages have behaved over time.

Yes, this sort of trend line graph will potentially slide a bit over time as your inventory stock expands, but providing the "bigger picture" of a 3 year trend line for the metrics would be a significant Unique Value Proposition for sellers as no other marketplace provides such a graph of this metric for it's inventory providers (sellers). Providing this sort of data would be a bold statement - one of stability, transparency and trust. Something sadly missing from so many other marketplaces.

Regards,

-Cougar.

 

[Atom.com]

Grant - I am curious - does the formula being used include Retail (end user) external sales only? Or does the formula also include "Wholesale" sales that occur within the internal Wholesale market? (it seems to me the metrics should reflect external - Retail - sales only as internal Wholesale sales are only an inventory ownership shift and not an external Revenue event for SQH) [please advise]

The sell through formula does not include any sales that happen in the Wholesale marketplace. Only retail/ end user sales are included in this calculation.

 

[BrandCougar]

>> The sell through formula does not include any sales that happen in the Wholesale marketplace. Only retail/ end user sales are included in this calculation. -GrantP


Hi @GrantP -

Thank you for the quick response and clarification! (much appreciated)

I am encouraged to hear that transactions in the Wholesale market are not included in the calculation model and only RETAIL sales (external end users transactions) are included. Very pleased to hear that the focus of the metrics provided are external transactions.

I applaud your taking the time to respond and also for disclosing the formula used in calculaitng your Sell-Thru rate.

Refreshing to work with a platform that values their inventory providers.

-Cougar

 

[godolphin]

Does SH send an Approved or Rejected email for submitted domains? How long do they take for review of names?

 

[wwwulff]

Does SH send an Approved or Rejected email for submitted domains?

They send mail for approved names not rejected

 

[godolphin]

How long do they take for review of names?

 

[wwwulff]

How long do they take for review of names

Last I submitted it took a couple of days but I think it varies

 

[Buzritchy]

SH has been a bit slow in approval of names. Submitted some names since Wednesday and still pending till now. Why the delay ??

 

[KDN]

SH has been a bit slow in approval of names. Submitted some names since Wednesday and still pending till now. Why the delay ??

I think a few big domainers are moving their names to SH. That's also the reason why there's a delay in logos.

 

[Buzritchy]

Well that’s not good for business and we small domainer.

 

[Buzritchy]

Not cool for business

 

[KDN]

It's not ideal but it's inevitable. To be fair, SH still has the fastest review time among the brandable marketplaces. I'm still waiting for my first sale though. I'm close to 200 names already. Hopefully next month!

 

[OnlineDomainShop]

It's not ideal but it's inevitable. To be fair, SH still has the fastest review time among the brandable marketplaces. I'm still waiting for my first sale though. I'm close to 200 names already. Hopefully next month!

200 Premium listed Names or Basic Plus listings ? with 200 names you must get a sale very soon !!

 

[Buzritchy]

It's not ideal but it's inevitable. To be fair, SH still has the fastest review time among the brandable marketplaces. I'm still waiting for my first sale though. I'm close to 200 names already. Hopefully next month!

Yes I understand, a quick question

How come your acceptance rate is high and you’ve got up to 200 names?

How do you come up with names that are not rejected ?

Did you just joined SH?

I joined this month, submitted 22 names and got just 2 accepted, that’s not fair and impressive on my part.

Congrat ahead of your happy sales coming soon.

 

[KDN]

200 Premium listed Names or Basic Plus listings ? with 200 names you must get a sale very soon !!

194 premium listings. I hope so! Thanks for the encouragement. I actually had 2 inquiries from potential buyers but none turned into sale, unfortunately.

 

[KDN]

Yes I understand, a quick question

How come your acceptance rate is high and you’ve got up to 200 names?

How do you come up with names that are not rejected ?

Did you just joined SH?

I joined this month, submitted 22 names and got just 2 accepted, that’s not fair and impressive on my part.

Congrat ahead of your happy sales coming soon.

Hmm. I don't think I can answer your question because brandables are tricky to evaluate. However, I definitely think experience plays a huge role.

I joined May 2019.

That's actually good. I think the average acceptance rate is around 10%. Just keep brainstorming and you'll get the hang of it soon.

Thank you. You too!

 

[Buzritchy]

Hmm. I don't think I can answer your question because brandables are tricky to evaluate. However, I definitely think experience plays a huge role.

I joined May 2019.

That's actually good. I think the average acceptance rate is around 10%. Just keep brainstorming and you'll get the hang of it soon.

Thank you. You too!

You


Thank you and yeah 10% of submitted names not bad... once more thank you.

 

[JudgeMind]

SH marketplace has grown immensely since I started using and it really shows in the # of views stats and shortlists. Essentially names just are not visible to poss buyers unless you boost the visibility at 2500 pts each name (if there’s space). Very similar to brand bucket in the sense that the market got flooded fast. I believe the reported avg sell thru rate for 2019/2020 will reflect the over saturation of the marketplace.