Epik Recent Innovation Glitches

[dande]

Everyone knows I'm a strong believer in Epik platforms and would like to see them succeed. Make no mistakes about it. There are many positives about Epik but one or two bad negatives can destroy the whole thing. The purpose of this thread is not to condemn but to trigger a discussion.

Late later year, I moved some of my domains from Uni to Epik in hope of better days. But after nearly a year of no inquiries nor reasonable sales, I decided to test the lander, trying to see what potential buyers use to see, and what I discovered truly horrifies me.

1. A buyer will click on "Buy Now" button and the first thing he sees is a warning that his domain will be delayed for 60days before transferring to another registrar. To a Domainer, that's not a problem. To an end user, it's a huge turn off, capable of destroying a sale.

2. If the buyer managed to scale the first huddle and continued with Signup. After signing up at Epik.com he will be required to verify his email. The person will head to his inbox looking for email from Epik. On getting to the inbox or spam folder, what he will see is FederatedIdentity.com. Another big confusion capable of turning away good number of potential buyers. How is the new customer suppose to know that FederatedIdentity is the same as Epik?

The FederatedIdentity (to me) is a completely Bogus Innovation.

3. Now, if the buyer did scale yet the huddle and clicked on the verification link, the page below is what he will get.

To continue the signup all over again!

At this point, even the most serious buyer will give up and start looking for alternatives.

4. But, if his life depends on the domain and he continued with the second signup. After filling the form and clicked the "Save Settings", the whole process will simply end there. There will be no redirection to the domain transaction he has been going through all these troubles for. He's
simply gonna start the process of searching for the domain name all over again. God help him if he's an impulse buyer and has forgotten the name.

I'm of the opinion that Epik is not concentrating on what matters most. They want to be everywhere at the same time. Thereby, sacrificing users experience and good conversation rate.

I believe sales are going down the drain before of these. I still have so many things to complain about the platform but let me leave for others. If you've noticed anything, pls share it on this thread.

 

[dande]

Since when is being upfront about any requirements/restrictions not the right thing to do?

This is a requirement that can actually be opted out of. So, why be upfront about a requirement that is optional? The way you see this is certainly not the way average end-user will see it.

Imagine you've been saving to buy a new car. The day finally arrived for you to purchase your dream car. On getting to the car mart, the first warning you get is "you may drive your car out of the shop after 60 days. USA-DMV requires a delay after car purchase". I guess as a first time car buyer, you'd be so excited to pay?

We have to be realistic here. That simple phrase can result to over 70% bounce rate.

 

[dande]

2. We uniquely allow you to monetize your own expiry stream with NameLiquidate.com. You can even automate it:

A positive plus. I was excited the day I saw it. Let's see how it'll perform.

 

[Ostrados]

FederatedIdentity is not needed at all I see it as an additional friction.. now login is slow you get FederatedIdentity page then you need to wait for the redirect to login page! what is the point of all of this?! Just show the login box and let me login.

Learn from Google you login once from any of their products and you are logged in everywhere.

 

[7363824]

This is a requirement that can actually be opted out of. So, why be upfront about a requirement that is optional? The way you see this is certainly not the way average end-user will see it.

Imagine you've been saving to buy a new car. The day finally arrived for you to purchase your dream car. On getting to the car mart, the first warning you get is "you may drive your car out of the shop after 60 days. USA-DMV requires a delay after car purchase". I guess as a first time car buyer, you'd be so excited to pay?

We have to be realistic here. That simple phrase can result to over 70% bounce rate.

First it may be able to be opted out of but its not so to thr buyer they have no choice.

Second I'd rather know something like that upfront rather then when I try to transfer out

Finally 70% really let's be honest you're just pulling a random number out of thin air there.

 

[dande]

First it may be able to be opted out of but its not so to thr buyer they have no choice.

Second I'd rather know something like that upfront rather then when I try to transfer out

Finally 70% really let's be honest you're just pulling a random number out of thin air there.

First, I've sold a number of domain names at Epik that were transferred out immediately by the buyers. So, you probably don't know what you're talking about.

Secondly, you're not a one time buyer. What is obtainable to you may never be the same with the end users.

Finally, it will be nice if you let me know what the current conversion rate is at Epik lander.

 

[7363824]

If they were transferred out immediately then obviously Epik vetted a request from the buyer to release the lock. But in general the lock applies and AFAIK Epik does not give you the ability to opt out of it.

So if you want to comaplin about something complain that you as the seller can't opt out of the lock on a marketplace sale. Why complain that Epik is being upfront and honest with buyers instead of hiding behind small print.

I dont have specific numbers handy but I can say over the same period of time I've sold my share of names on Epik landers and I don't have a huge portfolio. So they definitely convert.

Honestly I trust Epik would see if they had an unreasonably high bounce rate on the cart page in their analytics and fix the problem.

 

[dande]

So if you want to comaplin about something complain that you as the seller can't opt out of the lock on a marketplace sale. Why complain that Epik is being upfront and honest with buyers instead of hiding behind small print.

You can pander all you want but the truth is that the information is completely unnecessary. If it's so important and indeed a requirement, other registrars would have it displayed on their checkouts.

Glad to hear you're having a great success with buy now sales at Epik. That gives me hope.

 

[7363824]

You can pander all you want but the truth is that the information is completely unnecessary. If it's so important and indeed a requirement, other registrars would have it displayed on their checkouts.

Glad to hear you're having a great success with buy now sales at Epik. That gives me hope.

Others have it too. Just more hidden, that thing that says you agree to their terms and conditions...ya behind that link to their terms and conditions buried in a mind numbingly long insomnia inducing document says it.

At least by saying it there in the cart not hidden in some legal mumbo jumbo nobody reads anyway they aren't left feeling frustrated to find after the fact thats its locked. Transparency is always a good thing in my book.

Before I started in domaining I bought a domain though HugeDomains. I never heard of them or NameBright before. Looking into them before the purchase I saw the same address listed. Not going to lie that concerned me at first. I researched reviews on them. Lots of complaints from people whose names were caught at the drop by them but no real complaints about billing or delivery so I felt better about it at least. At checkout the only had the usual terms acceptance and that was it. But low and behold there was a 60 day lock, at least I knew enough about domains to expect it but for a first time buyer I could imagine how that might feel almost like a bait and switch without any indication before checkout to set the expectations.

As far as I'm concerned you can't go wrong with telling the buyer what to expect so they arent surprised afterwards.

 

[dande]

telling the buyer what to expect so they arent surprised afterwards.

It's all good. Let's agree to disagree. If the 60 days phares is the only thing I noticed, I wouldn't bother much about it. But as you can see, that was one out of many in the checkout process.

I like the idea of having my names listed at buy now and go to sleep. Only to wake up in the morning and receive alerts . That's the main reason I always have my domains for sale with the host-registrar. So, I have to be 100% sure noting is hindering my success. Good they're working on it and it will be better for all.

 

[Rob Monster]

Another notable SSO company is OKTA.

Their Q2 earnings came out recently. market cap is about $30 billion despite major operating losses:

https://investor.okta.com/news-rele.../okta-announces-strong-second-quarter-results

Docusign is another one in a related space. Market cap of $48 billion. The company also is break-even at best. We incubated something related called SignDeck.com. Your Epik SSO works there too.

The net result is that Epik is more than a registrar. We are a Digital Empowerment company that makes domains useful so that enterprises of all sizes can compete in thrive in the digital age.

Trust me, the SSO is a useful step forward. We'll be working diligently to make sure it is not a burden to domainers or their customers.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

Another notable SSO company is OKTA.

Their Q2 earnings came out recently. market cap is about $30 billion

So is the play here for epik to leverage their customers UX to beta test/proof of concept FederatedIdentity.com / its SSO tech for an ultimate/possible sell-off/licensing play of the proposed emerging SSO tech, which if proven, could have a greater profit margin/market cap than domains?

We are a Digital Empowerment company that makes domains useful so that enterprises of all sizes can compete in thrive in the digital age.

Almost like a Digital Town?

 

[karmaco]

Would be nice if federated id worked. The login is broken right now can’t log in.

 

[DanSanchez]

Would be nice if federated id worked. The login is broken right now can’t log in.

Thank you, we are aware and working on it, sectionalized to a small number of users.

 

[NicTraders]

Thank you, we are aware and working on it, sectionalized to a small number of users.

I had the same the other day, so it may be a bit of an ongoing thing...

 

[Rob Monster]

It took a few extra days to get this fast-track development through QA but I am happy to report that Guest Checkout is in production for Marketplace purchases. The buyer is now taken directly to checkout.

 

[dande]

It took a few extra days to get this fast-track development through QA but I am happy to report that Guest Checkout is in production for Marketplace purchases. The buyer is now taken directly to checkout.

Far better now than ever. That's what buyers wants to see - payment options, fill the details, and submit payment. Pure and simple.

Weldon!

If there is increased conversion and more revenue, I guess Epik will share some with me.

 

[Mister Funsky]

Thanks @dande for getting the ball rolling on improving checkout. I was not aware of the steps a buyer was required to make...hopefully this will result in more sales for us all!

 

[dande]

Next is the verbiage or phrase. If anything can be done about that too?

 

[Rob Monster]

Next is the verbiage or phrase. If anything can be done about that too?

The 60 day transfer lock is covered in the ToS, incorporated by reference. I think we can actually drop the bottom two checkboxes:

Will run that past @Sufyan Alani for policy review and then engineers can make that change.

 

[dande]

I think we can actually drop the bottom two checkboxes:

Yes, I recommended that last year. If you can streamline the ToS boxes into one. Something like:

By checking this box, you agree to our ToS, Privacy Policy, and Transfer/Refund Policy. Just one or two boxes, in-place of the many boxes.

 

[dande]

When you upload an image on the page content, it's currently not mobile responsive. In fact, the image doesn't resize at all.

So, it's impossible to add images such as logo. Is it something you guys can work on? That would be another game changer.

 

[Rob Monster]

We got this through legal and compliance review -- checkout is now streamlined:

The marketplace also got some other upgrades this week for fast domain search, plus expanded inventory.

Check it out:

https://marketplace.epik.com/

Keep that feedback coming.

 

[Rob Monster]

Preview here for a marketplace upgrade that is coming:

https://www.loom.com/share/47e39513823a42ec9214109cb0eb22c5

Send @Ala Dadan any feedback.

We'll look to hand this to engineering in the next 48 hours.

 

[NicTraders]

A little spelling error here, in case no-one notices it:

 

[Ala Dadan]

thank you @NicTraders good catch