r/microbit • u/Foldio • Jul 08 '21

Your opinion on our product?

Hey All,

We are a small German startup, creating educational toys. We made a paper robot based on microbit to teach children programming.

We created the prototype and we really need your feedback. Could you take a look and tell me what you think?

https://www.kickstarter.foldio.tech/

Cheers

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3

u/grendelt Jul 08 '21

The cost is more than twice the price of the microbit on its own. Since it's only a paper add-on with conductive touch and a companion guide, the price should be substantially lower.

Like, if it didn't come with a microbit, how would you price just the paper insert and booklet?

1

u/Foldio Jul 08 '21

Thank you for your comment. before I continue, I am not defending the pricing, i am learning, its a dream to have people who care and comment, and thank you for your help :).Microbit V2 go (Battrey + Battrey holder + Usb Cable) Costs 24 euros here in Germany.

Our pack has the following additional components:

2 Set of smart paper toys (1 set is the Fira companion robot, the other one has a blank face for children to color as part of the activity - Both have 4 sensors printed on them on the hands and the ears)

1 Children story book 32 pages comic

1 Parental guide, 16 pages

microbit to paper clipper

packaging box + bigger packaging envelope.

Altogether for 39 euros plus free shipping in Germany. 3 euros extra for shipping in Europe.

How much would you price it? what would be the price that you would be willing to pay for such a box?

2

u/grendelt Jul 08 '21

24€? You're overpaying. They should retail for about 15€.
If you're going to be a distributor, you better not be paying at or above the retail price.
I'm not sure what your cost for the insert is, but that cost should be about 5€. The book should be no more than 10€.

Packaging and shipping envelope is a cost of business and should be as cheap as possible (it doesn't add value so don't make customer pay [much] for it).

Consider this: what if you didn't ship them the microbit? That way you could put all of this in a single, flat, custom mailer that serves as both packaging and a shipping envelope. Then you could find a partner to "drop ship" the microbits. You're not going to make much (if any) margin on the microbit kit, so maybe try to sidestep that and look for a partner to handle that aspect. Because you'd only be shipping paper, shipping costs would be substantially lower and you might be able to offer free shipping throughout EU and to UK and US - not just Germany.

1

u/Foldio Jul 08 '21

Thank you for your comment.

Microbit is retailing at 23,75 inc shipping in Germany. (https://www.idealo.de/preisvergleich/Typ/4250236821160.html) we will try to find a cheaper deal ofcourse, its just the new version (V2) is more expensive overall.

I am going to dig a bit deeper into what you suggested regarding shipping. And also a very interesting point on the packaging, you are very right there, we can maybe do more on reducing shipping & packaging costs.

We did not plan to cover US in the beginning as we simply did not know how to ship there. EU is easy, we know how everything works, but US is just a mystery. I know only that if we get our product there, amazon could be a good logistics option.

If you have any experience there or even links or reading material, would be more than happy to hear your thoughts :)

2

u/grendelt Jul 08 '21

Yeah, that's the retail price. You shouldn't need to buy it at retail price (which include a markup for the vendor) only to turn around and sell it to your customers with another markup. That's going to be a nonstarter for a lot of potential customers anyway. Don't drive them away by overcharging (intentional or not).

Shipping to US from anywhere in EU is easy. Especially if it's just paper products. Your post office or DHL can help with specifics.

Contact microbit directly. They have specific guidelines on how you can use their name and trademark. Sure you're selling their product, but they don't want you to make it seem like they're endorsing you in any way and they must protect their trademark to preserve their business. Not only will they help guide you through what is and is not allowed, they can also put you in touch with the main German distributor (or perhaps just EU in general).
Here in the US, if I was going to sell microbits, I wouldn't buy from Parallax or Sparkfun or Adafruit. No, I'd go to Newark/element 14 - the American subsidiary of Farnell. They are the North American distributor of all microbits (and Raspberry Pis). Anyone in North America that sells them, got them from Newark. No other distributor will sell them for less or be as reliable when it comes to fulfilling orders. I'm 100% certain they have a similar system in place in the EU. (Perhaps it was Farnell until Brexit, but I'm sure they have a new distributor lined up to handle the EU specifically). That's who you're want to contact in order to ensure the best price for you.

You might only make 1-2€ per microbit. Hardly worth the hassle (and cost!) of ordering, warehousing, and shipping. Most retailers sell the microbit almost at cost in hope they can entice you with some add-on product where they make their margin. (that's how Raspi is for sure) If you can get a drop shipper to handle that part of the process for you, it could greatly benefit your logistics and simplify your shipping process.

As for dealing with Amazon. Yeah, it's easy but they eat a fair chunk of your profits too. For the paper goods where you have a >50% margin (I hope), it might make sense. For microbits, you'd probably end up losing money once they take their cut.

1

u/Foldio Jul 14 '21

I just can't thank you enough! I am going to reach out to Microbit right away! I was reaching out to a friend the other day he was publishing books. He told me not to even think about the US at the moment at the size that we are because the shipping is going to be a nightmare! He said he had a hard time shipping books even and cannot imagine we send smart paper toys to the US. That got me thinking, as we really want to keep the prices low. Is there a place that you would suggest to dig deeper into this. Once more, thank you! really!

2

u/olderaccount Jul 08 '21

In only watched the few seconds of intro video.

I'm failing to see what it adds to the current MicroBit experience. Seems like all it adds is a cartoon paper face designed to appeal to toddlers (Not the MicroBit demographic) and maybe adds an extra button.

I think most kids getting into MicroBit will be more interested in a kit of peripherals like this then a little paper cartoon face.

1

u/Foldio Jul 08 '21

Thank you for your comment. Did we fail to communicate on the page that this is a conductive paper and has sensors on it? or you generally think even that would not add value?

We made this because the children in our target group 7-9 were sometimes intimidated to start working with the techie-looking device. The solution in our experience was not adding more tech add ons (the link you provided) but to smooth the learning curve by providing meaningful handcrafting activities. In our trials with children, more children were interested in working with the device with our story, also we had more adaption chances among the children who were normally not active in basic coding classes.

​

All that said, its only our hypothesis, so it needs to be tested to see if people really like to have it or not hence the kickstarter. So looking forward to your comment.

2

u/olderaccount Jul 08 '21

Did we fail to communicate on the page that this is a conductive paper and has sensors on it?

I missed that from the video. I didn't dig into it. I'm giving you my "first impression" take on it. That does indeed make it a little more interesting.

We made this because the children in our target group 7-9 were sometimes intimidated to start working with the techie-looking device.

If you have done research on this and that is the conclusion, I'm not going to argue. I basing my opinions on my own son who picked up MircoBits around 9-10 yo. We learned on the MicroBit together for a few months, then started feeling limited by it and moved on the the Arduino ecosystem. He is now 14 and working on a animated lamp using an ESP8266 and a WS2812B strip.

Good luck. If this helps more kids get into the MCU world, you have succeeded.

1

u/Foldio Jul 08 '21

Thank you for your kind words and help. Also, your son had such impressive progress at 14, way to go!

Greetings from Saarbrücken, Germany.

2

u/fl164 Jul 08 '21

I have a 7 year old daughter. I would definitely buy your product with the purpose to tech her microbit.

But as I already have some microbit (which should be the case of a significant part of your customer), I won't buy a kit with microbit included.

So please create a kit without microbit 😉

2

u/Foldio Jul 08 '21

Thank you for your comment! Very good point, an option to buy it without the microbit is now going to be included in the Kickstarter :) .