“I was shocked.”
“There were tons of impressive projects. I put a lot of work into my project, and felt good about it, but I was just shocked. I felt really good about the big prize, and really excited.”
That’s what Ethan had to say on what he felt when he found out he won as an overall winner for the Rapyd Hackathon: Build the Galaxy’s Best Checkout.
This was Rapyd’s first hackathon in a multi-event series: Rapyd’s Million Dollar – Greatest Fintech Developer Series.
Created by Ethan, Window Shop, is a chrome extension that allows users to view any items in the video they are watching and generates a checkout page to purchase them.
The presentation by Ethan explained how Youtube creators are not reaching their full eCommerce potential. When it comes to sponsorships and advertised products, they usually have a link in the description, and unless you use that link or a promo code they provide, they don’t get credit for their sales. Often that link can expire.
Window Shop solves the problem of eliminating a disruptive process of pausing the video, having to find and click affiliate links, or type in listed promo codes to get the content creator discount.
At the time a product is shown or used in a video, Window Shop displays that product on the side. The Chrome application identifies the product in the video and allows the customer to make an order in the embedded checkout and automatically pauses the video. The customer purchases the product right there and then returns to watching the video.
Ethan shared about his process with his project. “As a developer I didn’t have to concern myself with the form that was the actual checkout. I set up the headers on the request and put the embedded checkout into my app. I was able to focus on the problem of how you get awareness of where you can purchase the products when it’s on screen, and as far as how you drive traffic to purchase something? Well you already have an audience that sees the product being used, worn or displayed in some way.”
Window Shop is able to easily connect customers with products they see while Youtubers can capture more of the credit they deserve for each product shown in their videos.
Excited to continue on his journey, Ethan believes developers can make a difference in the world by just making things easier to use so that people can actually do the meaningful part of whatever they’re working on.
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