Wouldn’t it be cool if SketchUp sold all kinds of things designed in SketchUp? For example, SketchUp furniture, SketchUp sculptures, etc. SketchUp could have their own online store where they sell things designed in SketchUp.
Maybe there could be a homemade section in the online store for SketchUp Pro users to sell things they made with SketchUp, then SketchUp could get a portion of the profit for every sale.
It could be similar to the 3D Warehouse, but with real products designed in SketchUp. It could be called the SketchUp Store and it could have miles of pages of 3D printable products too.
Interesting idea, and I don’t see any reason why there couldn’t be SketchUp branded merchandise.
One thing to consider is that the moment you start creating models for manufacture and sale, you’d be obligated to use Pro version of software instead of the free web or Make editions.
Thanks. SketchUp could make profit off of letting Make/Free users sell products in the SketchUp Store if SketchUp earned like 7% from every sale. The trick is to not drive prices up so high that no one shops there. You want it to be a bargain, so people will be attracted to the products. The free users would only be allowed to sell through SketchUp’s platform (SketchUp Store) though, nowhere else would be allowed to ensure SketchUp makes money off of every sale from the free/make users. Also, then the free users could make money to help them afford SketchUp Pro. Pro users wouldn’t have to pay a % per sale because they’re already licensed for commercial use. And allowing free/make users to sell in SketchUp’s store would increase the amount of products and make the store more interesting to customers. This obviously isn’t a complete or finished business plan, but I figured I’d share a rough idea.
This certainly seems to be a good idea upon first blush, although it would require a dedicated staff to manage operations of another website to specifically address the suggested product, as well as the myriad issues inherent in managing contributors’ designs and the attendant design inventory, legal issues, technical issues, human resources, sales, payments to authors for design purchases, staff salaries/payroll, ancillary expenses, etc. I’m sure there is a lot more that should be considered, so it may require a very detailed SWOT ( strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis to confirm viability.
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While licensed for commercial use, I wouldn’t assume any a Pro user (or any user for that matter) would be authorized to profit from the designing and selling of SketchUp branded products, seeing as they aren’t part of the organization in the first place.
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@monospaced Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear enough. SketchUp would be in charge of SketchUp branded products, then Pro users could design their own brands to sell in the SketchUp Store.
@jvleearchitects I’m pleased that you like my idea & I agree it’d be a ton of work.
I totally thought you were talking about “SketchUp Themed Products” in the sense that the products would have a SketchUp theme — in the SketchUp brand, using SketchUp themed language, and/or with the SketchUp logo — since that was the actual title of the thread.
If they’re going to sell any old product, then they’d be competing with sites like Etsy, and similar. Totally different ballgame.
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I would prefer if the SU division would neither put resources into a store of physical goods nor the web-based SU version nor LO but mainly in improving and further developing the key asset which is still the SU desktop version.