General Idea
Sphing wants to create an ecosystem for the shopping and product marketing industry. The platform would benefit both sides, as customers would get access to up-to-date detailed information about products, while brands and companies would have a convenient way to directly reach their customers with personalized advertisements and token rewards for buying their products.
Blockchain Usage
The whole platform is based on the blockchain technology and powered by Ethereum smart contracts. Moreover, Shping will be partnering with Everledger to create a private blockchain based on the Hyperledger Fabric to play the role of a register for EPCIS events. The focus of the platform will be put on the product database stored within the blockchain, built with scalable number of trusted and verified data sources like brands and strategic partners, government authorities or product recall portals, but also data collected and provided by the users.
For Consumers
The consumer will get a mobile application, which would allow him to get access to the product database and benefit from promotions and rewards provided by the brands for Shping users, as well as contribute himself to the platform and earn some tokens.
Product database
The main feature of the whole platform and the application would be the ultimate product database, which has the potential to be the biggest of its kind. The Shping Ecosystem is built on product information provided by a number of data sources including consumers, brands and retailers or manufacturers. With the Shping App anyone can then scan the bar code in order to get all of the information about particular product. This could include for example information about product origin and shipping or the whole information on how the product was handled to the point of sale. It could also include detailed ingredients and raw material list or promotional and marketing material like product fact sheets, marketing messages, product promotions or videos and warranty details.
For Brands
Brands and companies will get an opportunity to reach their customers much easier and more effectively. They will be able to contact and directly message a consumer through the mobile app. This also creates a possibility for a loyalty and reward program. Brands can reward consumers in the form of Shping Coin for engaging with their products on the platform, leaving reviews and contributing to information about the brand’s products.
Smart marketing
Moreover, as they will have access to all of the analytical and consumer demographic statistics, it gives an opportunity for much more effective marketing strategies. They can market the products to the customers based on time, location and behavioural and demographic criteria. Sphing introduces their own artificial intelligence bot to analyze the shopping habits and personalize potential advertisements.
Product security
As the products and their bar codes are added to the system, brands could benefit from a tool, which can monitor and track their products and the whole supply chain. Brands can be alerted to grey imports, where products are being delivered to retail outlets outside of a brand’s official distribution channels.
The Token
Sphing Coin is the token used for payments within the platform. Companies, brands and retailers will be able to use Sphing Coins in order to incentivise and reward consumers for contributing to the platform, validating product authenticity and for loyalty or cashback rewards for purchasing brands products.
ICO Phase
They aim to distribute 5,000,000,000 tokens at the initial price of $0.01 per token. The main token sale starts at the 22nd of February, where you can get the tokens with an interesting bonus. The crowdsale will last till the 23rd of March, 2018. The earlier you decide to purchase the tokens, the bigger bonus you can expect.
The Team
The Shping team is wide and consists of many people from the technical developers to graphic designers and business managers. As the platform will strongly rely on the mobile app, there are programmers and developers with experience in applications of mobile devices. All member have their LinkedIn profile linked on the site. As the project will strongly cooperate with Everledger, their CEO has a position in the advisory board.
Final Thoughts
The first thing that strikes when visiting the project site and researching the information is the quality of the design and marketing strategies. The graphics of the platform and demo apps designs are also looking very neat and most importantly easy and enjoyable to use. Shping gives a positive vibe and its simple but useful idea can encourage many potential users, as shopping for various items, starting from groceries is part of our everyday lives.