What will Slate's Accessories Marketplace Portal be like?

[AZFox]

I would not be surprised if 5-10 years (if Slate is a huge success) that statistic is the inverse to what it is now.

All the better for Slate Auto if that happens.

The decision to use composite body panels was a good one for a lot of reasons, including profitability from selling Wrap Kits.

 

[Letas]

Trolling? Really?

I’m a day 1 reservation holder, I’ve been on this forum as long. My intent here is to discuss and engage in conversations around the Truck, because I’m interested in it.

Let’s walk through this thread, @AZFox . You started with some lofty claims, saying Slate would have a “monumental task” regarding their software. I then spent pages trying to clarify what those monumental tasks were in your mind (customer facing, back end, inventory management, etc). Each time you replied with buzzwords reminiscent of a company all hands meeting, and finally (I think) we landed on the challenges being the following: creating a customer facing website that has pictures, reviews and maybe some element of community.

Along the way you took every opportunity to attempt to call out fallacies, as if this was a high school debate.

It’s okay to say you don’t really know what you were trying to get at in your original post. Or even that you’re wrong! But these weird defensive jabs you keep taking are really poor taste, in my opinion.

 

[E90400K]

Lol. If Slate thinks one of its profitable revenue streams is going to be selling $500 wrap kits (not including installation) to owners every three years, I'm going say that will end up backfiring on them. I doubt a majority of the market is going to accept the paradigm that preventing their plastic truck body from disintegrating requires $500 - $1,000 every three years ($300/yr) as a selling point.

 

[Luxrage]

I doubt Slate will be selling their accessories directly through Amazon as a direct partnership. Now being fulfilled by Amazon, that's another story. It would be wise for them to offer a pool of accessories through a seller account on Amazon for customers to order smaller accessories via prime that Amazon would store at a fulfillment center like many other auto-brands do. An example is ACDelco's official store where you can get GM OE parts.

It's actually surprisingly well put together, I rarely ever look at Amazon seller pages, usually finding stuff just from real specific search results, but would be a nice touch to browse through a handful of Slate accessories after-purchase on Amazon knowing I'd be able to get them in 1-2 days.

 

[cadblu]

Lol. If Slate thinks one of its profitable revenue streams is going to be selling $500 wrap kits (not including installation) to owners every three years, I'm going say that will end up backfiring on them. I doubt a majority of the market is going to accept the paradigm that preventing their plastic-bodied from disintegrating requires $500 - $1,000 every three years ($300/yr) will be a selling point.

I’m going to agree with your assessment. If wrapping a Slate is the number one proven choice for customization then I guess the business plan makes sense.

Consider that after 3 years of ownership, most conventional vehicle owners would just seek out a professional detail shop if the paint and trim is in poor condition. Or they can try it as a DIY for a lot less money. Wrapping would be a last resort to ‘cover up’ faded paint or disguise cosmetic damage.

I am going to wait and see how well the factory standard poly panels hold up to the elements. If I’m still in love with the Slate, only then I will consider a wrap.

 

[E90400K]

I’m going to agree with your assessment. If wrapping a Slate is the number one proven choice for customization then I guess the business plan makes sense.

Consider that after 3 years of ownership, most conventional vehicle owners would just seek out a professional detail shop if the paint and trim is in poor condition. Or they can try it as a DIY for a lot less money. Wrapping would be a last resort to ‘cover up’ faded paint or disguise cosmetic damage.

I am going to wait and see how well the factory standard poly panels hold up to the elements. If I’m still in love with the Slate, only then I will consider a wrap.

I'll have to see how dark Slate's production unit slate gray is before I make a decision to do something about the color, if at all. All my vehicles are black, and I only buy black vehicles unless I buy used (very rare) and the vehicle is not black. If the slate gray is close to black, I'll probably leave it be. I very much like the idea of plastic panels for their durability for a pickup truck application where surface damage is a probable result during use.

If I want black, I'll paint it with a rattle can or maybe set up a temporary paint booth in my shop and spray it since I have compressed air for a spray gun. I'll not go down the tri-annual repeat-wrap-it route.

 

[Luxrage]

I'll have to see how dark Slate's production unit slate gray is before I make a decision to do something about the color, if at all.

I'm in the opposite boat with the same goal. I refuse to buy anything that isn't a color, but the Slate is novel enough that I'm willing to keep it as-is. My current fleet is magenta, tan/beige (shocking that's a rare color now), green, and baby blue.

If I don't like it, I'll either rattle-can it or bribe my paint booth buddies to take a wack at a panel and see how it comes out.