Since we launched in November, we have been amazed by the number of suggestions for how SendSocial could be used in other ways. We have also had interest from a number of organisations wishing to offer a similar service to their customers.
This got us all thinking – wouldn’t it be great if you could buy a gift for your friend from one of your favourite online stores without needing to look up their address?
We are therefore delighted to announce the immediate release of our API, which lets online retailers and service providers offer the same convenience and privacy that we offer on SendSocial.com.
Our Address Brokerage Service allows organisations to easily integrate the SendSocial process to their existing checkout procedure, releasing address data only if the recipient accepts the request. This allows our partners to use existing logistics arrangements, making integration with SendSocial simple and risk-free. There are no setup or monthly fees, and we only charge our partners when requests are accepted.
To safeguard our users’ data, we have a comprehensive application process before potential integrators can start using the API, with stringent terms of usage meaning address data remains private and is only used for the purposes of fulfilling requests that have been accepted. As a final safety net, any improper use of our API is subject to hefty penalties.
We are currently working with a number of online retailers and are looking forward to announcing the launch of our first partnerships very soon.
Please be aware that due to the adverse weather conditions, our courier partner myHermes is experiencing severe difficulties across many areas of the UK. Both collections and deliveries are impacted and myHermes are doing all they can to keep delays to a minimum.
If you wish to check the status of your delivery, please contact us on info@sendsocial.com.
Over the Christmas period there will be a limited delivery service, with no collections or deliveries between 25th – 28th December 2009, or 1st January 2010.
SendSocial wishes our customers and visitors a very happy Christmas, and best wishes for the new year.
I’m willing to spend £3.99 using SendSocial to send each item to someone else. In exchange for this I want an item in return, other than the iPod (for which I want an Apple Micro-DVI Cable) I’m open to offers!
Here’s a photographic record of one of our first address-less parcels, which proves they really can be delivered! This one travelled from Newcastle to Derby, and is just one of several test parcels we have been sending recently ahead of our launch.
We’re excited, to say the least, that SendSocial will be launching to our investors in just over 24 hours’ time. I’ve just been reading through some of the very first emails that the team exchanged when Ben first floated the idea, and it really is remarkable that, in the 8 months since then, we’ve built and are preparing to launch this thing.
I had butterflies in my stomach when a myHermes courier turned up at my house bright and early on Monday morning to collect an address-less parcel. Even the courier was impressed – the first time she’s collected something like this, she said, but most definitely not the last.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: one of the things I love about SendSocial is that we’re all entrepreneurs. We’re all passionate about what we’re doing and what we’re trying to achieve. I glanced at my watch the other night to see that it was 4.30am. Quite how I was still bursting with energy at that time, I’m not too sure.
It might have been the coffee, but even at that time of night, emails were flying into my inbox: “What if we do this?”, “That could work…”. There’s such a buzz within the team at the moment, I think it highlights the fact that launches are always fun and we’re really grasping this one by the horns.
Most people I speak to love the concept, but a concept is of course a very different thing from a business that people will use and appreciate. That’s why tomorrow is very important to us – it’s the first time that real people can see what we’ve been working on, and you’ll be able to send and receive requests from the off.
We’re conscious, as well, that people are going to come up with ways of using SendSocial that we’d never even have thought of. And, for our investors, it all starts tomorrow. We can’t wait to hear your feedback – good and bad – on the site.
Oh, and if you’re not an investor, there’s no need to feel jealous (well, maybe a little): we’ll be opening our doors to you before long.
As you might imagine, there’s a fairly complex website behind SendSocial, and it’s my task to ensure it all works as the SendSocial team wants it to. Here’s an update to let you know how we’re getting on.
We are now in advanced stages of testing with Hermes, whilst doing a great deal of testing on our website. If you have been keeping an eye on SendSocial through twitter search, you will have probably seen some of these tests happening. Forgive us, we’re not trying to spam twitter, rather just carrying out the tests we need to make to launch successfully!
Security is perhaps the most important aspect of SendSocial, and certainly one of the greatest challenges in its development. One of SendSocial’s unique advantages is the fact you never see the other party’s address when arranging a delivery, and we will be promoting the anonymity aspects of SendSocial as much as the low prices and convenience it offers.
Needless to say, we take security very seriously, and have developed SendSocial with this at the forefront of our decision making. We will be securing the whole site using SSL (that means there will be a padlock in the corner of the screen), with the industry leader in Internet security, VeriSign. Not only does this mean your data is encrypted during transmission over the Internet, it also gives you and your recipients, who may be using SendSocial for the first time, the best possible perception of security and professionalism, which we believe is crucial.
Another area we are focussing on is performance – we know you’ll want a website that’s quick and just lets you concentrate on your task, so have been painstakingly refining the system to get the best possible performance for launch. We have taken note from other recent launches that not everything always goes to plan when you flick the big switch, so have built SendSocial on enterprise-grade technologies, allowing us to scale easily as traffic volumes increase. We want SendSocial to be a busy site, so have prepared for this!
Over the next week or so we will be finalising functionality and testing, whilst preparing our systems for launch. It’s very nearly there, and we can’t wait to hear your feedback and suggestions after you’ve given SendSocial a try.
As anyone who has been in this position before will testify, the weeks before launching a new business are some of the most exciting, stressful, daunting and incredible times. Writing this at 3am on a Monday morning – when I need to be awake in a matter of hours – my head is a buzz of activity, and it’s no wonder that everyone on the team could barely contain their anticipation on last Thursday’s conference call.
Antony and Marc are continuing to do a great job putting the finishing touches to the website. Bug testing is going well and I’ve been busy putting the final copy text together. We almost have a finished product now, and we’re just waiting to send out the first of many address-less packages.
A lot of our time over the past week has been spent discussing launch plans and working out how we can maximise our coverage, and we’ve come up with a few cool ideas. The story behind how SendSocial began is interesting in itself, and we genuinely think that the innovative nature of our offering will resonate with the public.
Our timing probably couldn’t be better either, with the postal service in the news daily at the moment. It was announced a few days ago that there are going to be more Royal Mail strikes at the start of November, which means that post will remain a fiercely debated topic for the foreseeable future; or the coming months, at least. And, whilst strike action is annoying and disruptive, it makes sense for us to try and capitalise on it; our launch date could not be better.
One thing that I’ve loved about being a part of SendSocial has been its open nature. Ever since Ben offered Twitter users shares for re-tweeting his original message, I’ve been struck by your helpfulness and enthusiasm, both on and offline. Regardless of how great a team we have, SendSocial owes its existence to social networks, and it is ultimately social network users who are going to define our success – so we’ve been determined to engage and take your views on board as much as possible.
There’s nothing I enjoy more than the feeling that I’m part of something big, something exciting, that has the potential to change the world. It’s what being an entrepreneur is about, and I know that the others share my views. I really hope that you’re as excited as we are, and if there’s anything you want to say to us, please say it. If there’s something you think we should do, something you think we shouldn’t, someone we should be talking to, speak up and let us know. Heck, if you want to recommend a blend of coffee (mine ran out the other day), we’d love to hear from you.
We want you to be a part of SendSocial as much as we are, and share our enthusiasm and excitement. It would be great to learn a little bit about our investors and other well-wishers.
Another postal strike by Royal Mail staff brings so many questions to the forefront. The leading one must be that of a seemingly basic lack of logic to it all. If workers within a service industry decide to strike, apparently in protest against the process of modernisation that will ultimately result in some job losses, they drive further business volume away from their organisation and thus the overall result is the need to further reduce employee numbers. The world changes; one must evolve or become extinct. Ultimately it is the consumer (recipient of mail) who will decide the format that s/he would like to receive a communication (and I use the work communication rather than letter). This may by email, via mobile or indeed physically. It is not a monopoly, there is choice. This does not mean only as to whether someone picks Royal Mail, ViaPost, MyHermes or any other carrier, but also the format of that communication.
There is a place for Royal Mail today and in the future. We all love the postie and processing and delivering billions of items of mail every year is a big and complex job, but as with BT after deregulation of the Telecoms sector, change is needed. New entrants should be seen as positive and potential partners rather than direct competition.
It is therefore fitting that SendSocial approaches launch in the next couple of weeks providing a service that is at the extreme other end to the spectrum. SendSocial is creating a new niche in the postal sector encouraging people to send items they otherwise would not have been able to.
You will be able to send a gift, a letter, or a special offer physically to an individual that you have contact with online but not offline. Imagine being able to send flowers to a girl or boy you have been following on Twitter; a birthday gift to your favourite celebrity or a “guide to running the economy” to a member of the Cabinet! Christmas is coming…who will you surprise with SendSocial and who will surprise you?
There is a great team at SendSocial and I am excited to be involved, albeit on an advisory basis due to my full time commitments running ViaPost. There is a great synergy between the two businesses as both look to redefine the communications sector, taking advantage of technology and adapting to a world that expects a better service at a lower cost with minimal effort.
There are much broader applications for the SendSocial platform. Watch this space and get involved from Nov 13th!
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