4.9 KiB
4.9 KiB
Where Woof — Product Model & Pricing (AUD)
Scope: keep small and lean now; rebuild a larger system once there are a few thousand customers. Explicitly out of scope (from the old CMS): the page-builder/CMS flow and SMS campaigns — ignored.
Two use cases (the core split)
| Info tags (bulk operators: parks, trails, campgrounds) | Owner-alert tags (dogs, luggage, valuables) | |
|---|---|---|
| What the finder sees | Rich info page (multilingual, custom content per tag) | Return details + call/SMS the owner |
| SMS to owner | Never (no SMS → no SMS cost) | Automatic on every scan with location (+ finder can also message) |
| Pricing | Per-tag or annual license | $1 tag + annual fee with metered SMS |
| Cost exposure | ~zero (DB only) | SMS metered (the business's only real variable cost) |
How SMS actually fires (important)
- When a finder scans and approves location → an SMS is automatically sent to the owner. It is not the scanner's choice (they can also send one via the contact form).
- So: every scan-with-location = 1 SMS = cost. The throttles (250 m / 10 min, fingerprint 24 h, daily/IP caps) are cost control, but different finders at different spots legitimately each alert.
- A heavily-lost dog could generate several SMS/day → that's the meter working as designed (frequent loss → credits consumed → top-ups).
Costs to design against (AUD, ex GST — 10% GST to add at checkout)
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| SMSGlobal prepaid (current) | ~AU$0.06 / SMS |
| SMSGlobal plans at volume (Build→Scale) | ~$0.03 → ~$0.013 / SMS |
| DB/storage/bandwidth per scan | negligible (a scan ≈ 100–150 bytes; 10k scans/day ≈ 1.5 MB/day) — data is not a cost driver, SMS is |
| Tag manufacture (Asia, preset) | your cost basis; retail margin on top |
Proposed retail pricing (AUD) — pinch points to tune
Owner-alert tags
- Tag: $1.50–2.00 per tag (one-off)
- Annual plan: $5/year = 10 SMS (your cost ≈ 60¢ prepaid → ~88% margin)
- Top-ups: $2.50 / 5 SMS · $4.50 / 10 SMS · $8 / 20 SMS
- Unused credits: roll over within the year; reset (or cap) at renewal — decide per plan
Family bundles (pooled SMS across the account's tags)
- 5 tags / $20 yr (50 SMS pool) · 10 tags / $35 yr (100) · 20 tags / $60 yr (200)
- Cost check @6¢: 20-tag plan = 200 SMS × 6¢ = $12 vs $60 retail → ~80% margin even if fully used
Info tags (bulk)
- e.g. $1.50/tag one-off or an annual operator license (e.g. $30/yr for up to 100 tags + content management) — no SMS, near-100% margin; tune with the parks use case
✅ Done: server-side metering (per-tag credits, admin top-up), renewal date + lazy expiry, unlock notice to the owner (ntfy/SMS) when gated by lapsed or credits. Remaining pinch points:
- Metering enforced server-side — count only sent (OK:0) SMS; block when credits hit 0 → triggers the unlock flow.
- Renewal reminders (30/7/1 days before) + grace period (~7 days) before lapsed.
- Top-up profitability at the 6¢ prepaid rate (works above; even better on a plan).
- GST (10%) — decide ex/incl display.
- Finder-contact SMS counts toward the same meter.
- Bulk-operator licenses vs per-tag — pick per deal.
The missed location-link flow
- Scan → owner SMS contains a short URL (
where-woof.com/s/Ab3xY9— shortener needed; also keeps lat/lng out of the SMS, which is already ~160-char constrained). - The link opens a location page: embedded Google Map of the finder's position + finder details (phone if left) + link back to the tag page.
- Unpaid variant: the SMS/email instead says "your item was found — pay the $5 annual fee to unlock the details" (the 2014
late_paymentflow). ⚠️ No email system yet — use SMTP (hosting) or ntfy on .13 as interim. - Location page is the owner's private view: keyed by the unguessable short code; decide validity window.
Product range & variants (coming)
- Tags are manufactured in Asia → preset IDs (100 in registry; new runs generate IDs per production order).
- Broader range coming: sizes, colours, plaques (outdoor), screw-on etc. → needs
product_variants(products + variant attributes) later. - QR/NFC production step needed for new runs (QR generation util — the old
qrcode.phppattern). - Multilingual info pages (i18n) for the info-tag use case.
Schema implications (future, keep lean)
sms_allocated/sms_usedper tag or account + a top-up ledger (the oldsms_billing/product_network_costsconcept).ordersalready has status (pending/paid/lapsed/cancelled) → renewal = new order/period; addrenews_at.users.paused(admin pause → gate alerts) + audit log (product_accounts_actionspattern).url_shortenedtable +location_page(scan → location page keyed by code).product_variantswhen the range expands.- Email channel abstraction (ntfy now, SMTP later).