Simon’s story

Simon is a young collector of miniature cars.

As a child, he had received several toy cars as a gift. He even got a wheel-shaped Hot Wheels® case to carry his favourite cars.

With time, he became a real amateur collector whose car collection grew to number in the hundreds. The desire to share his passion and to show off his precious and magnificent collection on the internet came naturally to him after a while.

Simon is now looking for a way to display his pictures on a website that doesn’t require any sort of advanced computer skills. He’s also adamant about remaining the owner of his pictures and retaining full control over his data. It is essential that nobody should be able to modify or steal his content. Finally, he wishes to interact with fellow miniature car enthusiasts interested in his collection.

After some research, Simon comes across Kriteria’s Tiles platform. The platform is offered in two forms: TilesCollector for computers, and TilesBrowser for mobile devices (smartphones, tablets) and streaming services (Apple TV, Roku). For only $9.99 per month, the risk is minimal; he decides to sign up.

Once he has entered his basic personal information and determined the terms of credit card payment, Simon is asked to choose a nickname (he goes for “Minicar”) and to name his catalogs (“Hot Wheels” and “Matchbox”). He is then prompted to link each catalog with the folder on his computer where the images to publish are located. The files are uploaded to Kriteria’s servers, where the subscriber retains control over his files. All that’s left is for our young collector to inform his contacts that they can now browse his image catalogs at minicar.kriteria.ca. Eventually, he will have the option of using his own domain name for his TilesSite (e.g., simonminicar.com).

As site administrator, Simon adds characteristics for each image to improve search by criteria and, over time, fills out each with information on his miniature cars.

Eager to share his passion, he tells his friends about his TilesSite. Upon browsing it as guests, some of them decide to become “registered users”, while others actually create accounts on his site to become “super users”. Registering makes communication and image exchange between users and with Simon all the easier via the integrated chat.

His friends let him know that the quality of his pictures could be improved. Many view them using the TilesBrowser app on their mobile phone and find the pictures resolution lacking.

Spurred by the constructive feedback from his site’s users, he acquires a good lighting system and a camera equipped with a special lens for macro photography. His pictures are so much better now! The only downside is that they must be tweaked and cropped. To do so, Simon simply adds the Tools – Image service to his TilesSite, which enables him to easily edit his images like a pro.

His photos’ quality and quantity draw the attention of collectors and manufacturers alike. Simon seeks to increase his site’s traffic by adding TilesCollector’s Communication service, which allows indirect messaging (such as emails, calls and SMS) between registered users through a Chinese wall (1).

One day, a collector writes Simon asking him to take pictures of his collection and post them on minicar.kriteria.ca in exchange for a fee. Glad to be able to assist someone while getting a return on his equipment investment, he agrees to the request. Shortly after, he notices that the collector uses the site to help sell his items. Simon decides to take matters into his own hands and to start dealing in miniature collectible cars using Kriteria’s Sales and Shipping services. Thanks to these, he doesn’t need to open an account with a shipping service provider since everything can be done directly with TilesCollector!

His website becomes a great success and something like the “Marketplace” of miniature cars, where he himself can buy and sell items. A growing number of collectors write him to start selling choice collectibles at high prices. Once he receives their cars, Simon photographs them and posts the pictures along with product details and a price that includes his cut. Fellow enthusiasts and collectors then order directly from his TilesSite. As simple as that! It’s an e-commerce formula that works for everyone, without having to be an IT specialist.

Simon’s TilesSite becomes so popular that even Mattel, the maker of Hot Wheels®, asks him to publish their ads! No problem: our young entrepreneur simply adds the Publicity service to his growing Kriteria toolkit. Mattel (and other companies) can now create an account as a “pub client” on Simon’s site and manage independently the quantity and frequency of their ads.

Simon is thrilled with this turn of events. It enables him to achieve his dream of living his passion to the fullest and to build his own e-commerce business.