Next generation marketplace for 3D filaments

Next generation marketplace for 3D filaments is a new type of marketplace that is improving the 3D printing industry and here are some of the reasons why and explanations how it is doing that:

1. is challenging the Status Quo and is bringing a new experience for 3D printer users. Until now the only information that filament marketplaces provided was the manufacturer specification data sheets and maybe also some generic stars without any explanation of their meaning. In most cases that is not sufficient information to base quality decision whether to buy one or another filament. That is why is bringing a new approach by providing a platform for the 3D printing community to conveniently share their feedback about materials in a standardized and efficient way. Ultimately by aggregating this feedback and presenting it in an easily understandable form, 3D print materials sales platform provides valuable and meaningful user-experience information about filaments for platform’s users. is the perfect marketplace for 3D printer users to find and buy the best 3D printing materials for their needs because it is the only place that provides all of the most important components in one place: community-generated filament reviews, manufacturer provided specification and the option to buy the filaments.

2. The platform is challenging the Status Quo also in a sense that it provides economic advantages for 3D printer users. In the existing situation you had two alternatives if you wanted to find the best 3D printing material for your needs. Option number one was just buying and going through a “trial and error” process of numerous filaments until you find the one that satisfies you. Obviously, that is not very wise because it wastes a lot of time and money. The other option was learning more about filaments before buying them. However, if you want to do that, you had to go through numerous blogs, forums and countless other fragmented resources. Each of them provide quite limited and unstructured information about narrow range of materials and each of them present this information in a different way, therefore making this process very confusing and time consuming. is solving these problems and therefore saving a lot of time and money for people that are looking to buy filament.

Moreover, 3D print materials platform is providing economic advantages also for the filament tester community because they are rewarded for testing and giving their review of 3D print materials. Until now most of the 3D printing enthusiasts that were posting and sharing their filament reviews on forums and other resources did that purely as a good gesture without any economic incentive because they are enthusiasts who are interested in this topic. On platform for each provided review they are earning platform’s loyalty points “Filameters” that are exchangeable for actual filaments. In an essence you can say that offers them the great opportunity to get rewarded for doing what they enjoy.

3. is taking advantage of high market fragmentation. According to surveys conducted in the 3D printing industry around every third 3D printer user states that they have not found their favorite place to buy filaments. Moreover, another 30 percent answered this question with a unique answer, therefore identifying that the market is highly fragmented. Also supplier side is quite fragmented because according to 3D Printing Filament Brand Overview 2015 around 54 percent of filament brands have established their own web-shops to sell their limited range of materials. Given that is providing a better solution for 3D printer users the high buyer and supplier fragmentation significantly improves the likelihood of a successful marketplace.

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