Skyara: Do Something Different

Life is a sequence of experiences, some are good, some aren’t, but they don’t stop and we get to experience things one after another. While there’s no chance you can control every experience in your life, it’s absolutely possible to plan and feel something new; like a picnic in the park, getting punched in the face, standing in the queue to get that new Apple gadget knowing full well of its half life and so on.

Skyara is a marketplace for experiences and after the break let’s take a look and see if it can help you experience something new in life.

Overview

Skyara is a community of people that love experiencing new things and it brings together people who have something of interest to offer—and, no it isn’t a dating site. Anyone can use Skyara to find something to do, meet fun people and share an experience.

Skyara offers a 360 degree service. On top of featuring experiences, the app also provides options to book an experience, pay for it and schedule it at a time of your convenience. As for providers, complete control over their listing and the option to accept payments directly online are nice perks. Now that localised deals are such a rage, Skyara also offers experiences exclusive to cities.

Pricing

As a buyer, Skyara is completely free to join and use, and for sellers too; there are no listing fees or monthly fees. However, Skyara takes a 12% booking fee, which includes credit card processing and our service fee, only when a customer makes a confirmed booking for your experience. Since the charge is just a bit above 10% and is all inclusive, it could be very profitable.

Buying Experiences

Skyara uses all web 2.0 tricks and design elements to help users have a smooth experience while using the app. Experiences for Sale are featured in the homepage but if you’re looking for something very specific, try the Buy section. Searching for things you look for can be done in three different ways. First up there’s a straight forward search option; enter the terms you have in mind and the results will be listed.

The second method is a mostly a “fine tuner”. Use the sliders on the left to specify your budget and distance from your present location. If you’re looking for opinions from the community before making the decision, move the sliders to the ratings and number of votes the search has garnered so far. As a third option, you can search listings based on the dates they actually take place.

Most of the listings on sale are very comprehensive. A detailed description of the listing combined with a set of photos make a very positive impression. Seller details and reviews are displayed prominently ala. eBay, which is always a good thing for the customer. A map marking the place where the experience is about to be hosted and a calender to display the dates are available too. You can follow the seller for future listings or send messages to them to get some clarity on the listing.

Skyara offers a satisfaction guarantee to buyers. If for any reason you are not satisfied with the experience, give Skyara a call and they will return your purchase. Simple as that!

The number of listings are a bit thin at the moment, so if you don’t see something you are very much looking for, wait for some more time or try to sell it yourself and bring others onboard to enjoy it together.

Selling Experiences

To sell on Skyara you’ll have to sign up and, for the impatient types, one click sign up using your Facebook account is available. After going through email activation, the app prompts you to complete your profile and to their credit they politely nudge the user to upload a profile pic to gain buyer confidence.

Skyara tries its best to impart to sellers some best practices. They offer some ideal examples to help sellers understand what it takes to build a full fledged proposal. Another laudable point is the availability of templates. Sellers have a number of templates from a variety of domains to select the one similar to their proposal.

The back end of Skyara is simple, yet loaded with a ton of interesting features, although there aren’t any WYSIWYG or HTML editors to complicate things. Text input fields and drop down menus make it so easy to add your listing. Even complex features like recurring experiences can be enabled with just a check mark. To seller’s delight, they can set their own pricing and Skyara does not interfere in the pricing process.

All registered users can take part in a Referral System. You can refer Skyara to your friends on Facebook and both of you will get a $5 credit. Referral coupons are limited to 10 per person though.

Final Thoughts

While the experiences are said to be listed citywise, Skyara actually hasn’t been rolled out in many places. In fact, the service is available only in San Fransisco at the moment. If you really love the idea of Skyara and can’t wait to get it in your city, you have the option to let the developers know. Even though there’s no time frame or there’s a minimum number of requests to tip the service towards your city, this is a step in the right direction.

Skyara is a great idea coupled with neat execution and is an app that deserves the support of all us—by becoming its patrons. Go lend them a hand!

Share Your Thoughts!

What do you think of Skyara? Is this a novel attempt at making lives better or just a cheesy startup?