An online store in 60 seconds

Back in 2007 we wrote about Zlio, the site that lets anyone set up a web shop in a matter of minutes. Zlio has since seen the launch of more than 350,000 stores using its service, but recently we came across a brand-new contender with a slightly different twist: tinypay.me. Much like Zlio, New York-based tinypay.me lets any user create a store in 60 seconds. No account is required; rather, users simply indicate what products they’d like to sell, at what prices, and whether they’d like to donate any portion of their sales to charity. Both physical and virtual goods can be sold through the site, with pictures for those in the real world; stores can also be geotagged. Either way, tinypay.me then creates a unique page for each product, and an embed link lets users include those products on their own sites. All payments are handled through PayPal, with a fee to tinypay.me of 5 percent of the total sales price. If a seller donates a percentage of its sales to charity, tinypay.me donates the same percentage of its fee as well. Just last week, Tinypay.me won the Amsterdam Pitch Slam at Innovate!2010. Whether among minipreneurs or the swelling ranks of sellsumers today, anything that makes selling easier is almost bound to be a success. One to emulate locally or on a niche basis? (Related: Helping minipreneurs sell their expertise — Platform lets anyone create & monetize an online school — Cheap & simple credit card processing for everyone.) Spotted by: Astrid Raams