New company OMNIA FISHING

Anyone heard of this new company? What do you know about them? What are your thought?

https://www.omniafishing.com/?kid=SH49V

I’ll just go to Scheels or Fleet Farm. Why should I have to sign into a site to look at the goods? This is just a promo gimmick so I’ll pass.

I agree with tom. It’s like going to gander and having to be a member to get a discount so they can beat you up with emails. No thanks.

Bearcat89 wrote:

I agree with tom. It’s like going to gander and having to be a member to get a discount so they can beat you up with emails. No thanks.

Not to disthread but I became a member of it and I’m also a huge no email giving, no telephone # giving, or whatever else crap they ask you at check out now and I’m not bombarded with emails or calls.

Any site that wants to make preconceived notions of what lures I may or may not like I will take a hard pass on.

Here’s what I found: http://tcbmag.com/news/articles/2018/september/omnia-fishing-raises-1-million-to-launch-shop-by-lake-concept

This may be ok for the beginning angler I guess, but I think I’d rather go with Mystery Tackle Box. Better yet hit up a local bait store and ask them.

Never heard of them until now, and don’t know anything about them. It’s an interesting idea, but I would rather go to a local baitshop and get to discuss what’s been working, see and hold what I’m about to buy, and support the place that I need for bait.

I was open to checking it out, but when I went to the sight and had to sign in with an email before I could even see how it works I lost all interest. Felt off to me.

Dan Baker wrote:

I was open to checking it out, but when I went to the sight and had to sign in with an email before I could even see how it works I lost all interest. Felt off to me.

X2 closed the window almost as fast as it pulled up.

When I am in the market for tackle I want to have it in my hand to see it up front, especially anything new to the market. I also support my local stores unless there is absolutely no chance of getting what I want locally. One thing is certain though….I will not “register” on any site just to shop if I cannot do so as a guest.

Kinda like why I don’t shop at Costco or Sam’s club. No friggen way am I paying a cover charge to shop at a store.

This is actually a pretty powerful concept and I really like the idea.

I developed recommendation engines at my last job and one of the key components is tying a user’s browsing/purchasing behavior together. This is easier for high-touch retailers who can tie things to a credit card. I would wager that a large amount of amazon users are always logged in, this allows them to track every product you view or purchase very easily.

There are other ways to try to stitch that information together, like website cookies, but they are nowhere near as reliable as they depend on someone using the same device/browser all the time, and also relies on them not resetting their cookies or using something like ‘incognito’ mode.

I’m guessing that’s why they want/need your email, apart from the obvious ‘need to be a subscriber’ business model. I’m really curious how they are building their initial algorithms though. It’s probably more rules based to start, if average lake depth = x and clarity = y, recommend crank bait that dives z feet. Ultimately, I’m sure their goal is to source all that information from users. This could be EXTREMELY effective if they do more than just a rules based model.

For instance, imagine if they could get a critical mass of users, and also convince those users to log which lures they are using every time they go fishing(and whether they were effective). You could build a really sophisticated algorithm that recommends extremely valid lures for popular lakes, but in general that information can be found by browsing forums like this. The real power would be for traveling to a new destination or lesser known lakes. The algorithm could assess characteristics of the target lake and bump that up against all the user inputted information. This would be somewhat useful just based on what people buy for lakes x,y and z, but REALLY useful if users actually logged successful lures for lakes x, y and z.

The only problem with sourcing info from the users is you have to get fishermen to knowingly and willingly give up valuable information on their favorite lake(s).

Most retailers don’t have that problem because:
a.) users don’t know that their purchases/browsing behavior is being used to power all the product recommendations.
or
b.) they don’t care. It has no impact on my life that my purchase behavior is being used to recommend a pair of wool socks to someone who just added hunting boots to their cart.

There has been a huge impact on identifying productive fishing locations in the last decade, advances in sonar/gps, social media, etc, this is a cool way to extend that to lure choice as well.

Matt Johnson from Omnia here. I saw this chain of comments and thought I’d try to provide some info. We’re not live yet which is the reason you have to use an email. You won’t in the future. This is just for early access request to help us test the features when it’s live. No email will be required to shop for tackle. We’re really an e-commerce company that will sell fishing tackle but we do offer a new way to shop by lake. We’ve built a recommendation algorithm that matches product categories and features to lake, species, and style features to help reduce the product selection for shopping online. It’s basically custom sorting by lake features where you start the process of indicating the lakes you fish from a map view. Just a way to make products relevant to all users. For example, if you fish a lake that is very clear it will suggest more natural soft plastic and hard bait products instead of very flashy products that work in murky conditions. The actual selection is up to the user. We’ll always offer traditional sorting of products as well. Happy to answer any questions you have about our upcoming (like 24 hours away) launch. We ship direct out of our warehouse in Golden Valley.

Unfortunately ecommerce needs extra tech for us anglers since you can tell me what tackle to buy based on the gloves I just bought. We’re trying to solve that through a map display and lake preferences. No private information or spot sharing.

i signed up. i definitely dig this type of idea and look forward to giving it a shot.

Matt Johnson used to work for Thornebros i believe.

hnd wrote:

Matt Johnson used to work for Thornebros i believe.

I believe you are correct.
I look forward to the launch and will revisit once it is up.

Matt Johnson wrote:

Matt Johnson from Omnia here. I saw this chain of comments and thought I’d try to provide some info. We’re not live yet which is the reason you have to use an email. You won’t in the future. This is just for early access request to help us test the features when it’s live. No email will be required to shop for tackle. We’re really an e-commerce company that will sell fishing tackle but we do offer a new way to shop by lake. We’ve built a recommendation algorithm that matches product categories and features to lake, species, and style features to help reduce the product selection for shopping online. It’s basically custom sorting by lake features where you start the process of indicating the lakes you fish from a map view. Just a way to make products relevant to all users. For example, if you fish a lake that is very clear it will suggest more natural soft plastic and hard bait products instead of very flashy products that work in murky conditions. The actual selection is up to the user. We’ll always offer traditional sorting of products as well. Happy to answer any questions you have about our upcoming (like 24 hours away) launch. We ship direct out of our warehouse in Golden Valley.

Unfortunately ecommerce needs extra tech for us anglers since you can tell me what tackle to buy based on the gloves I just bought. We’re trying to solve that through a map display and lake preferences. No private information or spot sharing.

Thank you for the clarification Matt. My interest is renewed. Look forward to hearing more about your services.

Thanks all. Not sure if this is allowed or not but once we’re live you can use promo code IDOTEST20 (20% off anything over $50) in exchange for giving us some honest feedback. Guest checkouts always welcome.

Also, I’m not the Matt Johnson from Thorne Bros. Get that a lot. I did start a company called Contour Innovations that built the Insight Genesis automated mapping program that was acquired by Lowrance so I’ve been in the industry and was mistaken for him on the phone a lot.