Holiday

Neiljones

Just a thought all I can do is have my store open or closed. Is it possible to have the option to say that the store is close for holiday – vacation. So buyers know that you are away and your store is not closed permanently.

Hoddie

No.

Mrs Swoop

What @Hoddie said, but you can put extra info on your home page/storefront.

Neiljones

Can I ask why you both say no. I am struggling to change my storefront. Sorry to be a pain would appreciate your help on this.

Mrs Swoop

As you said, the store status is either open or closed, there is no other option there.

Your storefront is the home page in the pages tab
https://www.brickowl.com/mystore/pages

You can just type in the box, there are also some predefined info blocks that you can copy in.

Jay37

BO terms state that stores should ship within their stated window, and reply to queries/shipping quotes within 48 hours. If you are on holiday and unable to ship (and it's highly likely that you would not want to be contacted by customers), then it's best to close the store. By all means add a note to the home page as your store will still be visible to anyone going direct - for example clicking through a forum post, or through a previous order - to explain when and why you're closed. Also if you have active carts the potential buyer won't be able to complete the order until you reopen, but I would argue that it's better to stick to the rules and maybe upset that customer, rather than not stick to the rules and still upset that customer because you can't ship their order.

Neiljones

Thank you all for your replies. I understand all your points. But I stand by my thought putting that you are on holiday, this does not mean that you can’t talk to the customer it just means you can’t ship. Maybe I should not mention that eBay have that option that is why I thought I would ask the question here. I buy from brickowl as well as sell and if I see that the seller is on holiday on eBay I know I that the item will not be shipped until they get back but can still contact them. With modern technology we can reply to an email anywhere in the world.

One_Click_Off

There is another, more strait forward, way and that is to use your “SLOGAN / TAG LINE” to inform buyers that you will be or now are on a holiday, and then close it for the stated time. A message such as “Closed for Holiday May — through May —“ will be seen on that top banner no matter what is being viewed while the Homepage has to be selected to be read. While this doesn’t allow your store’s parts to come up on a search here at BrickOwl when you are closed, it may allow those with Carts to see a scheduled closed time when they pull it up for review, maybe purchase beforehand or avoid looking to another store before you reopen.

As an additional note, buyers who are have been shown potential stores for a purchase while on Rebrickable will see this advice next to your store name when otherwise they won’t know your store is closed until they choose to navigate to it.

Neiljones

@ One_Click_Off thank you for your reply. Once again would it not be easier if brickowl could implement the option for being on holiday. I am a builder by trade and when on holiday I still answer my customers questions.

Lawrence

As others have stated, the despatch time in your store must always be accurate, and this cannot be overriden by statements elsewhere.

Mrs Swoop

@Neiljones when I first read your post I thought you were asking if it's possible now rather than suggesting a change, that's what I was saying no to. But you can still respond to messages when your store is closed, I think the only thing you can't do is receive orders.

tons_of_bricks

I think you guys completely misunderstood the OP. They weren't asking if this is possible (they know it isn't), but rather if a feature like this could be implemented (notice this post is in the "suggestions" forum).

Emporiosa

+1 on folks misunderstanding OP. I had this same thought a couple of weeks ago when I closed. There isn't an easy way to show you're on vacation (like on BrickLink). So it can make some buyers who previously had orders placed (even if already shipped) on edge because they see the store closed, and there's no good place to put that you're on vacation. I try to change the main front page, but again, it's not very clear. If a banner or something could pop up when they visit your store (and it's closed), that would be fantastic (although someone else mentioned changing the slogan/tag line so I might try that next time). Often I'm reachable, so I like to able to let people know I'm only temporarily closed for a vacation, and reachable at all times.

Papa Pearson

Just my opinion here, but if you're going to be gone for more than 7 days, you should close. I know on the other site you can have a bypass password that would allow a buyer to place an order if they didn't mind waiting, but not sure we have that option here.

tons_of_bricks

@Papa Pearson and everyone else who's saying you should close: the OP obviously understands that. They just want a feature that allows them to put up a banner when closing for a holiday that they're merely closed for a few days, and not indefinitely or permanently. A couple of you did suggest some alternatives, but they aren't too obvious and buyers might not see them.

Emporiosa

@Papa Pearson replying to you since you're the last one to post, but others have also said the same thing misinterpreting. The scenario is the store is closed (it's not open). It's to have a place to put a put that you're just on vacation, and you're reachable if needed. On BrickLink, you have the option to select the reason why you're closed and also include a blurb that's clearly shown on the storefront.

There have been posts from buyers here on the forum saying things like "I bought something from a seller and I haven't received the order yet but now their store is closed. Will I receive the item?" etc... And often the seller is just on vacation. The point is we don't have an easy place to leave a note to folks that visit the store while it's closed.

Edit: to also add here, on BL (or eBay technically too, but their vacation mode is basically store open by default with a warning), there's also the option to put in a bypass to still place orders, but they still are gated by a closed store with the blurb there that the seller can put in. That's another separate feature request though from just being able to put a notice for buyers to see when the store is closed.

Calibrick

So yes, this is a suggestion up for vote - to have a "we're temp closed for vacation etc., but if you don't mind waiting for shipment go ahead and place an order."

One option could be a preset auto-display when this is turned on; in seller area, we fill in date of close, date of return. On store, when date of close hits, the home page manual area (under the header) content is replaced with a standard message stating store temp closed, shipments resuming on X date, feel free to browse or place and order if you don't mind waiting."

Here's the problem tho IMHO: a very high volume of my orders come in via wishlists or rebrickable. People using wishlists just pick stores that have the best price, and if you're in a big wishlist, you're really not spending time at that store's home page (tho I do go out of my way to look at feedback). I'd be concerned that it may be very easy to miss that the store is temp closed; and then people (unless regular LEGO buyers here and BL) don't always get unhappy with the unresponsive store - they think that "BO" sucks.

So you'd need some kind of in-your-face pop-up noting that in the wishlist area and any auto-purchases from rebrickable, etc., so the message is super clear to ALL.

You probably need some kind of messaging in the catalog "buy" tab too for the store, so people don't find their part at a shipping cost they dig, only to get frustrated when they click it and find the store is temp closed (we've now wasted their time),

I'm trying to look at this objectively - I get sick A LOT so frequently have to close my store. I'd love to avoid that. But from a programmatic POV, I can see how this would be super-challenging to implement consistently across BO in such a way that is buyer-focused vs seller-focused. Not saying insurmountable... but objectively, I think I see why this is not an option here today and am hard-pressed to really want to change it unless there was a specific proposal that addressed all those use cases, even tho that would be to my personal advantage. :-)

Just another POV to consider is all folks!

Hoddie

Perhaps the problem with a holiday mode is that the various countdowns relating to payment methods start ticking as soon as an order is placed. The buyer loses a bit of their PayPal protection window, but more importantly perhaps is that Stripe requires orders be shipped within a certain window otherwise the payment is automatically reversed/released.

mfav

Pardon the intrusion, but couldn't you just ask in the suggestions section that LJ add the functionality and place the notice in the Store Information box (or where-have-you). All that is really being asked for here, if I understand correctly, is a simple text field that displays if it is populated. I wouldn't think that would be bloody murder to program. It might want to be styled as a red box or something, but you can ask.

Calibrick

Mfav, def not an intrusion! :-) We're all cheerfully tossing around ideas, so your thoughts are super-welcome!!

Hoddie, that is an unintended consequence I certainly hadn't thought of... good point for use case research!

Neiljones

Hi all I did not think this would open a can of worms. As for what Lawrence said yes I agree with the time limit on shipping orders. And yes all orders should be shipped that are paid for before you go on holiday vacation. And as for worrying about losing a few days on PayPal protection that does not bother me but I understand it does bother other people. I am happy to place an order knowing someone is on holiday/vacation if the store is closed very unlikely to place an order if store just says closed. And once again thank you all for your comments and suggestions

Neiljones

If holiday mode is on and buyers know you are on holiday/vacation and they send a request for shipping. As the seller with the option to send the buyer a message you can tell them the shipping cost and suggest that they wait until your store opens to make payment. Therefore not losing any PayPal protection or with stripe.