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Whitelabel / Physical Store / Other needed features
Hi everyone! Hi Lawrence!
I'm a Brickowl seller for some time now and have just opened my retail store in Sofia, Bulgaria and started using the Brickowl Whitelabel function. There wasn't much info on the whitelabel online, but the reason i chose to use it as it doesn't require me to build my own website and allows me to still build my brand and my local audience.
I have never posted in the forum, as the shop has been growing so rapidly, that i've been working 12-16 hours for some years now. In order to support my growth in a smart way, i would like to request a few features for Brickowl that should also translate to the whitelabel version as well. Apologies if it's a lot, but i've been noting this info for a while now and never had the time to make a thread.
1. Cash on delivery payment > eastern european consumers are provided with the option of checking their goods before paying at the courier office. This is a unique perk to the region, as consumers are still skeptical of online payments. Therefore, most users prefer this payment method. This will be connected to a Cash on Delivery shipping option.
2. Cash payment > since i've opened a retail store, some people want to reserve an item online and pick it up from the store. I will connect it to a store pick-up delivery option. But... i want people to be able to pay cash for it. Feel free to collect fees at the time of ordering, i don't mind.
3. Please add the BGN (Bulgarian lev) currency as a display currency, and automatically preselected for customers in Bulgaria. The currency is Fixed to the euro at an exchange rate:
1 EUR = 1.95583 BGN
4. Please add a Bulgarian translation opion. If you send me a database of the site titles/MENU NAMES in english, i wouldn't mind translating them. Initially, only the main titles/categories would do the job, but me or one of my empliyees could translate everything. I think that keeping sub-categories in English would be preferrable, as people are more familiar with the specific piece sub-categories and names in English
5. For the whitelabel, i would like to be able to see the Emails of my customers, as they are also creating an account for my Whitelabel store viksbricks.com as they don't know that they are creating a Brickowl account as well when they create one on the website. I would like to try and run certain email marketing campaigns, as i only have the brickowl whitelist website and i do consider these 'my clients'. Of course, if you disagree, i could understand that. This leads to the next point:
6. Customer Email visibility on Brickowl. I'm sure this has been brought up before, but please enable us to see the emails. I'm sure some sneaky bastards will try to avoid Brickowl and that you don't have an easy way to catch them, but i doubt it will happen often. I also sometimes request pics for damaged/wrong pieces received by customers to verify before refunding/resending pieces. They have difficulties working the brickowl system and it's easier to use email. This also ties to the next request:
7. Can we have an option to REQUIRE a phone number for certain shipping methods? I use couriers for half of my EU orders within the eu (~50% of my sales) and the couriers require a phone number to deliver. Sometimes customers forget to send it in the orser note, despite the instructions i privide during checkout. Couriers also use email notifications PRIOR to the day of delivery (when they actually call the recipient), so people knowing when to expect delivery at a prior time would decrease the amount of returned/not
Picked up packages.
8. Could i add custom items? In my physical store, i sell bags of random parts and certain color parts by the gram. For example,in packages of 400grams. I'd like people to be able to order them through Brickowl/the Whitelabel as well
9. I have some comments on recent changes, please consider them:
Tracking info field in the orders page now requires a certain length, which i believe is only suitable for the postal system. I used to send TRACKING LINKS there, for the ease of the customer, but also because of how my courier works. The courier i use works in the entire EU and they work in the following way:
- when i generate a shipping label, it creates a tracking code for the local country's courier. i ship orders to my courier's warehouse in Bulgaria, where they forward the packages to their distribution centers in various EU countries. After they reach the recipient's country, the local courier makes the tracking code visible in their system and makes the last-mile delivery.
Therefore, the tracking number i generate is not active in the recipient country's postal/courier system until it reaches the recipient country. Which can take up to 10 days after actual shipping (as the package is only visible internally in the Bulgarian courier's system). Due to this, i send a LINK (not the tracking code) to the Bulgarian courier's website.
As of a month or two ago, adding a link in the tracking info field is no longer possible.
It's also easier for people to follow it if they only click a link and not have to open a new tab, type in a new (local courier/post) website, copy a code and then look at their order.
I assume that this was to prevent scammers, but it's also very limiting to us legit sellers.
10. Stripe payouts capture > sometimes we don't meet our shipping dispatch times. We appreciate the reminders! We go on holiday, prepping for the physical store opening, moving locations, new personnel training, etc. We try to notify customers in advance when we can predict there will be a delay. Regardless, sometimes we can't predict it. We've since changed our shipping time to 6-14 days in the settings, which is not realistic for most orders, as we've lost 2 stripe payments since the change was implemented. The payment is currently refunded if not marked as shipped in 7 days. We had to resend a stripe payment link and an explanation message, which people don't always use to reorder/pay again.
I understand that this is done to protect buyers, but isn't the feedback system/rating for this? If people want to comlpain about this delay, they can do so in their feedback or request an order cancellation. Seems like an unnecessary complication from a seller's perspective. Also makes the buying process more complicated in these situations.
I love what you do, love the website, loving the whitelabel option, love this community.
Please take these as requests and not criticism - i understand why you've implemented these features. But let the system filter out the bad apples - or just tempirarily suspend/ban people breaking the rules. Even with all these regulations, people can still circumvent/take advantage of the system if they want to. We are aware of these loopholes due to our experience and never do. We don't mind paying the fees, as you privide a vital service for us. But we don't want to be limited because of other people's behaviour.
Looking forwars to this discussion! If you'd like to discuss in private/on a call, just message me : )
Sincerely,
Viktor
Vik's Bricks
I'm a Brickowl seller for some time now and have just opened my retail store in Sofia, Bulgaria and started using the Brickowl Whitelabel function. There wasn't much info on the whitelabel online, but the reason i chose to use it as it doesn't require me to build my own website and allows me to still build my brand and my local audience.
I have never posted in the forum, as the shop has been growing so rapidly, that i've been working 12-16 hours for some years now. In order to support my growth in a smart way, i would like to request a few features for Brickowl that should also translate to the whitelabel version as well. Apologies if it's a lot, but i've been noting this info for a while now and never had the time to make a thread.
1. Cash on delivery payment > eastern european consumers are provided with the option of checking their goods before paying at the courier office. This is a unique perk to the region, as consumers are still skeptical of online payments. Therefore, most users prefer this payment method. This will be connected to a Cash on Delivery shipping option.
2. Cash payment > since i've opened a retail store, some people want to reserve an item online and pick it up from the store. I will connect it to a store pick-up delivery option. But... i want people to be able to pay cash for it. Feel free to collect fees at the time of ordering, i don't mind.
3. Please add the BGN (Bulgarian lev) currency as a display currency, and automatically preselected for customers in Bulgaria. The currency is Fixed to the euro at an exchange rate:
1 EUR = 1.95583 BGN
4. Please add a Bulgarian translation opion. If you send me a database of the site titles/MENU NAMES in english, i wouldn't mind translating them. Initially, only the main titles/categories would do the job, but me or one of my empliyees could translate everything. I think that keeping sub-categories in English would be preferrable, as people are more familiar with the specific piece sub-categories and names in English
5. For the whitelabel, i would like to be able to see the Emails of my customers, as they are also creating an account for my Whitelabel store viksbricks.com as they don't know that they are creating a Brickowl account as well when they create one on the website. I would like to try and run certain email marketing campaigns, as i only have the brickowl whitelist website and i do consider these 'my clients'. Of course, if you disagree, i could understand that. This leads to the next point:
6. Customer Email visibility on Brickowl. I'm sure this has been brought up before, but please enable us to see the emails. I'm sure some sneaky bastards will try to avoid Brickowl and that you don't have an easy way to catch them, but i doubt it will happen often. I also sometimes request pics for damaged/wrong pieces received by customers to verify before refunding/resending pieces. They have difficulties working the brickowl system and it's easier to use email. This also ties to the next request:
7. Can we have an option to REQUIRE a phone number for certain shipping methods? I use couriers for half of my EU orders within the eu (~50% of my sales) and the couriers require a phone number to deliver. Sometimes customers forget to send it in the orser note, despite the instructions i privide during checkout. Couriers also use email notifications PRIOR to the day of delivery (when they actually call the recipient), so people knowing when to expect delivery at a prior time would decrease the amount of returned/not
Picked up packages.
8. Could i add custom items? In my physical store, i sell bags of random parts and certain color parts by the gram. For example,in packages of 400grams. I'd like people to be able to order them through Brickowl/the Whitelabel as well
9. I have some comments on recent changes, please consider them:
Tracking info field in the orders page now requires a certain length, which i believe is only suitable for the postal system. I used to send TRACKING LINKS there, for the ease of the customer, but also because of how my courier works. The courier i use works in the entire EU and they work in the following way:
- when i generate a shipping label, it creates a tracking code for the local country's courier. i ship orders to my courier's warehouse in Bulgaria, where they forward the packages to their distribution centers in various EU countries. After they reach the recipient's country, the local courier makes the tracking code visible in their system and makes the last-mile delivery.
Therefore, the tracking number i generate is not active in the recipient country's postal/courier system until it reaches the recipient country. Which can take up to 10 days after actual shipping (as the package is only visible internally in the Bulgarian courier's system). Due to this, i send a LINK (not the tracking code) to the Bulgarian courier's website.
As of a month or two ago, adding a link in the tracking info field is no longer possible.
It's also easier for people to follow it if they only click a link and not have to open a new tab, type in a new (local courier/post) website, copy a code and then look at their order.
I assume that this was to prevent scammers, but it's also very limiting to us legit sellers.
10. Stripe payouts capture > sometimes we don't meet our shipping dispatch times. We appreciate the reminders! We go on holiday, prepping for the physical store opening, moving locations, new personnel training, etc. We try to notify customers in advance when we can predict there will be a delay. Regardless, sometimes we can't predict it. We've since changed our shipping time to 6-14 days in the settings, which is not realistic for most orders, as we've lost 2 stripe payments since the change was implemented. The payment is currently refunded if not marked as shipped in 7 days. We had to resend a stripe payment link and an explanation message, which people don't always use to reorder/pay again.
I understand that this is done to protect buyers, but isn't the feedback system/rating for this? If people want to comlpain about this delay, they can do so in their feedback or request an order cancellation. Seems like an unnecessary complication from a seller's perspective. Also makes the buying process more complicated in these situations.
I love what you do, love the website, loving the whitelabel option, love this community.
Please take these as requests and not criticism - i understand why you've implemented these features. But let the system filter out the bad apples - or just tempirarily suspend/ban people breaking the rules. Even with all these regulations, people can still circumvent/take advantage of the system if they want to. We are aware of these loopholes due to our experience and never do. We don't mind paying the fees, as you privide a vital service for us. But we don't want to be limited because of other people's behaviour.
Looking forwars to this discussion! If you'd like to discuss in private/on a call, just message me : )
Sincerely,
Viktor
Vik's Bricks
This discussion has been closed.
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Comments
2. I believe this is currently possible?
3. That's now been done
4. That's now been added, it will take several days for our system to grab the translations for all the pieces of text. After that if you get in touch we can set your account up for translation
5. We have the same privacy/terms policy for Brick Owl and whitelabel, so we don't have permission to share emails or for sending marketing newsletters
6. Users can send attachments both via email and through the messaging system. You can also send direct emails to the customers Brick Owl email address shown on the contact tab
7. We will need to consider this further
8. This is not something we want to support
9. We will need to consider this further
10. You can manually capture the payment from the more actions drop down if needed
Thank you for all your comments, we always appreciate hearing from users
Thanks for your reply and lightning fast adjustments! I wasn't hoping for any changes, least of all instantly. Kudos, you're awesome 🤟
Regarding your reply.
1, 2 and 10 - i will have to look deeper into the payment settings - only saw Stripe and Paypal as options.
3 and 4 - thanks again!
9 - any chance you could comment here if changes are applied? I never find time for the checking forum, working too much 🫠
5 - would you elaborate why? If not, that's also fine, just curious.
If primary concern is not people doing business outside the platform, then i would assume some privacy regulation like GDPR in the EU? If it's that, then i believe sellers are liable for the use/misuse of that information. I will have my own ToS on the whitelabel and i don't think Brickowl is liable for that. Otherwise, TLG would not allow email usage on that other platform - they do everything to stay out of trouble
6 - I had not thought of that, thank you. I'm blonde, so i miss the obvious often 😅
7 - couriers conceal that information in their labels behind QR codes, so they're liable for this personal information. I think sellers are liable for the misuse of that info, so you're good on that too if that's your concern. Again, that other platform allows it, so its likely legally ok, if thats your concern.
8. Custom items like this are a killer locally. I understand why you wouldn't want them this kind of item on the platform, though. Any chance only whitelabel users could sell custom items on our websites and brickowl stores? We're a limited amount and you can keep us in check if needed 😁 Because if not, that is a nudge towards making my own website, and i'd rather not do that for the foreseeable future. 😅
Thanks for your time man, really appreciated 👌
5. Whitelabel operates on the same underlying system as Brick Owl, so we don't want the complexity of having seperate user accounts/terms/privacy policy
Yes, i understand the reasoning behind 5.
Thank you for implementing so many changes!
Sincerely,
Viktor
Google has done a terrible job, but i'll get someone on my team to have a go at it asap. Thanks for letting me know! Greatly appreciated!
I just added new payment and shipping options to the shop, only usable on the local market. I want to write out the instructions in Bulgarian, as many people don't speak English. Unfortunately, the ' Instructions' field recognizes Bulgarian letters as special characters, so i had to type them out in English.
Coukd Bulgarian letters/charscters be allowed in field names, or at least that particular one for instructions, please?
Screenshot attached: