Expanded wishlist store conditions

Malnaborg

After some time buying from stores here in Brickowl, both by one brick or by buying from a wishlist, it would be nice to have a bigger search option when selecting which store to buy from.

At the moment we only have mold variation and place in the world.
However i feel the more special a wishlist get with different pieces, it would be nice to maybe have more options when searching for the best store options.

For instance:
Remove stores with "minimum buy"
Remove stores with "quote only"
Remove stores with "x percentage feedback"
Remove stores with "over x amount of shipping date"

All of these things at the moment can "mess" up the order process of choosing stores. At the moment when i allocate a part of the wishlist the system tries to find the best option, but then when i choose the next store for the rest of my wishlist parts, it moves the whole sale process around, leaving a chosen store before with new selection of parts, leaving me under the minimum buy, hence i need to deselect some of my chosen stores.

This can go on and on, until the correct setup is found. So if these extra options could be implemented, it would in my view help a lot with the buying selection process.

How do others feel about this? And / or do you have more options that could be suggested ?

Malnaborg

Not much into this ?
Oh well, thought it was an idea ;-) :-D

Jay37

I'll chip in! I think this is a good idea, especially being able to filter out those stores with minimum buys or quote only (or lot averages). Far too often I'll go to 'buy' a wishlist, find that there's a number of possible stores, click the first only to discover I haven't met a minimum order limit. Onto the next, same outcome...

I don't know how technically difficult (or not) this is, but additional filters would be most welcome.

infinibrix

Is it actually possible to have Quote Only? I actually want this for my own store even if it means losing some business?

As far as I understand it you have to have at least one instant checkout option which is very frustrating when trying to accurately juggle stock between multiple sites. I prefer the idea that I can quote and be absolutely sure about availability of my stock before taking any payment from my customers?

Malnaborg

I think you can have only a quote options.
If anything you can try to disable your other options and see. If you have no problems with disabling, then yes :-)

Papa Pearson

@infinibrix why are juggling inventory between multiple sites? There are programs to help with that. Brickfreedom being one. Just a disclaimer, I am not associated with Brick Freedom in any way. Other than using the program, which is awesome. And wishing that I had thought of it first

Jay37

I thought that stores now need to have at least one form of instant payment as well as Request a Quote. I assume this also has to be enabled, but you can of course have this for domestic orders only where it might be easier to establish postal rates, or for certain dimensions. For example, I suppose you could set up a automatic payment method for very thin items (say capes), which may be an occasional sale, and then everything else is Request a Quote.

infinibrix

@PapaPearson Because ebay is my main source of revenue followed by Bricklink and then Brickowl and because inventory can sit idle on this site for much longer than other platforms it inevitably means that every now again a stock oversight will occur here from where I've replenished inventory on ebay without checking how much stock is already allocated to Brickowl. I already under allocate available stock between the three sites so that there is always backup stock to fall back on but this isn't 100% reliable all of the time!

@Jay37 Thanks the instant checkout for letter rate alone sounds like a good work around though I don't really understand why we should be forced to have an instant checkout option? Bricklink allows you to manually invoice every order so why not here? You used to be able to?

Jay37

@infinibrix I believe the thinking here is that 'Request a quote' is perceived as a turn off for customers (and from a personal perspective it is for me). The majority of items here have dimensions and weights that, with shipping rates/bands set up, allows for a relatively smooth customer basket-to-checkout experience.

I think the BL methodology is/was borne out of traditionally not having dimensions and weights, so everyone was used to it. I suspect that the introduction of instant checkout on BL is because someone realized that it may not be very attractive to new customers who are used to internet shopping and paying straight awat. Also worth pointing out BO is not BL and can choose to have it's own terms and conditions.

I try to think of comparing to a real world scenario. If I went into a supermarket, loaded my basket and went to checkout, only to be told I have to wait a couple of hours to find out what I have to pay, which may include other charges, chances are I'd probably go elsewhere.

Obviously individual stores here can set themselves up as they see fit, and what works for one may not work for someone else.

infinibrix

@Jay37 There is a big difference here though in that with a supermarket the stock is allocated to that store and you simply pick up and buy whatever you see available? If I only sold Lego in a physical store it wouldn't be a problem the other thing is we’re not really dealing with simple off the shelf retail products like kettles and TV’s. Most Lego orders are made up of multiple small intricate parts where a degree of checking and inspection is advised even if you believe your stocks are accurate as parts can very easily be misplaced, have defects or be counted incorrectly to begin with.

The question is though shouldn’t this just be a seller choice just the same as it is on Bricklink? Like I say for those buyers that only want instant checkout I accept losing that business as having proper control with being able to ensue I can fulfil orders is more important to me

At the end of the day if it means that I restrict what I sell here is that truly serving the community as a whole? If a buyer desperately seeks an item or parts in good quantities that only I have available will they still be overly concerned with a quote then? Compare that with the alternative of potentially not even listing on Brickowl due to my own concerns of stock oversights and the repercussions that can cause!
Not being able to fulfil a quote is not ideal and one too many in itself but not being able to fulfil a payed order is not a position I want to be in at all

Malnaborg

Well quite simply, one of my options for "removing" a store is the quote only option.
Even if only a few store have the item i need.

And i have actually done this before, with 4 stores, where i needed to buy a manual, i chose the 4. store in price, because that store was the 1. with no quotes or minimum buy.

I rather buy in a more expensive store, and get the order done, that for me as a buyer, needing to check my mail or brickowl, for whenever the store react to my order.

So again my options request to an expanded "search" option when choosing stores to buy from.

infinibrix

@Malnaborg I wouldn't be against you having an option to remove sellers that quote as it would be your choice though I'd question whether its always going to be in your best interest to hide sellers who may well turn out to be the only ones that have what you need.... Would seem a bit of a short sighted approach to things in my view?

Either way despite only using manual invoice on Bricklink I still take plenty of orders on a daily basis and so I don't believe the quote thing is all that high an issue for most buyers even if it is for you?

There are far more important things to be concerned about with regards to a seller such as their actual Feedback, quality of goods and the service you can expect to receive!

Not much good having a seller that allows you to pay instantly but then doesn't ship for five days? I pretty much always quote and ship same day!

P6tu

Ah, this topic heading got me lost a bit, but yeah, I too am looking for more options and the latest addition of removing the option to select all store when using the wishlist, made things a bit more to the downside.

In addition, I'd like to have an option to exclude specific stores or have an option to add some stores to be ignored. Like having favourites, but the opposite.

And with many mentioned features I'm on the same page with Malnaborg - filter out "Quote only" and filter our "lot average" shops. Those mess up everything so bad especially now when we don't have the option to select all stores in the wishlist at all. Takes so much time to tick them all one-by-one to find out that every other store has some "issues" like quote only, minimum buy not met or minimum lot average not met and etc.

Lawrence

I've added a filter to exclude stores with a minimum order. This also encompasses stores with a minimum lot average. There are not many stores with a minimum lot average, so I didn't make a separate selector for thoose.

There is a limit to the UI space and complexity we want to have, so I don't want to implement a feedback\shipping time filter.

The wishlist tool already highlights when a quote would be required for a potential store allocation, so you can already visually exclude those stores

Malnaborg

WAUW.....

I Bow to you Lawrence, awesome work. Thank you so much :-)

P6tu

@Malnaborg , how is this limit of 100 stores working for you?

Malnaborg

Well at the moment my wishlist is actually empty.
I am doing a new batch of sets with missing pieces, so i would guess by the end of the month i can try it out.

But as a number, i think it is a good start. At least for the "un-select" process i guess 100 is fairly big and hoping that even then, not all will be allocated, but could give a good indication as to how well this will work.