Improvements to inventories. Inventory viewing now shows extra quantity of parts where this information has been entered. When parting out a set, you can choose to include the extras or not. When parting out a set, if an item in the inventory has its own inventory (minifigures/assemblies usually), you can break that item into its component parts easily by clicking the "break" button.
Order combining, this was implemented a little while ago and is now working fine. When enabled, if a customer has an appropriate existing order in a store, they are given the option of combining the shipping of the new order with the existing order to reduce the shipping cost. The orders will be entirely separate orders, but they will be sent to the same address usually in the same package. If as a store you receive a combined order, there will be a link on the orders to each other.
For new stores and stores that never changed their delivery page, this has been automatically inserted into the delivery page. If you have edited your delivery page, you will need to add the new block manually. Simply insert the code {{block type="ship_methods"}} at the bottom of the page to make the new table appear. You can edit your stores pages here http://www.brickowl.com/mystore/pages
Sellers can attach a note to an order to be viewed only by the store. An icon will also appear in the orders list to indicate this, you can hover on it to view a preview of the note.
The bestselling block for stores is now based on the bestselling data for that specific store, as opposed to the whole site. It is now much more relevant. It is also on a rolling 14 day basis. You can add it to your homepage by going to the pages section of your store.
Improvements to the missing data page here http://brickowl.com/search/catalog?query=lego&show_missing=1 The missing data fields are now much more relevant. For example, it will only show items missing lip colour that are parts with "head" in the name. There is also now UPC/EAN and it shows if an item should have an inventory, or if it should be in an inventory but is not.
Attributes like eye colour and facial expression etc are now only available on minifigure heads. These will automatically be copied onto any minifigure that the head is present in.
For mini figures and parts with inventories, when their parts are found in a sets inventory, that minifigure or part assembly is automatically placed into that set inventory. The individual parts will then be removed from that set inventory.
The short version is, there is no need to place assemblies or minifigures into sets, you just need to inventory the parts assembly or minifigure.
To help with doing minifigure inventories, you can now bring up the inventory of a set from the search. To do this, search for 'inventory:340729', so 'inventory:' followed by the BOID of a set. You can do this from the part adding window from within the edit inventory screen.
You can now leave notes on members that can be viewed by yourself only. To store a note on a member, visit their profile and there will be a "member notes" tab.
On the contact form for contacting a user, their "Brick Owl Email Address" is now shown. This can be used for example for giving to third parties such as for shipping related emails.
There is now a "Report an Issue" form which can be accessed by the "Other Actions" drop down when viewing an order. This can be used to report issues such as unreceived or unpaid orders.
Order ID is now passed to Paypal (except for "Standard" Paypal Payments") in the Invoice ID field. It is also passed to Stripe in the description.
There is a force quote option in the advanced store inventory view. Ticking this on an item will only allow the Request a Quote shipping option to be used when this item is added to a customer's cart.
Many improvements have been made to the creation of new items. Many standard types of new items such as heads and torsos etc will automatically be put into categories, linked up to relevant parents, have weights/dimensions assigned etc.
Notes stored about members will now show up in the store sidebar when you are viewing the store of a member you have made a note about. Only member notes you have created will appear, they are not public.
If your store receives negative feedback, you will receive an e-mail to let you know. Customers are able to remove negative feedback if you can resolve the situation with them.
A system has been made that automatically reads the inventory from Lego instructions booklets. This is used to make sure the inventory is accurate. Sometimes the current inventories are missing some of the "rarer" items like printed tiles for example, this will make sure all of those items appear in the inventory.
Lot history. When viewing your inventory, there is now a new viewing mode called "history" on the top right next to the other viewing modes. This will show you any important changes you make to a lot, such as changing the quantity or price. It will also show you the source of this, so whether the quantity was reduced for an order, or whether it was increased from parting out a set for example. It also shows a timestamp and who did it.
The data for this has only just started to be collected so it will not show your changes prior to now.
Huw from Brickset has kindly provided several hundred high quality minifigure pictures which are now in the catalogue. They can be seen in categories such as http://brickowl.com/catalog/lego-minifigures/batman
Improvements to order history screen to speed it up. Improved order search, it now includes order items, address details, PayPal transaction ID, tracking numbers etc in the search. You can also now search for orders using the search drop down at the top of the screen.
Order cancellation form, there is now a simplified version of the refund form when you just want to cancel an order. It is accessible from the other actions drop down on an order. It updates the order totals, marks the order as cancelled and sends the customer an e-mail letting you know the order has been cancelled with your cancellation note. It can also optionally refund the money via PayPal if appropriate like the usual refund form.
Stores can change the shipping method of an order after it has been placed. This change will be shown in the order log. This will update the shipping method name and tracking advice used for the order, which is given in the order shipment e-mail. This is mainly useful for if a customer uses request a quote and you want to change the information to the actual shipping method. This will not make any changes to the shipment cost.
For stores, in the order settings screen, you can now enable colour swatches on the order details screen to help with picking orders. You can also now Mark shipping methods as expedited, there is a checkbox in the shipping method edit form. If an order is placed with an expedited method, an icon will be shown in the list of orders to indicate this.
Minifigures can now be created using a link at the top of the inventory page of a set. The new form will allow you to create the minifigure and the inventory for the minifigure at the same time making the process much easier.
Parts and minifigures now have the year that they were first released on them. This information comes from the set inventories automatically.
Minifigures are now put in to the theme of the set they come in automatically, and therefore the category also.
Changes have been made to how inventories handle alternate parts. The grouping of alternate parts is now done automatically. To add an alternate part to an inventory, you just added as if it was any other part, and it will be automatically linked up to the part it is an alternate of.
When parting out sets into your store inventory, there is now an advanced mode. This allows you to set the personal note for your lots, bulk quantity, and sale percent.
Minifigure parts are now automatically named based on the minifigure that they come in. For example, "LEGO Minifigure Hips with White Legs with Decoration (13387)" becomes "LEGO 501st Legion Clone Trooper Minifigure Hips with White Legs (13387)"
Times on the website are now displayed in the local time zone. You can change your time zone from the edit tab on your profile page. The previous separate settings form on your profile has now been merged into the normal edit tab.
Stickered parts can be added to set inventories. They are highlighted when viewing an inventory as being stickered. When parting out an inventory, if you select a condition of new, they will not be shown, otherwise they will be shown and highlighted by putting a 'S' in the alt column.
There are now composite images (similar to those for mini figures) on sets that only have a few items in their inventory. This mainly affects bonus/Value Pack sets. It is especially useful for those that did not previously have a picture. For example http://www.brickowl.com/catalog/lego-bonus-value-pack-set-66361
Between approximately 9:30 PM last night and 9:30 AM GMT this morning, orders paid via PayPal were not automatically marked as paid. The issue that caused this has now been fixed, many of these will automatically get marked as payment received over the next 12 hours or so. You may want to manually check for payment. I apologise for the inconvenience.
When viewing an inventory of a set, you can now see the minimum price of each item. This is intended to be a quick way to view the valuable items in a set. You can also sort by price.
Quotes now have an ID that will stay the same once the quote is converted to an order so it is easier to keep track of which quotes turn into which orders.
Sorting method and direction is now saved when you sort on search results, item inventories, or your store inventory. It is saved against your user account.
Subsets, for example advent calendar subsets, are automatically linked up to their parent set so they will use the parents name by default and its theme/category. They work in a similar way to instructions/packaging.
Comments
There are a few settings that you can optionally configure here http://www.brickowl.com/mystore/settings/order_settings
For new stores and stores that never changed their delivery page, this has been automatically inserted into the delivery page. If you have edited your delivery page, you will need to add the new block manually. Simply insert the code {{block type="ship_methods"}} at the bottom of the page to make the new table appear. You can edit your stores pages here http://www.brickowl.com/mystore/pages
The short version is, there is no need to place assemblies or minifigures into sets, you just need to inventory the parts assembly or minifigure.
There is a force quote option in the advanced store inventory view. Ticking this on an item will only allow the Request a Quote shipping option to be used when this item is added to a customer's cart.
The data for this has only just started to be collected so it will not show your changes prior to now.
Parts and minifigures now have the year that they were first released on them. This information comes from the set inventories automatically.
Minifigures are now put in to the theme of the set they come in automatically, and therefore the category also.