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Some minor annoyances while pondering a switch to BrickOwl
I'm mostly a BrickLink buyer and possibly a seller in the close future (about 80k extra parts here). I have been following BrickOwl while thinking about making the switch. Overall, it looks really nice, but I find there are many little details hindering the flow of certain operations...
When browsing a store, quantities of parts are not shown at all when browsing categories. A single part has to be fully and solely selected to finally reveal the quantities. Personally, I find that rather annoying! I don't normally place small orders so seeing quantities right away *really* matters to me, perhaps even more than seeing prices.
Under the tab "Comes In" for parts, it lists the sets with the highest counts of the part (even if they are 10 years old). What I really want is to list the most recent sets on top, as I constantly use that information to know if I can acquire parts by purchasing whole sets. Can that be done?
I really love to open links in new tabs, I do it all the time and abusively. Yet on BrickOwl, many "links" can't be opened that way because they are dynamic scripts. For example, I can't open 3 pages to simultaneously look up 3 different colors on this page : http://www.brickowl.com/catalog/lego-brick-2-x-4-3001-15589-54534 Any hope of also allowing "Open link in new tab"?
Similarly, when we open forum posts in new tabs, the page loads and one can start reading, then it blanks out and reloads just so that we can have the BrickOwl bar on top. This is... slightly annoying.
I'll stop here for now, the list can be rather extensive. Most are details yet, for me, they certainly affect the user experience. Overall though, BrickOwl is great
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I'm thinking of switching once my BrickLink feedback hits 100 (currently 84), so that I can request the feedback boost. I heard most buyers don't leave feedback on BrickOwl, and starting at zero isn't inspiring if I am to consider selling later this year.
When browsing a store, quantities of parts are not shown at all when browsing categories. A single part has to be fully and solely selected to finally reveal the quantities. Personally, I find that rather annoying! I don't normally place small orders so seeing quantities right away *really* matters to me, perhaps even more than seeing prices.
Under the tab "Comes In" for parts, it lists the sets with the highest counts of the part (even if they are 10 years old). What I really want is to list the most recent sets on top, as I constantly use that information to know if I can acquire parts by purchasing whole sets. Can that be done?
I really love to open links in new tabs, I do it all the time and abusively. Yet on BrickOwl, many "links" can't be opened that way because they are dynamic scripts. For example, I can't open 3 pages to simultaneously look up 3 different colors on this page : http://www.brickowl.com/catalog/lego-brick-2-x-4-3001-15589-54534 Any hope of also allowing "Open link in new tab"?
Similarly, when we open forum posts in new tabs, the page loads and one can start reading, then it blanks out and reloads just so that we can have the BrickOwl bar on top. This is... slightly annoying.
I'll stop here for now, the list can be rather extensive. Most are details yet, for me, they certainly affect the user experience. Overall though, BrickOwl is great
.I'm thinking of switching once my BrickLink feedback hits 100 (currently 84), so that I can request the feedback boost. I heard most buyers don't leave feedback on BrickOwl, and starting at zero isn't inspiring if I am to consider selling later this year.
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As a new seller starting with 0 feedback in July it's taken me a while to get to 40.
I brought a few things to help boost my feedback. I'd say about 30% of my customers have left feedback.
Mark
With regards to opening links in new tabs, where is that not possible? On the example you gave, if you go to the colour tab, there should be no issue middle clicking on any of the links to the different colours. Similarly, you can open the actual tabs in new tabs by right clicking and doing open in new tab.
If I understand right you may not have seen one option here, hard to say. There is a drop down on items when viewing them in store with the category filters. The add to cart button shows the quantities without going off the page.
It was suggested to give a quantity with a hover over the colour square a while ago even though it is just a couple clicks to see the numbers.
I generally shop by quantity before price myself these days. The catalog pages for specific parts do allow you to sort by quantity.
Admin, Loremonger, I know we can open the Colors tab first. I meant that we can't "open link in tabs" from the list of colors under the "Buy" tab. Each extra click is a 2.4 seconds delay while the page loads... Minor annoyances, I know, but they add up
Speaking of 2.4 seconds delays, if it were possible to disable all fade out/in animations, I would very gladly do so.
I also find the "Price+Shipping" column somewhat superfluous while browsing parts. I think most people don't place an order for a single $0.10 part.
While in a store, I would love being able to search for parts directly, by name or by typing the part ID. Opening categories and sub-categories is slow (another 2.4 seconds per click...) and one doesn't always know how parts are organized. Speaking of which, it would be nice to have an option to have all categories fully extended (perhaps with a smaller font and multiple columns, I just prefer to find things in a single click without scrolling).
I realize that many of these mild complains only matter to "power buyers", who demand efficiency. Certain things could be configured on a per-account basis (for example, I'm also really not interested in these lists of "featured" or "best-selling" everywhere
All right, I don't want to complain too much, BrickOwl is looking great and I know it's a lot of work
http://walstib.brickowl.com/store/lego-parts/brick/standard
I still have no idea if you have thousands or dozens of each part. To know that, I need to open each part individually to know. If the page can tell me "From CA $0.12", why not tell me the total count of parts too? To me, that information is often much more important.
If the part does not come up with the word you thought of, ask to add a tag to it.
Love the search here.
Cool beans, was not sure if you were going right to the one part by itself screen. I do agree with your suggestion being something that would make shopping here quicker for me.
I think a better way to grab BL sellers without putting anyone else at a disadvantage would be to offer them reduced fees for an initial period. As a business I'd think this was more valuable than a feedback boost.
I never though of a boost being an incitement in a fishing for stores context before. How much is Amazon or etsy feedback worth? It's a too big a thing to just think of BL.
My numbers don't match anymore, who knows if and when one will be bigger than the other. Say someone had a boost 300 more than me it could take years to catch them doing twice the sales.
After 10 feedback does it matter that much on a site with a high trust factor? Not much to me as a buyer. I think in general the modern marketplace is not hung up on the old systems that get indoctrinated into a person if heard enough times and lived through.
I sort of miss the thrill and race for higher feedback, levels and status. At less than 10% posted these days it's like betting on snail races. In the end customers are happy and buying, and I can pick other stats to compete with myself over.
Joe
The real question is, why do so few people leave feedback? Perhaps it's because, in some ways, when browsing a store on BrickOwl, it doesn't "feel" like you are in someone's store, it feels like you are browsing BrickOwl.
I mean, the path says:
You are here: Home > LEGO Parts > Brick > LEGO Standard Parts
while I really think it should say:
You are here: Walstib's Workshop > LEGO Parts > Brick > LEGO Standard Parts
But mostly, when someone has feedback pending, it should clearly be on the first page after logging in.
I like that I can have an order go through flawlessly without the need of any communication at all, and at the same time appreciate the people that take the time to leave feedback.
I see it as a no pressure approach the way it is now. I like that as an buyer online.
My guess on why it is a low rate of return is people are just happy to get what they want without pressure to participate in some sort of system.
I don't look at a buyers feedback here, maybe one out of hundred. I have been paid already 99% of the time.
What else can I say other than this system has grown on my over time as it is. Forgive me my endorsements, I respect other people see it differently.
Joe
In the end, not seeing quantities right away when browsing stores may be the only point that really bothers me. I'm sure any other "big buyer" (orders of 3 digits and up) would feel the same way.
Why should Lawrence take a hit on fees to make it easier for new sellers? New sellers are still learning. They may have the inventory but they need to prove themselves. That certainly applies to someone who has 0 selling feedback anywhere to pull over from an online marketplace. There is a lot more to just stuffing an envelope and these stores have figured that out and proved themselves. There is no reason they shouldn't be able to show it to their customers.
Just my opinion for what its worth,
PP
I never bothered with a BL store, having been put off by the UI that wouldn't have looked out of place on an Amiga bulletin board 20 years ago, but I've been swapping and trading Lego for a long time. I have eBay feedback in the hundreds (haven't been in a while so can't be sure) as well as 100s of trades with countless PMs from happy people on Brickset and Eurobricks. I have the right packaging materials, etc, etc. And yes, from a buyer's perspective, the most important thing is that the right Lego gets put into the right envelope. It's not much more difficult than that really.
Regardless, they haven't earned that feedback on BO; they've earned it on another marketplace where feedback is a much more organic part of the whole transaction. Would a BO seller be given a boost on BL if they moved in the other direction? How about eBay or Amazon, would they be happy to give someone new to their platform a credit for trades done elsewhere? Like I said, I understand why it was done, but I wish some thought would have been given to how it could be diminished as BO established itself. What we have is a situation where BL feedback that's ported here continues to be worth more than BO feedback. That can't be right.
I agree with what one user says above, most buyers won't care less about feedback, particularly positive ones, but when all else is level it does become a consideration.
It does not bother me either way. Did I use the boost, yes. Would I sell here if I did not get a boost, yes.
Now, to get back on topic some instead of drowning yet another forum post on the feedback boost:
Welcome to BrickOwl and I hope the website grows on you. It did take some getting used to, but anything new does. If you ever need any help we (and myself) would love to help you out.
Good luck and thanks for sharing your points so the website can be an even better market place.
Chris
As I said earlier, the only reason why I would like to import my feedback is because my pile of extra parts is growing (80k so far) and I'm thinking of starting to sell later this year, activity for which starting at zero feedback is pretty bad. Still, I would prefer to migrate right away instead of waiting to reach 100 on BL as a buyer due to the 100-based granularity...
On a previous topic... The Admin seems pretty quick at acknowledging or implementing all the suggestions he likes (woohoo!), and I'm tempted to think that stores don't show part counts deliberately. There's no visible store total (except in the "Stores" page), there's no total per category, there's no total per part. The counts are only visible when a single part is specifically selected. Do you think that decision was deliberate? As mentioned earlier, for big buyers, I think seeing quantities right away is very important.
IMO (lack of) feedback won't affect sales much if at all - most folks don't even look at each stores home page, I find BrickOwl is more like Amazon - very little feedback there too.
Personally I like the % on ebay - that tells more of a seller than numbers do
The fb system on BrickOwl could certainly be improved, but as overall the site "works" well it's prob very much on the back burner for Admin...