Average lot minimum trouble

Teup

As usual when I post a request, it has something to do with buyer education. I think BrickOwl itself works great, it just tends to attract customers who simply do not have the experience or knowledge to do things properly. I wish buyers would mark their orders as "payment submitted" and would give feedback, I have posted about this before and I would still like to see improvement there. However, something else for now:

I am currently very busy so I configured my shop in a way that it does not take up too much of my time. I have set an average lot minimum. I think this is a great feature, thanks so much for it, because otherwise I would simply have closed my store. It is super useful.

However, several customers have been asking me "what's wrong" - trying to check out with a €10 order and getting that "it is too low". They simply don't understand that it's the lot minimum and not the order minimum we're talking about. Today I have had *2* messages by people trying to check out asking me what is wrong. People think it is bugged. I keep getting these messages and I keep explaining. Could something be done about this in the interface? Could range from anything as ingenious as a visualisation of the concept to a simple linguistic adjustment in an instruction phrase (although I have noticed that many customers here d o n t r e a d . . . . :P )

I can explain it in a few sentences and then they get it. So maybe a similar kind of explanation could be added to the "error message" so that they understand? This would not change anything about BrickOwl for the people who do not run into the issue so it's only a plus. When I explain I also suggest they can increase the quantity of an item or add an expensive item like a minifig, or remove low value items. I think that usually helps them out.

alltrightbricks

There are many things that could be done to make it more understandable to the buyer. My lot limit is $0.55 which I consider very low and reasonable, but I still get a question about it now and then. The last one was exactly as you described. The lady couldn't figure out why it wasn't letting her checkout. She was trying to complete a few sets for her son and had a handful of random lots. I explained it to her and then suggested that she add a minifigure to the cart to bring the average up. She was more than happy for the information, and checked out shortly thereafter.

So maybe something that pops up would be great. "You need an average of $0.20 per lot above what your cart is currently at to checkout. You might consider adding more to the lots you already have or add a more expensive one lot item such as one of the following minifigures....."

It's hard to say. Buyer education, especially a lot of the drive through buyers that we get, is not easy.

Personally I would also love to be able to give out a bypass password to individual buyers. Most won't ask, and those who do I don't mind helping out from time to time.

Katie

pmitch

Katie, your suggestion of a 'bypass password' would be GREAT.

Teup

I agree, that is a nice idea.

I guess it would be good if there would be a HELP link attached to the current message. That is really only a plus. For people who already understand it nothing changes, and for the ones who do not, they can click on the link and get an explanation or an example or a screenshot that describes the mechanism. No cons, only benefits. I'd say let's implement

Lawrence

I did tweak the message slightly the other day, for both types of minimums

Jiries

Hi, since this topic is about minimums. I had been thinking about a store minimum which are available for the sellers to use and effect all buyers from UK and abroad. I just thought if there 2nd minimum check box for international buyers which I would put down at £3.20 min and £0.73 for UK buyers. This to stop buyers buying few pence/cents and making Royal Mail having a huge profits from high international posting rates than us sellers? I had a lot of buyers buying few pence of parts and I feel sad about them have to pay very high postage rates which lowest you can get is £3.20 to Europe by paddled mailers and more to the rest of the world.

Ideal minimum is to match your local post office international minimum pricing. So here I would put down at £3.20 so buyers have to buy more parts and make sense that it worth the parts than PO themselves. It would work when they detect the buyer IP address.

What you think about that to the Sellers? Lawrence?

Teup

I did tweak the message slightly the other day, for both types of minimums

Thanks I'll keep track of how it'll go from here.

I had a lot of buyers buying few pence of parts and I feel sad about them have to pay very high postage rates which lowest you can get is £3.20 to Europe by paddled mailers and more to the rest of the world.

I see your point, but what you feel is not what the buyer feels.. I totally agree, I am also very surprised by what people are willing to pay. Sometimes they order some insignificant part and seem to fully accept all the costs. I have a €2 handling fee on top of the shipping charges because I want to discourage smaller orders since I am too busy with other things, but that does not work at all And I don't mind, because this way I the orders that I initially deemed too time consuming now have a good profit ratio. It's all up to the buyer, in the end it is a disservice to them to disallow an order because WE would feel bad about it (I certainly would ) when it is actually what the buyer wants.

Teup

I just received this message:

Hello,
i have ad some parts to your cart, but i get an error if i will requst an qoute:
"Das Geschäft hat sich auf mindestens durchschnittlich EUR 2.00 . Ihr Warenkorb wird, beträgt durchschnittlich EUR 2.00 pro Los, um von diesem Speicher Kasse. Derzeit ist es EUR 0.85 . Sie können höhere Stückzahlen bereits in Ihrem Warenkorb zu erwerben."

This is an very bad translation - and can not be understand, what does it mean ?

I guess something has to be done about the translation as well..

Lawrence

I may be booed at, but you could turn off the minimum lot average and put your prices up to compensate.

Stragus

It might be time to have people provide good translations all over BrickOwl. I can do French and Spanish.

brickfeverparts

I can do Dutch, Nederlands, Hollandisch and Netherlands

Teup

I may be booed at, but you could turn off the minimum lot average and put your prices up to compensate.

Fair enough, but that kind of defeats the feature altogether. Might as well remove it if it's not going to work well It's OK though, it's not that bad, just something that can be improved on. I'll just copy and paste my explanation for any future inquiries, but it's just very redundant work and not really 21st century-worthy :P

misbi

Might as well remove it if it's not going to work well It's OK though, it's not that bad, just something that can be improved on.

It works pretty well for us, with only a VERY occasional email from a momentarilty confused buyer seeking clarification.

Jiries

Hi Brickcounter, one time I accidentally enabled the lot minimum at £1 and didn't get any sales for 2 solid days until buyer emailed me about it and thanked him for letting me so as soon as I disabled it I got many orders back in again. How do you do well on your side when mine was enabled at £1 by mistake and no one make orders.

Lawrence

@brickcounter I wonder whether that is because your minimum lot average amount is much more reasonable at £0.50, and so doesn't get missed very frequently.

misbi

@Lawrence Ah - I missed the point that the OP had set a €10 ALV. That'd explain it
@Jiries No idea :P

Teup

@Lawrence Ah - I missed the point that the OP had set a €10 ALV. That'd explain it

Oh no, it's "only" €2! It gets you a reasonable number of confused buyers but it doesn't really halt the order flow. I've temporarily set it that way because I'm busy, but instead of getting less orders (like I expected) I am simply getting order that are easier to pick. Which works too Turnover hasn't really dropped, much to my own surprise.