Hello!
To use the forum, login or register above.
(If you are already logged in above, please click here)
Reserve Items
It would be extremely helpful if we could reserve items for buyers. I've had a few instances lately where to avoid the items being purchased by another buyer, I have kept the pieces aside and had to request payment via PayPal separately. Where the items are not of high value, the PayPal fees do not make it worthwhile.
It would be much easier if the reserved items could be ordered alongside a buyers existing order. Recently I've had a buyer order something else unwanted to the cart to make up the price of the reserved items to be able to pay for them. Surely this isn't best practice?
What do other sellers do in this instance?
It would be much easier if the reserved items could be ordered alongside a buyers existing order. Recently I've had a buyer order something else unwanted to the cart to make up the price of the reserved items to be able to pay for them. Surely this isn't best practice?
What do other sellers do in this instance?
This discussion has been closed.
Powered by Vanilla
Comments
I have also had many instances where I have sourced additional pieces for buyers and they have paid separately by PayPal for them. I'm taking a double whammy on the PayPal fees then.
Makes sense to me to just be able to reserve for a particular buyer.
However, I would want to avoid this and also adding items to the store, waiting for the buyer to buy them. I wouldn't want to let buyers know I have the pieces and then have them sold in the meantime.
That doesn't seem right, when a customer requests a quote and regardless wether you send it or not, it still allows the customer to check out on the remaining stuff if in the mean while something gets removed from cart. The only thing that might prevent the customer to check out is if the value drops beneath your storeminimum, but if not, the order would still go through.
Having blocked items during a quote request wouldn't be smart (for starters where would BO store such data ?), and you don't know who was the first to put it in cart, maybe the buyer who checked out had it in cart for weeks, so how would he/she feel when checking out that part of the cart he/she builded is not available because someone else is expecting a quote request on it.
The first one who actually checks out always has priority, and it's like that in any branch...
A customer asked for specific parts, which I can take out of my personal collection to sell (as a favor really). But if I put them for sale while he completes his order, it's quite possible someone may grab them first: these parts have a very high demand/supply ratio.
And if I just ask to send something extra by Paypal, BrickOwl doesn't get its 2.5% commission.
There are several potential solutions, any would work fine.
Probably 3 occasions of this in over 1000 orders though.
How about custom lot's for such purpose?
That way a seller could discuss things with a buyer, then create 1 lot with everything in it for a certain amount, not likely someone else would buy it, as there wouldn't be a description, or the description could be : Custom lot for buyer 'xyz'.
Once again, I don't want to risk can't-be-reserved items being sold to someone else than the intended customer, but I also don't want to rob BrickOwl of its well-earned 2.5% fees either.
So, this time, I'll just manually send about 10 GBP to BrickOwl's paypal after concluding the extra sale.
That's hardly an ideal solution, but eh, still probably the best for everyone involved.
Then if a customer wants you to hold items for them they send a quote. You add those items to your basket and place the order.
Then wait until customer is ready to order and return all items back to stock at a click of a button ready for them to buy.
Hope that makes sense.
I'll just calculate the 2.5% on the side, it's much easier for everyone.
Let's assume I'm in your position, a buyer requests to look out for some extra stuff, I find the time to actually do so, but 'nothing' in the BO system allows me to 'reserve' such for a buyer, no custom lot option, no 'reserved' function, OK, I could settle for a straight fund to BO to cover fees, but on the other hand, I have tons of catalog points, I regulary redeem them for 'free fees' (heck, I could run like 3.5 years on free fees on unredeemed points by now :-D ), so quite disturbing, as 1. I don't wanna deal 'outside' the website, but 2. I'm 'regulary' not paying fees anyway, so what would prevent me from doing so ?? Honesty I suppose, as I still would like these things 'logged' on the site, not particulary for myself (because it wouldn't matter), but for the sake of my buyer, because that would be my number 1 concern in providing 'service': that the buyer actually sees in his order overview, what he/she actually paid for (condition, subcondition, quality, quantity)
Both the 'reserved' function and 'custom lot' has 'worked' for over a decade on BL (just bought 2 reserved custom lots there this week, after discussing them with sellers) and I consider them 'great' features on BL... Honest, open, justified, correct and liberated, no hiding, no masks, no cheats, no work arounds...
BO shouldn't be a carboncopy of BL, certainly not, but IMHO it isn't, it has much more to offer, but it also fails on some great 'approved' features, compared to it IMO...
Explain that further Paul: would you checkout in your own store, then relist for the buyer (twice the work) or ask the buyer to check out on them, assuming the buyer is in the same timezone you are, (so during that time things are 'purchasable' by anyone). Still, buyer checks out with a generic payment type, then places another order (who is the first one going to be paid), or had a order to start with, and so the combining fee applies... not very conveniant... And the refund feature doesn't work for sellers who use bricksync *and* BLmaster on top, as the main inventory is BL, being the master, so a canceled/refunded/items returned to stock implicates a manual adjustement of the 'master' inventory, so on large lot quantities, that would be a big No Thanks for me.
Buyer reserves items by placing an order with a non-immediate payment method (bank transfer). From BO's point of view the order is binding and the items are removed from your store. The buyer can add to the order using the Order Combining Feature - by again placing a new order with the same payment method and choosing to combine orders, and can pay when ready. The buyer gets to reserve stock, BO gets its commission and everyone's a winner.
It isn't perfect but as a seller I don't want to have to offer a feature where customers can reserve stock unless they contact me first - and if someone did I would ask them to do what I outline above.
Regards issue with third-party apps, that's the third-party app's problem and I'm sure one they could resolve. BO doesn't need to make it easy for a seller to sell across multiple platforms, nobody expects BL or Ebay to do the same.
I think you are missing the core of the problem here.
Current scenario: I have a stack of Gingerbread Houses (40139) I want to sell to a specific customer. If I list them online, people will start picking from the stack, and pretty fast. I do not want that to happen.
I can't put them in inventory and wait for the intended customer to "reserve" them!
It's the same situation when extra unlisted items are to be sold as part of a special request or deal: you really don't want to let anyone else than the intended customer grab them.
This is what a lot reservation feature would be useful for.
One custom item in the catalog that every seller could list as being available in their store at a price of their choosing. For example, you could list 10,000 at 1p each, telling your customer to add 2399 to their cart if you agreed a price of £23.99, or alternatively simply adjust the price to £23.99 and ask them to add one to the cart. The item name would be something like "Custom Deal (add to cart only if instructed)".
Again, not perfect, but it solves the problem you've outlined without requiring massive changes to the BO system. Given the number of sellers who would make use of a reserved items feature, this might be a simple but effective compromise.
Lawrence has already said he isnt planning on making it a feature so I need to come up with a simple way to help buyers. I currently have two buyers I am sourcing parts for, I have built relationships with them so emailing when parts are available and asking them to let me know when they are ready to checkout is ok for them but obviously not the best way forward.
And well, calculating the 2.5% on the side isn't too bad either, for sellers with Loyal good on their character sheet. O:-) (that's a geeky Dungeons & Dragons reference)
@Stragus, missed the D&D reference but I'm old school D&D when you had to be either Lawful, Neutral or Chaotic. None of this Chaotic Good nonsense
Does this show somewhere for the potential customer like with a link, or does the particular lot(s) just show in the regular store and visible only to that customer?
@Hoddie Old school D&D indeed! Everyone knows a person's entire set of moral judgement and ethical values is fundamentally a two-dimensional problem.
So when clicking the item, I'm being brought to the entry, again the system shows me something is reserved under that entry:
I scroll down to see full page
And there's the catch: I cannot see 'which' lot is actually the one that is reserved for me, he has several of the same lot and they are *all* showing, and the lot 'on top' is being selected as primary lot. So I logged of and went to his store, after comparing the information there I figured out he listed the quantity of 15 for me (so the used ones, and not the lot of 'new' ones that got preselected by the site) and the other lot's are his regular lot's. The workarround at this point: I've asked him to add my user name in the public comment of the lot (soon he does I'll make a new screenshot).
Obviously in such case, the lot that has been reserved should be the one that gets selected when going to the entry (@Lawrence: can you figure out a way to do that), in best case the other lot's shouldn't even show (allthough it remains handy as price comparison, and offers the buyer the option to buy even more), but at least there should be a clear indication which lot is reserved for the buyer.
Tip for people who use Bricksync: don't forget to tag the item in the remarks field with the ~sign, otherwise your next sync (particulary when using blmaster mode) might/will simply destroy the lot again ;-)