Flags for Buyers logging in

One_Click_Off

How about a set of flags that come up when a buyer/user logs in to their account:
examples-
You have 3 Active Carts to Manage
Please leave feedback for 9 Sellers
You have 2 Coupons

Area 51 Bricks

That sounds like great!!!

Oldfan

As long as it's not blocking the screen or interfering with the way I browse the site, fine (maybe a text bar underneath my profile and country flag at the top of the screen?). I keep several carts and coupons open year-round and would not like to see daily pop-ups reminding me of this fact daily...

One_Click_Off

@Oldfan ,sorry, realized later that the use of "flag" was multiple meaning and in this case not to mean "country" -should have been written as "banner"
Right you are- Must be buyer-focused at all times and not impede the browsing window!
You are a long-time valued community member and appreciate exactly what you are saying!
We are seeing a great number of new users who are just not aware that the user name at the top right when clicked on contains a lot of information they need- no numbers are persisting aside "coupon", no indications of going back to orders placed and received to then place "feedback", and no numbers are present anywhere to indicate that an abandoned cart may be floating...until maybe they are using the list of carts to hold numbers of possible buys once again.

Oldfan

Maybe add a button at the top for "FAQ" or "NEW USER GUIDE" or something similar, to explain some of the basic functionality for the newcomers?

One_Click_Off

Thank you to all who have upvoted!
@Oldfan that is also a great idea and overdue.

For those who also sell, especially as an offside, there are some frustrating elements to maintaining an active store.
Let all the other sellers here ride us up a rail if we are speaking out of turn- It used to be that Active Carts could be counted on-
If there were 4, that means one buy -an order that someone from a store will need to fill the next day...possibly go to work late...
Then, it became 1 in 6, from a weekend, meant decisions need to be made...Who will go to work late?
Then, 1 in 8 Active Carts, that show on a matrix for sellers, means someone needs to process those orders the next day...
Now, we, the smallest of smallest of smallest (did I say, smallest?) of stores sit with 20 to 25 Active Carts that go nowhere, while a buyer comes in, makes a cart and and then another, both buying- It is, in effect a Free-For-All with this metric no longer being useful or a gauge for sellers to determine time needed to process future orders- If this can't be managed then it needs to go away.

When we buy other goods on eBay, we are reminded to go back and give feedback on an item we have received.

We have seen that no coupon issued by our store, all very generous by anyone's standards has been redeemed...

For your desire to not be reminded daily (and, thank YOU that you are looking daily to buy!), S has suggested banners that have "Carts", "Feedback", and "Coupons" highlighted in blue and are links to those personal actions/notifications.-and then, Separately, there would be a "Dismiss" link...but these banners will reappear after a set number of log ins...

purplecat

@One_Click_Off I think those are great ideas! Personally I noticed that when you buy from the catalog, you have to check out at every store individually. A cart may only have 1 or 2 items, and so you can decide not to purchase at this stage. But if you don't check out and don't empty the cart, it will probably remain there forever. It would be nice to see a reminder every now and again. Or possibly like Oldfan suggested a guide that explains the basics... Sounds good to me!

Brikomania

Lawrence did not want to remind users in any way to leave feedback, that's why that's not in place. As much as we love to get feedback, I understand that it is annoying to get notifications to leave it.

leopard37

Carts do expire. I can't remember timing off the top of my head, for some reason 2 weeks rings in my brain.

I'm not sure why something similar to the following couldn't be done for buyers on their user screen.

With Carts Feedback and Coupons...

Hoddie

I still have a cart open from 4 Jan. I think they persist until all items have been removed, either because the buyer removes them or they're no longer available. Maybe if the price changes also?

Calibrick

I did upvote this the other day....
Wholeheartedly support clearer FAQ for new buyers.
Love the idea of popup dashboard/note for buyers at login (you have X carts and so on, X feedback pending, and so on!).
Like @One_Click_Off, we hover at 20-30 carts open, but def not 20-30 sales from those. :-)

leopard37

Huh I wonder if Lawrence has stats on carts actually turning into orders after a long period of time? So it's been two months Hoddie, are you gonna buy?

leopard37

I do think if you close your store that the carts empty...

One_Click_Off

@leopard37 yes, just this type of task box- but with a "dismiss" options.
and it seems if sellers hover over the "Active Carts" line it states that it is an indication of parts added to a cart over the last 7 days- no claim to the expiration of said carts.
@Calibrick , thanks for upvoting and for your endorsement of FAQ for buyers. The Help page has things for sellers...

BrickOwl is continually growing and it is our desire to be a constructive part of this Best LEGO Aftermarket! We love that our store gets predominately the new user buying 3 to 5 parts to maybe recapture a set- We know they will be back to buy loads from larger stores when the bug to create from all the probing of MOC possibilities, or seeing what's new in sets and build potential "hits".

Buying here is the most intuitive experience ever! What is missing is the after-buy...

We can be assured that our customers, even those here for the first time, are e-commerce savvy: If in the US they know that revisiting a site will ensure a reminder to leave a review or feedback for a product: Kohl's, BananaRepublic, LandsEnd, CrateandBarrel, eBay, Amazon, Walmart, BedBathandBeyond, and that those feedback responses will be valued AND that an active cart exists.

And, most explicitely, that a coupon exists!