any chance of bypass passwords for stores

abel's bricks

Any chance that a system could be implemented to allow a password to be set for customers to bypass minimum sale limits.
Thanks
David

MinifigMan

That would be useful indeed.

Graham

Bringing it back @Lawrence ?

pippyblocks

Must admit that would be super useful if at all possible

Lawrence

It would be good to hear some expected use cases of such a feature, so I can understand why it would be beneficial.

pippyblocks

@Lawrence for me I sometimes get customers asking if they can make a purchase from my store under my £5 limit. The only way I can tackle this at the moment is to temporarily change my min from £5 to whatever, get customer to make their purchase then raise it back again before I get a load of orders for small amounts. If I could just give a customer a password they could do their order in thier own time and I wouldn't need to worry about changing the min purchase amount.

minithingsforlife

One use case is that you have made an error on an order and resolved it with the buyer so that you issue a coupon. If, when the coupon is used it is below the minimum, most sellers would probably not want to force a buyer to spend more, the second time around.

Nologo

Another use case is for international customers. It has happened to me "elsewhere" when I had a customer with a good rep from a country that I was not configured to ship to who asked if they could make a purchase. I used the bypass code to allow them to checkout. Note: I have also frequently used a bypass code as mentioned above to allow a purchase under my minimum purchase amount.

andirunner

I second what @pippyblocks said about the minimum purchase. It's only happened to me a couple times, but the buyer wanted a specific piece and really didn't want to purchase anything additional.

White Horse Bricks

@andirunner I don't really get this though. Either you are OK with small orders or not. Everyone who places a small order if because they only want one, or a few, pieces. (Saying this as I'm in the process of posting out a single 1x2 plate).

If someone is contacting you to request a bypass and you are fine with it, why not the others?

pippyblocks

I think it's (well for me anyway) not so much being fine with it but just making the exception. So in my case, I have a min order which works for me. But if someone does message me asking if they can have just a small quantity then I will help out, because I think it is a good thing to do. But I wouldn't want all my orders being small value orders as without added on fees you would be losing money through Paypal fees.

Jay37

I have to say I'm with @White Horse Bricks on this one; if a store chooses to set a minimum order limit (or minimum lot average) that is their right to do so, but surely this is about consistency. Once you start offering this as an occasional thing, where do you, as a store, draw the line? One customer a month? Two? What if you stop there and I'm the third one that asks? Do I get turned down because you've already hit your quota. Will I be allowed only after I have proved my worth as a customer? Also, should I try my luck with every store that has a minimum order?

As a customer who may be after one low value item, I will respect a store's policy and either shop in a store with a no minimum order limit or wait until I need enough parts to go above one.

pippyblocks

I've been running for several years now and I guess I probably get on average about one person every couple of months asks. No issue at all. I don't see this as a consistency issue at all; indeed I'm not sure why it seems to be seen as such an issue with some people. It's really simple, I have a minimum order value, if, on the odd occasion, someone messages me to say they just need a few parts then no problem. I am sure the way you operate works just fine for you too.

Vosblokjes

But when it only happens a few times a year, is it wise to have a input field on the checkout screen where a password can be entered. Would that not just invite more buyers to come asking for said password?
And if the reason for the minimum buy is beacause of the fees, isn't a (better) option to have an extra shipping option for low value orders with increased shipping cost? (so the fees are in there).

I have no minimum buy, but have some fees and costs (PP, packing materials etc) added in to the shipping costs.

pippyblocks

It may well invite more buyers to ask for the password, I really don't know the answer to that. On BL they do have this option and I would say it is consistant there with the amount of people who ask - i.e. not many. Regarding extra fees, I have considered having no min buy before and having a set postage cost to cover fees etc, but I do get quite a lot of orders on a daily basis and I would imagine with no min I could potentially get flooded with tiny orders with extremely low margins, a high percentage of my income comes from doing this so it would not be a good business model in my case.