@Admin - I really feel it's time you reveal the formula on how a store becomes a "popular store" and how the ranking is obtained - or more preferably remove it - for reasons I gave way back.
I cannot see any way how a store with 74k parts is outselling the "big guys" with 1m +
If you wish to keep it I think it could be made a useful tool for stores to see how they are doing and/or how they can improve.
I do not feel that it is a good policy having an unknown set of metrics to anyone but yourself, I respect that this is your place, and please don't take offense - I just wished to voice an opinion
Thanks
Comments
I'm not sure why he gets all these orders, I don't see fantastic prices in my wishlist hits, but good for him.
If I were to guess I think it is mostly based on the number of sales. I do have fairly low prices and no store minimum so I have a lot of small orders. I have crossed 350 orders over a 30 day period last week for reference maybe one of the bigger store can chime in for comparison.
Note that my inventory is low not for lack of trying to grow it. I do part out close to 2k parts a day if my estimate is correct.
It may be a weighted metric as @Admin mentioned in the past, but from what I see it deals mostly with the prior month’s number of orders.
Chris
- number of page views
- number of carts
- number of carts actually being converted to an order
- number of feedback
- number of orders
A new store that comes in will have a lot of page views as people are exploring the shop, hence more carts and more orders. Naturally being high on the top list already gives you more page views, carts and orders anyway, so it has kind of a snowball effect.
Our shop has climbed to number one position last month because we had a steady influx of newly added items, causing more page views and orders (about 300/month, both small and large). Last two weeks we dropped to number three but we didn't add new stuff for about one week. We still got the same amount of orders weekly but because of the page views we lost popularity. Well at least this is my take on it.
Nor do I see any reason/benefit from having it there at all, as before - my perception of "Popular Stores" leads to the negative perception of "unpopular stores" of ALL stores not on the list…
as a first time visitor I may well feel that all "unpopular stores" are "not very good" to do business with, which of course WE know is not the case!
Whilst I have been up and down "the list" myself - I can attest it has nothing to do with gross sales $ - which have been fairly consistent - with overall growth...
I'm fine with not knowing the formula. Besides, it's probably a little complex, measuring correlations between many factors, even with some e^n if it draws from statistics.
@Graham I guess renaming the list "Most Popular Stores" could favorably alter the perception of said list.
Lastly is the location v ratio of stores. Not sure how many UK stores in Brickowl but in Bricklink at over 600 is far too many for a small country. In the USA with nearly 2900 stores divided by 50 states that make around 60 stores per state average and each state there are big as the UK. That why many sellers residing there regardless the inventory side, how long they been selling would get a lot or orders.
It depend how many new buyers are registering at the same time with new store opening. In BL they get around 200-300 new buyers while few stores opening per day.
Well, the more sellers and parts etc the more hits in search equels more potential buyers...
How you think amazon get big?
Next to that, nothing wrong with healthy competition if you ask me
OK BL Have several versions of "popular stores" (Featured, Highlighted and Honored)
All categories have HOW that is calculated right under the heading.
In my mind that is the way it should be. I am not keen on the unknown formula, and as per several posts I would rather see that list gone altogether and the "real estate" used be for a better purpose - perhaps featured MOC's?
Also those featured/highlighted/honored stores on BL are not on the home page
@Stragus No adding "most" doesn't soften the negative stigma that may be perceived by a new visitor (or anyone really) if anything it exagerates it… IMO
G
A good 'survey' would probably give as result that it's all nonsense ;-)
You can sell 10 orders at $1000 that you bought $900 and therefor make 10x$100 (=$1000 profit) and be 'important' because of the fees paid (assuming it represents a high % in the calculation)
And you can sell 15 items at $200 that you bought $50 and make 15x$150(=$2250 profit) and not reach the list because you paid less fees....
The only realy measurement is 'profit' (recalculated % wise), but since not all sellers use 'my cost' it is impossible to compare....
So IMHO an irrelevant 'show'
The only thing that can be measured are contributions (=points received during a certain period of time), so that should be the only list on the homepage :-D :-D
I'm sure there are many factors involved, the sale volume is just one of them.
Quite right, but my post was the next in line and Graham was speeking of BL measurements.
I know on BO it's different, but one could put in in question any factor that is part of the calculation, anyhow it is calculated and whatever the parameters involved.
If I list a Green Grocer, a Market street, a Cafe corner, and a few SW UCS's I'm sure my pageviews will go up quite fast, even if I list them 10x the price they are currently worthed. I'm sure I also will send out quite some 'whislists' e-mails. If on top I would list all my Trains sets at reasonable prices (= low profit) my sales would sky rocket (and I would pay a lot of fees). If I would sell my stickers at purchase prices I'm sure I'll have 500 orders by the end of the month (and pay a lot of fees, while I make no profit). If I request from my buyers they need to leave feedback before I ship, then I'm sure my feedback score will rise fast. If I indicate all orders shipped after 24 h (while in reality it wouldn't be like that) it might influence the score. I'm just widely guessing a few things here, and there are probably other parameters involved and maybe none of the above 'guessings' BUT: 'Whatever' the parameters involved, they can be put in question wether relevant and significant or not. And no indeed, it is not the 'most profitable store' list, but I was only referring to something that 'would' be measurable *if* all sellers would use the 'my cost field' (and lets be clear I would be opposed to such a list anyway), anything else measured might be completely 'off'.
I remember a seller on BL who managed to crawl in the top 10 list a year or 2 ago and stayed there for nearly a year, then all things went sour and the store went broke... Oh yes he was in the most popular list for that whole year, but what nobody knew that he was digging his own grave (matter of speak), so what's the point of being 'popular' ;-)
One of the parameters I've always used to quickly judge a store are BL pageviews devided by number of positive feedbacks as a seller. It gives indication wether the store has decent inventory and prices compared to number of feedbacks received
Ratios of 10-20= excellent, 21-30=Good (average), 31-50=improvement needed, 51 and above= sellers need to requestion completely themselves and their way of acting....
Try it and it works really nice :P
I really think that the main contributor is the number of orders in a given period (if there are any other parameters they are probably strongly correlated to the number of orders). I have seen myself climbing literally as I was receiving the email of a sale.
Regarding profitability I think BO is still a small market place without too much competition compared to BL so there is not a huge downward pressure in term of price. Even though I am on the lower end here I still manage to get some reasonable margins and not a lot of dead inventory (everybody's goal is somewhat different so it is hard to measure success).
@RobErNat, let me know when you start selling your stickers at cost, I have been eying the one for 7905 for months
However when I buy from eBay I will choose "highest seller rating" FOLLOWED by best price - as i've had bad experiences following best price. Therefore IF I came here for the first time I would likely follow a similar practice and choose a "popular store" under the falsehood that it may be a better store... and I agree that "honoring stores" would serve a better purpose, as you and others have put an enormous amount of work in contributions, if this list would serve any valid purpose "as is" then sellers should know how to "make the list" and buyers should know WHAT exactly it means.
Robert
BTW, a battalion of our barbarians are about to invade, so your inventory will shortly be commandeered to shore up Hadrian's wall :P
… then there were the SNP shirts )
… then nothing happened...
Mines set to 'Items' high to low.
But it shows this first. See image. And then changes.
I wonder if it's total sales or a popular stores list since BO started?
I've been slowly climbing this list.
I mean no harm or offense - I simply feel it right that the formula be revealed…
for benefit of both Stores and Customers, and of course Brick Owl
Or preferably change it to top contributors - I feel they should be recognized rather than "cashing in" points for a brief mention