Between now and the end of February, Brick Owl is running a store promotion to help deal with old parts without images. If a store submits an image for any part that has been in the catalog for over a year, and this is approved, they will receive a credit of £0.40 on their store commission account.
Images would need to follow our standards set out in the edit form, be approved, and be submitted on an item without any image. The image would also need to be correct for the colour/item that it has been submitted against.
On the order API, a new tax_scheme_id field has been added to the order/view endpoint. Additionally, a new order/tax_schemes endpoint has been added to list the possible tax schemes. This is to help with order integration for IOSS/UK/NO Tax
We've made a change to the dimensions system, so that dimensions that are estimated based on the stud dimensions on the item will no longer show up as confirmed dimensions on the item. They will still be used as estimate for the shipping dimensions, until confirmed dimensions are submitted by users. Until these are provided, you will see more items missing dimensiions on your store dashboard link.
As part of a new EU Omnibus law, stores that ship to the European Union are required to identify themselves as either a "trader" or a "private individual". If your store sells to the European Union, please visit your store settings. Additionally, if you are a registered company, you can now enter your registered company name in your store settings. "Traders" must offer 14 day returns policy to EU countries and the store address will be shown on your store to logged in users.
On the API, "last_inventory_update" in /user/details has been changed so it will include lot delete/update/create. Previously it only took into account lot update/create.
Additionallly, "ship_tax" and "billing_tax" has being added to the order details endpoint. These contain the customer tax identification number if they have provided one with their address information.
Between now and the end of November, Brick Owl is running a store promotion to help deal with parts without images. If a store submits an image for any part that has been in the catalog for over 6 months, and this is approved, they will receive a credit of £0.40 on their store commission account.
Images would need to follow our standards set out in the edit form, be approved, and be submitted on an item without any image. The image would also need to be correct for the colour/item that it has been submitted against.
A new graph has been added to the store dashboard showing the amount of items in your inventory over time. The data only started being collected least year, so the graph will be limited by that.
Between now and the end of February, Brick Owl is running a store promotion to help deal with parts without images. If a store submits an image for any part that has been in the catalog for over 6 months, and this is approved, they will receive a credit of £0.60 on their store commission account.
Images would need to follow our standards set out in the edit form, be approved, and be submitted on an item without any image. The image would also need to be correct for the colour/item that it has been submitted against.
Sendcloud is a tool to speed up creating shipping labels with different carrier options, it's useful for any shipment volume. Shipstation is similar but is generally only suitable for large shipment volumes.
For orders with tracking, we have implemented a tracking api service, so customers can now see current tracking information directly on the order details page. For this to function, shipping methods need to have a carrier set.
The order system will also now reject invalid tracking numbers such as words like "no tracking" or links. It’s fine to submit a blank tracking number.
A new setting has been added to the store inventory settings (https://www.brickowl.com/mystore/settings/inventory_settings) to delete old inventory lots with a quantity of zero. We will automatically set this to 365 days from the 7th of July for stores that have not chosen a setting before then. If this will be an issue for your store, you can set this to 5 years before the 7th of July
The IOSS tax number for Brick Owl has changed as of the 1st of July. Please ensure you use the new IOSS number shown in the order details for any orders that you receive with IOSS tax paid when shipping into the EU.
There is now an option in the shipping method settings to request a phone number from a customer during the checkout process. Additionally, you can now provide a tracking URL on an order, in place of a tracking number if necessary
We have created an integration for Packeta (https://www.packeta.com/) mainly for the Czech market. You can add your API key in the order settings, and customers can then choose a pickup point at checkout.
A new user history page has been created to keep track of logins/ password / email changes on your account. You can access this by going to your user profile and clicking on the history tab. This has only just been created so it will currently be empty for most users.
The IOSS tax number for Brick Owl has changed as of the 7th of November. Please ensure you use the new IOSS number shown in the order details for any orders that you receive with IOSS tax paid when shipping into the EU.
Between now and the end of November, Brick Owl is running a store promotion to help deal with parts and minifigures without dimensions or weight. If a store submits a length, width, height, or weight for any part or minifigure that that is missing this information, and this is approved, they will receive a credit of £0.10 per submission on their store commission account.
So, if you submit all four (length, width, height, weight) you will receive a credit of £0.40. This is in addition to the usual catalog points, which can be exchanged for free store commission. It will also improve the shipping calculator within your store.
To get started, just visit your store dashboard, where you can see a link to items missing information.
Dimensions would need to follow our standards set out in the edit form, be approved, and be submitted on an item that is missing the information. The submissions must be accurate, and cannot be an estimate. The item must be for sale in your store. The submissions would need to be measured by yourself, and cannot be taken from other websites.
The DPD tracking URLs have changed, and are country specific. We have therefore had to remove "DPD" as a carrier option from all of the shipping methods. If you use DPD, you will need to go into your shipping methods, and change the carrier to one of the country specific versions of DPD. Please contact us if your country isn't an option.
For 2024 there are some tax changes. Luxembourg VAT rate has increased from 16% to 17%. Estonia changes its VAT to 22% from 20%. We have automatically updated the relevant tax profiles.
The Norweigan VOEC import tax scheme now requires the VOEC number is sent digitally and not just written on the package.
The tax profile system now supports "margin schemes" whereby stores do not charge tax on used items. Additionally, there is now a customs warning in the checkout process for UK/CA/JP/EU/NO customers who may be unfamiliar with the tax regulations in their own counntry.
During the month of May, Brick Owl is running a store promotion to help deal with catalog items without dimensions or weight. If a store submits a length, width, height, or weight for any part/minifigure/set that that is missing this information, and this is approved, they will receive a credit of £0.30 per submission on their store commission account.
So, if you submit all four (length, width, height, weight) you will receive a credit of £1.20. This is in addition to the usual catalog points, which can be exchanged for free store commission. It will also improve the shipping calculator within your store.
To get started, just visit your store dashboard, where you can see a link to items missing information.
Dimensions would need to follow our standards set out in the edit form, be approved, and be submitted on an item that is missing the information. The submissions must be accurate, and cannot be an estimate. The item must be for sale in your store. The submissions would need to be measured by yourself, and cannot be taken from other websites.
The stripe integration for iDeal/Giropay/Bancontact/Przelewy24 has been updated. Customers who do not complete payment now have the option to try again without needing the order to be cancelled.
Stores can now place an order on hold from the more actions drop-down on an order. This will send an email to the customer letting them know the order has been placed on hold. Orders that have been on hold will not affect the average despatch time. You would also need to contact the customer if you haven't already discussed this with them
The checkout process has been adjusted to combine Step 4 and 5 (Payment and Order Review). This should increase conversions and allow us to better support future planned payment method integrations.
The Stripe integration on Brick Owl has been upgraded to support more payment methods. It currently supports Card / Apple Pay / iDeal / Amazon Pay / Google Pay / Revolut / Bancontact / Giropay / Przelewy24
Existing non-card Stripe payment methods on Brick Owl have been deleted as this is handled automatically.
We recommend stores connect a Stripe account if they have not done so already.
For Stripe Card payments, when the order is placed, the funds are reserved on the card, but we do not capture them automatically. This allows any refunds to be processed without fees. Sometimes stores did not ship the order within seven days, and the capture expired. We have now implemented automatic capture. Now, if the order is not captured by the 6th day, the system will capture it automatically.
The Instabrick App has recently been updated and now contains links to Brick Owl. Using a smartphone, you can take a picture of a part, and it should hopefully find the part on Brick Owl. It can be helpful when listing used items for sale.
You can now specify the language on pages in your store, so they will only show for users with that language selected. By default, the language "all" is selected, so pages will show for all users. Currently, this does not apply to the home page.
The website language is now set automatically based on the users browsers locale. This usually would not affect logged in users, as the language preference is saved on the account.
You can now create store homepages in other languages. The existing homepage will stay with the language "all" which is visible by default. You can create other homepages with the path "home" and any other language. That page will then show in place of the homepage if a user has that language set.
Brick Owl now supports the DHL tracking API, so tracking information is visible on the order details page for orders shipped via DHL or Deutsche Post. For this to work correctly, the carrier would need to be set on the shipping method.
Brick Owl now supports the La Poste tracking API, so tracking information is visible on the order details page for orders shipped via La Poste or Colissimo. For this to work correctly, the carrier would need to be set on the shipping method.
For whitelabel stores, we have now integrated the Meta and Google Ads conversion APIs. This means whitelabel stores can create adverts and the conversions can be tracked without the use of cookies and tracking pixels.
Accross Brick Owl we have phased out Google Analytics and we now use Cloudflare Analytics which does not use cookies.
The Royal mail click and drop integration has been updated. You can now set the weight and package format directly from the order page. After the postage is purchased, if it has a tracking number, this will be updated on the order page later in the day.
- Brick Owl has invested in professional translation for some of the primary languages on Brick Owl. Over the next few weeks, the translations for French, German, Dutch and Czech will be improved. - The localisation for google has been improved, so foreign users should start to see the correct language when visiting Google in their country. - There are fireworks on the checkout complete page. - There is a scroll bottom as well as a scroll top button on the bottom right of the page. - We have added Swedish and Korean as languages on the website. - We have added the help pages to the translation system.
The Brick Owl servers have been upgraded, hopefully this should resolve the speed issues experienced the past week. The professional translation for Dutch, Norweigan, Swedish has been finished. The translation is ongoing for French, Danish, Czech, Polish, Spanish, German, Italian, Korean.
A new sorting control has been created for the order details screen. You can click on the little sorting icon. This should help with sorting on mobile and tablet devices.
The quarterly cash prizes have been increased. Brick Owl will now give out over £500 of prizes every quarter. The points have also been adjusted, to encourage translations and lego item numbers, as well as name improvements. See https://www.brickowl.com/points. Lastly, we have added Finnish as a new language to Brick Owl.
Guest checkout has been implemented so customers can place an order without providing a password. This is only available on stores that have not blocked any users. Only instant payment methods are available, and shipping quote is not available. After checkout, the user is given the option to provide a password to convert to a normal account. Stores/customers can communicate through the messaging system as normal and the customer will still receive the normal e-mails.
Brick Owl has updated the PayPal integration we use. This is more reliable, and has better card payment for non-PayPal users. It will also allow all stores to process refunds through Brick Owl, even with a "Personal" PayPal account. You will need to connect your PayPal account to Brick Owl. As part of this, your PayPal payment methods will be deleted and recreated. Please visit the payments page of your store settings to connect your PayPal account https://www.brickowl.com/mystore/settings/payment_methods
Comments
Images would need to follow our standards set out in the edit form, be approved, and be submitted on an item without any image. The image would also need to be correct for the colour/item that it has been submitted against.
Additionallly, "ship_tax" and "billing_tax" has being added to the order details endpoint. These contain the customer tax identification number if they have provided one with their address information.
Images would need to follow our standards set out in the edit form, be approved, and be submitted on an item without any image. The image would also need to be correct for the colour/item that it has been submitted against.
Images would need to follow our standards set out in the edit form, be approved, and be submitted on an item without any image. The image would also need to be correct for the colour/item that it has been submitted against.
Sendcloud is a tool to speed up creating shipping labels with different carrier options, it's useful for any shipment volume. Shipstation is similar but is generally only suitable for large shipment volumes.
The order system will also now reject invalid tracking numbers such as words like "no tracking" or links. It’s fine to submit a blank tracking number.
So, if you submit all four (length, width, height, weight) you will receive a credit of £0.40. This is in addition to the usual catalog points, which can be exchanged for free store commission. It will also improve the shipping calculator within your store.
To get started, just visit your store dashboard, where you can see a link to items missing information.
Dimensions would need to follow our standards set out in the edit form, be approved, and be submitted on an item that is missing the information. The submissions must be accurate, and cannot be an estimate. The item must be for sale in your store. The submissions would need to be measured by yourself, and cannot be taken from other websites.
The Norweigan VOEC import tax scheme now requires the VOEC number is sent digitally and not just written on the package.
So, if you submit all four (length, width, height, weight) you will receive a credit of £1.20. This is in addition to the usual catalog points, which can be exchanged for free store commission. It will also improve the shipping calculator within your store.
To get started, just visit your store dashboard, where you can see a link to items missing information.
Dimensions would need to follow our standards set out in the edit form, be approved, and be submitted on an item that is missing the information. The submissions must be accurate, and cannot be an estimate. The item must be for sale in your store. The submissions would need to be measured by yourself, and cannot be taken from other websites.
Existing non-card Stripe payment methods on Brick Owl have been deleted as this is handled automatically.
We recommend stores connect a Stripe account if they have not done so already.
https://app.instabrick.org/
Additionally, you can now delete old pages.
Accross Brick Owl we have phased out Google Analytics and we now use Cloudflare Analytics which does not use cookies.
- The localisation for google has been improved, so foreign users should start to see the correct language when visiting Google in their country.
- There are fireworks on the checkout complete page.
- There is a scroll bottom as well as a scroll top button on the bottom right of the page.
- We have added Swedish and Korean as languages on the website.
- We have added the help pages to the translation system.