  
| Author: | Rbobo  | | Posted: | Jun 17, 2013 02:19 | | Subject: | Re: Thoughts on instant checkout & postage... | | Viewed: | 49 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | |
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| Bricklink, the community, seems to prefer that actual shipping costs be passed
on to the buyer. Any attempt to mandate instant checkout WILL raise the average
cost of shipping. There is no way around this. I am not saying that this is
a bad idea; maybe it's worth the increased shipping costs but we can't
pretend they won't happen. A giant company like Amazon can negotiate shipping
rates and can eat short term shipping losses; most Bricklink stores cannot.
Furthermore, what we do is unique:
(I've posted this experiment before but I believe it bears repeating
1) Find an online store that specializes in large quantities of small, inexpensive
items. Perhaps a bolt-and-screw supply store.
2) Now find one that ships worldwide.
3) Now find one that will accept a $25 or so order for 100+ items of 20+ different
types.
4) Now find one that will checkout instantly.
5) Lastly, find one that will only charge you their actual cost of shipping.
Any luck?
-Richard Bobo
In Suggestions, Brick_Top writes:
| | I was the kind of person that never wanted instant checkout to be implemented
here in BL. I thought it would bring problems, overpaying or underpaying,
and also would stop a way of communication with my buyers. I really like to communicate
with them.
However, I was recently invited to test out another Lego selling website that
is under production. This site in particular has instant checkout implemented.
Well, after receiving an order today... I was thoroughly impressed by how well
it worked.
When setting up your store, it requires you to add your shipping methods, either
by weight bands or price bands. On countries where you have dimension limits,
that could be hard to implement. Anyways, after some thinking, this would be
my solution.
First, the simplest things would be to add weight ranges from the cart (you'd
need to weight your envelopes/boxes) and add the price. In example, if my bubble
envelopes weight less than 20 grams, I'd add a shipping band from 0-75 grams,
and put the price for under 100 grams. Or, if my boxes weight about 150 grams,
I'd put another band from 450 grams to... 750 grams, for under 1 KG!
That is the simple part, now let's get to restrictions or special needs.
I'm not sure about restrictions on other countries, but here the restrictions
are not too harsh. For them, and special bulky items, my solution would be to
have a special intern mark in the catalog, so the system knows they are bulky.
For example, let's say I'm adding a raised baseplate to the catalog,
another field could be if it's bulky or not. Bulky could be considered over
2 centimeters high on all three dimensions, or something like that. Yes, it
would
require some work to be implemented in the actual catalog items, but with this
community's help, it would be easily done. You could also make differences
between big bulky items, such as raised baseplates, or semi-bulky items, such
as some panels. A raised baseplate would make a difference in my shipping costs,
but not a panel, normally.
Now, with the mark, what it would happen is, you get a special option on your
shipping methods to see if your store "cares" for bulky items. I mean, when the
system is making the shipping price to give it to the buyer, it would detect
that his order has bulky items, and then, predefined by the seller, you could
get two different options. Either the seller could establish new rates for bulky
items, or the make the buyer request a regular invoice, so the seller can calculate
the shipping cost.
Solved the restrictions problem. Now on to fees. All fees should be noted up
front, anyways. It's easy to automatize lot limits/fees, packing fees, etc.
The seller would be required to add them, and the system would add them to the
order and show them to the buyer along with shipping prices, before checkout.
Lastly, I would make automatic checkout, at least in the beginning, an option,
not a must. I'm sure many, many sellers would implemented, and those that
feel that they can't, just would not. Probably the former would be small
stores who cannot afford to loose 2$ on shipping and that. That way, you'd
make everyone happy.
On another note, I would automatize fees as a priority, and that cost should
be noted up front before checkout, even if you don't have instant checkout,
as you don't need postage to calculate them.
After this, and having all fees noted up front, postage should always be real
PO cost.
I hope you made it to the bottom of the page, as it was hard for me to write
this long thing.
I you have any more ideas, I'd love you to post them, or to refute my ideas,
that is what the forum is for. I posted is as a suggestion as it is how I'd
like the system to work, or how I think it would work the best. Lots of ideas
in my head!
Cheers,
Gerald
(Minor but huge typos in the other one  )
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Message is in Reply To:  Thoughts on instant checkout & postage... - bb314137 (859) | I was the kind of person that never wanted instant checkout to be implemented here in BL. I thought it would bring problems, overpaying or underpaying, and also would stop a way [...]
(134 months ago, Jun 16, 2013, to Suggestions) |
41 Messages in this Thread: Msg 1 - bb314137 (859) 134 months ago Jun 16, 2013 to Suggestions
 Msg 2 - flyingo330 (276) 134 months ago Jun 16, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 3 - Pokernut (1009) 134 months ago Jun 16, 2013 to Suggestions
  Msg 4 - eileenkeeney (1610) 134 months ago Jun 16, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 5 - bb314137 (859) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 6 - Timothy_Smith (1537) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 7 - bb314137 (859) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 8 - Timothy_Smith (1537) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 9 - bb314137 (859) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 10 - DEREKFST (11757) 134 months ago Jun 16, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 11 - Pokernut (1009) 134 months ago Jun 16, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 12 - Brettj666 (1112) 134 months ago Jun 16, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 13 - Timothy_Smith (1537) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 14 - bb314137 (859) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 15 - Timothy_Smith (1537) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 16 - enig (6370) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 17 - Timothy_Smith (1537) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 18 - bb314137 (859) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 19 - Brettj666 (1112) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 20 - bb314137 (859) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 21 - Brettj666 (1112) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 22 - bb314137 (859) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 23 - starbeanie (10860) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 24 - bb314137 (859) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
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Msg 26 - bb314137 (859) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 27 - Brettj666 (1112) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 28 - bb314137 (859) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 29 - calebfishn (2146) 134 months ago Jun 16, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 30 - connie (21083) 134 months ago Jun 16, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 31 « - Rbobo (3014) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 32 - bricksalabim (1353) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 33 - bb314137 (859) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
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Msg 37 - LastingToysInc (5681) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 38 - LastingToysInc (5681) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 39 - bb314137 (859) 134 months ago Jun 17, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 40 - bb314137 (859) 133 months ago Jun 29, 2013 to Suggestions
Msg 41 - bb314137 (859) 133 months ago Jun 29, 2013 to Suggestions
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