posted on November 1, 2004 01:30:00 PM new
Hi everyone. We've been working on a cleaned up version of both Post Sale settings for you and a cleaned up version of the buyer-facing Checkout process for your buyers. There is a long thread on the board right now concerning buyer dissatisfaction with the process, and these changes hope to address these problems.
But, it's not worth doing if we're not doing it right. To be sure that we're making the Checkout process as clear for your buyers as possible, we'd like to first get your feedback. K, let's get to it.
For Vendio Store users, the Shopping Cart is now within the framework of your Store to encourage additional shopping. The "remove" action is now closer to the quantity column, and the "Update Quantities" button has been changed to a "Recalculate" link next to the sub-total. The upsell section has been reworked a bit to fit in the new space.
See the Shopping Cart
The next page, Shipping Address, only asks for Shipping Address. Payment and Note to Seller are asked later, and Billing Address is only collected later if the buyer chooses to pay by credit card. We didn't figure that it was necessary for anything else. Please let us know if you need a billing address for any other cases. Also, we'll add an option for the buyer's Shipping Address to be remembered. Since we'd technically have the information to use the address entered on Seller A's checkout to be pre-filled at a later date for Seller B's checkout... we're still debating if this would be too confusing or not. Please let us know what you think. Also notice the reduced Vendio branding at the bottom of the pages. Hopefully this will reduce the "What's a Vendio?" questions.
See the Shipping Address page
The Shipping Options page is next, which collects the shipping carrier information and insurance options (if offered). Repeat customers who have selected to have their address remembered will come directly to this page.
See the Shipping Options page
The final data page is the Payment page which contains a full review of the order. If the buyer chooses to pay by credit card, another section will appear on this page to collect the card information and billing address. The same "my billing address is the same as my shipping address" pre-fill option is available. If paying by PayPal, the buyer will next enter the PayPal flow, otherwise they will come to the Order Complete page.
See the Payment page
When the order has been completed, the Order Complete page is shown (I know, we're brilliant) This page is also within the Store framework for Vendio Store sellers.
See the Order Complete page
So that's it. We'll be doing usability testing later this week to watch how people actually use these pages, and to pick up on what could be done better. Again, this is YOUR checkout, so please let us know what you think of the changes.
I didn't see anything about Sales Tax. We've asked for that for a long time.
I want to enter that I charge 4% in Louisiana. When the buyer puts LA as their State, I want the checkout to automatically charge them 4%. The customer has no choice, no options, no problems.
Pleeeeeeease.
Everything else looks OK. A little hard to see with the links. I'll have to use it a bit. You know how it is. Problems come up as you go along.
Thanks
Debbie
Be kind. Everyone is fighting their own secret battles.
...Author Unknown
[ edited by Gtootie on Nov 1, 2004 03:21 PM ]
posted on November 1, 2004 05:32:45 PM new
Debbie,
Well... okay. Done! That will be done as part of this same project. The usability testing that I mentioned will cover both this buyer-facing checkout process as well as the post-sale options for sellers. These mockups don't show how the settings were set, but the option that you describe is definately accounted for.
posted on November 1, 2004 08:57:28 PM new
Christian, you have come through for me again. I'll have to send you some cookies or something. That is really good news.
I never thought the current checkout was that bad, but I have some, let us say "challenged" customers. Some of them don't have a clue.
Thanks
Debbie
Be kind. Everyone is fighting their own secret battles.
...Author Unknown
posted on November 1, 2004 09:03:59 PM new
I see that there is a credit of $5 on this confirmation page. Did you add an option to offer coupon codes? That would be good. Real good.
You shouldn't have gotten me started, you know.
Debbie
Be kind. Everyone is fighting their own secret battles.
...Author Unknown
posted on November 1, 2004 09:24:14 PM new
More shipping options PLEASE!!! I have people who pay the US shipping rates because their country is not listed. This makes for a mess, it takes a lot longer to fix this than if they could just choose an option from a menu.
Also, a second paypal prompt. We take manual CCs in addition to paypal. 50% (or more) of the time, a buyer chooses "manual credit card" for whatever reason when they really want to pay with paypal. Then they write me and say" I want to pay with a credit card but there was no link". The first thing on my post sale instructions says-- "If you would like to pay online with a credit card DO NOT choose manual credit card, choose the "paypal" option" But they STILL choose Manual credit card and write in It's as if they don't know Paypal processes credit cards. If there were something AFTER the manual option was chosen, like a button saying "pay online by credit card with paypal" that would eliminate a lot of extra steps for sellers.
posted on November 2, 2004 10:47:32 AM new
Bah, I don't need any cookes, but how sweet of you to say. Actually, if anyone is deserving of cookies, it would be Radu. He masterminded this whole thing - I'm just pushing the pixels.
We don't have coupon codes quite yet, but we're building a foundation which could support it in the future. For now, you'll be able to edit the WBN/checkout for a buyer and add credits.
cletusray, it looks like I forgot to add the Country selection menu - doh! If you offer international shipping on your items, your buyer should be able to find his country (I think we've got 'em all in there).
The credit card/Paypal thing is tricky. I see that the confusion comes from the options not being mutually exclusive. Adding text to direct buyers to pay with a credit card online at Paypal would work for you, but might not for someone with a Verisign account who processes credit cards directly in the Vendio checkout. Hrmm... I'll think about this and see if I can figure out what might work for everyone.
posted on November 2, 2004 02:51:22 PM new
cletusray,
Wanted to mention that we'll be going from 4 to 8 shipping fields tomorrow. It's not the final answer, since a shipping enhancement is coming alongside the checkout improvements we're discussing here, but the added flexibility will give you room to add some more international shipping options.
posted on November 4, 2004 05:56:32 AM new
I would like to be able to use the WBN with invoice & clickable PayPal Link (Ebay's isn't working right on combined purchases) but NOT REQUIRE OR OFFER Vendio checkout. Could this be a seller selected option?Thanks for considering enhancements.
**********************************
"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "...holy sh@#...what a ride!"
posted on November 4, 2004 09:24:05 AM new
Hi Neglus,
You can deselect the option to include the checkout link and have the WBN go out with instructions and a link to PayPal. If you are referring to wanting to remove the page that asks for shipping and billing information, unfortunately that cannot be done at this moment. If that is what you are referring to let me know and I'll log a suggestion on your behalf.
posted on November 5, 2004 09:57:00 AM new
Could we have some more blank shipping options. The drop downs limit me because I cannot specify which country the amount is for.
posted on November 5, 2004 10:50:37 AM new
cletus,
We've been hearing the same thing in our direct testing this week. We're trying to figure out how to strike a balance between the options in Merchandising Edition and the full-blown superduper(tm) options planned for Inventory Edition. But, we're on the case.
posted on November 5, 2004 03:25:23 PM new
I wonder if it is necessary to have the buyers complete address information at all. After I send an ebay invoice, I get a confirmation and a link "see payment details". If you click on that link, the buyers address is listed in full. Is there a way to import that?
**********************************
"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "...holy sh@#...what a ride!"
posted on November 6, 2004 07:41:16 AM new
What are these full-blown superduper(tm) options planned for Inventory Edition? Can you go down there and tell us about them?
Thanks
Debbie
Be kind. Everyone is fighting their own secret battles.
...Author Unknown
posted on November 13, 2004 02:39:05 PM new
The easiest checkouts for customers seem to be ones that present a flow of mutually exclusive, no-brainer options in a logical-to-them sequence (not just to the computer coder) -- with not too much visual distance between the text, buttons and choices; really obvious links and buttons easily accessible; nonthreatening levels of irreversible committment on each page except the final submit payment page; and bigger than average print.
There are lots of elderly discovering computers for hobbies or business but do not consider themselves at all computer literate or savvy. All they know is that they don't understand what to do much of the time if something goes wrong. If they don't have any idea why they don't understand, or figure they never will understand, they just bail out and never complete the checkout or email in a panic. They remember that experience and go elsewhere for future purchases, too, because people are often embarassed to say they don't know how to do things that they think are easy for others. Huge numbers of folks have absolutely no idea how to paste a link anywhere or what a "browser" is (it's a huge market niche!!!).
One of the nicest checkouts I have used listed a menu of payment choices that includes the payment system plus the payment types accepted for each, and each choice lead to the single track endpoint specified. A "Cancel" button on each page reverted the user to back to the Payment Preference choice page if they got cold feet or forgot their card was maxed out and needed to use another one in another payment system. That gets around the confusion of several ways to pay by credit card, for example [totally fictitious sets of cards acceptable etc. but it gives the idea].....
-------------
Please Choose Your Payment Preference:
Pay us with your Credit Card securely through our Verisign servers (MC, Visa, Amex, Discover, or Diner's Club are accepted)
Pay via Paypal (echecks, instant fund transfer, or using your credit card--Paypal accepts Visa, MC and Discover cards only, please)
Pay via Worldpay (accepts Visa, MC, and Amex cards only, please)
Pay by online money order (Bidpay only, please. Bidpay accepts Visa, MC, and Amex if you wish to pay by credit card)The fee is only $xxx up to $xxx purchased and saves costs of both a stamp and a trip to the post office.
Pay us directly by mail by personal check or a purchased money order you plan to send to us. You will receive the name and address information for mailing when you select this option (no mailed cash and no credit card information sent throught the mail, please).
-----
Hope this has some ideas that you can use. Thanks.
posted on December 10, 2004 08:33:23 AM new
I'd just like to stress that I hope you keep Merchandising Edition super-duper too! Some of us do not sell the type of items (ie: collectibles) that fit in the Inventory Edition yet still do a large volume of listings.
Merchandising Edition is a dinosaur right now!
I might consider using a "modernized" check out if there were ways to upsell to my EBAY store with shopping cart!
Also, once we send an ebay invoice through ebay, we are able to see the "payment status" which includes buyers' address. I know that the address is imported when buyer pays through PayPal, but is there a way to "read" buyers address from "payment status" and import to Vendio for those who are paying by check?
**********************************
"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "...holy sh@#...what a ride!"
posted on December 19, 2004 09:15:58 PM new
You brought it up almost 7 weeks ago. I am interessted in automatic sales tax calculation which has bee proised on and off over the past few years.
posted on December 19, 2004 09:49:18 PM new
Hi davebraun,
We owe you an update on our progress on this improvement, which we expect to launch next quarter. This project is now a single project that does three things (primarily):
1. Improves the checkout process as pirateboy described here
2. Improves the shipping functions for checkout and how we integrate with eBay checkout
3. Improves tax calculations in checkout (ours and eBay's) (your request).
We went through a long usability study on the proposed shipping changes, and we found we should make more changes than we originally anticipated while we're "under the hood," which has delayed this project into Q1. During our surveys, we also heard that UPS integration was very highly valued. I'm happy to say that we're submitting our application for UPS qualification during the first week of January and expect to launch that integration shortly thereafter in January.
I'll ask the team to give more details on the proposed shipping changes. It's the next project to complete after UPS integration is complete, qualified, and delivered. It's as important to us as it is to you, and we're certain this delay will be worth the added simplicity and functionality of the service based upon the user testing we've done.
posted on December 21, 2004 07:08:26 PM new
RE: Payment and Billing Information
Current text makes no sense at all. For example, it asks for buyer's billing address. Buyers who pay by check or money order simply get very frustrated. Some even thought seller was trying to extrat personal information.
For another example, the text tell buyers that if billing address does not match shipping address, order may be delayed. In reality, a lot of sellers will only ship to billing address and the fixed text will cause confusion again.
Every sller is different and most of them are much smarter, so allow them to put their own words there. Vendio allows sellers to define their own words at "View Chart" but deprives the right for the next, even more imortant page: "Paymetn and Billing Information".
RE: Shipping Option
More black options are necessary for sellers to put in their own uniqe shipping choices. Those drop-downs are far less effective. While most folks in the US know UPS Ground won't go outside North American, frequently, Europeans choose this option as they have no idea. If the shipping option is listed as " UPS Ground for Continetnal US Only", it will solve the problem. Or at least as stated above, let sellers define their own words so buyers can be remidned to get their suitable shipping option.
Not sure how much extra burden will be on Vendio's server by allowing customerized text but is seems Vendio has concern on this.
RE: auto feedack back return
This is really a time-saving feature and many sellers have been wanting it for long time (at least 2 years). Unfortunately it seems Vendio has never shows any interest in this. Vendio has its advantages and disadvantages compared to other services, auto feedback return is one of the BIGGEST disadvantages. Currently, Vendio marks "9" whenever a feedback is received, but this feature is essentially useless as there is no way to sort it out at Post Sale.
Lastly, not sure why whenever "payment received" notice is sent, it is not marked according any more. What is the reason for an extra click?
posted on December 21, 2004 07:35:57 PM new
Thanks for the feedback volksphoto. There are some additional ideas we'll review. I'll add that we are going to post an update to this thread that will show the more complete changes. A couple of points first.
1. To get Step 2 to be automatically checked, please select the option to, "Automatically complete checkout process (Step 2)" in MyAccount->Post Sale Acceleration (https://secure.vendio.com/my/acct/mailstep.html)
2. The new pages will show how we break out international shipping from US shipping and at the same time add more shipping fields as you requested.
3. We like feedback automation a lot and have a project defined to automate it based upon your selected criteria. Unfortunately, our broader surveys have led to requests of other projects that have been prioritized higher for this reason. I'll definitely review it again based upon our most recent surveys.
This page is also within the Store framework for Vendio Store sellers.
