What do we want to see from a retailer?

[Ironprime3089]

If you still shop there and have not experienced bad issues is a bit alarming for me. Either you are god and they listen to you and give you items and reply emails promptly or you are someone who is very little concerned about late times for items especially if we are talking about transformers toys.

Here's my no 1 take, don't list items if they are not in stock within six months
If things are not going according to the schedule refund your customers. Not customers going chargeback and claiming you are refunding.

There is no need for rewards, now hearing it just pisses me off.

I am no longer for upfront payments, forget it, I don't care how hot is the item there isn't a tf that is worth paying 12 months in advance let alone even six.
Thanks to pc I no longer pay items in full for pre orders.

Don't promote yourself if you have no intention of honouring it. If you come on to octa to gain our trust and all , I be pissed off if you do a pc.

Don't use auto reply emails. We are collectors, if you give false eta is the end of you. Copy paste email are not welcome.

You can forget about the no refund bs as per Australia consumer law is not relevant, so my advice is you take your business seriously and know your products what is hot what is not.

Threatening customers over bad feedback, I say no more. Deal with it face up to what's wrong rather than battle with your customers.

After learning that's is not worth saving money over extremely long waits, I am not for it either. As I personally buy tfs overseas and shipping by sea, it never took over two and a half months. But I am not convinced with the savings.

I only order instock items from them and in all honesty that hasn't been for a while.
I understand the problems people are having, I just haven't experienced it first hand so I don't have anything to complain about.
I am a collector as well and I know how I want to be treated as a buyer. I have been a member of OTCA for a few years now and I only started planning my store recently.
I can guarantee that we will have the best customer service because everyone involved is a collector and understands how things should be handled.

[drifand]

You need to be on top of things to keep people happy.

Not saying is easy as there are easy layback customers and difficult ones.

Take not on the shipping in batches, I don't welcome that method. I like item is in, everyone gets it. Not "where is mine?" That's where problems start, I never gotten such issues with Japanese retailers.

[Ironprime3089]

You need to be on top of things to keep people happy.

Not saying is easy as there are easy layback customers and difficult ones.

Take not on the shipping in batches, I don't welcome that method. I like item is in, everyone gets it. Not "where is mine?" That's where problems start, I never gotten such issues with Japanese retailers.

Will keep that in mind

[Jellico]

Don't sell what you don't have. Trust in PC collapsed when they started failing to deliver. People will put up with lateness, rudeness, etc if the price is right and they get what they paid for.

[Bidoofdude]

Stocking new official stuff, relatively cheap and fast shipping.

Seriously, every new retailer and their mum decides that they want to be the newest third party and MP Australian dealer on the block. They're great and all, but I just want some Transformers.

[llamatron]

Stocking new official stuff, relatively cheap and fast shipping.

Seriously, every new retailer and their mum decides that they want to be the newest third party and MP Australian dealer on the block. They're great and all, but I just want some Transformers.

I would speculate that comes down to supply + cost issues.

[Ironprime3089]

Stocking new official stuff, relatively cheap and fast shipping.

Seriously, every new retailer and their mum decides that they want to be the newest third party and MP Australian dealer on the block. They're great and all, but I just want some Transformers.

I would speculate that comes down to supply + cost issues.

I am looking at more official stuff but like llamatron said cost is the issue, its hard to find suppliers of official stuff. I am new to this obviously but I really have no idea where PC sources some of their stuff.

[DarkHyren]

Most important thing is transparency. Don't be like a certain retailer and say "oh items are coming next month, no wait next month, no wait the one after that", it's all just hot air. If you have delays be honest about WHY there are delays. Doing something to prove that the delays are real (like showing invoices proving you actually ordered products) goes a long way to helping ease customers minds.

Many people wont put up with excessive lateness or rudeness from a merchant. Learn the value of the motto "the customer is always right". Don't treat customers like they are idiots or only have value because they can give you money. The best thing a customer can give you isnt their wallet, it's their loyalty and praise.

drifand has said a lot of things worth paying attention to as well, you might not have experienced the worst of things that an online retailer can do but we have, and because of it even though there are now 4 or 5 other AU online stores we could buy from we still dont have much trust in them.

Oh yeah, and while it might be tricky to do a lot of us would like deposit only preorders, we might hesitate to give all our money over for an item that wont be coming out for 6+ months but we'd be more willing to pay say $10 to secure that item. This does require you having the capital to pay for your stock in advance and not getting reimbursed until the customers item is ready to be mailed to them, but it's much better then a certain retailer that takes customers money and only orders afterwards at the last minute.

[Ironprime3089]

Most important thing is transparency. Don't be like a certain retailer and say "oh items are coming next month, no wait next month, no wait the one after that", it's all just hot air. If you have delays be honest about WHY there are delays. Doing something to prove that the delays are real (like showing invoices proving you actually ordered products) goes a long way to helping ease customers minds.

Many people wont put up with excessive lateness or rudeness from a merchant. Learn the value of the motto "the customer is always right". Don't treat customers like they are idiots or only have value because they can give you money. The best thing a customer can give you isnt their wallet, it's their loyalty and praise.

drifand has said a lot of things worth paying attention to as well, you might not have experienced the worst of things that an online retailer can do but we have, and because of it even though there are now 4 or 5 other AU online stores we could buy from we still dont have much trust in them.

Oh yeah, and while it might be tricky to do a lot of us would like deposit only preorders, we might hesitate to give all our money over for an item that wont be coming out for 6+ months but we'd be more willing to pay say $10 to secure that item. This does require you having the capital to pay for your stock in advance and not getting reimbursed until the customers item is ready to be mailed to them, but it's much better then a certain retailer that takes customers money and only orders afterwards at the last minute.

We plan to be very transparent with customers. I actually find it surprising that more companies don't provide frequent updates on incoming stock.
As for deposits, I think that will be an option down the road but as we are just starting up it will be hard to be able to make that work financially. It will take a few months to be able to afford those kinds of sales.
In saying that I don't think we will be listing many preorders that have a 6 month waiting time, in the beginning at least.

[UltraMarginal]

• be honest and transparent with customers
• provide accurate estimates for arrival of stock
• be competetively priced
• I can take or leave incentive schemes, I'd rather just have consistantly good value product.
• Post general information updates etc regularly on your site to avoid being swamped by hundreds of emails asking the same question
• be aware that couriers don't work for everyone, as they don't leave slips for pickup at the post office. not everyone can receive parcels at work. I've had a few boxes damaged by couriers lately as well.
• pack items on all sides of the box, not just the side the customer sees when they open the box. this is something that PC did get very good at, the crumpled paper is light, cheap and recyclable.
• sturdy boxes are a good thing
• have a good filter system on your website, it's frustrating looking through heaps of sold items trying to find that few that aren't sold out.
• don't make your website secondary to social media, it must be your primary focal point for information and contact.
• give me lots of cool free stuff. ;-)
• It seems that multiple payment options are appreciated, as is some sort of layby.