Gallery links to shops instead of users ?

Hi guys,

I know you are working hard to make the experience better for everyone and I will fill out the survey shortly

Here's just a few idea's and a small bug that were still on my mind :
[list type=1]
[*]Would it be possible to make the links in the gallery go to the user's shop (if there is one) instead of the profile page?

I think that would be a more pleasant experience for visitors
For comparison :
https://www.shapeways.com/mydesign?user_id=4834
and
https://www.shapeways.com/shops/virtox
(The shops are sorted nicely, show sections, etc)

[*]Would it be possible to implement an option to hide models from main gallery views, but still be visible in shop sections and when linked directly ?

[*]The section navigation in the shops shows the number of total items in a section, this includes invisible models at the moment :
https://www.shapeways.com/shops/virtox&section=Invertebra tes
Summary says 10, but the actual section shows only 6)
[/list]

Kind regards,

Stijn

I've already taken the survey, I gave Joris an 8 day work week . I agree with your suggestions. Add this in with a way to view your shop as a customer would be able to.

I also gave him 2 weeks worth of work I think :S
We should save up and print Joris a minion !

Good additional point on the customer view though !
My work-around with different browser is not always handy
As I deny the existence of Internet Explorer, and Chrome just hates the java/3d view.

Hi Guys good feedback .... and thanks for keeping Joris busy

wrt the points. I'll look into the 3rd point for that looks more like a bug. Will follow up.

Point 1 is clear but what do you mean with 2 and why would this be interesting to have?

cheers Peter Paul

Sorry, got carried away in my own sentence

What I mostly meant was a "secret model" which would only be visible and buyable when linked directly. And not show up in any listings or searches.

That got mixed up with something I saw on the model pages named "Private galleries" which seems like a cool feature

Main reason is, that some of my customers wish to keep their models private, but still be able to order them from me.

And it would be handy just to be able to show a model to a few but not everyone.

Does this make any sense ?

Also saw just now that the shop section navigation urls still gets congested after a few clicks, the url builds up multiple &section= entries
(firefox 3.6/chrome latest)

Thanks !

Stijn

That comes in a similar direction what I want to ask.

Some of my creations should only be buyable by specific customers.
That can for example be achieved when the model is not listened in any gallery and only addressable via the model link.

That could for example be achieved by having "available to all" and "available only via link".

If i forward the address it then can only be acessed by the users knowing the link.
https://www.shapeways.com/model/109859/bearskin_with__flat_pl ume.html
To ensure security a more complex link (for example:
https://www.shapeways.com/model/109859/c0134567819hgf234.html would ensure that the model isn't accessed by accident.

I think that was also meant above.

Woody64

P.S.: I did a short check. If I unset the above given model to be viewable for all - logout - and try to access the model by the link above, I get the error that I'm not allowed to view the model.
That's exactly the place where the new flag can result in another behaviour - allowing the access.
Maybe only a code one liner!

Hello, I notice on the forum there is the choice to "go to all my models" and also "go to my shop". Really what's the difference between the two? Is it just that shops are sorted and "all models" aren't? I don't see what the benefit is of having both, especially if both of them are public.

I would also much prefer all links to me / my models to point to my shop. For me, that is my public face on this site. I believe it paints a uncontrolled and slightly amateurish image to have two ways of looking at the seller's designs - it seems unfinished and makes navigation haphazard and unnerving. I guess it is because it is possible on shapeways to offer models without having a shop - the shop itself is just an add-on, merely a decoration around the designer's collection, whereas I think it should be the main portal to a designers collection. Maybe specific sections within it can be marked as "hidden", and these would not show up in lists, but could still be accessed directly by URL. Like other sellers, I've had customers who I have specific designs for, that I don't necessarily want to publicise to everyone.

I would also like the site to remember that I prefer 10 rows of icons!

And while we're listing requests... I've realised I basically want Etsy! There we have a definitive "shop front" that all public see, and is arranged for selling. And a definite back-end, that the seller has access to that is arranged for management.

One thing that really frustrates me is that I can't easily just check to see what my shapeways shop looks like to strangers - I have to log out to look at it, which seems weird. I think my shop should be my shop, and when I look at it, I should see the same thing as my customers see, not all the extra models I have that aren't available.

Oh... And one more thing: If I go on holiday and won't be able to support my cocreator designs items for a week or two, what should I do?

Thank you!

Sandy Noble

Hi Sandy
Good question. What you could do is increase the lead time per co creator. But if you have many items in your shop it might be a lot of work. Maybe you can put a note in your shop description as well?

Bye,
Marleen

Thanks Marleen, that's the only thing I could think of as well. I was just a bit afraid of what happens if I run out of time - like if I have 3 days listed for production, but I don't get it done in time, what happens to the order?

Cheers!
Sandy Noble

Hi Sandy,

If you are not able to make your production time we (Shapeways) will contact you with some reminders when you are late with customizing your orders.

Eventually if we don't hear any thing back from you we will need to cancel the order(s).

Best solution now would indeed be to make the production time longer for your models and maybe let people know this is because of your vacation.

I see this is not ideal, if you have many models to manage... sorry for that

Any ideas how you would see this work easier in the future?

rgds Peter Paul

When shapeways has their calender up, perhaps a calender for each shop owner to put in their off days.

Hi up, for it to be useful it has to be something that can be globally applied to all models in the shop - either a "deactivate all co-creators" button (like Etsy's "vacation" mode), that would simply make them all unavailable to buy, Or a generic co-creator base time that would normally be 0, and all my actual cocreator times would be based on this figure plus the number I put in on the individual models. Or, like youknowwho suggests, just have the seller put a date in, and all making times will be calculated by adding the normal make time onto that date. This might actually also be useful if (for instance) I decided I was going to save all my cocreator orders up for a week and then do them all in a big batch. So a person who orders on monday would wait 5 days, whereas one who orders on a friday would get theirs uploaded that same day. Not really sure that's so useful actually. ha.

The problem with the Etsy way of just putting everything on hold completely is that people can't order, even if they'd be happy to wait. They just get a message saying "come back in two weeks" or whatever and there's a good chance the moment will have passed by then. It's a calculated risk!

Sn
www.shapeways.com/shops/uptomuch