Road To Major Fud Improvements Starts With Repricing

Discussion in 'Official Announcements' started by Andrewsimonthomas, May 9, 2017.

  1. MrNibbles
    MrNibbles Well-Known Member
    As long as markups don't drop I'm happy. As pointed out it gives you a chance to somewhat leisurely adjust prices without risking sales having no markups, not that such lost monies would ever buy me a new (Hot Wheels) Corvette, and a method that considers the shop owner's pain in some small way is always appreciated!

    In the long run one of the few ways to make different shop owners happy is to allow some check box options that allow them to guide how markups are dealt with when production prices change for different material types. That's likely a huge coding headache for someone although not an impossibility. I can't say it matters much for my hodge-podge of stuff.
     
    Model_Monkey likes this.
  2. I hate the CSV tool. I live in a country where decimals are represented with comas, not dots.

    I open and change the dots to comas, and the comas to separated values. Then I change every price I want to change. Then I export it back, changing comas to dots and separated values to comas, but when I upload it to the site It wont accept my file because I changed columns that I shouldn't have changed.

    So no. The whole thing with CSV is extremelly outdated for a site this complex. I don't understand WHY there isn't a proper Inventory Page where you can easily change markups, download/update your models, or delete old models.
     
    railNscale, Derek66 and Model_Monkey like this.
  3. Model_Monkey
    Model_Monkey Well-Known Member
    Likewise.

    Like Joris and Maurices' excellent shop, my shop, too, was analyzed by SW. I, too, had concerns upon first hearing that the pricing model was going to change. But I am happy to report that the responses offered to me by SW were reasonable, well thought-out, and based on a thorough, product-by-product analysis of the effects of the pricing change on my shop (of about 830 products). Their analysis was professional and thorough and they provided the complete analysis to me in the form of an MS Excel spreadsheet and separate analysis and commentary.

    SW's analysis of my shop is consistent with what SW employees have stated on this forum, that generally smaller products would become cheaper (more than 570 of my over 800 designs are going to become cheaper - roughly 2/3rds of all my designs will cost customers less), a few will stay about the same, and some very large objects will become more expensive (68 products will increase more than $5 USD). Most of these very large products in my shop that will see big price increases don't sell much anyway. The vast majority of my sales are for smaller objects and SW's analysis confirms that they are going to become cheaper.

    Analysis indicates that some of my products are likely to become directly cost-competitive with other media such as resin. And being that my products are often more accurate than their resin competition, and always more accurate than their injection-molded competition, I am game. This is a win for me as a shop owner and a win for the customer who is sensitive to price as most of my customers are and yours, too, probably.

    On a different note, it has been reported by some of my customers that some other designers, surely with the best of intentions to keep their valued customers informed, may have unintentionally alarmed the public in a way that does not help.

    Two customers who purchase products from me as well as from other SW designers, contacted me privately in near hysteria based on what was told to them by other designers. One said that "Shapeways was going to jack their prices up" and another with great certainty, "so you're about to make your stuff unaffordable". They both demanded to know what I knew of the coming pricing change as if this was all some nefarious plot to screw the public by way of a predatory conspiracy of designers and SW.

    Fellow designers, please be careful when dealing with the public and please avoid alarmist speculation based on fear. Please avoid public remarks that lead to hysterical comments such as "jacking their prices up" and "your stuff unaffordable" which are not accurate statements for all products in all shops, and are not helpful at this time.

    Alarmist, fear-based, generalized public comments can harm other shops, as well as your own. Please be patient as the new pricing change develops and be very careful what you say.

    Thanks for your time and consideration. Best wishes to you all during and after the change.
     
    Last edited: May 23, 2017
  4. railNscale
    railNscale Well-Known Member
    @MitchellJetten it is Wednesday.... or do you have no idea what is going on as well? (just like all the designers)

    Joris
     
  5. railNscale
    railNscale Well-Known Member
    Almost the entire world uses commas instead of dots (except for some archaic countries like the US). I hate those csv-files from Shapeways as well, for the reasons you explained. So this is something SW needs to add to the list of improvements they should be working on but are not.

    Joris
     
  6. MrNibbles
    MrNibbles Well-Known Member
    So instead of calling it a decimal point is it called a decimal comma in the more advanced countries on the planet? :D

    Can't say I'm a fan of the csv thing either, but mostly because I don't have a spreadsheet program on my computer. I might be more apt to use something like this if it were a spreadsheet program resident on the SW system and worked the same way for everyone and without any number of entry limits and similar nonsense that arises from time to time in the forum. But that probably means licensing a multi-user spreadsheet and paying a lot of money to someone for the right to do so.
     
  7. javelin98
    javelin98 Well-Known Member
    Have you tried OpenOffice?
     
    Model_Monkey likes this.
  8. MitchellJetten
    MitchellJetten Shapeways Employee CS Team
    Goodmorning all,

    Plan is to go live 1PM EST :)
    Will let you know if we go live earlier, looks like the plan is to launch the viz tools a bit earlier.
     
  9. MitchellJetten
    MitchellJetten Shapeways Employee CS Team
    Not a big fan of csv files either (I'm a designer / Customer Service, not a data analyst :) ).
    I use MS Excel for most of my daily work, for my shop CSV I use Open Office, works like a charm
     
  10. railNscale
    railNscale Well-Known Member
    @MitchellJetten Could you explain 'a bit earlier'? Because so far we don't have a clue on when SW was originally thinking to launch them. (or am I misinterpreting 'viz tools'?)

    Joris
     
  11. MitchellJetten
    MitchellJetten Shapeways Employee CS Team
    Uhm, no not really.
    I see that the ShopOwner Pricing CSV (that will show old and new prices) will be pushed live first, if all goes well this will be early in the AM EST.

    Once I have more information I'll let you know.
    Please keep in mind that I'm located in the dutch office, the people who will be flipping the switch today are located in NY.
    So right now I don't have any additional info as they are still sleeping :)
     
  12. railNscale
    railNscale Well-Known Member
    That's what frightens me... o_O
     
  13. MitchellJetten
    MitchellJetten Shapeways Employee CS Team
    Haha, I'm sure you rather have them flip the switch than when I would do it.
    I imagine me flipping the switch and bringing the whole website down :)
     
  14. ETS35
    ETS35 Well-Known Member
    Quite true, although this is really only a problem if the cheapest orientation (default) is different from the best orientation in regards to quality. I hope the visualization tools work when the new prices go live. At least then designers will know if they'll have to temporarily stop selling certain designs until the orientation tools become active. Quality is my first concern.

    Don't get me wrong, a decrease in FUD/FXD prices to be competetive has been needed for a long time. So I welcome the changes... if they live up to what has been said. It would however have been much better if people had all tools available long before the new prices become active.
    Fingers crossed.
     
  15. Keystone_Details
    Keystone_Details Well-Known Member
    Just saw that the orientation tool is available to save on at least one of my models.
     
  16. czhunter
    czhunter Well-Known Member
    If I understood correctly from on of the SW team messages, "defualt" orientation will not be "the cheapest one" but "the one, that was already printed" (if the model was already printed).

    Previous engineer decision for orientation should me more valuable then current algorithm desicion.
     
    Last edited: May 24, 2017
  17. MitchellJetten
    MitchellJetten Shapeways Employee CS Team
    Rolling out the CSV shortly :)
     
  18. MitchellJetten
    MitchellJetten Shapeways Employee CS Team
    Orientation will remain the same as we've always done. The engineer makes the decision.
    The pricing will be for the cheapest orientation but that doesn't mean we will actually print it that way.

    Like the small vehicles, the cheapest orientation is not the best quality.
    Best quality is only a little bit more expensive in terms of support material.

    So for the engineer the decision would be easy: print the quality version.

    In the near future orientation tool will allow you to force us to do a certain orientation.
     
  19. PenistoneRailwayWorks
    PenistoneRailwayWorks Well-Known Member
    Any way of knowing once this is available for our accounts, other than downloading it over and over again until it changes?

    Mark
     
  20. MitchellJetten
    MitchellJetten Shapeways Employee CS Team
    Yeah ill post whenever there is an update (for another hour or so, i'm attending a wedding soon).

    Right now you can already download the csv based on a material group (so you don't have to download 5000 lines with all materials etc).