Is there any plans for custom categories within the individual stores?
Mark,
Are you planning some time in the future to add custom categories within a sellers store? I do realize to have a lot of custom categories within the stores is redundant,but can a limited number be added to the stores for things like imperfs or certain types of event covers or other non main categories items that the sellers could set in their stores?
Thanks
Are you planning some time in the future to add custom categories within a sellers store? I do realize to have a lot of custom categories within the stores is redundant,but can a limited number be added to the stores for things like imperfs or certain types of event covers or other non main categories items that the sellers could set in their stores?
Thanks
Comments
I took advantage of custom categories at bidStart which made it easier for folks to find stamps so I miss them. Right now my bidStart store FLStamps has a much better feel because of them. Could you at least add some major categories like BOB, Revenues and Cut Squares? New folks coming into my store today will initially see about 100 cheap stamps that I decided to list this afternoon. But that's not my store is about. They might just give up trying to find something worthwhile in my store. Last week, it looked good because I was listing expensive US stamps.
Steve - ser1851
Is there any update on this also? If it something that is not really needed here and the answer is no I can live with that.
The reason I am asking is that I do have a number of listings that with the changes between Bidstart and Hipstamp those listings are not going to work as well on Hipstamp as they did on Bidstart and it would be nice to know so I can deal with those listings and plan on not listing them that way on Histamp.
Thanks
Note that many of the categories discussed are already available under "Stamp Type" once any category is selected, including Air Mail, Officials, Postal Stationery, Revenues, etc. Most of which also have additional "sub-categories" once clicked on. For example under Revenues is: Consular Service, Cordials, Silver Tax, etc.
with circular cancel
with slogan cancel
with precancel
with plate number
As it stands now, the collector needs to read my mind to guess how I listed the items. In addition, the Danish West Indies are still not listed as a subcategory. Philippines are also only listed as a current stamp issuing entity.
The German occupations can currently be located only in the country of origin, i.e. Belgium, France, Poland, Lithuania, Serbia, Slovakia, etc. There are finite items here that the specialized German collector searches for, and it is very cumbersome without custom categories. I have "German Occupation" in all of these listings, and then it would be very simple to create a custom category to pull all these items up.
There are German colonies and territories that are not listed under Germany either, such as:
German East Africa
Cameroun ((current issuing entity)
Caroline Islands
Schleswig
Thus, with custom categories, we sellers can create workarounds to identify the items that we specialize in.
Lastly, please put the ability to search in both the title and the description. We had this in BidStart -- now we have to put all the info in the title. We don't even need a description, since we cannot use a search in it.
I do understand that but that's not quite what I am getting at. I do understand if you would choose not to set it up that way with the way the searches work on Hipstamp. And could you please clarify what you mean by near future?
I know of a couple of sellers that did use the custom store categories for specific reasons on Bidstart. For example I listed a lot of FDC's in a discount or pick bin in the same manner as many of the sellers have them at the shows. (They put in a box and throw on the table for .25 or .50 a cover) So most of them were listed with minimal descriptions in the title and BIN at the end. With doing it that way and being able to have a custom store category called BIN FDC'S people could find them and a lot of them sold that way. The problem comes in the fact that with out the custom store categories they can't find them as easily as they could on Bidstart,which means they don't sell as fast and they will end up sitting on shelf longer,because they weren't set up for Hipstamp but for Bidstart.
Now that being said without some idea of which way this may or may not go leaves me somewhat in limbo as to what I need to do with these listings and whether or not to keep listing them that way. (There is no point at listing items a certain way if they are going to sell very very slowly or not at all) I have no problem with maybe having to deal with those listings if need be. I would prefer to start dealing with some this now as opposed to hoping maybe we may get the custom store categories some time in the distant future only to end up not getting them and still having to deal with those listings later future anyways.
I can visualize how custom categories would help Steven, Michael and probably numerous other sellers. Sellers have various strengths in their stocks and it's not always easy to pigeon hole listings i into the existing categories. The more flexibility you can build into HS the better it will be long term. You addressed most of my earlier concerns by breaking down US BOB better. About all I would change for US Revenues is to add "First Three Issues" and "Documentary" subcategories.
At bidStart I had custom categories for PF or PSE-graded US stamps and also collection lots so I
would make use of them again if you eventually implement this.
And that also goes into what do we do with the event covers? Inaugurations are not postal history nor are they FDC's.
Then you have the space,sports,polar etc covers also which are neither postal history nor FDC's. And those were under the category event covers under Stampwants,Bidstart and SG,but those are all gone on Hipstamp. How are the buyers suppose find those particular items when they don't fit into the categories on Hipstamp?
Then you have matched pate blocks,state duck stamps (unless one knows to look for them under Federal ducks will
the buyers actually find them to buy them if they are looking for them) And hopefully somehow the buyers will know which correct keywords to search if the seller put those key words into the title and if not how will they find the naval
covers etc if the seller put the listing into the correct category at one time but that category no longer exists and there is no proper place to put it into on Hipstamp?
Perhaps you may be able to help me out with this. For some reason I am not understanding why if the sellers can show from a provable track record that certain things work and they are asking for those things why would those things need to be revisited at some undetermined future date to be determined if it's going to done? That is not making any logical
sense to me at all. If it works and can be shown to work,wouldn't it make more sense to implement those sooner as opposed to later? I am not understanding why something like Hipvalue makes more sense to set up first before those things that have a proven track record? Can you help me make some sense out of this? It is confusing me a bit so to speak so any clarification on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
That's exactly what we do - prioritize items which we believe will have the largest impact on sales at HipStamp.
While an individual buyer or seller may have their own idea of which items should be prioritized when, these will certainly vary from one seller to another, and it's our job as a business to take into account all of the feedback and suggestions we receive, along with looking at the analytical data we collect on a daily basis.
The results of which are that within just a few months, HipStamp now sells more stamps per month (both by volume and dollar amount) than bidStart has ever sold per month, and we've doubled monthly sales in about four months. If we were looking to focus on simply recreating every feature which bidStart had, we would not expect these results - because the track record would likely be the same as with bidStart.
That being said, our forums are certainly an excellent place for discussion and we've set up a forum for Feature Requests - because it's an important source of information for us, and all of the feedback we receive is very helpful.
You said this
That's exactly what we do - prioritize items which we believe will have the largest impact on sales at HipStamp.
While an individual buyer or seller may have their own idea of which items should be prioritized when, these will certainly vary from one seller to another, and it's our job as a business to take into account all of the feedback and suggestions we receive, along with looking at the analytical data we collect on a daily basis.
The results of which are that within just a few months, HipStamp now sells more stamps per month (both by volume and dollar amount) than bidStart has ever sold per month, and we've doubled monthly sales in about four months. If we were looking to focus on simply recreating every feature which bidStart had, we would not expect these results - because the track record would likely be the same as with bidStart.
That being said, our forums are certainly an excellent place for discussion and we've set up a forum for Feature Requests - because it's an important source of information for us, and all of the feedback we receive is very helpful.
While all that is true it does it still leaves some of us in limbo on this as what we need to do with some or many of our listings.
The first is that we did have this on Bidstart and some sellers did set up items that were not identified for sale on Hipstamp. In my case have at least 12,000 items that may need to be reworked in order to get them more optimized for Hipstamp. And to do that is very time consuming. If there was even a hint at the likely hood of whether this is going to be a yea or nay would greatly help as to what I may need to do with those listings. Even a hint at the fact that it may be something that may be done but it's more of a long term item before it's done would point me in the right direction of what I may or may not to do to make those listings better for selling on Hipstamp. If I need to rework those listings then it would helpful to know that,with the fact that it is going to take awhile to do that.
Again you did say this.
The results of which are that within just a few months, HipStamp now sells more stamps per month (both by volume and dollar amount) than bidStart has ever sold per month, and we've doubled monthly sales in about four months. If we were looking to focus on simply recreating every feature which bidStart had, we would not expect these results - because the track record would likely be the same as with bidStart.
I am not sure where anyone said that EVERY feature from Bidstart needs to be recreated,some needed to be updated and some needed to replaced with something better. I think most of us are looking at having the features that we feel very strongly and are very passionate about were the BEST of Bidstart being brought over and two having some of the features that were on Bidstart and which are some of the same features that are included on Ebay. It just seems to to me that Ebay wouldn't keep a feature that wasn't working long term and is adding value to their site. (Nor does that mean Hipstamp needs to an Ebay either)
I am not disagreeing with the fact that Hipstamp has come quite a ways,but conversely Hipstamp does have a ways to go. Part of it is that Hipstamp has been up and running for the most part almost 9 months. Of course part of the frustration is that some of the features that were asked about months ago,we still have no committed answer. And I don't think that just because we do ask for something means that it needs to take the first priority. I also do know that the things the buyers need will take some sort of priority over some of the things the sellers do ask for.
You just said this, "That's exactly what we do - prioritize items which we believe will have the largest impact on sales at HipStamp."
When this topic was brought up in August, you commented, "We'll be reviewing this in the future, but it's not set to be updated in the short term."
Well, it has been five months and it sounds like we are not any closer than we were then. Quite a few of us have given you a lot of constructive feedback, but we don't see much happening. Can you please give us a list of what you are working on, and an idea when our items/ideas/comments will bear fruit?