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Stock Display Changes & Other Improvements |
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Beyond 'Yes' or 'No'
Until now, our pages have shown whether items are in stock or not by using bold text in our search engine results. And that's all. While that's fine for in-stock items, it doesn't tell you anything about the chances of getting something that's not in stock.Most mail-order places don't take backorders. If they don't have stock, you cannot order the item. However, at HobbyLink Japan, we've always recognized that this is not a practical approach for the hobby industry. Given a few days or weeks, we can get new stock of many of the items in our catalog even if we don't have any today. So it would be a shame not to let you order them, and have a chance to add it to your collection.
But of course, you want to know how likely it is that we can actually get the piece for you. That's the tricky part. Unfortunately, the hobby industry in Japan hasn't exactly rushed to adopt the latest in information technology; we still depend on phone calls and hand-written faxes from many of our suppliers for release and availability information.
So after a few months of thinking and programming, we've come up with a new system for displaying stock and availability information on our web site. The bold text for in-stock items is still there, but we've also added a new code system using colored circles and squares: circles for in-stock items, and squares for items we don't currently have. But we've also broken that down further to give you better information about how likely it is to be able to get something we don't have, and how quickly we're likely to sell out of items we do. A list of all the new codes that are displayed on search results lists, individual product pages, and the order status display in the Account Maintenance System, is available here.
While the new system may seem a bit confusing at first, we think it's a great improvement over what we have been doing. Many thanks go to the individuals who were so kind as to test the new system for us and provide their opinions.
Other Changes
You'll also notice that we've made several other changes to our page layouts, both the search results lists, and the product pages, as well as some miscellaneous graphics around the site. On the product pages, key product information has been better centralized. Currency information is improved, too, with today's equivalent in US dollars and euros always shown for reference along with the yen price. Holding your mouse over the "other currencies" link will pop up a box showing other equivalents (if you've got Java enabled).
In the search results lists, in addition to graphical changes, we've also changed the sorting so that Air and Auto kits now are broken down by manufacturer (these categories just had too many meaningless little series in them that were making things hard to find). Other categories will continue to be broken down by series name. We also have moved all discontinued items to the bottom of each series block (if you're running a search that looks for out-of-production items, too).
We have many other changes planned for the site in the next few months, too, especially for the search engine and shopping cart. We're never satisfied... Comments or questions about our new codes or pages? Please email webmaster@hlj.com.
As always, thanks for your support of HLJ!
Scott T. Hards
President