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Hey all. Doing a bit of surface level market research here.

Basically, I have trade accounts with mantic, Wargames Atlantic, and can get Fireforge, Shieldwolf and others through a distributor I work with.

For Mantic, and now Fireforge/Shieldwolf, I have a limited offering of items available for immediate shipment from my webstore.

The rest of the catalog is available at my discounted rate, but a prospective customer would have to email me a list of items they would like to special order. Notation about this is posted in several areas around my webstore.

I am debating whether or not to continue this mode of sale, or swap to:

Every product code available on the website, even if most are a "Stock-on-order" scenario (Aka, not regularly kept in stock for immediate shipment)

Obviously this would involve a lot more work on my part to get the product codes on the site. My main concern however is appearing disingenuous as to what I keep in stock if the entire line is technically purchasable on the webstore.

Your thoughts and commentary are appreciated, as are your votes in the poll.

EDIT:

Thank you for your commentary.

I have made an example section of the website, with 3 product listings for example purposes.

Is this blatant enough that said products are special order and are not kept in stock?

Your thoughts and commentary are appreciated.


https://mcdougalldesigns3d.com/collections/mantic-special-order-products

Happy gaming,

Max M.

McDougall Designs

 McDougall Designs wrote:
...but a prospective customer would have to email me a list of items they would like to special order.

Speaking for myself... Nope, this wouldn't happen. If I can't order it through the webstore, I'll go find somewhere else to buy it from.

Although to put that in some perspective, I wouldn't generally place a backorder through a webstore either, unless it's for something I can't find for sale anywhere else or the price is outstanding and it's something I'm buying just for the hell of it and don't care when it arrives. While I understand it's not always practical for small operations to stock complete product lines, if the item I want isn't on hand, I'll keep looking for somewhere that does have it.

 insaniak wrote:

 McDougall Designs wrote:
...but a prospective customer would have to email me a list of items they would like to special order.

Speaking for myself... Nope, this wouldn't happen. If I can't order it through the webstore, I'll go find somewhere else to buy it from.

Although to put that in some perspective, I wouldn't generally place a backorder through a webstore either, unless it's for something I can't find for sale anywhere else or the price is outstanding and it's something I'm buying just for the hell of it and don't care when it arrives. While I understand it's not always practical for small operations to stock complete product lines, if the item I want isn't on hand, I'll keep looking for somewhere that does have it.

Thank you for your candor.

It of course depends on the time investment it takes, but I would try to keep everything on the site. Things that aren't on a retailer's site don't exist there, as far as I'm concerned. Sure, some things have lead times and all that but as long as that's clear it's no problem for me.

Maybe have a separate section of the site for the special order stuff, a couple of extra clicks and a full page warning banner 'adding these items WILL delay your shipment'

as if it's in the main site buyers will pick it, not read that it needs to be special ordered and get upset when it doesn't ship next day

I am a visual shopper. So if I dont see an item listing I will never buy it.

Greetings all,

Thank you for your commentary.

I have made an example section of the website, with 3 product listings for example purposes.

Is this blatant enough that said products are special order and are not kept in stock?

Your thoughts and commentary are appreciated.

https://mcdougalldesigns3d.com/collections/mantic-special-order-products

Seems pretty clear

Looks good to me

(an automated 'we've now ordered your special order XXXX' email may also help minimise questions too)

I'll just add that some OLGS will have an "In Stock" checkbox I can click (and do) to not see stuff not in stock.

Customers who will order OOS may overlap with pre-order customers?

Looks good, though.

I've already placed a special order with you without your website having a dedicated special order section, so I'm obviously fine with the system as it is. That said, having a dedicated special order section on your website, with images of all the products as per your example, would make things easier for potential customers. (The only recommendation I would make is to split the section between sci-fi and fantasy special orders, as that broad distinction covers most of what Mantic offers. I wouldn't bother breaking it down too much further than that - I doubt many people care if Warpath or Firefight items are kept separate from Deadzone ones, for example.)

I can think of two issues for you to keep in mind. First is how much effort it will take to maintain and continually update your special order pages. If Mantic adds several new items to their catalogue next month and you don't add them to your special orders section, for example, potential customers might wonder if that means you can't get them yet, and go look somewhere else. So you'd basically be on the hook for continually updating your special order section with whatever new products that Mantic (or Fireforge, or anyone else) publish. If that's no big deal, then a special order section looks like a good idea.

The second issue is how reliable Mantic is in maintaining their own stock. If someone special orders a resin Asterian Psychic Plumber from you, and Mantic is out of them and then it takes Mantic two months to make more and then two more months to ship you one, then a less intelligent customer might direct their ire at you for the resulting delay.

I may be wrong (others are free to jump in and correct me,) but my sense is that what you're offering to US customers particularly - Mantic's entire catalogue with domestic shipping at a good discount - should generally put you at an advantage compared to other sellers. Some of Mantic's catalogue is fairly easy to get in the US, but there aren't many (any?) one-stop-shop US Mantic sources anymore, online or off. (Miniature Market used to try to have all or most of Mantic's catalogue available, but they stopped doing that years ago, and now they only seem to stock whatever they've determined will sell well, which often seems to favor licensed properties like the Walking Dead and Hellboy.) There are ebay sellers for some Mantic things (but in my experience, not all things), and there will occasionally be webstores doing clearance on Mantic product that isn't moving for them, but in general I think choosing to buy Mantic through your store is a pretty easy decision for US customers. If another store does have a particular item immediately available, chances are that they won't be selling it at a comparable discount, so in many cases, for the budget conscious it would still be worth waiting to special order it through you and wait a bit longer.

Maybe (I haven't checked - big armies aren't my thing) people can get Mantic's big boxed army sets on Amazon for a good price. But if I ask "Where can I order any Mantic special unit and / or resin model I want at a discount and pay US shipping?", I'm pretty sure that "McDougall Designs" is the only current answer. Before your store offered special order for Mantic's catalogue, I basically would have had to order the jumble of resins I bought from you directly from Mantic themselves at full price with shipping from the UK, and as that was more than I care to pay, I wouldn't have bought them at all.

Psychic Plumber has to be among the worst superpowers.

Imagine if you could feel the clog…with your brain. Or have Deadzone-esque flashes experiencing the moment of clogging.

No thanks.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Other than that, I agree. After MM, Amazon became my go-to for Mantic minis. But Amazon prices are inconsistent, and often add shipping that should be factored into a big purchase.

 Vermonter wrote:
I've already placed a special order with you without your website having a dedicated special order section, so I'm obviously fine with the system as it is. That said, having a dedicated special order section on your website, with images of all the products as per your example, would make things easier for potential customers. (The only recommendation I would make is to split the section between sci-fi and fantasy special orders, as that broad distinction covers most of what Mantic offers. I wouldn't bother breaking it down too much further than that - I doubt many people care if Warpath or Firefight items are kept separate from Deadzone ones, for example.)

I can think of two issues for you to keep in mind. First is how much effort it will take to maintain and continually update your special order pages. If Mantic adds several new items to their catalogue next month and you don't add them to your special orders section, for example, potential customers might wonder if that means you can't get them yet, and go look somewhere else. So you'd basically be on the hook for continually updating your special order section with whatever new products that Mantic (or Fireforge, or anyone else) publish. If that's no big deal, then a special order section looks like a good idea.

The second issue is how reliable Mantic is in maintaining their own stock. If someone special orders a resin Asterian Psychic Plumber from you, and Mantic is out of them and then it takes Mantic two months to make more and then two more months to ship you one, then a less intelligent customer might direct their ire at you for the resulting delay.

I may be wrong (others are free to jump in and correct me,) but my sense is that what you're offering to US customers particularly - Mantic's entire catalogue with domestic shipping at a good discount - should generally put you at an advantage compared to other sellers. Some of Mantic's catalogue is fairly easy to get in the US, but there aren't many (any?) one-stop-shop US Mantic sources anymore, online or off. (Miniature Market used to try to have all or most of Mantic's catalogue available, but they stopped doing that years ago, and now they only seem to stock whatever they've determined will sell well, which often seems to favor licensed properties like the Walking Dead and Hellboy.) There are ebay sellers for some Mantic things (but in my experience, not all things), and there will occasionally be webstores doing clearance on Mantic product that isn't moving for them, but in general I think choosing to buy Mantic through your store is a pretty easy decision for US customers. If another store does have a particular item immediately available, chances are that they won't be selling it at a comparable discount, so in many cases, for the budget conscious it would still be worth waiting to special order it through you and wait a bit longer.

Maybe (I haven't checked - big armies aren't my thing) people can get Mantic's big boxed army sets on Amazon for a good price. But if I ask "Where can I order any Mantic special unit and / or resin model I want at a discount and pay US shipping?", I'm pretty sure that "McDougall Designs" is the only current answer. Before your store offered special order for Mantic's catalogue, I basically would have had to order the jumble of resins I bought from you directly from Mantic themselves at full price with shipping from the UK, and as that was more than I care to pay, I wouldn't have bought them at all.

Updating the revolving items isnt terrible once I have the catalog up, for the most part.

It was getting all the products (over 500 codes) up that was holding me back.

I'm splitting it over a couple of days and getting it all up.

I'm about 125/500 ish in so far.

Two thoughts:

1) Out of stock/available to order doesn't strike me as THAT hard to do, and countering some opinions above, while I like the option to click "show in stock items only", I don't want to have to search separately in "in stock" and "available to order" (or have I missed something?)

2) Allowing for the UK / US markets to be different, a random search pulled up 3 UK sites with items both in stock and cheaper, so why would I wait AND pay more?

Mantic is a UK company. Getting Mantic products in the US is more of a challenge.

stroller wrote:
Two thoughts:

1) Out of stock/available to order doesn't strike me as THAT hard to do, and countering some opinions above, while I like the option to click "show in stock items only", I don't want to have to search separately in "in stock" and "available to order" (or have I missed something?)

2) Allowing for the UK / US markets to be different, a random search pulled up 3 UK sites with items both in stock and cheaper, so why would I wait AND pay more?

Your flag shows UK. If that’s correct, that’s almost certainly the reason you can find cheaper mantic options since they are a UK company. US customers tend to get a regional rrp thats noticeably higher than a straight currency conversion rate and then add in often expensive shipping on to of that.

As an example I won’t buy Warlord stuff because their minimum shipping is prohibitive for smaller orders to the US.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Mantic is a UK company. Getting Mantic products in the US is more of a challenge.

Exactly.

 privateer4hire wrote:

stroller wrote:
Two thoughts:

1) Out of stock/available to order doesn't strike me as THAT hard to do, and countering some opinions above, while I like the option to click "show in stock items only", I don't want to have to search separately in "in stock" and "available to order" (or have I missed something?)

2) Allowing for the UK / US markets to be different, a random search pulled up 3 UK sites with items both in stock and cheaper, so why would I wait AND pay more?

Your flag shows UK. If that’s correct, that’s almost certainly the reason you can find cheaper mantic options since they are a UK company. US customers tend to get a regional rrp thats noticeably higher than a straight currency conversion rate and then add in often expensive shipping on to of that.

As an example I won’t buy Warlord stuff because their minimum shipping is prohibitive for smaller orders to the US.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Mantic is a UK company. Getting Mantic products in the US is more of a challenge.

Exactly.

Yes, mantic uses an approximate currency conversion rate instead of a direct currency conversion rate.

Which, to be frank, has caused some confusion in the past.

The layout for the special orders looks pretty clear to me. Of course, there will always be someone with the special skill to just not see anything at all, but those people always exist no matter what you do.