LEGO to revamp LEGOshop.com

 

  • LEGO to revamp LEGOshop.com

    Posted by Huw, 30 Sep 2009 17:46. Filed under LEGO.com.

    Google news alerts threw up this article on BusinessWire today about a deal LEGO has signed with a company to redevelop their online shop. This got me thinking about the current one. It's actually a bit clumsy and slow, particularly when you want to add loads of items to your cart: you have to use the back button a lot, and trying to find what's new as opposed to what they want you to think is new is virtually impossible, which is one reason I developed the New at LEGOshop.com list above.

    So there's certainly scope for improvement. What do you like and dislike about the current one? What features do you think should be added to the new site?


    18 comments, latest one posted 43 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by southpaw in United States, 30 Sep 2009 18:18

Cool, I look forward to see how they make it better.

Posted by copterpilot in United States, 30 Sep 2009 18:34

I wrote a letter to Lego a few weeks ago about an internet customer loyalty program. If anyone has ever shopped in a Lego store, you get a card they stamp for every $25 dollars you spend. I simply asked why they don't have a program like that for internet purchases as well (for other fans of lego, i'm sure you probably spend a few hundred dollars a year on sets and get nothing in return). Not that I buy lego's to get anything back from the company, but it would be nice to get the same kind of rewards for buying on the internet, especially if the closest lego store is almost 7 hours away by car. Can we add that to the website?

Posted by ET in United States, 30 Sep 2009 18:38

Wow, I hope it's cool!

Posted by stu241273 in United Kingdom, 30 Sep 2009 19:02

My concerns are more to do with the products and services they offer than the site itself. There is no good reason why Lego have different shipping policies, pricing and sets depending on the country, and I would love to receive my orders correctly, first time. There is little incentive to order from the store over say Amazon except for availability.

That said, I have had all sorts of problems creating
an account on the site. This needs to be addressed.

The sales and deals area is just completely unreliable and needs to be properly maintained.

Posted by Toa Of Justice in United States, 30 Sep 2009 19:31

My biggest concern about LEGO Shop at Home is that their "Stay Signed In" function does not work anymore. It was working great before they switched to the "LEGO ID" system.

-Toa Of Justice

Posted by legoboy3998 in United States, 30 Sep 2009 20:29

how about when you go to add bricks from Pick-a-Brick you can select a quantity before adding. and at least equal prices for the same brick in LDD and on PAB

Posted by natro220 in United States, 30 Sep 2009 20:55

Why are there different "areas", like the "products" section, separate from the "shop" section? If I learn about a product, I want to be able to buy it right there, rather than go through another channel of the site. Also, it seems like some of the site functions are buried in the site, like the ability to request missing pieces (you have to go through "customer service", a link at the bottom of the page). I also agree that it's hard to figure out what's actually "new" as anything that came out in the past year is usually classified as such.

Posted by luvendraw in United States, 30 Sep 2009 21:27

I realy don't like how when you go into a theme list, there isn't a list in it with all the sets listed, i hope they change that.

Posted by legomaniac in United States, 30 Sep 2009 23:01

what copterpilot said is exactly what I would really like, except the nearest store to me is 2 states over, and I do buy alot of lego and sure would love a discount

Posted by hyperblade in New Zealand, 30 Sep 2009 23:42

Single landing page for the technic theme which has news + blogs + new releases, community news, e.g like the home page of brickset, at the moment i get these from other places as the lego site is so slow to navigate and so unusable when you do find the page you want. By providing a feed themselves they can start to control more of the flow of information if they wanted, and it would help fans better connect with the company.

Ability to order online but pick up from a local store, which helps mitigate the channel conflict when purchasing direct from the manufacturer.

Usability wise follow the brickset.com site its fast, usable and easy to find what i want.

Posted by GameOn99 in United States, 01 Oct 2009 00:20

I don't shop online, my local lego store is 20 mins. away and I think that I am SOOOO lucky but the one think that is my ABSOLUTE BIGGEST PET PEEVE, S.T.O.R.E_O.N.L.Y_S.A.L.E.S, AAAAAAA. I called for the town plan to make sure it was in stock every two hours for the entire sale period that it was on sale and they OUTRIGHT DENIED me the sale price. They always ducked the question by going, "OH?!, well _>, we can give you free shiping and I guess that would save you the price so that's the same" and then they pretended to be busy with other buisiness. I didn't want them to ship it to me, I want to take it home, push it on a family member, have them wrap and hide it, pay me, and then I would slowly forget over time and have a fun time building it on the day after Christmas. So yeah, online AND store sales would be a plus for me.

One more thing, it's not an online thing but SOMEONE give me a club meeting, they sound so fun but there are none here, man. Someone tell me, are they that fun?

I would like an online rewards thing while they are still around but HEY, there are new VIP cards that are replacing loyalty cards so maybe they have an online program, who knows, they may have bonuses for online shopping like 1.5 times the points.

And hyperblade(nice name): Thank goodness we have brickset for things like that.

Posted by julencin2000 in Spain, 01 Oct 2009 01:51

Nice to see an improvement: their page is really slow and has a bad buyer-experience. It is awesome how easy is for example Amazon, comparing to Shop@Home.

If I want a product, I click it and go for another one. With S@H you have to go back again and again...

I wish they improve Pick a Brick too. Really complicated nowadays.

Posted by yeti in Singapore, 01 Oct 2009 06:54

My pet peeve is that Lego online shop does not ship to Asia-pac countries. WHY? WHY? WHY? I need loose bricks. There are no shops in Singapore selling loose bricks.

Posted by Alemas in Germany, 01 Oct 2009 09:18

Wow, that's great! Can't wait!

Posted by LegoMyMamma in United States, 01 Oct 2009 10:08

Having shopped on LEGO S@H for 10+ years, I can say their Customer Service people are always very nice!

Dislikes of current:

* Having to go back to find same category/theme to add another item to cart (as other people have already mentioned here).
* Items being removed from cart without some sort of explanation, such as "Item #____ is out-of-stock - check back later" or "Item #____ is no longer in production." Because some times I log back into my cart, knowing I had 6 items there, to then see only 5; yet I have to figure out *which* item was removed! I've started adding everything that I add to my cart to My WishList as well, just so I could keep track of what had been taken out of my active cart.

Likes of current:

* WishList! (Hope they keep that function!)
* Order Status check ability; Order History (Hope they keep that too!)
* Helpful and friendly Customer Service help via phone (Hope they keep those people too!)
* E-mail Customer Service that actually replies! Many other shopping sites can feel cold, impersonal and a bit like an abyss.
* Product photo enlargement, zoom, 360-degree view, and alternate views are great.
* Theme/category shopping.

What should be added to new platform:

* Save for later function, with any items that become unavailable between time of adding & checkout retained in some manner. They should become static photos and product numbers, so shoppers can easily know what they need to look for elsewhere.
* E-mail notification that items are in cart. E-mail notification that items in cart are low in stock. E-mail notification of any price change of items in cart.
* Product recommendations: When shopper is buying from a specific theme, an accompanying item could be suggested. Let's say a shopper is buying a Castle set, they may not realize there is a new t-shirt in that theme. A visual-prompt would help speed the shopping experience, plus possibly sell more.
* Frequent Buyers Discount, as others mentioned: Since they already track Order Hist

Posted by LegoMyMamma in United States, 01 Oct 2009 11:18

>> Continued part of my comment which was truncated :)

* Frequent Buyers Discount, as others mentioned: Since they already track Order History, this should be easy. After $XX amount of orders, a coupon for $X can be e-mailed.
* Ship to store for pick-up without shipping fee would be nice for those who live near store and want to make one purchase -- if some items aren't available in the store physically at the time. This might be a logistics nightmare, yet retailers such as Lands' End do this, with a pick-up at Sears stores.
* Not so much a web-based issue, yet ... please train the packers better, like TRU or Amazon; after hundreds of purchases, never crushed set boxes and poorly packed shipping boxes from these stores, like I have received from S@H :(

What I would NOT like to see added:

* Hover-over enlarges photo of item! That is really annoying! If I want to enlarge it, I'll click it, thank you.
* What "other" people purchased! Ugh, seriously, that's my only issue with sites like Amazon; personally I couldn't care less what other people bought after viewing item "X"! ;-)
* User-reviews can NOT be added to the migration, since there are so many fans sites for such information. Even if it is a non-LEGO person buying for a LEGO fan, they should already have an idea of what theme/category/set the recipient wants. So, if that being cut would speed up the Shop subdomain of LEGO.com, that would be better!

The company TLG has hired to launch the new design/functions also handles the Target web site. That is a good one and if LEGO.com ends up being similar, that would be fine with me. (As long as the "quick view" option is click-powered, and NOT hover-over powered.) Target's site has the ability to view and put into cart multiple items fairly easy.

No matter what, I am still very happy that LEGO allows its customers to buy from TLC directly!
Thank You!

Posted by legobazooka in United Kingdom, 01 Oct 2009 14:25

I don't think I can add anything stunningly original to the comments already made so I'll just add my vote for a discount scheme similar to the shops - though not at the expense of the current shipping policy - much easier functionality for adding items to your cart, perhaps a checkbox with each item and then when you have finished browsing any items you have checked can be added to your cart or wish list by clicking a button. It would be great to have a preview of new releases which you could also add to your wishlist. It would also be useful if you could add items to your order after checking out if it hasn't been shipped - currently you can only do this by phoning customer services.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 01 Oct 2009 14:55

As reported in the brand store calendar article, LEGO are changing their loyalty scheme so there's every chance they could extend it to online purchses as well. After all, Tesco manage it :)

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