Hello everyone,
We've recently made a number of changes to LocaBriques, and wanted to share them with you. Most of them concern owners, but may be of interest to everyone.
The internal messaging system now allows you to attach files to your messages, via a new field at the bottom of the form.
Attachments appear below the message, including in the notification e-mail.
In your inbox or outbox, a paperclip icon in front of the subject indicates the presence of attached files.
Nothing revolutionary, and we're still thinking of replacing this messaging system with something more modern in the form of conversations, but it's a first step!
The consequence of this modification is that, in order to limit the storage space required, messages will be automatically deleted after two years. This deletion will begin in January 2025.
We have also made two changes to make the management of deposits more flexible (and thus limit the associated costs).
Firstly, owners can now freely choose the date on which the deposit expires when validating an order. We still offer a default date (today's date + rental duration + 2 months to cover processing and transport times), but owners can extend it, up to 8 months (it's not possible to shorten it, but this has no impact on fees).
This can come in handy for managing rentals that are validated well in advance of the dispatch date desired by renters.
Next, we had to charge for renewing the deposit when extending an order. Up until now, we had been paying the €2 fee ourselves, but this was no longer sustainable. Renewal is now charged at €3 (€2 Swikly fixed fee + €1 to cover Stripe payment costs). When registering an extension, the owner now has a choice of three options:
- Keep the current deposit (which is often more than sufficient for extensions of less than a month);
- Request a new deposit, and have the renter pay it. The €3 is then added to the amount of the extension, and payment is made via the order tracking page;
- Request a new deposit, and pay it himself. Payment can then be made via the order tracking page.
Note: if the owner charges rent for the order extension, then the deposit extension is necessarily paid by the tenant (since paying it by the owner reduces the cost of the extension by 3€ and avoids a payment).
Owners can now define a minimum income below which an order cannot be placed in their store. This will avoid the increasing number of refusals we see for orders of too short a duration.
This threshold is defined on the store management page, “Options” tab.
We have revised our commission calculation. Until now, this was 15% of the cost of the order (rent + options), before the application of discount coupons. This initial choice made it possible to cover the deposit costs, which were proportional to the cost of the products. As this is no longer the case (costs are now fixed), this choice is no longer relevant. The commission is now calculated on the amount of the order after the application of discount coupons.
For example, if an owner offers a second month free to a customer, we will now charge the same commission as if the rental lasted only one month. Until now, this commission was doubled.
In return, and to adapt to the now fixed deposit charges, a floor of €3 is applied so that the commission is never lower (i.e. a profit for LocaBriques of less than €0.50).
This new calculation does not apply to orders already in progress, but will be systematic for future orders.
In order to improve shop visibility, we have modified the management of discount coupons issued by store owners. When creating a coupon, owners can now specify whether it is publicly visible or not.A publicly visible coupon is displayed (as long as it is valid) :
- on the shop presentation page ;
- in the product availability table;
- in the shopping cart, under each product.
Conversely, and as has been the case until now, a coupon that is not visible is intended to be sent directly to users.
Visible coupons can be restricted to a product or a minimum rental period.
By default, all existing coupons have been marked as “not visible”.
This system should make owners' offers more visible to renters.
LocaBriques store management relies on Stripe for payments and the transfer of funds to owners' accounts. By creating your store, you have accepted Stripe's terms and conditions of use for connected accounts.
These conditions have recently been updated, and will be applied as of 01/03/2025. We are obliged to inform you and invite you to consult the new version:
https://support.stripe.com/
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