Store Enhancement - Sort Panels by $/W

109 Posts
Aug 21, 2006 03:45 pm
Store Enhancement - Sort Panels by $/W


  Hello All!

  Inspired by a customer's request, we've added the ability to sort our solar panels by dollar per watt!  Go to any sub category of our solar panels page:

http://store.altenergystore.com/Solar-Electric-Panels/c541/

  And you should be able to sort by $/W. 

  Thanks for the suggestion!  = )
   -Nick

AltE
"Making Renewable Do-able"
http://www.altEstore.com/
 
30 Posts
Aug 21, 2006 04:57 pm
Re: Store Enhancement - Sort Panels by $/W

Hi Nick - on several occasions I have found that when we try to order a particular panel from you folks (as listed on your website) it is not in stock.  Therefore I would request that in addition to your price/watt data, you have a field that shows if you have it in stock (yes, I know that changes sometimes daily but it shouldn't be too much labor to keep that field relatively current).

Obviously most people will be looking for the lowest price per watt but it would save us a lot of time if we knew what you had available.

Thanks -

Tom Hardy, PE
HVTA, Inc.
 
578 Posts
Aug 21, 2006 05:40 pm
Re: Store Enhancement - Sort Panels by $/W

tom, i should invite you to our meetings!  the people behind the website feel your pain, but . . .  honestly the truth is that what is in OUR stock is not the problem.  The issue comes with keeping track on the fluctuating stock of about a dozen other distributors.  It is a ton of work to do this, and sends us into to a tail chasing frenzy of changing in and out of stock on the website.  because of this, it has been our policy to keep things we carry on the website, because even we don't know if we can or cant find them sometimes. 

It is one of my pet projects to identify the more scarce, or more likely to be scarce modules on the site as something that can be clicked on or off easily.  Let me know if you think this is helpful.  We don't want folks to not order a module because it says scarce because we may have it in stock, but it is not that common or has been discontinued. 

I appreciate the suggestion, and we are working on improving all the time, and we fight about this one a lot, so I hear where you are coming from.  let me know if you think the scarce module idea would help.

and thanks for the continuing participation on the forum with useful, knowledgable answers.

james - Alt-E staff

AltE
"Making Renewable Do-able"
http://www.altEstore.com/

Tel: 877.878.4060 x107  or +1.978.562.5858 x107
Fax: 877.242.6718  or +1.978.562.5854
 
30 Posts
Aug 21, 2006 08:15 pm
Re: Store Enhancement - Sort Panels by $/W

Hi James - good ideas on potential improvements, it's great to know that you guys are looking at making things easier for those of us out here.  I did note that recently your site indicated that the Kyocera panels were scarce, but we were able to order and receive one last week (135 watt panel, customer loves it).  So with any implementation it will still be important to make the availability data as accurate and timely as possible.

Always my pleasure to share some of what we've learned along the way.  My background includes BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering with post grad and continuing ed courses in renewable energy. I also hold an professional engineering license in NH.  One of the things I've observed with the renewable energy community is a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of seat-of-the-pants experience (which is not a bad thing) but a relative lack of analytical basis, so I have been trying to infuse some general engineering principles into the user community. As long as people find it useful I will continue to share what I can.  Talk to you soon -

Tom Hardy, PE
HVTA, Inc.
Allenstown, NH
 
109 Posts
Aug 29, 2006 03:23 pm
Re: Store Enhancement - Sort Panels by $/W


  Hello Thomas!

  We've tied in a new 'Availability' field on the each products page to our system.  So now everyone should have a much better idea on how available or unavailable a product is. Smiley

  Thanks!
   -Nick

AltE
"Making Renewable Do-able"
http://www.altEstore.com/
 

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