I am a big fan of your work, keep it up.
What I would improve:
1) Better Shipping and customs processing
----------------------------
Something like the Ebay Global Shipping Program or the Amazon shipping would be really nice.
With those sellers, I can pay customs fees together with the price of the product (+shipping-fee) and I don't have to worry about the customs hassle since they handle it for me.
Why don't you simply sell / ship via Ebay as well? I don't think it adds a big cost. I would definitely pay a couple of dollars extra for a smooth shipping experience (I have to pay a minimum of 10 EUR anyway for any customs processing if I have to do it instead of the seller).
Maybe Ebay has a special program for community projects like Pine64 with minimal fees.
2) Better ordering experience
-------------------
At the moment, the order process seems fairly complex and managed manually at several phases (I had some experience with it in relation to the original PineBook, which I didn't order in the end because of the long wait time).
I understand that this is because of the relative big time periods between production batches but it could still be improved significantly.
- Registering the order in a proper database
- Giving an estimate for the waiting customer about the next batch (maybe from the rate of collecting new orders)
- Notifications to waiting users how their batch is progressing (keeping up the enthusiasm)
- Possibly some integration with sites like Ebay and Aliexpress (in case you decide to use them)
- Notifications about shipped products
...etc
I am a software developer and willing to work on an automated ordering system for Pine64 as a community contribution (let me know if I can help).
What I would improve:
1) Better Shipping and customs processing
----------------------------
Something like the Ebay Global Shipping Program or the Amazon shipping would be really nice.
With those sellers, I can pay customs fees together with the price of the product (+shipping-fee) and I don't have to worry about the customs hassle since they handle it for me.
Why don't you simply sell / ship via Ebay as well? I don't think it adds a big cost. I would definitely pay a couple of dollars extra for a smooth shipping experience (I have to pay a minimum of 10 EUR anyway for any customs processing if I have to do it instead of the seller).
Maybe Ebay has a special program for community projects like Pine64 with minimal fees.
2) Better ordering experience
-------------------
At the moment, the order process seems fairly complex and managed manually at several phases (I had some experience with it in relation to the original PineBook, which I didn't order in the end because of the long wait time).
I understand that this is because of the relative big time periods between production batches but it could still be improved significantly.
- Registering the order in a proper database
- Giving an estimate for the waiting customer about the next batch (maybe from the rate of collecting new orders)
- Notifications to waiting users how their batch is progressing (keeping up the enthusiasm)
- Possibly some integration with sites like Ebay and Aliexpress (in case you decide to use them)
- Notifications about shipped products
...etc
I am a software developer and willing to work on an automated ordering system for Pine64 as a community contribution (let me know if I can help).