The NEW Bodybuilding.com Store: Your Feedback And Questions?

[xStevenx]

what happened to the product reviews? A good number of reviews have been deleted

[gspsilva]

only thing i would like to see is canadian shipping prices cheaper....we are next door for god sakes not across the ocean!

[jphansen]

LIMIT OF 2 SAMPLES

I make at least one purchase a month on here and have spent a few thousand over the past 2 years on this site, and one of the biggest drivers was the ability to get all available samples with every order.

Even though I knew I had to budget $100+ each month for BB.com supps, it was actually a "bill" that I looked forward to paying because I knew I'd get to try some new products.

The majority of my purchases this month came from Amazon.com, once I saw the new limit on samples.

Agree. I also have spent a few k here in the last few years, and always enjoyed trying the new samples, and have bought many new products based on samples. Now I'm planning going to another planet for the majority of my purchases.

[djhavoc]

Placed my order on May 5th and I never received a tracking number via email and there isn't a link to tracking information (like there used to be in my order status) the only way I found out that my order shipped was after logging in to check the status and why do I have to enter my order number after logging in the first time? None of the big websites do this; amazon, best buy, wal-mart, etc.

[Crush086]

I haven't heard good things about the shipping since the new design went live. I'm sure this will be corrected down the line, but for now that's a good portion of what's preventing me from ordering. I get paid on Fridays, and since there's no longer Saturday delivery it's another turnoff, but I already know your reasoning behind that.

The reason I mention it though, is because with these changes, you've got potential to lose alot of business in the GA market to another planet. They're warehouse is literally within driving distance from me (it's like 22 miles or something like that), and they do USPS shipping on Saturdays, so I can order Friday and get it Saturday (even with the 3-7 day shipping option). A few days extra is as grueling as being a kid on Christmas week if you get what I mean.

I won't totally dump bb.com or anything like that, but I'd happily pay a few extra bucks to be able to receive stuff on Saturdays. Your shipping is top notch, and I get my ship confirmation emails minutes after I place my order (compared to another planet which for the sake of comparison, takes hours to get shipping confirmation). If I ordered early enough on Friday, I'd get it Saturday and it was wonderful.

[neuron]

where is the "what's new" page?

[heynakk]

where is the "what's new" page?

http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/our-new-features.html

[neuron]

http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/our-new-features.html

New "products."

[grooves26ca]

where is the "what's new" page?

They are still working on it apparently. Who knows how long that will take.

[Hyruliangoat]

Strong no admin presence now...

[scudz24]

Remember when bb.com had low prices..... remember when you could take 10 percent off the buy 2 get 1 free.... remember why you stopped buying stuff from here:P

this...

and this

Why does the store banner claim lowest prices and fastest shipping when neither one is true any longer?

so very true, thats why i dont buy things here anymore, both guys repped for speaking the truth

[admin]

Since everyone else is afraid to bite...

1)Why is gaspari, cellucor, etc still here despite their previous ph selling but iforce, genomyx, etc who also dropped their ph selling are not?

2) so certain suffixes arent allowed in product names and he ones that were got changed or deleted (natadrol- nata d) but yall promote a product that ends in var as one of the ads when browing the site?

3) have yall ever thouggt about doing deals of the week with specific companys? ( )

4) are yall aware of the fake reviews that go on for the supps just to raise its rating? There should probably be a post req before posting reviews to drop it a little bit.

5) any idea when yall will stock up on orthocore again?

6) instead of giving a gift for orders over 100 why not give an option for free or half off shipping or something?



Now for good things. I love the specificity you can get to knowbwhen it comes to narrowing down the search for a product. The new site def looks cooler, already gotten used to it tbh. I will continue to generally support bb.com but those are the little things i dont agree eith (1,3,4) unless obv something happened in yhr case of 1 then ill understand.

1. I can't discuss specific issues, but there are definitely good reasons behind the scenes. Some of the reasons would shock you, and some are just temporary as we learn more. Trust me, we are doing all we can to protect YOU and help clean up the industry. Most brands are doing the right thing, but a few give the industry a bad name. We will review specific brands/products again soon.

2. Yes, this is one of those areas that is subjective. Does anybody like those sites that sell "STEROID REPLACEMENTS!!!" that have pictures of cows, needles and make it look like their cheap herbal scams are actually steroids? Is that good for consumers? Good for the industry? We all know when certain products are trying to market themselves as actual steroids and/or super hardcore, which is just a sales tactic. We are still working on this so we don't have it all figured out yet. We've just been working on the most obvious ones first.

3. Not sure what you mean? We have deals and specials constantly going on. Examples?

4. Yes, I'm sure there are fake reviews on every single product review site on the Net. There is no 100% way around it. We watch this carefully and we review all reported reviews. (You can help by reporting suspicious reviews using the link on the review pages.)

You may be surprised by how many reviews that are reported end up being real. We do an in-depth search, find out that the user has been buying this product directly from us for awhile (along with other brands), and really is an actual customer. Of course, this isn't always the case.

Also, would you be surprised that there are fake NEGATIVE reviews? A competitor posting a 1/10 rating just to LOWER the rating. Or a forum member that hates a company for some reason but has never actually tried the product?

Here are my thoughts: Basically, there will always be some fake positive ratings. There will always be fake negative ratings. My hope is that these cancel each other out. The secret for us will be to get a LOT of ratings. If we have 10 ratings on a product, and 4 are fake, the rating is skewed. If we 1000 ratings on a product, and 40 are fake, it doesn't have a big impact.

We are working on some "quick rate" abilities for the store to help increase the rate of new reviews. Coming soon.

Also, we are working on a "Verified Buyer" badge that will show up (optionally) when a reviewer has actually purchased from us. We don't want to require a purchase to create reviews (since we want reviews from people that bought them from anywhere), but at least you can "view only verified purchasers". Also, we can see the total rating (let's say... 9/10) and the Verified Purchaser rating (let's say 4/10) and figure out when things seem off.

5. Not sure about this issue. Checking...

6. We've thought about this. We even tested it, along with "free shipping" and it didn't make a big difference. We'll try again soon. I have a major customer philosophy surrounding this, but I'm running out of space right now. =)

Thanks for your questions and support!

[admin]

Every sale item needs to be searchable. Especially the bogo ones. The on sale link doesn't really show all sale items.

Two carts would be great too. One cart would be for current or planned purchases, while the other one would be a 'wish list' cart for products that a buyer would want to try in the future.

I will check on this "on sale" issue. Not sure what is up.

The "wish list" feature is coming in the next few months. =)

Im in Ga not far from the Fla BB warehouse. With FedEx i received my orders the next day 9 out of 10 times, unfortunately with the switch to UPS it takes anywhere from 1-4 days. That is still faster than many other retailers but we are paying a little more for the slower shipping too.

I think the drop down menu is the main feature that I miss. I used to be able to go thru the store and add several products and check out in >5 min, but now I'm spending more time searching for the product/brand..............Someone new to BB.com and supplements will have a hard time finding products

Can you PM me one of your order numbers? I'd love to check this out. Doesn't make any sense.

I think we need to add the drop down menu back to the home page. Working on that very soon.

Is the price inflation across the store due to the millions invested in the website? No hate Ryan but your price hikes, shipping mishap, and order screw ups will and already is driving us away. I've seen more threads about people not getting orders in the last week than I have since 2007 when I first registered to this site. BB.com was always known for fast shipping, an affordable prices and you all have ruined both of those.

As far as complaints for the store, mine would be the search function like previously stated.

The millions invested into the site do not cause price hikes. I know it sounds weird, but our profit is reported as EBITDA for financial reporting purposes. That means that if we capitalize our investments (software and software dev) and large purchases, it doesn't hurt our bottom line. It hurts our cash flow, but not our reported profit. We are building assets that have long-term value. So short answer: No.

Some of those mishaps may have come from the site and Order Management System changeover. Everything should be cleared up now, but we are still fixing reported order problems. My goal is to make our service better than ever with our new technology.

There was a page that listed new products added and also updates on current one, is there still one with the new store? I cant find it.

Coming back soon!

Love the new method for searching for a product. Esp that you can search by flavor

Thanks! I don't think a lot of people realize the type of in-depth searching you can do with the "refine by" facets. You can show products that are "vcap only" or products that "do not contain iron" or products that are "8/10 or higher rating only". And much more!

Two questions:

1. Any chance discount codes will be able to be used on the buy x get x free/ buy x get y free deals like the old store? would have gotten a minimum of three Assaults, two Recons, Battle Fuel and a couple tubs of Combat from you last month if it had still been set up like the old store when I tried to order.

Is there any way to see all the buy x get x free/ buy x get y free deals? That "View all Sales and Specials" link does not show them anymore.

This one has been a surprise to me. I didn't know that you couldn't use coupons on these. I think we have some major issues with some of our promotions in our new cart. I know they are working on some of them but I'll set up a meeting this week to discuss (and scream and holler).

[admin]

The new store looks fantastic! No complaints on the user interface. The only problem I currently have is that a lot of products will not ship to Canada. For example, if I put 'White Flood' into my cart and process my order I get the standard, "This product will not ship to your region." Can you clarify if this was simply a glitch in the bodybuilding.com store or if it has to do with customs regulations and the particular product?

Bodybuilding.com saves me a lot of money from my particular location in Canada. To be honest, $60 shipping and I'm still saving $$$ of dollars from shopping or ordering locally.

Cheers,


HB

We are constantly working on this. Unfortunately, supplements get a lot of scrutiny when they are shipped to other countries, and the rules/regulations are not always clear. We do not want to ship products that are illegal in your country since they will most likely get confiscated (at least some of the time). Also, this could cause all shipments to Canada to eventually get delayed and/or confiscated.

But we don't want to over-restrict either. It's a fine line.

We are trying to do you a favor, not make it harder. Trust me, customers don't really like paying for their supplements and never getting them. They don't blame the Canadian customs. They blame us. But if we block them in the cart, they blame us as well. It's kind of like being married.

The search function needs suggestions. For example, if I search "suprpmp250" in google it will suggest that you meant "Superpump 250." In the store if you dont type in the EXACT product name it wont find it.

Our search does have suggestions, but they are definitely not as good as Google. I'll see how we can improve this for the future.

SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS

will not buy from again

the shipping bothers me
you can not organize the options by "price per serving"
TWO FREE SAMPLES LIMIT

good luck with your ripping off teenagers goals in 2011!

You are 5'7". STFU.

I have noticed this also, I was saving quite abit before; now maybe $10 per protein 10lb powder, still decent I suppose.

Also the shipping is brutal, I got 1 tub in my community mailbox and then the rest of my order was at the post office. Why not just have everything in one place? Better yet, have it all dropped to my front door, like my other online orders from various places from the USA.

I have no idea why your orders don't go to your front door. PM me your order numbers and let me know where each showed up? That would be helpful!

SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS

will not buy from again

the shipping bothers me
you can not organize the options by "price per serving"
TWO FREE SAMPLES LIMIT

good luck with your ripping off teenagers goals in 2011!

Okay, just messing with you. What bothers you about the shipping exactly?

Price per serving is making a comeback! Check back soon. =)

We have to limit free samples. Yes, they are "free", but did you know that when you order one shaker bottle, and then 30 free samples, a person in our warehouse has to pack that order? That means that they have to walk around to 30 locations in our huge warehouse to get one of each item? That will just raise our costs which means price hikes. I'd love to send 1000 free samples to every single customer! Why wouldn't I? The vendors usually supply them to us for free. But there are costs. My job as CEO is to allocate resources to their best use.

[Farley1324]

People were obviously abusing the free samples.

I find it pretty funny people are in here whining because they can "only" get two freebies with every order.

Most of us have seen the piles upon piles of samples so many people post up in the "post pictures of your stash" threads. (Yes, I know those come from other places too, but the point is many people seriously abuse free samples)

[admin]

There are still a lot of products with incorrect/out of date information. Hope the new platform allows you to better keep the information up to date and accurate. Nothing worse than getting something that's different than what you thought you ordered.

We are constantly working on this. We also ask our vendors to monitor their pages and products.

Also, please use the Feedback links at the bottom of pages to report any issues. They go directly to me and the appropriate teams. Even something as small as a spelling error. This really helps!

It seems to have been built specifically for someone new to supplements. I assume this is what u guys are going for as most people have no idea what they are doing or what they need, so with that in mind, you guys did a great job.

I do like that wheycheap purchases are integrated with it. I wish the search bar was lower, as I missed it the first time, although for me the search does work well. I like that it shows products instead of page links.

Yes, you are right. Most of the new features and pages are for newbies. I admit this. The supplement experts (you guys) usually already know what you want, know how everything works, and you get your advice from this forum.

The average person trying to get in shape? They don't know what whey protein is and assume creatine is a STERIOD (yes, misspelled) that will cause their penis to shrink immediately after opening the bottle. They want to know which "suppliments" will help them grow taller. We are trying to do our part to educate the public! This is good for us all!

I rly dont like the format of the store now. Very difficult to find what I want to look for.. it will take a lot of time to get used to.

Can you be more specific? What exactly were you looking for? What did you do to try to find it? What wasn't there?

The 10% code listed at the link I have does not work. It, what do you know, supposedly just expired yesterday. I guess that's it then, no 10%?

And I was just about to maybe, actually buy from bb.com. Not without 10% though. Your prices aren't that good

These should be coming back very soon!

This ^

When proceeding to "checkout" to finalize an order, I have to login a second time to complete the order. This is a nuisance. Other than that, I haven't really played around too much with the new site, but it sure does look better!

Yes, you have to re-enter your password (like Amazon) because we now save your credit card information (if you choose) when ordering. That way you do not have to re-enter it each time. New feature!

There appears to be some supplement reviews missing now.

When I reordered AllMax Isolflex I noticed all their reviews are gone, why is this?

Thanks.

This is a bug. It may already be fixed! Happened on some products randomly.

[triplewhammy]

Maybe this is only a pipe dream, but I think a GREAT feature in the store would be to have a "seal of approval" by various bodybuilding organizations on a per-product basis that deems them "legal for use" within that organization.

This would require quite a bit of effort by the various orgs, but would also save them from having to field the same emails over and over. I think this would benefit bb.com as well by clearing up any misinformation regarding a supplement.

So, for example I would click on Scivation Xtend and it would have a "seal of approval" from the OCB that was authorized by Matt Shepley (or another representative from that organization) and I would instantly know that I could purchase and use this product and maintain my eligibility within that org.


Josh

[Hyruliangoat]

1. I can't discuss specific issues, but there are definitely good reasons behind the scenes. Some of the reasons would shock you, and some are just temporary as we learn more. Trust me, we are doing all we can to protect YOU and help clean up the industry. Most brands are doing the right thing, but a few give the industry a bad name. We will review specific brands/products again soon.

2. Yes, this is one of those areas that is subjective. Does anybody like those sites that sell "STEROID REPLACEMENTS!!!" that have pictures of cows, needles and make it look like their cheap herbal scams are actually steroids? Is that good for consumers? Good for the industry? We all know when certain products are trying to market themselves as actual steroids and/or super hardcore, which is just a sales tactic. We are still working on this so we don't have it all figured out yet. We've just been working on the most obvious ones first.

3. Not sure what you mean? We have deals and specials constantly going on. Examples?

4. Yes, I'm sure there are fake reviews on every single product review site on the Net. There is no 100% way around it. We watch this carefully and we review all reported reviews. (You can help by reporting suspicious reviews using the link on the review pages.)

You may be surprised by how many reviews that are reported end up being real. We do an in-depth search, find out that the user has been buying this product directly from us for awhile (along with other brands), and really is an actual customer. Of course, this isn't always the case.

Also, would you be surprised that there are fake NEGATIVE reviews? A competitor posting a 1/10 rating just to LOWER the rating. Or a forum member that hates a company for some reason but has never actually tried the product?

Here are my thoughts: Basically, there will always be some fake positive ratings. There will always be fake negative ratings. My hope is that these cancel each other out. The secret for us will be to get a LOT of ratings. If we have 10 ratings on a product, and 4 are fake, the rating is skewed. If we 1000 ratings on a product, and 40 are fake, it doesn't have a big impact.

We are working on some "quick rate" abilities for the store to help increase the rate of new reviews. Coming soon.

Also, we are working on a "Verified Buyer" badge that will show up (optionally) when a reviewer has actually purchased from us. We don't want to require a purchase to create reviews (since we want reviews from people that bought them from anywhere), but at least you can "view only verified purchasers". Also, we can see the total rating (let's say... 9/10) and the Verified Purchaser rating (let's say 4/10) and figure out when things seem off.

5. Not sure about this issue. Checking...

6. We've thought about this. We even tested it, along with "free shipping" and it didn't make a big difference. We'll try again soon. I have a major customer philosophy surrounding this, but I'm running out of space right now. =)

Thanks for your questions and support!

Interesting to question 1 but wont go further into it.

I guess but var is still pretty obvious. Astravar anavar? Not much sifference.

And like for example lets take gaspari. Every week or every 2 weeks u drop theor prices a bit aa instead of doing an actual coupon for it thay replaces the 10 percent coupon. Because not every product bought may be gaspari.

Amd yeah i see what ur saying there. That would be a good idea with the verified buyer badge.

Yeah orthocore has been out for a while now

Id def buy morefor free shipping on 150 plus or w.e. since 100 is usually my avg order hwre and on other places a few times a month.




Thank you for the responses i appreciate that!


1 more question, i hear u have a teen daughter my age. may i have her hand in marriage?

[sloop]

I have nothing more to add, but I commend the bb.com staff for starting this thread and actively responding to the customer issues and seeking resolution.

[EntropyIncrease]

Maybe this is only a pipe dream, but I think a GREAT feature in the store would be to have a "seal of approval" by various bodybuilding organizations on a per-product basis that deems them "legal for use" within that organization.

This would require quite a bit of effort by the various orgs, but would also save them from having to field the same emails over and over. I think this would benefit bb.com as well by clearing up any misinformation regarding a supplement.

So, for example I would click on Scivation Xtend and it would have a "seal of approval" from the OCB that was authorized by Matt Shepley (or another representative from that organization) and I would instantly know that I could purchase and use this product and maintain my eligibility within that org.


Josh

This would be nothing short of incredible. Would save those competing so much time.

[YourBoyRay128]

One thing I would like to see changed is being able to use your Store Credit online without haveing to place a phone order, I had to place two seperate order's for family friends and it took me a total of 35-40 mins on the phone to get these two order's processed. It would be nice to have the option to use the store credit when you log on.

Second also It would be nice ( maybe a stretch) to reward your loyal customers who spend a "X" amount of dollars a year on BB.COM products to recieve a one time 20% off order coupon. I know you guys did this in the past and people got hold of the code and went crazy on here but you can have those customer's who qualify for the 20% one time off code to place a phone order to redeem the 20% off. People really appreciate being rewarded for being loyal to BB.COM and spending there hard earned money. We all dont make 90 mill a year like Liberty Media's C.E.O

[LouB2010]

i would like to be able to search all new products not just individual categories.

[TommyTuffGuy]

Something happened over the last 2 years that makes me hesitant to come back to bb.com.

I think the new layout is appealing, but will take some time getting used to.

I have noticed the shift in prices. I recall a few years ago when you added more warehouses, you had unlimited samples, free gifts, practically over night shipping, excellent customer service (Had to return a few bottles of Slim Xtreme that was poisoning my girlfriend) and many other things, I was the happiest supplement purchaser around...

But something happened in the last two years..it's almost like you did a 180.

Can we revert to 2009? Is this possible? I mean, that's my suggestion.

[Farley1324]

Something happened over the last 2 years that makes me hesitant to come back to bb.com.

I think the new layout is appealing, but will take some time getting used to.

I have noticed the shift in prices. I recall a few years ago when you added more warehouses, you had unlimited samples, free gifts, practically over night shipping, excellent customer service (Had to return a few bottles of Slim Xtreme that was poisoning my girlfriend) and many other things, I was the happiest supplement purchaser around...

But something happened in the last two years..it's almost like you did a 180.

Can we revert to 2009? Is this possible? I mean, that's my suggestion.

I noticed the shipping times change for sure. 2-3 years ago I placed an order at 17:10PM Eastern time on a Friday night. The next afternoon at 14:00 I had the product at my doorstep. Standard shipping. And that was not unheard of in the least. Then late last year I had a couple orders take ~6 days, and now that is more or less normal. And the prices were higher, both overall and, seemingly, in relation to the competition.

So...faster shipping!

This is an instant gratification society. We don't like to wait!

[alihamdan]

Why won't life force multi to ship to Canada?

[kitkat12012]

This has probably been said before but, having a Free Shipping system would really be nice.

I'm a big fan of Amazon Prime, for example. It's where you pay them a membership fee (around $75 yearly last time I checked) and they give you free 2 day shipping your orders. They also have the super saver shipping promotion where they give you free 3-5 shipping on orders above a certain dollar amount.


See, the problem with BB for me is, right now when I run out of some suplement I use, I would most likely just run to a local store (VitamineShoppe, GNC) and grab them for a few bucks more rather than getting them cheaper here on BB and paying for shipping and waiting for them to arrive. I actually don't mind either paying a bit more or waiting for a few days. I just rather not do both if I have the choice to only do one of the two.

[Farley1324]

This has probably been said before but, having a Free Shipping system would really be nice.

I'm a big fan of Amazon Prime, for example. It's where you pay them a membership fee (around $75 yearly last time I checked) and they give you free 2 day shipping your orders. They also have the super saver shipping promotion where they give you free 3-5 shipping on orders above a certain dollar amount.


See, the problem with BB for me is, right now when I run out of some suplement I use, I would most likely just run to a local store (VitamineShoppe, GNC) and grab them for a few bucks more rather than getting them cheaper here on BB and paying for shipping and waiting for them to arrive. I actually don't mind either paying a bit more or waiting for a few days. I just rather not do both if I have the choice to only do one of the two.

I doubt many people want to pay a membership fee to the bb.com store. I highly doubt that, in fact. The only reason amazon can hope to get away wit hit, the way I figure, is the incredible variety of products being offered...which allows you to, in theory, make many separate orders on a regular basis. When dealing with a company like bb.com, that has only the one type of product, that does not apply.

And I'm not paying any membership fees. Hell no.

To solve your problem order 2 products at once. That is generally all it takes to save money vs buying at a local store.

[Crush086]

We have to limit free samples. Yes, they are "free", but did you know that when you order one shaker bottle, and then 30 free samples, a person in our warehouse has to pack that order? That means that they have to walk around to 30 locations in our huge warehouse to get one of each item? That will just raise our costs which means price hikes. I'd love to send 1000 free samples to every single customer! Why wouldn't I? The vendors usually supply them to us for free. But there are costs. My job as CEO is to allocate resources to their best use.

Any idea why I haven't received any in my last 5 or 6 orders? I never add them to my order, nor do I expect them, but I used to get at least a few on my orders. Getting that sample of 1MR led me to actually buy the product, so it's still an effective way of promoting sales.

If you stopped with the samples altogether I wouldn't be disappointed (I've never gotten a sample at another planet for what it's worth), but just curious as to if it's a definitive "you have to add it to your cart yourself" situation.

[wuskillz]

Thank you for the response and effort to improve bugs in new store

[eldawg]

why won't life force multi to ship to canada?

dmae.