Spring 2023
Happy spring!
It has been a busy few months at Local Bytes HQ, so we just wanted to share some of the things we have been up to, and some of what is to come.
Support, Documentation, and "Refs" 📖
In early February, we introduced a new style of knowledgebase article called references, or "Refs" for short. As with all good things, we announced them with a tweet that had spelling errors.
We'd love to help everyone individually, but we can't... As such, we've just released "References" (Refs for short) on the blog. Ref's are a new style of KB article with bits of device specific info, and links to articles for your reference. What do you think?
Refs will be how we write extended documentation for any of the products we produce ourselves, but they will not be guides in themselves. Instead, think of them as a hub linking to any internal and external documentation you should see!
So far, we've added Refs for both of our LocalBytes branded products:
The response from our community has been fantastic from this. First, a massive thank you to everyone who has read through these guides before contacting us; it's great to see that we can get the answers you need faster than we could have via email. Internally, it's freed a lot of time that we're now able to reinvest in improving our offering to you! We'd call that a win-win!
The European Expansion 🇪🇺
During February, we received our most significant single order to date. This order, in particular, gave us new products in the UK, and drastically improved our European offering. The only thing left is LED strips, which we aim to bring over when we have got a better controller to offer you!
As such, we made the following Sonoff that were previously UK-only available to Europe:
- CC2531 - Basic Dongle
- SNZB-01 - Button
- SNZB-02 - Temperature & Humidity
- SNZB-03 - Motion
- SNZB-04 - Door & Window
Additionally, we have added the following to both the UK and EU warehouses:
Thanks to this order, our offering to both the UK and EU is in a similar position, and we hope that any further products we add will come to both warehouses at the same time
A quick note on Ireland & Taxes 🇮🇪
In early March, we changed how we handled pricing and Taxes for our Irish customers. Given Ireland's membership to the EU, Shopify (the provider for the shop) was collecting taxes under our EU registration. If we were shipping from the EU, this would be fine, but we are not. We only stock our UK-style plugs in the UK and want to keep it that way. Additionally, we can ship to Ireland from the UK faster than from Germany (where our other warehouse is). Despite our best efforts and much discussion with our warehousing partner, we could not ship to Ireland with the duty/import prepaid.
As such, we decided to remove all Taxes for Irish customers. At the same time, we are allowing you to purchase in Euros instead of British Pounds. When browsing, you'll still see the price, including tax, but when we have your address, we'll remove the taxes you would have paid. We have also clarified that we are shipping with Duty unpaid during the shipping options at the checkout.
We hope this change will help our Irish customers feel at home while shopping with us!
Clearpay is now available in the UK 🇬🇧
We are super excited to let you know that you can now checkout with Clearpay whenever you shop with us. That means you can get what you want now and spread your payments over six weeks.
Not much more to say there, but if that is how you would prefer to pay, go for it!
What's next 🔜
We've got a few exciting things around the corner, including a new product being announced very soon! Additionally, we are looking for a new LED strip controller following some quality issues with the previous one.
To round off, we still need your help with the World E-commerce Awards, if you love what we do, please consider voting for us here - LocalBytes / VoteForUs
Thanks for reading, and we hope you have a fantastic spring!
