Posts filed under 'Online Boutique'
I innocently mentioned in a morning meeting that I was having trouble (ee gads, BIG TIME) keeping up with wholesale requests and vendor needs. This led to questions about how the process works right now. Which in turn led to immediate clarity that the wholesale account setup and ordering process for retailers was a mess, or in other words, doesn’t really work right now. We identified three main areas that are in need of serious help - the online shopping function is not completely implemented on our site, there is a major lack of links to the wholesale pages on our site (yikes), and we have way too manual of a process for keeping vendors updated.
Which means, basically, the whole process needs an overhaul. The first thing we are tackling is streamlining the ability for vendors to login and place their wholesale orders online through our secure ecommerce site. This will enable vendors to track orders better. We do have issues with an inability to set wholesale prices for some of “add-on” prices for the blankets. But we are very close to having online purchasing setup for the apparel collections. I know that when I have to order supplies, I LOVE being able to login and place my order online (should be standard right?). So why wouldn’t our customers appreciate this same convenience?
The next portion of our wholesale account setup process that needs attention is to make it very obvious to visitors of the site that we have wholesale options for retailers. Right now, there isn’t even a link to the wholesale page from a lot of our pages. HUGE oversight. Our retailers are a big part of our business, so the site needs to be informative to wholesale customers as much as it is to our direct retail customers.
Finally, we had to tackle the manual email response process and how to keep things from slipping through the cracks. In order to clean up this part of the process, we have to rewrite the content on our wholesale page, with clear directions on how to create an account. The biggest change will come from the creation of our wholesale docs page, which contain links to the current line sheets, product images, and other important information for our vendors. And, newsletters, newsletters, newsletters. We will send out a monthly newsletter (no, we’ve just never been able to get on top of this) to keep our wholesale customers updated on new product releases, blanket prints, pricing changes, and everything else that matters to their bottom line.
We have only been able to clean up small pieces of the process so far, but I’ve already noticed improvements. We are crazy busy these days, but are getting better at scheduling time to fix things that will increase customer confidence and relations.
October 19th, 2009
Here I thought I was such a good blogger and that I really do my best to share what I can…until I registered with blogHer and my blog was denied because it’s been way too long since I’ve updated the blog. They sent me a date, it’s been over a month. Yikes. Not such a good blogger.
In order to be considered for acceptance, they expect consistent updates. I wonder if that will be enough to kick me into gear. Everytime I think that somebody watching over my shoulder will make me behave better at work, it doesn’t. Maybe this time will be different.
We’ve had lots of topsy-turviness lately and I’ve had writer’s block. Which does no good for site SEO. I also have an issue with focus - no problem focusing on something, but when I do, everything else gets neglected. It’s a constant question on the mompreneursonline.com message boards - how do you balance raising kids w/ running a business? Yes, somebody, tell me how, oh how.
So what about the rest of you? Have you started your business blogs yet? You know it’s HUGE for Search Engine Optimization. It’s something you can start even before your line is fully launched. It’s something you should start. I have a blog for our company that is separate from this blog, which is for sharing my behind-the-scenes experiences. I need to remember “content is king” and keep on creating…
Lately, I have no problem helping others with topics for their blogs, but I’ve had complete writer’s block when it comes to my blogs / website content / press realeases - anything. Maybe it was burnout. We finally took our annual vacation and I think it was actually refreshing and inspiring. I have new ideas for the potential of the business blog, new ideas for reaching our target audience, and new design ideas. I’m just overwhelmed by the idea of implementing it all. But this blog post is a good start.
**I’m about to save this post and it strikes me just how perfect the words “blog denial” seem to be in the title of this post. I’ve totally been in blog denial.***
August 23rd, 2008
I thought that I would post this e-commerce job opportunity in case any of you might be interested in working on an e-commerce site (uploading images, writing / editing product descriptions, graphics work) before plunging into running your own online boutique. 5 Minutes for Mom is offering a great work-from-home opportunity for the right woman with the right skills and willingness to commit to some decent work hours each week ($$$).
In brief, from 5MinutesforMom.com job description:
If html, css, ftp and other techy stuff doesn’t scare you and you are a skilled writer, with solid grammar skills and the ability to quickly write creative product descriptions, you just might become our new team member. If you also know Photoshop and happen to be a whiz at isolating images (removing backgrounds), you’re getting closer.
We are work-at-home moms and we want to offer this position to another work-at-home mom. Our site is all about promoting moms and so we are excited to be able to share the opportunity to work at home.
Click on the following link to read more about this WAHM job opportunity:
http://www.5minutesformom.com/3502/ecommerce-job/
Good luck!!
May 21st, 2008
I just learned about twitter today. Do you twitter? It’s basically a social networking site where you can provide up-to-the-minute updates of what you’re doing. As a business it’s one of those sites that could become important , making it a good idea to reserve your business name as your username. Kind of like domains, it’s all up-for-grabs, so get it while it’s free.
We signed up in about five minutes, to reserve our biz name as our username. You can do the same by following this link to twitter.com.
If you’re launching an online boutique, you’ll learn quickly that SEO is very important. It’s also an ongoing process. One of my friends at mompreneursonline.com posted a link to this great SEO cheat-sheet:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-web-developers-seo-cheat-sheet
From personal experience, I’ve come to believe that two things are crucial in building your online boutique:
- Constant updating - whether it’s via blogging, new images, or constant little improvements to spacing, layout, content, colors, backgrounds, fonts, etc. - it’s important to always work on improving your site. We have an ongoing spreadsheet (which we actually need to revisit and update) that works to track all the changes we want to make to the site. We use google spreadsheets so that I can add to it from anywhere and web design can update it from anywhere.
- Perseverance and hard work - it takes time to build traffic, to get a good number of impressions, to build a valuable pr campaign, and on and on. It won’t happen over night, but it will happen if you I keep at it! ! ( I’m definitely writing this as more of a reminder to myself than anything!!)
Click here to view our latest (and only) twitter update!
April 30th, 2008
I’m so incredibly happy to announce that our online boutique finally has the functionality for you to create your own personalized baby blankets. We’re now busy adding the new prints we have, but there are already a ton of new options. Plus it’s F-U-N to play with the different designs.
This is going to be a big advantage for online sales because:
- We’ve increased the selection tenfold. We’re learning that selection, selection, selection is very important for your conversion rate!
- We’ve increased the interactivity of the site - you can now ‘play’ with the fabric combinations until you find something you love!!! People are already spending at least an extra 10 minutes on our site, and the hands on “fun” will “stamp” our brand in their minds a bit better.
- It’s cleaned up our site, all of the blanket images are standard sizes, and we have more “calls to action”.
- We’ve standardized the templates so that it will be easier to offer new fabric options at any time.
So, check it out and let me know what you think!! We’re always open to feedback. And I have to give kudos to my husband who did all the graphic design work and functionality tweaks to make this possible.
I’m absolutely giddy with excitement, we’ve been wanting this functionality for our customers for a long time!!
** I haven’t forgotten about the sales tools, I WILL upload them soon.
December 8th, 2007
Here’s the email (word-for-word), that I woke to Saturday morning:
Hello. I just thought that seeing as you’re aspiring for a successful online baby boutique that a potential customers comments might be of interest.I am currently looking for gifts for about three different mom’s to be….. At first glance my thoughts are as follows: The “baby fabulous” logo and colors are unappealing and not high end “boutique” enough IMO…a little gimmicky to be honest, the blankets are great but could be featured and showcased so much better - colors are not as great as they could be, sizing for the “tea” onsies is immedietely a turn off…. why not just go with typical sizing that everyone’s familiar with? You’re losing people with that despite the sizing chart…. people don’t like to have to click any more than they have to. That made me not want to buy. Your graphic onsies are unappealing as a whole…… the graphics themselves look cheap and “run of the mill”. Again, not near the “boutique” level that I gather you are trying to reach.
Sorry if this seems harsh, but judging from your blog…. you need honesty and frankness. The only other thing that I can say is that you seem to doubt yourself WAY too much. Set your sites, take critisism constructively and just DO whatever it is that you’ve set your sites on. There’s nothing holding you back. You’ve got so much of it together, but you still doubt yourself every other step…. it will take you twice as long to get there at this rate of insecurity and doubtfulness. The ultimate goal will never be acheived unless you truly believe it can be a reality and you just get it done!
Of course, receiving an email like this sets off a bunch of emotions, but I’ve opened myself to critisicm all my life (from talent shows and creative writing courses to editing for the college newspaper), so no big deal. The thing is that there is a difference between constructive criticism and unconstructive criticism.
Here’s the good critique I can twist out of this email:
- It would be great if you could have better product pictures.
- It would be great if you could offer more color and print choices for your blankets.
Otherwise, if you don’t like our style, walk on by. We’re not aiming to please everyone, and we have no grandiose delusions that our style would be the first ever that everyone loves.
As far as doubting myself too much, I strongly agree and disagree. No one who “holds themselves back” could’ve designed, developed, and launched their own products. Not to mention that within one year of business we have a strong customer base, celebrity clientele, and we can boast of numerous positive product reviews on television, in national print publications, and online. And that is all within our first year of business. It’s true I beat myself up for not doing more all the time, and I always believe I can go stronger and longer and do it better. This is why we’ll succeed. But I also believe it’s important to pay attention to my spirit and my family and spend time with them - in the end, it’s going to be the memories that matter, not how fast we sky-rocketed to success. So I forgive myself too for not getting more done all the time.
I share my doubts and struggles on this blog because those are the type of things that I feel are the most useful to share and what it helps me the most to vent about. It’s also a part of this blog that makes numerous people reach out to me and say “me too!!!” - (which, btw - I can not tell you how much that means to me- even if I can’t get around to answering all of you right away). Because I’m doing this alone too - learning as I go - and it’s so GOOD to know that others struggle too.
I’m REALLY not into putting on a false face for the world or showing only that side of me is strong and confident, - that me that walks into boutiques and sells my own products, that meets celebrities face-to-face with the full belief that they will LOVE our stuff, that me that knows I’m the best or I wouldn’t be attempting this at all. It’s more important to me to share the reality of being a first-time entrepreneur, and so this blog naturally centers around the hard parts of this venture and the mental struggles (and thus strength) it takes to keep going.
PS. I HAVE to add that those “unappealing” graphic onesies and tees she mentions have absolutely been selling like mad!
October 19th, 2007
We’ve been talking about performing some usability testing on our website for awhile, and today we finally accomplished that goal. It was amazing. All these “little” things that I’ve let myself think nothing of were actually big glitches for the user.
I can not believe how much I learned by sitting silently behind someone and watching them browse our site. Luckily for me, I’ve worked with our site tester for years, so I knew she would be perfect. She was perfect because, as she says, “I have no patience for anything, if I don’t like, I’m gone”. Plus, she’s really good at thinking out loud, so I could take notes on what was tripping her up.
The good news for us was that she had no problem navigating the site and felt confident shopping on our site because of our privacy and security notices.
The bad news was the number of glitches during the checkout process that must’ve been driving people batty. However, this is good news too. Believe me, it’s comforting to find reasons people are abandoning their shopping carts - makes the site traffic conversion rate make a lot more sense.
We’ve already used her feedback to streamline the checkout process, and I’m starting to make some of her recommended content edits and changes.
If you are running an online boutique, I recommend you get user testing on your site. Highly recommend it. Sit behind someone and observe your site in action. Give the user some generic directions - mine were “you’re shopping for a cool baby shower gift”.
The first thing our user did was google our business name, rather than typing the name into the URL. She was then impressed that the whole first page of google results had to do with our business and that product reviews showed up.
The website designing and traffic building is a constant process of improvement. I feel SO much better about our site after seeing someone else use it.
June 10th, 2007
It seems like I get so caught up in our manufacturing processes that I rarely touch on the online boutique startup process. Oh my, oh my. After we went through hell and got ripped off by developers -if anybody ever comes across Hand Crafted Webs or the Yellow-Llama, run fast and run far - they will rip you off. They can talk a good talk, but they don’t do anything to back it up. They can do a decent mock-up in Photoshop and get you thinking everything will be grand, but they won’t go beyond that. I will write this story completely in another post, because I’ve promised many people I would do so, and because I have a ton of emails to back it up; and because I know when I do my post on them, it will show up in searches and hopefully save many others.
Let me suffice it to say that their last email to me was requesting a contact address so they could send some legal papers to us; it’s been months and they are apparently incapable of performing a search online for our contact information, or simply locating the contact information provided on our website. I’d laugh if we hadn’t been totally and completely ripped off. But, right, the story is for another post. This is about getting the website up and running.
We were stuck with the crappy design that Hand Crafted Webs had left us with (they took our existing store offline and never got one back up, only a blog), out a lot of money, and felt really stuck-in-the-mud. My lessons that I learned were:
- Don’t depend too much on a referral, still do a thorough background check and review of current and past work.
- If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is (no matter how many times I’ve heard that, it took a real-life experience to fully “get it”).
- Be weary about working with foreign companies, where you’ll have little to no recourse if the deal goes sour.
So, how did we get our store up? My husband, and partner, did it himself. And once he was done with the store, he went back and re-designed the crappy blog-part and home page that we had been left with…we had heard from people that our site was difficult to navigate and it was difficult to shop. My husband finished a lot of the re-design this week and we’ve heard nothing but raves about how much better it is, how it’s now easy to shop, how it’s so much easier to tell what we do and who we are. So, I have to give my husband a zillion kudos for stepping up and taking on the task of learning HTML and PHP. He’s already amazing with graphics, but I’ve watched his graphic skills improve tenfold through the process as well.
Don’t get discouraged if it seems like it’s taking you forever to get your site up. I can tell you that if you are a designer or creative type, you’re likely to never be fully satisfied with the design. But your website should be a living document anyways, and so, keep in mind that you can keep making it better after you have it up and functioning.
Make sure you spec out the functions that you need currently and that you foresee in the future. Will you need the ability to offer wholesale prices and retail prices? Will you need the ability to shop by category, size, manufacturer, etc? how much design flexibility will you need? Will you need the ability to show multiple images for each product? Jot down every single thing you can think of that you want you website and users to be capable of, and then start researching designers and applications that will suit your needs.
In one of my upcoming posts I will talk about the value of a blog for an online boutique.
March 23rd, 2007