Website

[Barbara]

Hi everyone!
I'm newly registered to the group but have been lurking out there for a while. Would any of you be willing to share information on setting up a website. I see Sanmar offers it as a service. Would like ideas on which is the best route. I really like the group and wish I would have had access when I bought my first Amaya in 2002.
[email protected]

[levelbest]

Hi Barbara:

Sanmar does a nice job on their non branded site. What we do is use it as an adjunct to our existing site - and simply call it our online catalog. What would be nice is if they allowed you to customize the look so it exactly matches your existing website - but they don't at this point.

Anyway, it makes it MUCH easier when we talk on the phone and unlike some others on the list, I LOVE it when a customer decides to by Nike or Ping. The truth is, they offer styles that are very unique and percieved as high value - so when I embroider something of quality on it, it plusses it even more! Heck, I even buy some of the nike stuff for myself.

Anyway, my thought is that if you think product a is better quality than product b but both are on the generic site, it's up to you to tell the customer "in my experience, product a" will sew out and last longer. If they still want b - so be it. Customer is always right.

[U-CREATE-IT]

VOLUSION Carts are AWESOME. Take a little while to learn, but they are great! (www.volusion.com)

[Art of the Needle]

Jody,

I just came on the forum specifically for this type of advice. I've been searching for e-commerce packages for quite a while now and have felt it's all over my head. After I read your post yesterday I went right to the Volusion site and got started on the 2-wk free trial. This is the most user-friendly interface I have seen yet. I am working on one of the free templates, do you know if it's easy to switch to one of the bought templates once you've created everything?

Have you continued to have success with their services? Do you have a recommendation on which package to go with? I'm a small three person operation.

Thanks again for the advice.

Margie
Art of the Needle
Nantucket, MA

[TinaK]

Margie:

I just took a look at the Volusion site and compared it to what I pay for my e commerce site and they are really expensive for someone who is just starting out and wont have a lot of sales for awhile.

Check out www.diyestores.com as they are user friendly have a great support staff and really try to work with you to get your site running. I have unlimited products and I can tell you I dont pay $197 per month for it either.

Good luck!