State of the Stores (SOS)
I think SOS is an appropriate way to give updated progress on the site opening/launch/regular operating conditions outlook. I'm sorta backlogged, buried, behind and none of it is intentional. One person trying to do this is not a task I would suggest attempting. I can do it, just not at the pace I wished for, I need the total revenue to bump up one more notch to be able to get the long anticipated assistant and become a powerhouse team. We'll all get there together, if every person that visited either store would spend $100 or more during a single month, that is all it would take. Not going to happen, not expected, but just an illustration of the State of the Stores--it is still early in their lives and patience is required on my part.
Moving items from the Emporium @ Etsy to the Emporium (my new names for the stores) will take place as quickly as possible, I would not want to cause any further confusion for a new store visitor who was looking at one of the in-stock kits and then, without warning, POOF it was not there. It probably just moved from the Emporium @ Etsy to here, the Emporium. You can do a couple of things that will probably be of benefit in the future, as well as this opening/migration thing that is going on -- Set Up 2 Bookmarks: the Emporium (This Store) and The Emporium @ Etsy (the original store) You can then open either in a new tab or window and go back and forth during this bit of chaos. It isn't a perfect solution, but in time it will be helpful if you know which store should be your destination for something specific. If you only want one bookmark, bookmark this store, there will always be links to Etsy from the footer at the bottom of every page,
Eventually, most of the in-stock kits that need to be sold to make room for new image kits will move here. There will be a sale/clearance category that will always remain active, and I will make some special purchases if necessary to always provide something that is a really good value. New Releases for Special Orders will start here too. The weekly (hopefully) New Releases will be posted here first, once the backlog is caught up and a regular schedule is begun. I'm hoping for the first of April. I had allowed all of March for the opening, transition/migration, scheduling to be done. That date still holds, it doesn't require 100% of any other things for it to happen. Same Items/Different Listing Methods will begin to appear over time. The Special Orders and In-Stock Kits are separated at the Emporium @ Etsy. Here, they will not necessarily be separated, if a special order kit becomes an In-Stock kit, it may only be one size/.diamond type in-stock, all other sizes and diamond types will still be available by special order. An example would be Fairies 6, one of the original In-Stock kits, has always been that way. Never listed as special order, when necessary, new copies were ordered to fill in the inventory gaps. That has been difficult to keep up with, one person limitations, so only 1 or 2 sizes may be the available in-stock and ready to ship, the rest by special order would be shipped to you in 3 weeks or less. The choice of which diamond type/sizes are chosen will be different for each kit based on ideal rendered size and order history.
That is enough of the "too much information" dump today, there will be more on what's happening over the coming days/weeks. You can leave a comment on any blog post if you have a question, I'll answer and it may make the FAQ that is being created. The Emporium Rewards Program, yet to be named, will be a new feature to reward purchases with credits toward future orders and special prizes, you can also earn points with site reviews, referrals to friends or family or youtube channel subscribers. It will only apply to purchases from this store initially, but am working on a way to import those Etsy orders and add points to your total. That program is briefly delayed because of a technical gremlin that is being fixed, even as I type this, it may be outdated and a post very quickly to follow announcing the Rewards Program is possible.
I am going to get back to the mountain of work ahead and make my progress bar move steadily forward, maybe I should do an image graphic of that. When there is a setback the bar could go all the way back to zero! Yikes, I certainly hope not. If you see one, I found a fun little widget to add, if not, it was a dumb idea and no one really cares.
