The New Store is officially under construction
The domain name is in the process of being released from the original purchase registrar and moved to my domain registrar of choice. Once that is completed, I think by the 20th possibly, the domain can be pointed here and the store can be officially opened. There will be a bit of a headscratch for anyone that has never been to the domain version of the Etsy store and follows a link here, for the first time, and doesn't see anything messy or incomplete or different. It should be a simple and humble beginning, and the store can grow into its surroundings organically, piece by piece. I don't what too much down time, but I also don't want to open the doors to a big hot mess either. I will limit active listings to ones that are correct, updated and available. If you don't see something specific-- it is not a problem to ask and I can usually get something updated and active within a few minutes, so I guess you can help me prioritize some listings pretty easily.
The importing of listings from Etsy is not going well, there are too many pieces missing to make it a simple move. The difficult choice of which listings make the cut and which ones get archived is made easier by the limited time available for updating them all. Pricing will be somewhat inconsistent between the two stores as the prices are entered here one by one -- one seemingly important piece of the listings that Etsy just doesn't seem to feel is important at all. Once things are finalized here, I'll go back to the pricing on Etsy and adjust accordingly for the fees they charge, the marketing necessary to bring in new customers and any new revelations about the tariffs and shipping charges that should be more clear in time. Oh, and probably prepare for the day when all of the tariff stuff just goes away because someone changed his mind or someone told him to undo it because it is a big mess.
Once the store is live, new listings will be posted here first, there is a much more flexible environment to feature new listings with details previously overlooked. There will also be more customizations available in time, up to and including fully custom diamond painting kits using your image or finding or creating the image you would like to have. I also believe this will be the stepping stone to having a helper or two with day to day tasks that will only increase over time. Hopefully they will fit right in and help to keep the store and me on task and able to spend time developing those new projects that will continue to move this hobby into the next phase, whatever that might be.
At some point many of the listings will be active in both stores, most or all will be active here, the listings remaining with Etsy will be carefully chosen. If you are looking for something you think you remember seeing, check here or send me a message and I'll let you know if it has been re-listed or archived or it is still in the massive pile of unpublished listings waiting to be edited and made active.
Working with the template store design is proving to be fairly straightforward. There are components that I don't feel are helpful, and others that are glaringly missing. I will make every effort to keep all changes to functional components that have a purpose instead of bells and whistles that don't really provide any improvement in the customer experience.
I think the end result will be a stark difference between this store and the original store with Etsy. This store should have the wish list items Etsy was unable to provide. Much more flexibility when making the listings discoverable with search terms that are not difficult to choose from. Additional features like the live chat bubble in the lower right corner of each (?) page will let you know when I'm online, at my desk and available to answer questions in real time. I'll keep working on and with the FAQs and the AI assistant that probably needs a name other than "the bot". The Diamond Art Emporium name, logo and all the logo variations will eventually get consolidated to just a single look that will in time take on the "official" title and all the variations will be for the archives or the look back machine. This is the new version of the diamond, a mosaic grid resembling square diamonds on a grid.
It is an exciting time. I want it to go faster, but I know it can't be done overnight or in a few days. I hope you realize and understand this new store is a critical part of my vision of a community store that values each customer, provides as much support for the events and people we all interact with on a regular basis, and is geared toward cooperative solutions to problems we face as diamond painting enthusiasts. Right now it is all very exciting. In a few days, I hope that mood holds.
