thoughtful1. Order = Pay.
This took so long because we had to chase down every person who said they wanted a shirt and get them to pay for it. If we do it again, we say "place your order, pay your total, and you'll get your shirt when we hit the minimum order threshold or run out of time, whichever comes later." Pros, no chasing people. Cons, some people may demand refunds if things take too long.
2. Make it clear that the choices offered are the only ones.
We also had issues with a few people going "I want shirt style A, but this color from shirt style B." This, well, wasn't possible, because the shirts didn't exist, but we didn't catch that until Deborah was in the final review of the list. So if we do this again, we need to be very clear on the "what you can get is what's on that specific page" issue.
3. Set a maximum threshold.
This was a super-large order, which also slowed things down a lot. So there needs to be a "no fewer than X, but no more than Y" point.
4. Up the price for 3XL and up.
I hate this. I tried so hard not to reach this conclusion. But...it costs more to print a shirt that's between 3XL and 6XL, and we had a lot of those. I was never expecting to make money on this, and I figured, "well, if someone who orders a S is paying the same as someone who orders a 5XL, it all comes out in the wash." And it did, as far as printing costs was concerned. What I didn't do was calculate for mailing costs. It's about three dollars more to ship a larger shirt, especially if that shirt is not being mailed alone. If I want to be able to afford to print the shirts, and mail the shirts, I need to charge more for the larger ones. I'm so sorry. It's purely financial, and it annoys me deeply.
5. Print more extras.
This time, I ordered three extra shirts, and Amy, who is smart, ordered eight for her bookstore. Amy has been doing a brisk business selling shirts to filkers who missed the original order, and is a happy little clam. I still don't know which shirts are mine, because I'm in the shipping process. More extras would mean a happier answer to "do you have one you can sell me?" inquires.
...of course, all this is academic until I finish mailing. Still, that's where I'm at right now, and sometimes it's nice to think aloud.
October 30 2011, 07:53:50 UTC 5 years ago
I've been selling strictly online products and I love paypal. Obviously, you have to let paypal take 9% off ever dollar you earn, but if you look into the Merchant options they let you charge X for X product, build a catalog, and even put a drop-down order set up. I know you're always busy, paypal just appeals to the anal 'wan-this-to-be-PERFECT-ness' in me.
This is how I set up the e-commerce on my site ( http://illuminantperspectives.webst
Final suggestion... Have you considered Zazzle / Cafepress to manage your printing/shipping for you? Jim Butcher sells his shirts through Cafepress. It's less hand on and less direct profit, but a LOT less work. Just sayin'.
I hope I have said USEFUL things and not just told you stuff you already know. Everything you've sold is BEAUTIFUL and I just want to help ease the chaos.
November 7 2011, 22:30:03 UTC 5 years ago