Moving On To Shopify!

This is the first blog post that I am making from Shopify. I have been with GoDaddy from the beginning but I have been experiencing a lot of technical problems with them regarding the online store. GoDaddy is supposed to allow export of store products to eBay and Etsy, it was doing so for a while but in a clunky manner. The settings were not correct and the descriptions had no formatting. I actually spent a lot of time correcting the listings once they got to eBay and Etsy, only to find that any time I added a new product to the store, every product was set back to the way it was. I tried a number of times to contact technical support but they were totally useless. I felt like I knew more about the system than they did. When I continued to try and use the system and found that I could not post items to eBay at all after I took time to put them in the online store, it was the last straw.

After giving it some thought, I have decided to move the C'est La Brie's website to Shopify. I notice that a lot of companies use it to sell their products and as a customer I find it very easy to use. I have begun the process of creating the new site and once it has launched I will post here. I was successfully able to post 7 new listings to eBay with correct settings and formatted descriptions which I consider a big win! I am currently working with Shopify's tech support to set up my Facebook and Instagram accounts so I will be able to post the products for sale there as well. After that, I will give Pinterest a try. It looks like Etsy is possible but for an additional fee through a third party. It will be amazing to have my wonderful jewelry offered for sale on all of these different venues, and when a product sells, it will be taken down from all of the other sites automatically.

The plan this winter will be to complete the website, get all the venues up and running and the online store fully stocked and ready for promotion by next spring. This has been a dream for many years so the progress is exciting! It will cost more but will be worth it to save all the aggravation.

I did not have the chance to post new items last Sunday evening but I received the beautiful new jewelry from Canada and there is enough to post 2-3 weeks worth. With the Bears playing on Monday night that will free up time to work on the post later today.

I had wanted to do a holiday pop-up this year but unfortunately there is a backlog of furniture at home base which will go to Scottsdale and it cannot be moved there until the spring. We have received the opportunity to help a client at The Glen in Glenview, she has mostly furniture to sell and has agreed to a combined sale. This will be our holiday extravaganza for 2021 and there will be a wonderful display of our jewelry from sterling silver to costume, boutique clothing and beautiful shoes and purses. Adam will also be bringing in a great selection of antique to vintage goodies so there will be something for everyone! The style of this home is perfect for a holiday sale, dates are December 9-12.

I have been busy polishing silver jewelry and have a good system down. When I go to Mother's to do her laundry, I have been polishing the jewelry at the same time. The laundry room has a utility sink and a large dresser to the left of the sink so I have way more room to spread out than at home. Every time I go there, I polish up a bag or two and lay it out to dry. Once it dries, I take it home and either make tags for it with the Dymo label printer or print labels with the Brother P-Touch to adhere to the back of jewelry cards. Then I bring the items which need cards to Mother so she can make them. All they need is for the label to be applied and then they are good to go! Look for lots of beautiful pieces to make their way into the caravan the rest of this year. This past week I added amazing Lois Hill and Judith Ripka pieces to a case which went up to Highland Park. We are open until 4:00 today and again Monday from 10:00 to 4:00.

As usual there is much to do, especially since I have been spending extra time on the online store so I will sign off for now!