hello my lovelies! i have a big announcement and i can't seem to keep it in. i'm opening up my very own online store!!! i don't mean to scream the news at you, but i can't seem to contain myself!
do i still love etsy? but of course. will i keep my etsy store open too? why, yes! i can't abandon all of my etsy shopping folks. etsy has treated me well... it made it easy for me to test my brand and products, is a great format to get your feet wet for selling online, and is a great handmade marketplace filled with tips, great buyers, and a warm community of sellers.
with that said, i do believe though that it's time for me to spread my wings beyond the etsy "walls" and open my own store. let's be honest though.. opening your own online store is a ridiculous amount of hardwork. i've been communicating with my web developer for months now on what i need out of the site, how i want it to look, how i want it to function, and all of the features, bells, whistles, etc that i want it to have {this is on top of working with my web developer on the re-design of my logo. don't you love it? in addition to communicating to my blog designer to make sure my new blog design is cohesive to my new store design and re-brand. don't you love the new blog design too? phew}. my etsy store has been closed temporarily because day in and day out i've been working on my end of the new "store"-- taking new product photos for my existing products, creating new products, taking photos of said new products, cleaning up my product descriptions, writing new product descriptions, writing faq's, a new about page, etc, etc, etc. it. doesn't. stop.
i've given myself deadlines and my web developer deadlines. the deadlines come and go and i feel like my site is never going to open! so, i've decided to soft launch my new online store on september 7th. repeat. september 7th! yikes... that's only a few days away. so what is a soft launch? according to our fine friends at wikipedia, a soft launch refers to, "the release of a website, hotel, or other product or service to a limited audience. Soft-launching is a method for gathering data on a product's usage and acceptance in the marketplace, before making it generally available as a hard launch or grand opening. Companies may choose a soft launch to test the viability of a product or to fine tune a product before implementing a large marketing effort." come september 7th, will i have all my products loaded? eh, probably not. will there be glitches? hmm, maybe. will there be fine tuning? yes, plenty of it. that's ok though {that's what i keep telling myself, that it'll be ok} because at this point, if i don't force myself to open up my shop doors, i'm going to keep putting it off, and keep putting it off, and keep putting it off. sigh. so there you go.. i've put it out there into the universe and out all over the interwebs.
come september 7th, this blog will have a new url. if you have bookmarked my blog or subscribe to this feed, the new blog address will be "blog.penelopespress.com". please do note that change, i would hate to lose some of you readers out there. the new online store will be take over the penelopespress.com web address.
why september 7th you ask and not the 6th or the 8th? well, that's easy. i'm asian, the number 7 is supposed to be lucky. i opened my etsy store exactly one year ago on september 7th. and well, i was also born on the 7th. well friends, that's it for now... back to products photos and descriptions. here's to september 7th... wish me luck!
oh, i almost forgot... here's a little sneak peak...
