It's Still About Community

We are just hours away from the launch of our new website.  As a retailer, I can tell you that this is one of the most exciting days in my gift selling career.  This past fall, I launched an Ebay store and  posted between 20 and 30 items at a time.  It was fascinating to me to watch the power of the internet as people from across the country came upon our site and purchased to their hearts desire.We did the Ebay happy dance each time an item was ordered and paid for.    We are now starting to see a surge of returning customers to the ebay  store.  I was happy with how ebay worked but there was one catch.  Ebay charges some pretty hefty fees if the item sells.  The listing is very reasonable, but in order to make enough to justify the ebay seller fees, I would have to sell an awful lot of gifts and accessories.  The next reasonable step seemed to be an online independent presence, our own website with e-commerce possibility.  Unfortunately, I do not speak fluent HTML language which was needed too hook the shopping cart to the website.  I am a big fan of  PayPal, so I wanted to offer that as the primary payment with other credit cards also being accepted.  I contracted with a web designer for this part and today our site will be going live with the addition of the shopping cart feature.  We have added many products that were not on the ebay listings, and will be adding more each day. 
While I certainly do not want this to be a substitute for an actual visit to our shop, ( you just can't replicate the good friendly down home charm on the internet!), it can solve some issues for many people.  My family lives out of state and can't always get into the store to shop.  Some customers/friends have moved away and we still would like to be their gift shop of choice! This is a way that they can stay in touch with us  and purchase the products that they love.
In the end it still is all about community.  It's what we were all about when we began this adventure six years ago, and it still is.  If you shop online with us, we won't be able to offer you that cup of coffee, but we will be just as committed to the relationship we built with you.  How we do business may evolve and change but our commitment to you, our customers, our friends,  and the surrounding businesses and community remains our primary focus.  www.shopcovenantcottage.com