Video is everywhere on the web because sites like YouTube make it so easy for people to do. If you go to a site and you see a video, do you click on it?  Would you be more likely to read about something on a site or watch a video that explains it to you?  I think in general, we are all getting lazier and lazier about the whole “reading” thing. Why read when you can have content spoon-fed to you with video?  I’m a cynic, it’s true.

That said, I think video can be effective in small, high-quality doses. Putting a video of yourself and your products on your site is an effective way to create a connection with your customers. All you need to make your own video is a webcam. They are built-in to most new laptops, and they also are pretty cheap to get as an add-on.  (Another great use for a webcam is free video chatting on Skype.)

Making a video is simple. You just start your video software, turn on the webcam, and hit record. Spontaneous unpolished video is totally acceptable, and has a nice friendly feeling to it. Don’t be modest, point the camera and talk. Then get yourself on the web. Rishi wrote up a post a while back about how to upload your video to YouTube.

Here’s your first video assignment: In 30 seconds, tell us how Flying Cart is working out for your business. Upload your video to YouTube, send us the link, and we’ll feature your video and your store on our site. In your video, make sure you say your name, your store name, and the web address of your store.

Next Tuesday, March 24 we will be rolling out some changes to our pricing plans. A fourth level plan, called “Super”, will be added and will allow up to 1000 products. Pro level stores will now be allowed up to 250 products. The Standard and Basic plans will allow 50 and 5 products respectively, as they do now. Customers on the Super plan will pay $59.99 per month, while the prices to the other plans will not change.

Curent Pro customers will be automatically upgraded to the Super plan and will continue paying just $29.99 per month. If you are a Standard or Basic store right now and are thinking about upgrading to Pro, now is the time to do it. Upgrade to Pro before Monday March 24, 2009 and get locked in to the Super plan for the price of Pro.

Why are we restructuring our prices, you ask? The main reason is so that we can focus on smaller stores and continue to offer you a good quality product and personalized customer service. Stores that sell thousands of products benefit from using a more customized solution, as they have more complex technical needs than we can provide at a low monthly cost.

Thanks to all our loyal customers!  Please email us if you have any questions about your account.

For those of you that use Google Checkout, you can now offer coupons to your customers! Google allows you to create coupons for a percentage off the order total or for a specific dollar value discount.

Here’s how you set up a coupon in Google Checkout:

1. Log in to your Google Checkout account and go to “My Sales”.
2. Click on the “Tools” tab at the top, then click on “Coupons” on the left side.
3. Click on “Create a new coupon”.
4. Fill out steps 1-3 to create your coupon and click “Create”.

When customers make a purchase with Google Checkout in your store, they will see a place on the order page to enter the coupon code. The discount will be applied right there and the person can pay as usual.

The coupon code and the discount will be shown on the order page in Flying Cart.

You can mail out your coupon codes to customers with a fan mailing or offer them to all shoppers by posting the code on your site. You could even mail a special coupon code in your shipping notifications to try to get repeat business. You can get pretty creative with your promotions.

You have to use Google Checkout for this, as the service is not offered for PayPal users.  Here are some directions on how to switch to Google Checkout.

I live in Austin and Rishi lives in Chicago. We only see each other in person about 3 times per year. This week Rishi came to Austin for our Texas meetup tour and after spending some time together it came to our attention that we have very similar tastes in fashion.  Here we are both wearing our favorite “work-at-home” outfits. It’s good when the two founders of a company are on the same page, right?

If you are using a banner logo in your store, it looks best when the banner fills up the whole top section of the page. This is especially true when the background color of your banner is a different color than the background color of the body. To make your logo fill the top part of the page, all you have to do is:

Upload a logo image that is 800 pixels wide

Our stores Aylio and El Esqueleto are doing this already.  If you need an image editor, I recommend Adobe Photoshop or Pixlr which is online and free. This small change will make a huge difference in the professional look of your store.

The blog has a new updated design with new features to make it more interactive. You can now browse the content by category, keyword, date, or search all posts. You can see what other readers are saying with the recent comments are listed on the right side of the page. If you like something you read, you can share the post on Digg, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, StumbleUpon, or Google by clicking on the bookmarking buttons at the bottom of the post.

Flying Cart is on several social networking sites including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. You can click to follow us on those sites and you can see our latest tweets are at the top of the blog. You can also subscribe to the blog with RSS or by email to get all the latest content delivered to you.

Enough said.  Find more of these at http://thisisindexed.com.

Everyone wants to know how to make more sales. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of most successful stores and figure out what they have in common.  All of these stores are doing very well.

• Splashy Art - abstract art
• Bargains Plus More - work boots
• Aylio - elastic exercise bands
• Modular CNC Technology - CNC routers and components
• Shoes Ever - fashion shoes
• Sassy Couture - animal print accessories
• TJ’s Kreations - bottlecaps for scrapbooking
• Catch the Bouquet - wedding dresses
• Retro Beer Items - beer-themed accessories
• Cutler Athletics - items by Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler

Browse through these sites. What lessons can be learned? Here are my thoughts.

Lesson 1: Pick a very specific field and be the BEST in the world at it.

The first thing I notice about all these stores is that they sell products with very specific audiences. They each sell in their own niche market and can therefore focus on being the best in their area. Many of these stores have a link to their own website with more information, or they have a blog. Customers know that they have come to a store where the owner has expertise and that creates a sense of trust. I think this the most important lesson to learn here.

Lesson 2: It takes time and patience.  If you are ready to give up, give it more time.

The majority of these stores have been around for over a year. While a few of them brought existing customers when they started and were able to average $3000-$5000 in sales for their first six months in business, several in this list did not bring in any sales at all until they had been around for at least three months. One of these store owners got so frustrated by lack of sales that she was ready to close down, but then all of a sudden, sales started trickling in and she decided to give it more time. Good thing she did.

Lesson 3: A simple store design does the trick

Each of these stores has made simple but effective design customizations. They all use their own logo, and they have all modified their color scheme to match their products and the theme of the store. None of them have spent a big budget to hire a professional designer. If you think you need to spend a lot of time and money on your design, use that time to focus on lesson 1 instead.

We are excited to announce that our Store of the Month for February 2009 is Haystack, a Chicago-based boutique specializing in vintage household items. Haystack is primarily a real-life brick and mortar storefront, but recently created an online version of the store using Flying Cart as a way to expand sales and keep customers informed about their new items. The store is owned by Erin Liston, John Mokate, and Phil Tadros. The online store design was done by Darren of Doejo.com. I caught up with Erin to ask her about the business.

haystack.flyingcart.com

Flying Cart: What was the hardest part of getting the store started?

Erin: The biggest hurdle we faced from idea stage to opening was staying on time and in budget. Everything cost more and took more time than we originally allowed for. The end result was wonderful, but the build out and renovation was a lot of work. For example, we walked in thinking we had one ceiling, but three ceiling demolitions later, we have our end result. In the end it was totally worth it, but it was something we hadn’t counted on at the beginning.

FC: That sounds a lot like the early beginnings of Flying Cart. How did you come up with the concept for the store?

E: The concept began with two old friends of Phil’s who had a large inventory of things they wanted to consign and approached him with the idea of opening a consignment shop. When I got involved shortly after that, I wanted to broaden that idea to local art consignment. When we started rolling with ideas, we realized that we wanted to sell things that we love, that were previously loved, at an affordable price. We strive to be a positive force in the community, where people can pass on their loved objects to those who will appreciate them. Nostalgia was another idea we talked about.

FC: I think you have to love what you sell because then all the hard work doesn’t seem so much like work. What are some of your favorite things that you have in the store?

E: We had a set of Russian nesting dolls that I loved. We currently have a beautiful 1930’s armoire that I think is just so unique. Sometimes it’s hard to part with things, I grow so attached! I am also in love with our collection of salt and pepper shakers. Of course, if there is something that I just can’t live without, it doesn’t always make it out to the floor. I certainly have increased my personal collection of vintage wears after opening Haystack.

FC: You must always be on the lookout for more stuff. Where do you find the vintage items?

E: You name it! We are always on the look out for new items. We find them everywhere. Consignors, estates, thrift stores, yard sales, auction, back alleys, great aunts, everywhere. Its amazing how quickly things started coming our way once we opened ourselves to the possibility.

FC: What is are your favorite and least favorite things about running the store?

E: My favorite thing about running the store is getting to know the people who come in. I love when they are inspired by what we are doing, and find things that bring a wide smile to their face. I like when people are inspired to be creative. My least favorite thing is keeping track of the inventory, which is very important, but also very tedious. Even that’s not so bad, though.

FC: Yeah, seeing happy customers is very rewarding and then there is always the business stuff that still needs to get done at the end of the day. You are doing well …. how do people hear about you?

E: Because we are a resale shop starting in a recession, we received some great press right off the bat. We mostly function on word of mouth. Initially we ran for months with loads of customers just based on our wonderful location in Lakeview Chicago.

FC: You know you are doing something right when people tell their friends about you and when people want to write articles about you :) So, why did you decide to create an online store and how did you choose Flying Cart?

E: At this day in age, it just makes sense to have an online presence in order to reach a wide range of people all over the world. By going online, we no longer have geographical limitations when reaching customers, especially since all of our items are so unique. People can shop from the convenience of their couch instead of hoofing it around town. It saves them time and money. Our regular customers can also check up on us and see what’s new in the shop. We chose Flying Cart due to it’s ease of use coupled with it’s lack of fees. It is very user friendly. It’s as easy to understand as Myspace or Facebook, and doesn’t have all of the fees and limitations of Ebay.

FC: I totally agree with you. Thanks Erin and best of luck for your continued success!

 

Haystack Vintage
2934 N. Broadway
Chicago, IL 60657
www.haystackvintage.com
haystack.flyingcart.com
Email: find@haystackvintage.com

Did you notice the new yellow box on the Dashboard? The action items box is where you should look to see items that require you to do something. It shows you if you have any outstanding orders for which you have received payment but have not yet shipped. Use this tool to help you manage order fulfillment. The box also shows you if you have any outstanding partner requests - that is, if someone wants to partner with you or if you are waiting to hear back from others that you want to partner with.

If you use Facebook, this might remind you a little of the notifications box that they use in the upper right corner of your homepage when you log in to tell you about friend and application requests, updates, etc. We will add more types of notifications to this box in the future.