Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Phydeaux Designs knitting patterns - a new direction and site


Etsy is a wonderful venue for so many handmade, vintage and supply sort of things. But not for digital downloads.

Why?

Because they don't possess the technology for customers to actually ... download anything. Like knitting patterns. Which I happen to offer for sale in my Etsy shop.


So, after one of my wonderful customers orders and completes payment for a knitting pattern, I send them an email, with pattern(s) attached.

Yay!

But!

With increasing frequency, a month of more later, a customer contacts me about never receiving their pattern.

Nooo!

I then search my email's inboxes and sent boxes to (a) make sure the person actually purchased and (perhaps more importantly) paid for the pattern(s), then (b) reforward my original email to them, with attachments, while (c) also sending that customer an Etsy convo, because if they didn't receive my original email, there's a good chance they won't receive this one.

More often than not, those missing emails are found in spam/junk folders. On one hand, this is a good thing - we should make sure to protect our computers from viruses and worms. On the other hand, this is a bad thing for "manual" digital downloads via email.

Like mine.

I've been working behind the scenes on what to do about this. I was resigned to the answer being to cobble together my own site using ejunkie for automatic and true digital downloads. Ejunkie is not horrendously expensive (in fact, it's very reasonable), but hiring a web designer/coder is expensive. As are ecommerce and other hosting fees.

In parallel, I was building my own site using my own domain + big cartel (more on this later/soon!). And nearly fell over with delight when I read in big cartel's blog that digital download technology was forthcoming.

Yay!

And submitted my request for a beta invitation for said technology.

Yay!

And now ... I am offering TRUE digital downloads on my own site: shop.phydeauxdesigns.com.

Yay yay yay!

As a result, expect to see my Etsy patterns phased out (I won't relist patterns after they sell on Etsy). It just doesn't make sense to spend hours of time troubleshooting patterns that customers aren't receiving due to a delivery system that works perhaps 50-75% of the time. That's extremely poor customer service on my part. I would never buy a second pattern from a site with those kinds of stats.

Currently, you can directly purchase patterns from me via:

Ravelry (direct/auto download)
My own site (direct/auto download)
Etsy (phasing out)

I'll still offer my handcrafted buttons in my Etsy knitting supply shop. And will soon offer hand dyed and spun yarn!

(I will likely offer hard copy patterns, delivered via good old US mail, in my Etsy shop ... there are plenty of folks who prefer the tangible, old fashioned paper copy to a digital copy.)

3 comments:

Sharon said...

Your new shop at your own URL looks good--very clean and crisp. I'll be looking forward to hearing how it goes there at the Big Cartel.

You're making a smart move regarding the automatic downloads of patterns. That way customers can buy at any time night or day and get an immediate download, even while you and the kitties sleep. No muss, no fuss!

Brenda said...

Thanks, Sharon! That's the the idea - I love how it works with Ravelry! :)

Unknown said...

how wonderful! that's great that you are expanding and thinking outside etsy. i could really do this as well......so nice to see you visit! i've missed you :) hope you are well! hugs, susan