In my experience, they have always been very quick to respond to inquiries through e-mail or when I Tweet them, usually within a few hours, and they always resolve issues in wicked quick manner, despite having a small (but seriously incredible!) team. I always see them engaging with shop owners on Twitter and that's so refreshing, since most times when I tweet a large brand or company I never hear back from them! And I love that when I send an email to support, I get an email from a person, not an automated message from a robot. And that they really listen to user feedback, and over the past three years, I have seen a ton of user suggestions be implemented into the site. For instance, this past year I saw a ton of people asking to have the number of sales in their shop show to the public to build buyer trust. This was recently added and can be seen on the store profile page right under the shop name!
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| I even circled it for you! :) |
Beyond that though, they really want each and every store owner to succeed and are constantly providing their users with tools & resources to help them operate their indie business and get their name out there, like the time Storenvy teamed up with Moo.com to get free promotional materials for shops, or that time they got their users a great deal on stickers from Stickermule.com. They also do product and shop features on their blog regularly and via social media almost every day, too!
They are also helping San Francisco based Storenvy shops grow by providing them with a retail venue via their Pop-Up Shop! Man, I wish I could visit! If you are in the area swing by for me and take pictures! This month they are even hosting DIY creative classes at the Pop-Up Shop! April 15th through the 30th, MakersKit will be teaching DIY classes at the Pop-Up Shop, from creating your first terrarium to making soap or pouring your first candle. More info.
Their most recent way to help Storenvy.com shop owners evolve is through the Story behind the Store series. Shop owners can submit the story of their Storenvy.com shops to stories@storenvy.com which Storenvy will publish to their blog to show the world how incredible Storenvy shop owners are. This week Jamie Koala shared her story with the world and all I can say is it was incredible. Such an inspirational and moving story! Read it here.
The way that the Storenvy admin team is involved with it's users makes my heart so happy. I love to see a large enterprise like an e-commerce platform really be interested in it's users and helping them take their business to the next level. If you are looking for a place to set up shop that you can feel good about, Storenvy.com is where it's at. The admin team rocks and the community is fantastic!
I love the Storenvy Pop-Up event concepts! Hopefully one day they will come to Denver! I didn't realize they highlight shops on their blog, that's fantastic.
ReplyDeleteI can't say I'm a huge fan of the Sales being listed on the profile. I can see the benefit for some shops, but I can also see how it might not be fantastic to other shops - especially shops that just moved over from another storefront, or recently joined the online sales world. Typically shops drive traffic to their shops through their custom storefronts, but for shoppers of Storenvy that seek out that number that could hurt some really great shops!
It was a really demanded feature for people who DID come over from other venues, like Etsy, in the Storenvy forums. They said they felt like that would create buyer trust like it does on Etsy. I think it's a great thing because it really gives sellers on dual platforms who already have a high number of sales on another platform the motivation to drive traffic to their Storenvy shop. I would like to see the date of inception beside it as well - that would eliminate the worry that new shops be judged by their numbers. :)
DeleteI could see that. I suppose the shops could put something in their bio section about how many sales they have from another storefront or cumulatively from from the online & offline.
DeleteThat's a very good idea! Definitely a good way to utilize their bios - also having a link to a page with testimonials or fan photos is another great way to create buyer trust when building your numbers. :)
DeleteActually there are as many shop owners and potential shop owners who see these "numbers" as a negative. Number of sales, date of inception, etc. only serve to make Storenvy just like Etsy. I also understand Storenvy is in the process of creating an extensive feedback system just like Ebay and Etsy. I think the idea of all of this "tallying" makes shops look totally unprofessional...kind of like a kindergarten version of a real website. Storenvy could make itself appear much more professional if it just let people have shops, just like on the real internet where people have their own websites. Numbers have as much to do with marketing as with anything else (quality product, quality customer service). Further the type of product one sells has a lot to do with these numbers. For instance, small crafty things like jewelry will far exceed fine art in number of sales. As well, some people are excellent makers but not excellent marketers. Why punish them and create what appears to be the same old favoritism that is constantly complained about by Etsy shop owners? People have fled Etsy for these reasons and are disheartened when they learn that Storenvy, as great as the potential may seem, seems to be trying to turn itself into another version of Etsy or Ebay.
ReplyDeleteI think the amount of people who requested this feature far outweigh the ones who don't like it - from my three years of selling on the site, it was one of the most demanded feature for shops. So while there are some that don't like it, it was something the majority of the community wanted to see brought to life and Storenvy accommodated that, which is the point of the post - Storenvy listens to it's users. They are always trying new things that members suggest! But like most things, it's typically a majority rules scenario, and not everyone will love the changes. I for one love it - like I said above, I wish the date of the shop's inception was beside the number of sales so people can see how long the shop has been open as well, which eliminates the worry of new shops being judged for a lower number.
DeleteBut no worries - it only appears in your marketplace store, not your custom store - so your customers you are driving to your custom store will never even see those numbers! :)