NEW OLYMPIC ORCHIDS PERFUME WEBSITE COMING

July marks the seventh anniversary of Olympic Orchids perfumes, and it is only fitting that there should be an update of the online store that has been essentially the same since 2010. A couple of years ago I did make a halfhearted attempt to design a new website on Shopify, but it never really took off, partly because I never put all of my products on it, and partly because Shopify is not the best platform to use. No need to go into its shortcomings. Website design and implementation has been taking most of my time for the past week. Such is the life of a perfumer who doesn't outsource anything. 

It turned out that I was able stay with my primary web hosting company and design an entirely new website using a Wordpress front end and a Woocommerce infrastructure. The URL will stay the same. It’s a nice combination, and extremely easy to use. I have re-photographed almost all of my products, put them up on the e-store with pull-down menus for sizes, shipping options, and other attributes, added a few new products, and added some cool new features. For example, there’s now a system for customers to receive points for their purchases and redeem them for discounts or free products. If this website works well, I will discontinue the Shopify site and consolidate everything on one e-store. This will be a lot less confusing for everyone. For continuity, I've tried to keep some of the original graphics, but everything is cleaned up. 

The hardest part has been completed, but I know there will be lots of ongoing tweaks and corrections as people use the website. I'll also continue to add new features and graphics. Right now it's pretty bare-bones. 

I am tentatively planning on the new website going live this Wednesday, July 5, and will need some people to test it. I added an almost-free test product for the first 10 people who are willing to go through the entire cart, checkout, and ordering procedure on an untested website, so look for this to appear next week. There will also be a seventh anniversary discount via a “coupon” that can be added at checkout. I’ll give people the coupon code in my July newsletter, on this blog, and on Facebook.

I hope people will like the remodel. 

[All photos are mine]

CELEBRATING A NEW YEAR, A NEW WEBSITE

The new and improved Olympic Orchids Perfumes website is live and open for business. All orders placed through the new website during the first week of January will receive a discount of 20%, so spread the word. The code for the discount is INTRO20.

Getting this website up and running was a barrier to doing a lot of other things publicity-wise, but now that barrier is down and the fun can begin. It’s a great way to start the new year!

Best wishes to everyone out there for much happiness, success, and fragrant fun in 2014!

[Seattle fireworks photo from Wikimedia]

PROGRESS IN 2013

The end of the year is always a time to step back and look at the things we accomplished. My answer is, as usual, not as much as I had planned and way less than I had hoped. However, on the perfume front there was some progress, although a lot of it happened behind the scenes. Here are a few highlights:

The new website: The work on the new Olympic Orchids Perfumes flagship e-store is finally complete. It really didn’t take that long in terms of hours spent, but the problem both for me and for the person helping me, who also has a day job and a life, was finding little blocks of time in which to do it. The good news is that it’s in countdown mode, ready to launch on New Year’s Eve. It will have a link to the old website, which will live on as the Olympic Orchids Original Perfume Boutique. The Boutique will also have a link to the flagship store. The link is hidden, ready to go live on Tuesday night. There will be more about the respective roles of the two sister websites in another post.

The new packaging: A new design and greatly improved custom packaging was a big step forward this year, but is only now starting to trickle out to the public. The 30 ml bottles and their boxes have been in service for about two months, and the 100 ml ones are just about ready to go. The 100 ml boxes are here, I’m waiting for the liners to arrive, and the bottles are in the queue to be printed. I’ve also ordered matching boxes with liners for the original triangular 15 ml screw-top bottles. All that’s left to complete the makeover is a set of boxes for the old-style, square 30 ml bottles, which will remain on sale in the boutique for the fragrances that haven’t (yet?) moved up to the flagship store.

Increased production capacity: Over the past year the number of full bottle orders has increased greatly, and I’ve started to get a few wholesale orders. To fill these, I need plenty of stock on hand. I’m gradually getting better about this, expanding my studio, making concentrate in larger amounts, and filling a big batch of bottles all at one time. I still struggle to keep stock on hand when I get busy with other things, but it’s getting better. 

Plans for 2014 include several new releases, including a couple of exclusive, single-batch formulas, an upgrade in the appearance and organization of the Original Boutique website, and a big push in the publicity department. This past year, I’ve just been coasting on momentum, but next year I’m going to make a big effort to increase awareness of Olympic Orchids Perfumes. 

To celebrate the grand opening of the new e-store, there will be some sort of drawing, to be announced here on New Years Day.