A busy bees journey to the client hive

create an artists ecommerce platform in 2hrs? done.

We were delighted to have the chance recently to help out a new business based in the Hunter Region of NSW dipping their toes into the world of ecommerce and online sales. After noticing a pattern on a FOAF Facebook post, we knew some of the order reconciliation and shipping management pain that would lay behind a manual bank account reconciliation and trying to match it up with Facebook expressions of interest in purchasing. All little signals of a viable new business being created. So we got in touch.

We love seeing emerging artists get traction with beautiful products, but also know of the pain that can be involved when first setting up an online presence if the business isn't born digital. Our brief was clear:

1. Establish a professional domain name as the front end experience to the Artist and their emerging portfolio of works;
2. Establish a basic e-Commerce presence where they could take orders for their first artwork prints, manage sales and shipping in AUD, whilst also setting up the beginnings of an analytics platform in the lead-up to Xmas 2015;
3. Get it done ASAP within a 2hr package of digital strategy Service Pack to capture any more inbound orders and stop the backlog building up, which would lead to more reconciliation challenges.

When we work with large clients (e.g. National Museum of Australia online store), we normally have a little more time to deal with the complexity of the brief. On this occasion, with a tight budget and deadline, we didn't have time to faff about making different eCommerce platform recommendations to fit the scope of work required. Here's how we tackled the problem:

1. Domain name selection was simple, so we secured and configured the redirection from our Domain management platform at domains.laughingmind.com;
2. For the longer term, running on Google Apps for Business makes more sense than running your business through Gmail - 3 email aliases to help with email rules based filtering were setup to help with inbound order communications management and workflow;
3. For an emerging artist, who needed to sell in AUD and have all the necessities in place for order, shipping and product management, we went straight to Etsy. Working out the pricing and shipping configurations was straightforward. When you need something to work for product selling within a very tight timeframe + budget, it's a great option, with transaction based margin instead of recurrent monthly costs for an online store like Shopify - important when you're getting your head around product sales, volume and revenue;
4. A brief test transaction and TaDa! Mission accomplished. Sales started rolling in..

Native Bees of NSW - A2 Poster thumbnail for http://www.ginacranson.com

This was a great little case study of resilience and new beginnings, as well as a nice touchpoint for our interest in Native Bees and their importance to healthy ecosystems. It's part of what we do in creating an ecosystem for digital entrepreneurs and ties in nicely with our work at Startup Central Coast.

Need help to get your artistic presence setup for sales and a professional portfolio? Just get in touch.