Maybe I am wrong but I think the Malaysian blog shop scene is lacking one major thing: A forum.
The few sites that we have, namely lowyat and malaysianbabes are quite inadequate.
There are so many questions that I want to ask about having a blog shop and my best bets are to consult top blog shop owners and popular blog shop reviewers. I assume these people are the blog shop connoisseurs.
With The Sticker Monster, I am not sure if a shopping cart will ever work out. I do offline sales too when I have the time, go to bazaars or even meet up with customers one-on-one. So say if an online customer has checked-out her orders and paid via paypal or maybank2u, but at the same time I have sold that exact same piece, the one and only piece, how do I go about it then?! That is why I have not gotten a shopping cart yet as I can foresee all these issues. ;|
I do wonder what people prefer to see when they wanna browse. Do you like it all in one page like how blog shops are? I have seen online stores that have a huge following, registered their business, have a dot com etc all pointing to the fact that they are a real and proper business, yet maintaining the blog shop layout. But doesn’t it give a more professional feel when everything is in a store layout?
I am so confused. 🙁
I have plans to register The Sticker Monster..not that I can live on stickers..but better to do so before any authorities come after my ass for the few cents in my pocket. I’ve already got a dot com for it though I wanted it to be thestickermonster.com but it is already taken. SO SAD RIGHT!! T_T It apparently belongs to some dude who sells stickers for bad ass bikers to decorate their bad ass bikes with flaming skulls and the likes. So totally different from cute, pink, glittery, pop-up and puffy stickers.
I feel it is easier for me when the codes come in and I can pack accordingly, I just don’t know which way is most convenient for the shoppers. Would they be missing out on more things if it was in a store layout? Like if it remains in a blog layout, the customers have no choice but to look at everything before they can find what they want. (to a certain extent)
If only I knew a thing or two about programming. Can write my own inventory program..might speed things up as compared to my slow but stable system of excel sheets.
Paypal and maybank2u is like the best thing ever.. actually online banking is like one of the best inventions ever. I don’t know how I can ever live without it! At the end of the day I would prefer to manually give them the payment option details so that I get to interact with the customers and also, I might have to return payments for one or two items out of a long list of say…20 items, if those particular items have sold out and I have yet to update the inventory. Too much to think about!! @.@
Penny for your thoughts, anyone? Any ideas if a store layout is better or a blog shop? If I make it a store layout, is there anyway that I get them to autofill a check-out form instead of a check-out and pay kind of form?
We need a forum for the online shopping scene in malaysia!!
hey Jolene! 🙂 Remember me? I long time din comment already!
Anyway, I think store layout is best la.
blogshop kind… dont rellly like it leh.. it’s like very informal… and intimidating! and messy with all the dated posts and all.
how do i know what’s on sale and what’s not??? and wat’s still in stock?
so a store layout is best + if you wanne make it personal, you could like have a blog as “owner” of the store in one of the tabs.
that said, there are many ways to ensure the store don’t look too cold and alll… from personalised description of the stickers to the design and colours used. 🙂
Hope my little opinion here helps 🙂
Ju Ann
jo: hey Ju Ann!! 🙂 of course i remember you lah. 🙂 Wow.. thats quite encouraging. Thanks.. I have considered before..:) But still don’t really know how to implement it. 😐 Haih..
–
hi i’ve bought from thestickermonster before.
i do hate it when every item is on the same page, categories rock! but imho, your categorising isn’t the best, because you tag them as a whole post. so for example, some stickers under the puffy category aren’t actually puffy. do you get what i mean?
as for the whole shopping cart thing; i’ve bought A LOT from online stores and there are times when i’ve already paid but the owner can’t find the item. so what they do is that they let me pick another item of the same value. from a customers point of view, i didn’t feel frustrated or annoyed because i understand stuff like that happens and it’s not the owner’s fault. a shopping cart is definitely more professionable and i don’t quite trust the whole sending in emails to order items procedure.
hope it helps.
jo: Hi Samantha! Thank you so much for your insight! That is indeed quite a good idea… and thank you for your feedback about the categorizing. 🙂 I honestly need to look into it.. sigh, so much to do!!
–
Hey..
i’m not surprise that many malaysians are still looking for a proper forum for online shopping! myb is totally messy and unorganized! i’m actually looking in to setting up a forum. glad to read that you are finding one as well. lemme know if you are looking for anything in particular for a forum!? 🙂
drop me an email at eileensiow@gmail.com
Hi there 🙂
I have not purchased from you (…yet). I discovered your site from ‘somewhere’… and I was all oooh ahh, gimme gimme, I WANT! I even book marked you… but to be completely honest, I had NO idea how or where to even begin with your site. Way too much content to look at, and with seemingly little or no categories- or at least no way for me to easily navigate… So, from my perspective it seemed like too much work to go through everything and then I thought, and how the H do I order anyway??
So, I vote for a proper store… with a cart and all. They can’t be too hard…