All change
All change, I have decided that I cannot put it off any longer, I have to get my website sorted out. It needs to be more user friendly, I wish someone would magically fix it as I have very little interest in anything non living but as this business is just me I will have to get it done. I have spoken to my website guy and asked him to go ahead with amalgamating the various sized tarantulas according to species. This should make it much easier for customers to search for a particular spider rather than having to look at each size category to find the correct species. I wish everyone would just use the search box on the banner but I'm told that's not what most people do (I go onto a website like Debenhams and put in 'bikini' and all the bikinis show up). I frequently get emails asking if I have a certain tarantula in stock, so I am assuming these people have looked at my website and been unable to find what they are looking for even though it is in stock and showing on the site. It will be more work for me as I won't be able to discount a specific size, my website can't do this. I will have to set up a separate 'tarantula special offers' page and then when an item sells I will have to manually remove it from the site or the same spider could be bought by another customer on the full price page. There is no way of linking them evidently (if only I knew how these things worked, it sounds quite simple to me). I'm not really going to know how it works until it is up and running which should be next weekend. I would like the species to be in alphabetical order according to the scientific name but that may mean changing every entry as currently the spiders are listed under their common name. Now you can see why I have put it off for so long!
The next thing that I need to sort is my payment system. At present PayPal handle most of my payments, this is fine when a customer chooses to pay by PayPal but when someone would prefer to use their credit or debit card, it seems that PayPal make things as difficult as possible! I have been on the phone trying to arrange things with Worldpay today, the guy was very helpful so I am expecting to go with them as an additional method of payment. I will still have PayPal, it is very easy, safe and popular. I would dearly love everyone to pay via bank transfer as this incurs no fees for me but very few people use this method and as yet just one person has chosen to pay via Pingit. Clearly I am not the only one who isn't keen on technology! I do actually pay most of my household bills and suppliers via bank transfer, I find it really simple and in most cases, an instant method of payment.
I am writing this blog a day early as there will be no time tomorrow. My hubby has a day off and we are taking our nephews kids to Chessington World of Adventures. They are all keen to go on the rides but I want to see the animals, we will need to compromise a bit. I love the show with the exotic animals, I especially love the Coati (having seen them in the wild in Mexico last year) and the Bearcat, a very strange looking animal. We all love the amusement arcade (except poor hubby, who is totally outnumbered) so it will be a very long, busy and enjoyable day. It is forecast to rain but I'm still living in hope that it doesn't. I will of course have to see to all my little animals before we set off and collect mother in-law to come up and dog sit for the day.
Another thing I am trying to do is to keep some records. Currently I rely on everything being in my head but I think my head is full because most of the time I haven't got a clue when something hatched but I keep being asked so I must make an effort to write things down.
Well I need to get some dinner and then I'm out to Pilates this evening. I had lots of other things to put in my blog but they will have to wait until next week. I will write them down now so I don't forget!