Open note to shops

If you don't have it, and can't get it, please take it off your
website.

Sara

"Sara" wrote in message ...
If you don't have it, and can't get it, please take it off your
website.

Sara

Totally support this novel idea! And how about another one for advertisers
on the web: If you put a photo or list a new item for sale, please have it
available NOW unless you post an "available date" with the item. And check
your links please! So many times I click on one of the links to a product
and it is not the right link at all. Drives me nuts.

On 10/28/11 10:58 AM, KT in Mich wrote:

"Sara" wrote in message ...
If you don't have it, and can't get it, please take it off your
website.

Sara

Totally support this novel idea! And how about another one for
advertisers on the web: If you put a photo or list a new item for sale,
please have it available NOW unless you post an "available date" with
the item. And check your links please! So many times I click on one of
the links to a product and it is not the right link at all. Drives me nuts.


LMAO

only because of my job. Supposed to receive a certain shoe, took many,
many pre-orders for it and it never made it here. Made lots of customers
angry and made for several tense weeks at work when folks had to call
and let them know that the shoe was not going to be arriving.

just so you know sometimes sh*t does happen

C

I do not know how to create or edit web pages, but it seems to me that
because they change so frequently that it can't be a terribly time-consuming
or difficult task for whomever does this job. So if a web page advertizes
something and it didn't make it into the stockroom, then the web page should
be revised. It just needs communication between the incoming stockroom and
the webmaker. I fully understand the problem as it exists with paper
catalogs and yes I sure do know that "stuff" happens! Been there, done
that.


"Cheryl Isaak" wrote in message
...
On 10/28/11 10:58 AM, KT in Mich wrote:

"Sara" wrote in message
...
If you don't have it, and can't get it, please take it off your
website.

Sara

Totally support this novel idea! And how about another one for
advertisers on the web: If you put a photo or list a new item for sale,
please have it available NOW unless you post an "available date" with
the item. And check your links please! So many times I click on one of
the links to a product and it is not the right link at all. Drives me
nuts.


LMAO

only because of my job. Supposed to receive a certain shoe, took many,
many pre-orders for it and it never made it here. Made lots of customers
angry and made for several tense weeks at work when folks had to call and
let them know that the shoe was not going to be arriving.

just so you know sometimes sh*t does happen

C

So if a web page advertizes something and it didn't make it into the
stockroom, then the web page should be revised. It just needs
communication between the incoming stockroom and the webmaker.

And there's the problem. The stockroom may look at the fact that it costs
them $1 per change and decide to wait another day (and another) to see
whether it comes in, before communicating this to the webmaster. If the
webmaster has a day job and a family, he may not get to it right away.

I am fortunate that my webmaster is young and single, and can generally
make changes within 24 hours.

--

Karen C - California

And there you go --- I just learned something new. Had no idea that people
were hired to make these changes. Duh. I'd do the same thing -- wait a
day or 2 to see if the stock arrived. If I wasn't so doggoned old and
ornery, I'd learn how to do website design and take on a new job!

On Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:41:56 -0400, "KT in Mich"
wrote:



So if a web page advertizes something and it didn't make it into the
stockroom, then the web page should be revised. It just needs
communication between the incoming stockroom and the webmaker.

And there's the problem. The stockroom may look at the fact that it costs
them $1 per change and decide to wait another day (and another) to see
whether it comes in, before communicating this to the webmaster. If the
webmaster has a day job and a family, he may not get to it right away.

I am fortunate that my webmaster is young and single, and can generally
make changes within 24 hours.

--

Karen C - California

And there you go --- I just learned something new. Had no idea that people
were hired to make these changes. Duh. I'd do the same thing -- wait a
day or 2 to see if the stock arrived. If I wasn't so doggoned old and
ornery, I'd learn how to do website design and take on a new job!
Just for the record, the item I was looking for, a certain color of
fabric, has not been in production for some time, is not scheduled to
be in production, and for all anyone knows, may never be produced
again. So it is very frustrating to see it on a website, order it,
and then be told, well, it doesn't really exist.
I understand that inventory is dynamic, and stuff happens, but.

Sara

On 11/1/11 9:38 AM, in article , "Karen C in
Calif" wrote:

KT in Mich wrote:

And there you go --- I just learned something new. Had no idea that
people were hired to make these changes.


That depends. Sometimes there's someone on staff who knows how to build
a website, in which case updating stock availability is something they
do when the shop is slow.

In my case, I don't know how (and won't spend the time learning). The
website is hosted by my business partner's son's business, and because
we so rarely update the info (and because it's his mother and Auntie
Karen), it's all covered by the annual hosting fee.

But if someone wanted him to make more than that handful of updates a
year, say, spending an hour a night updating the inventory, they'd get a
monthly bill-by-the-hour to cover the extra work. (I pulled $1 per item
out of thin air, because I don't know how much it actually calculates
out to. Nonetheless, I could see that for a busy shop that is
constantly updating inventory, it could add hundreds of dollars a month
to the cost of running the website, and most LNSs aren't particularly
profitable in the first place.)

It's also a fairly common practice for a contract with the web maintenance
person/company to cover a "regular" amount of work. So shops will have
their webmaster contract include some negotiated amount of updating, along
with the required server support, maintenance. Depending on the size of the
business, and the website, as an example, they may have it set to update
products 3X a week, with a weekly update for news, etc. Or a good
programmer could have the inventory automated to generate something such
that products could show as back-ordered, or out of stock - if the shop has
an electronic inventory system. Otherwise, the shop is sending info to the
web person.

Personally, I expect that many smaller LNS type businesses have a set-up
similar to Karen. A professional that set up the website and handles the
hosting, writing anything major for it, and some agreement for updates. But
some regular amount of updates would be negotiated into the contract - with
the programmer betting on it being something between say 3-20 hours of work,
and usually being on the lower side. Or, I've seen it set-up so that
someone in the shop actually is shown how to go in and do some simple
alterations to the web-site, like put in a text banner, or change the status
of an inventory item, and then the maintenance contract is simpler/cheaper.
If a huge amount of stuff happens, then there's a contingency for extra $$
for the work. Lots of folks seem to have the "someone's
son/daughter/cousin/ex-" is in the business and will do the web site. Which
puts the shop budgetarily better, but priority =-wise for changes might be
low on the list.

I will say, that years ago I agreed to do a web-site for a person then
designing/teaching samplers. Bottom line, non-tech or web programming savvy
people could easily be unaware of the time to do some of these things well,
or scared of even the easy things - and tech people do not really speak the
same languqge as their customers. Just knowing how to say a term doesn't
mean that it's actually understood. Sad story - it was way more trouble
than worth - the designer is kind of temperamental (b-word comes to mind), I
agreed to do it because the shop I worked in we did her framing, and after
her whining the owner & I thought we should help her out. Many hours spent
taking pictures of her charts, of the samples pieces, and her wanting custom
motifs for borders on the various pages. All good except she actually
didn't even understand how to download or save just a motif graphic from her
charting program. After I worked on this for about a month, with meetings
at her house - and doing this for easily 1/5 of the normal price, she
suddenly thought - hey - my husbands' partner's son in high school is
learning how to do web sites - maybe he could do it instead (for a project -
instead of paying me anything). Topped off by telling me that part of my
fee agreement was that she'd show some of my new designs at a couple of
shows she was going to - but now she wanted 15% commission on anything that
sold. Needless to say, I finally gave up - told her go with the kid.
Before which this person actually called me with 2 threatening phone calls -
one telling me that it all had to be done within a couple of days or she
wouldn't pay me and would ruin me, followed by me explaining I'd been
waiting for her to approve some page & supply me a graphic, then leading to
the infamous - "if you don't give me all the disks (I'd saved everything) by
Friday (I think - it was about 2 days) I'm coming over to your house and
killing your dog!" Excellent! I brought the disk copies to her house, and
essentially told her to leave me alone, and that she was lucky I hadn't
reported her to the police. She was a great stitcher - doesn't design
anymore cause of carpal tunnel - but definitely emotionally off-kilter.
But, I do have a stack of her charts!

Ellice

As someone who is close to attaining a bachelor's in web design and
development, I can tell you that it is *not* like it used to be.
Neophytes will soon be a thing of the past. It is changing rapidly and
requires extensive knowledge to keep your site compatible with all
browsers (there are five main browsers) and servers (Front Page is being
dumped by more and more service companies). You can't just use Word and
make a web site. The software is expensive, the learning curve high.
You need to know several programming languages (ASP, Java Script, PHP,
HTML, CSS to name a few) plus have knowledge of ecommerce, cms, and
more. Plus you need a background in good design and SEO to be a viable
site.

It is not easy keeping up a site and I don't wonder at all why inventory
isn't changed, especially from small retailers.

Dianne

Whew. Am I living in the dark ages or what!!! I've thought one could learn
it with one of those "...Dummies" books. No way anymore! Obviously hosting
a web site is a challenging occupation requiring lots of education, skill
and stamina. My eyes are opened!

KT.

"Dianne Lewandowski" wrote in message
...
As someone who is close to attaining a bachelor's in web design and
development, I can tell you that it is *not* like it used to be. Neophytes
will soon be a thing of the past. It is changing rapidly and requires
extensive knowledge to keep your site compatible with all browsers (there
are five main browsers) and servers (Front Page is being dumped by more
and more service companies). You can't just use Word and make a web site.
The software is expensive, the learning curve high. You need to know
several programming languages (ASP, Java Script, PHP, HTML, CSS to name a
few) plus have knowledge of ecommerce, cms, and more. Plus you need a
background in good design and SEO to be a viable site.

It is not easy keeping up a site and I don't wonder at all why inventory
isn't changed, especially from small retailers.

Dianne

On 02/11/2011 21:48, Dianne Lewandowski wrote:
As someone who is close to attaining a bachelor's in web design and
development, I can tell you that it is *not* like it used to be.
Neophytes will soon be a thing of the past. It is changing rapidly and
requires extensive knowledge to keep your site compatible with all
browsers (there are five main browsers) and servers (Front Page is being
dumped by more and more service companies). You can't just use Word and
make a web site. The software is expensive, the learning curve high. You
need to know several programming languages (ASP, Java Script, PHP, HTML,
CSS to name a few) plus have knowledge of ecommerce, cms, and more. Plus
you need a background in good design and SEO to be a viable site.

It is not easy keeping up a site and I don't wonder at all why inventory
isn't changed, especially from small retailers.

Dianne

Many websites appear to be created with a view to showing the genius of
the creator instead of showing what the reader wants to discover. Fancy
graphics, animated gifs and unwanted background music are some of the
things that make me grind my teeth.
--
Bruce Fletcher
Stronsay, Orkney
(Remove dentures to reply)