Last night, we launched a replacement for the big gray bar that went across the top of the storefronts. The new links are way more subtle, and because they are more subtle, it gives you more control over the experience shoppers have on your store.
This was really the biggest selling point for us. We want to continue to give you ways to make your store feel like your own space while still tying it in to the Storenvy community.
Also, the storefronts are significantly faster now due to some advanced caching I implemented over the weekend. This will help you with sales!
What do you guys think about the new links?
Links from left to right: Follow/Unfollow, Return to Storenvy, My Profile, My Store Admin and View Cart.
Nine awesome designers from the Storenvy community won your vote to be featured in Storenvy’s official “Hope for Haiti” store. $8 of the tees’ $14 price tag goes to the American Red Cross to support earthquake relief efforts in Haiti.
In other words, you’re getting a sweet tee for cheap and making a charitable donation to people who desperately need it, all at the same time. In Storenvyville, that makes you a king. (Or queen!) Thanks for supporting both Haiti and the Storenvy design community at the same time.
Last week we asked designers in the Storenvy community to design t-shirts with a theme of “Hope for Haiti,” and 17 of the community’s best are up for vote now at Storenvy’s Hope for Haiti Store. Help us choose which ones to print! The top designs will go on sale Monday, January 25, and $8 of the $14 sale price will be donated to The American Red Cross.
Several weeks ago, I Heart Handmade posted a sweet write-up on their blog about free stores at Storenvy. I Heart Handmade has a pretty cool thing going on, so we want to return the flavor and share their concept with YOU.
I Heart Handmade hosts seasonal virtual markets that work just like Storenvy Spectaculars, except that your online store can be located anywhere — Storenvy, Etsy, eBay, self-coded, etc. In the virtual market, each shop participant has their own page (with up to 10 product images) that links to their store. There is a fee to add your store to each virtual market, but I Heart Handmade takes no cut of sales. The idea is that to sell goods online in community results in more exposure and sales. (Sound familiar? ;) Storenvy will not be hosting a Spectacular for Valentine’s Day, so if you have products to promote for your favorite February holiday, consider submitting your Storenvy store here.
If you’ve checked out on Storenvy since November, you’ve probably noticed the box above, which allows you to make a donation of $1 or more to a nonprofit we’ve selected, according to causes the Storenvy community cares about. Between Nov. 3 and Jan. 14, Storenvy shoppers donated more than $450 to our first nonprofit, Invisible Children.
Because our thoughts are with the people of Haiti right now, our Give at Checkout nonprofit is now the American Red Cross for the sake of earthquake relief. Shoppers can opt to donate $1-$25 through our checkout system to the people of Haiti, and to victims of crises all over the world.
For those of you who haven’t yet donated, we hope this can provide an easy solution while you’re making a purchase you would make anyway. For all of us, in whatever form, please consider a donation of time or money to help the people of Haiti recover and rebuild. Every little bit helps!
For anyone new to Storenvy Printing, here’s a basic rundown of how our screen printing ordering process works. Feel free to leave any questions in the comments, and I’ll be sure to answer them. Thanks!
Step 1: Get Acquainted
When you start thinking about placing a print order, take a few minutes to look through the Storenvy Printing section of our website. We list our pricing, color charts for popular products and provide some general tips. Reading through this info will make sure you don’t hit any surprises along the way.
If you can’t find something you’re looking for, drop us an email and we can get you a custom quote.
Step 2: Your Design
Next, you’ll need to get your design ready for printing. Your artwork should be sized to print, in either a 300 dpi file or in a vector file format. See our File Prep page for more info on how to prepare your order, including downloadable shirt templates and imprint sizes.
We like to receive your files with colors separated into different layers, but if you’re not able to do that yourself, we can do it for you. If you’re not sure how many colors it will take, feel free to ask in advance.
We would also prefer to set the halftone pattern. If your design has large halftone dots it isn’t a big deal, so just ignore this, but if it is for detail and shading, your print will come out better if you allow us to set them. We have everything calibrated for the dot gain we will get using our inks and it is impossible for us to adjust for dot gain if the half tone is preset. Another issue that can come up is moire pattern, that is where we get an unwanted pattern in the final print caused by the halftone angle being set incorrectly.
It also helps us a lot when you know the Pantone color of the inks you want to use, so if you know those, please include them.
Step 3: Place Your Order and Send Your Art
Using our online order form, you’ll give us your contact info and specify your print placement, product, sizes and colors. Very important: If you need your order by a certain date, be sure to note it here.
Once you place your order, we’ll use our trusty FreshBooks system to send you an estimate with your final charges, including shipping costs. If you need to make any last changes, this is the time to do it.
Once you accept it, we’ll send you the invoice, which you can pay online by credit card, PayPal or through the mail by check. If you mail a check your order maybe delayed until the check has been received and the money has cleared.
Once your order is paid, we’ll order your blanks and get rolling!
Step 7: Approve Mock
Before we put your items on the press, we’ll send you a digital mock up for final approval. It shows your garment color, print placement, print size, ink colors and final quantity. We do this to make sure everyone is on the same page. Once you approve it, we are smooth sailing.
Step 8: On the Presses
Step 9: Receive It and Love It… and Sell It!
You will get the shirts in 7-10 business days, plus average shipping time, via UPS.
Having a Storenvy store is optional of course, but we’d love to have you. Come on in!
Tim at Assault posted a fab tutorial on how he customized his Storenvy store. For you store-owner-slash-coders out there, it’s a must-read. He says it took him six hours (as compared to the 60 hours it took to create his original from-scratch store), and he offers a download of his Storenvy theme files.
Of all our account sign-ups between November 26 and December 21, we have randomly selected the 10 winners of our Shake & Shout Shades giveaway. Congratulations to…
kevkel!
nikrev!
canesse8!
Lowana75!
Namzes!
christiriddell!
Blanca!
mitchedwards!
konasurfing!
dodgethis!
I’ve sent each of the winners an email about how to redeem their free shades. Winners, just reply to that email to redeem your winnings, or if for some reason you didn’t receive it, email me at janette(at)storenvy.com.
We just uploaded a few fun changes for store owners:
You can now post your products to Facebook and Twitter right from your admin panel. Just visit any product’s admin page and click the Facebook or Twitter links on the left.
Also, many have requested it, and it’s finally here. We’ve added a link to your admin panel in the dropdown under your username in the top right menu. And for extra convenience, there’s one on the homepage, too!
As always, there’s much more to come, and we’re cranking it out as fast as humanly possible.
And for you number crunchers, we’ve enabled the eCommerce feature in Google Analytics so you can see where your sales are coming as well as many other cool features.
These are just a few of the many features we’ve been working on since the site launched at the beginning of November, and we can’t wait to show you guys the rest of the stuff we have up our sleeves!
