Here's a dirty little secret I hide as a jewelry designer--I hate to shop. I know, I know, that's terrible, but it's just my nature.
But, then again, as a jewelry designer--I need suppies, and for said supplies I must venture out into the world--or online--and get the good I need to make the goods.
Another seldom realized personality trait of jewelry designers--well two really:
1) We look--the look of an individual stone can ignite a wonderful bastion of creativity building up to our very core--until we buy either the singular piece or a strand--or even any given components we may use. That's why if you are gearing your sales to us designers online--take nice pictures and give us good descriptions. If you can pull off an extreme close up (as I make my husband do) tell us the exact size of those beads--because we are going to get very angry if we buy something that arrives to us smaller than the eye on a needle and it looked ginormous on your picture. We probably will not order from you again.
2) We are generally a tactile bunch: feeling, touching and realizing the wonderful textures of the stones, stringing or knotting materials, or even the deep cold of the metal we use. This is intragal in our nature.
So, if you have a hard storefront--and a web page we can search--Make it easy to find you. Really, Really Easy.
This post is not so much a condemnation of a particular store--everyone knows I love my local bead shops. But today, I went on an actual jewelry adventure--and the store was impossible to find--I don't mean hard and I finally got to it, I mean after driving around for an hour, I gave up.
It was located on Hewitt Drive, in Hewitt, TX. I am sure its a wonderful store. But some of us are not from this area--and if there is something funky about the town, like say there are three hewitt drive's, a north, a south and a regular hewitt drive--each of which has a numbered place of your address, TELL US HOW TO GET THERE. Tell us there is something funky--not just the shopping center you are in--not enough information for someone who does not live in the town with three streets of the same name.
Yes, some of us rely on GPS. But if your hard store front is hard to find--please tell the customer who may google you, you might actually get more customers.
I would like to place in a few choice expletives here--however, I will just go find another store nearby in Austin/Georgetown, TX so that I can get my tactile nature nurtured.
2 comments:
I laughed through this...but that's just me. :) It really is detrimental that you be able to find a place!! Most likely stores like this are not thinking outside the local population's ability to navigate. Although, the fact it was not on GPS tells me they may be new to the game anyway. Good post!!
Agreed. Sometimes I just want to touch the beads, its a necessity before purchase--hence the bead shows I save up for a little more than quarterly...
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