Holiday Settings

[roobyroo]

Hi, I'll be going on my holidays soon and was wondering if there are holiday settings that i can apply to my shop as there will be nobody else to continue running the shop while I'm away. I also have a shop with ebay and I know I can add holiday settings to that. This tells any customers browsing my store that I'm away on holiday until (whatever date I enter) and that they should add an extra week onto delivery times ect.

Does anybody know if there is something similar that i can apply to my Bluepark store, or it there isn't what I should do as I don't fancy coming back to a bunch of angry customers who haven't received their orders or had a response to their emails.

I know it doesn't seem very professional but until I'm in a position to hire more staff this is the way I'll have to do things, lol!


John
Character Planet.co.uk (http://characterplanet.co.uk)

[petad]

We are in the same position, John, and a "On Holiday" setting like eBay would be useful.

As you say, it doesn't look very professional, though. What we were thinking of doing is putting a message on the Home page to say that we are Stock Taking (it is the end of the financial year, so it is feasible...) and won't be able to ship until a certain date.

I have also been contemplating changing the Release Date on every product (via the download/upload manager facility) to be the date we return from hols. That way, all the products would be available for pre-order, not to be shipped until we return.

None of the above is ideal, but at least provides a way of handling an empty "shop" while we are away.

Regards

Pete

[roobyroo]

Good thinking Petad, I think I'll try the Stock Taking method. It looks a bit more professional than just displaying a message saying "I'm on holiday!"

Thanks

John
Character Planet.co.uk (http://characterplanet.co.uk)

[Dave]

Hi John,

We are lucky because we operate a stockless environment here and everything gets shipped direct from the wholesalers. On very rare occasions when we manage to escape the answer phone goes on and using my smart phone I can process bluepark orders, take payments and e-mail suppliers and customers.

Your situation is obviously very different and your best solution would be to put something on your site saying "closed for annual holidays until xxx. Any orders placed will not be processed until yyy"

I would put this in a block down the right hand side or on the right as part of the header. Also change the carriage description to say "UK Only - Closed Until yyy"

Finally, change the order confirmation e-mail to include something like
"As per our website we are currently closed until xxx. Any orders placed will not be processed until yyy and we therefore anticipate delivery to be made zzz. If you need to cancel your order then please e-mail us at aaa@bbbb.co.uk"

Doing the above will ensure you have made it as clear as possible to inform your customers of the closedown.

[Dave]

Good thinking Petad, I think I'll try the Stock Taking method. It looks a bit more professional than just displaying a message saying "I'm on holiday!"

Thanks

John
Character Planet.co.uk (http://characterplanet.co.uk)


Well if you are going away for a day or so the stock taking method will work but any longer and it will not wash with the customers and in my opinion you are better off to be honest upfront.

[roobyroo]

Hmmm... you're right. I'll only be away for one week but that would be too long to display a stock taking message. I'll go with the store closed for holidays messge.

Cheers Dave

John
Character Planet.co.uk (http://www.characterplanet.co.uk)

[Rich]

Sorry, but what's a holiday? :confused:

:p

[john]

Sorry, but what's a holiday? :confused:


:p
I seem to remember a week off in February 2006, I think that's what they mean by a holiday but the memory is too vague now, fairly sure that holidays are those things you have when you work for someone else (or the State!):cool:

In my opinion you can't trade properly as an ecommerce shopping site, which is supposed to be 24/7/365 and then close down for holidays or stocktaking, it's not just unprofessional, it' blxxxy amateurish.

[Dave]

Sorry, but what's a holiday? :confused:

:p


Come on Richard don't be shy we all know you are sitting on a beach in the bahamas ;)

[roobyroo]

I seem to remember a week off in February 2006, I think that's what they mean by a holiday but the memory is too vague now, fairly sure that holidays are those things you have when you work for someone else (or the State!):cool:

In my opinion you can't trade properly as an ecommerce shopping site, which is supposed to be 24/7/365 and then close down for holidays or stocktaking, it's not just unprofessional, it' blxxxy amateurish.
Heh heh... yeah, you're right. This holiday was already booked before I realised just how difficult it is to switch off and take a break when working for self... especially ecommerce cos time is money as they say.

I think I'll have to more prepared for next time and maybe train one of the parents to run the site until I can afford to hire someone, lol!

[petad]

What we are actually doing is just leaving things as they are, and taking the laptop. We will keep an eye on orders, and if anything is urgent let the customer know there will be a delay. We are only away for a week, so it should be containable. We're not going until later in the year anyway, so may change our minds by then, or managed to train up the In-laws who house sit for us anyway.

And I remember Rich being away on holiday towards the end of October last year...

Pete

[Dave]

What we are actually doing is just leaving things as they are, and taking the laptop. We will keep an eye on orders, and if anything is urgent let the customer know there will be a delay. We are only away for a week, so it should be containable. We're not going until later in the year anyway, so may change our minds by then, or managed to train up the In-laws who house sit for us anyway.

And I remember Rich being away on holiday towards the end of October last year...

Pete

1) Just can not image the in-laws running our business :eek:
2) Yes I remember Rich going away as well :D

[little-linguist]

If you're only going for a week, you could always change relevant info to say that orders are normally shipped within 5 - 7 working days (which is often the case with many retailers). Then even if they ordered the day you left, you'd be back within 7 working days. Just remember to remove all express shipping options and be prepared for a long day on your first day back! Oh, and regarding "stock taking", several of our suppliers have been effectively closed for over a week now to do their annual stock take , so I guess that could be feasible too.

For the last couple of years, we've had to take our holiday at Christmas when it's more acceptable to disappear for a week or two but business trips often take us out the office for nearly a week anyway so I might as well go when the weather is nicer!

[john]

2) Yes I remember Rich going away as well :D

Yes I remember Rich going away last year, it was the only time things went wrong, just before we launched and I seem to remember Rich calling form Portugal (i think) Above & beyond or what?