Cart Discuss: Seventh.Ink Proprietor on LemonStand Purchasing Cart

Retailers have nearly 600 on-line procuring carts to select from, together with hosted carts, licensed carts and open-sourced carts. Every week in “Cart Discuss” we can be interviewing a service provider that makes use of a selected cart, to get frank, real-world suggestions on its use – what works and what wants enchancment.

This week, we’ll hear from Matthew Johnson, proprietor and artist behind Seventh.Ink, a Palm Harbor, Fla.-based t-shirt, hoodie and greeting-card firm. Johnson’s firm makes use of LemonStand, a licensed procuring cart that, in keeping with its web site, prices $299.98 for a one-time price for a single license.

Johnson makes use of LemonStand to promote roughly 600 merchandise yearly. Seventh.Ink is a small enterprise with gross annual income between $10,000-$50,000 per yr.

Seventh.Ink Shirts and Attire, residence web page.

Sensible eCommerce: Why LemonStand?

Matthew Johnson: “I used to be first drawn to LemonStand due to the clear look that they painting on their website. I had been utilizing ZenCart and was consistently pissed off with the interface; it wasn’t updated and I had a variety of bother discovering little issues that I wanted to examine infrequently. I’d neglect the place they have been positioned within the menu system.

“LemonStand streamlines every little thing into an easy-to-use menu system that works nice. I really like the dashboard and the truth that I can customise nearly each characteristic within the cart.”

PeC: When did your on-line retailer launch and the way lengthy have you ever been utilizing LemonStand?

Johnson: “It launched in October 2007 with Zen Cart and we simply switched to LemonStand in February 2010.”

PeC: Are you able to describe the way you course of orders in LemonStand, step-by-step?

Matthew Johnson

Johnson: “As an administrator, I resolve how I wish to be notified of latest orders. I presently have it set as much as electronic mail me a duplicate of an order when it’s positioned in addition to an electronic mail when the order modifications from ‘New’ to ‘Paid.’ That approach I can observe up if somebody locations an order however appears to have bother paying. I can customise my admin emails and create templates to make use of for conditions that appear to be repetitive.

“As soon as the standing modifications to ‘Paid,’ I package deal up the order after which go into the admin software to alter the standing to ‘Shipped.’ As a result of ‘Shipped’ can be a customizable possibility, I can select whether or not or not the shopper would then obtain an electronic mail notifying them of cargo.

“I want to make use of Endicia [a shipping tool that integrates with U.S. Postal Service] for this as a result of it sends out the monitoring information as properly. So it’s good to have the ability to change the standing of the order within the admin and solely ship the shopper one electronic mail by means of Endicia.”

PeC: What are the cart’s largest strengths?

Johnson: “Total, I’d say that the most important energy of the cart is the extremely lively staff behind it. They bend over backwards to offer new options based mostly on suggestions and conversations each in boards and offline.

“I acted as an alpha tester for about three months whereas I slowly crafted the Seventh.Ink retailer, which gave me an opportunity to offer reside suggestions to the staff based mostly on an precise reside cart setup.

“I wasn’t paid for this testing, however I used to be rewarded with a pleasant low cost off of the value of the cart license. It was an awesome alternative to provide suggestions and assist form sure features of the cart.”

PeC: How might the cart enhance?

Johnson: “They only carried out jQuery, which was a wanted enchancment. I’d additionally like to see present certificates develop into a characteristic of the cart. I do know they’re engaged on this, and I actually look ahead to the day that characteristic goes reside.”

PeC: Do you intend on persevering with to make use of the cart?

Johnson: “Undoubtedly. I’ve beneficial it to everybody I do know and I can’t see myself ever altering for any motive. I’ve even thought of specializing in growing websites for different firms utilizing LemonStand, which I feel says loads.”

PeC: Every other ideas for our readers regarding selecting a procuring cart?

Johnson: “For those who’re severe about creating an awesome ecommerce website that may knock the opponents out of the park, I extremely recommend you give LemonStand a attempt.”