Webhosting For Boutiques

Somehow, some way pageBuzz has become one of the top choices for boutique websites and small boutique style businesses. In 2006 we created a few hundreds ready to go boutique templates that helped support the huge number of boutiques looking for website hosting solutions.

Of course, our amazing ecommerce and online shopping tools are a big part of the draw but also our own work within the boutique marketplace with websites like craftersbuzzcom which has now become a second home for ETSY sellers to advertise their stores.

Since we worked with thousands of crafters and artists when we opened and built a huge base of customers selling home based handmade products it has become a big part of our technology.

Small crafters and artists wanted different tools, different features that normal retailers and they needed it cheaper than average ecommerce customers. The also had a unique look they wanted, sometimes with a primitive country style, sometimes a rustic style and other times with the look of modern art.

They forced us to meet broader challenges and provide for a more diverse market.

In the process we seemed to have created the exact perfect balance for small boutique style stores and businesses online. We have the right graphics, the right ecommerce tools ad the cart is uniquely set up to manage small quantities and limited items even at the product option level without separate stock numbers.

So having a web clearance section is very easy and lets stores liquidate stock without worrying about overselling items. Or having limited quantities or sizes can be sold without hassle.

It is the attention to detail that makes or online tools so appealing to Boutiques with gift certificates and wish lists and the tools that make selling product and marketing much easier.

For example, we have the ability to add coupon codes. So lets say you want to offer 10% discount with the coupon, no problem. Or even set a coupon to be worth $5 if they spend over $50 total.

But coupons don't stop there, you can assign coupons to a group of items using the group discounts. So you can have coupons for buy one item get one free, or buy one and get one for 50% off or most any combination you desire.

Of course you can promote sales on items without coupons as well and have those values automatically applied to every sale.

So running a promotion on candles or soaps where you buy 2 and get one free is no problem even though you sell other items like clothes or purses that may not be included in the sale.

It seems like the small boutique store have more ideas than most brick and mortar retailers and they helped us reach into those ideas and create a shopping cart that would support it.

Another great tool is the affiliate program

The affiliate program is fully integrated and works with very little effort or set up. This allows anyone to pay commission to affiliates for sales that they refer. In the case of the home based stores, they just want to reward their friend and pay a 5% or 10% commission in exchange for them advertising their product on each others websites.

While in the case of retail store they want a couple thousands affiliates promoting their products on blogs, websites and offline as well. The affiliate program provides an automated system where affiliate can sign up and track their sales.

For the merchant, just set a payment period and export the payment log into your book keeping program and print commission checks. It is all very clean, simple and efficient.

But very few people understand the concept of running affiliate marketing programs and that is where the 7 day a week support is vital. Being able to get help when you decide to have a sale or run an affiliate program.

Just because the tools are included in the website does not mean you will know how to use them when you need them. So being able to call a live person could be the difference between having the sale or not having the sale. If you don't know how, most people just don't do it.

But we provide a unique unlimited support system that will help configure your cart for the promotions and events you want to have.

Of course when you host website for a bunch of home based businesses the big problem is the owners don't really understand or have any business experience. In many cases, they are starting their first business and sometimes it is nothing more than a granny knitting socks in her spare time and selling them. Or a stay at home mom that wants to make extra money hand making Christmas ornaments.

Whatever the case is, we often find ourselves talking about marketing, legal issues and taxes. We seem to end up being the go to resource for all things business and after dealing with thousands of them we have become business experts. So we help as much as we can not only with the websites but with as much information as we have available.

We find ourselves being business mentors and not just support helping people understanding their websites.

Small businesses make things harder, make us work harder and demand more for less. Larger store just go with what you have and don't make waves while the home businesss selling soaps with 100 different scents needs unique tools to accommodate their lack or resources, cash and products. They don't have the money to buy expensive software or programs that support tens of thousands of SKUs or Stock Numbers, they just run their business by product names and colors but they still demand the same tracking, inventory control and accountability.

It was very difficult when we started because so many people had so many different ideas and trying to incorporate all of those ideas into an easy to use ecommerce system was just not possible or logical.

For example, I spent 2 years arguing with people that I would not allow them to mix up the items randomly in the shopping cart pages. The wanted different items to show up rather than the same items on the default page. I told them over and over it just wont work and then finally after all the fights I added it in spite of my knowing it was ridiculous.

Then people call me and say, hey, this is ridiculous. Each page you go to has different items, so when people are shopping they can't see all of the items, it is just a random mess.

Yes, finally, showing the people made them understand. When customers complained about random pages, they got the picture. But in the process I lost loads of customers that felt if I would not give them that ability, they would go someplace else that would.

Some of the battles are won and some are lost. I lost that one because my customers could not see that they were wrong and that is on of the down sides of working with inexperienced retailers.

But the benefits are equally as great. Working with all types of businesses from wood carvers to artists painting watercolors and oil paints, artists creating pottery and ceramics, artists crating metal sculpters and garden art, seeing art at the highest levels and helping those artists sell their products to huge markets and share their amazing work with the world.

We get to impact peoples lives in a good way and at the end of the day that is more important than making money.

We feel good about what we do and provide and people are happy with our product and service. We are not over charging people and we have a great profit margin so everybody wins and that is our goal. We think people will stay when everybody wins and they think they are being treated fairly.

Without the small business, that is not even a concern for most host because they just keep taking advantages of fat cash cow businesses that have to pay their bills or lose their websites.

But for us, we need our customers to stay in business and to make money for us to get paid, so it is more of a struggle for us and we have to support them with more than just website building tips to make that happen.

After 10 years of working with boutique style businesses, ebay sellers, etsy sellers and similar retail shops we really do have a great program in place and our customer base in the boutique website hosting market continues to grow more and more each and every year.

If you run a boutique shop, take a look at our online demo, the tools we offer and give us a call. Lets talk about what we can do for you, what we can provide and more importantly, what you need out of your own website.

If it is a fit, great, if not, we will tell you from the first minute that we cannot support your business and it wont do what you need. We believe in being honest, fair and helpful, I don't think you will find that same philosophy on our competitors websites.