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December 21, 2006
New Year, New Colours, New Yarns
Next year is going to be a big year for us at HipKnits. We have lots of new yarns, lots of new colours and lots and lots of new plans. The picture above shows 2 new colours that we're working on together with our new labels that we are going to be using. There will be a nice big sale on the first day that we open, many many discontinued colours, discontinued yarns etc at nice bargain prices.
What else is going to be new next year? You'll have to wait for most of it but here are a few points :
- new shopping cart software
- confirmation emails for all orders giving a shipping date
- free surface mail or first class postage on all orders
- option to upgrade to airmail or special delivery at a cost of GBP 3
- free patterns with every purchase
- lots more patterns for all yarns
- new shop opening hours, including one Saturday a month with big discounts
- lots more regular sales with new colours, new yarns and lovely prices.
Does that sound exciting enough for you?
Posted by Kerrie at 10:55 AM | Comments (7)
Comment Moderation
As a general rule I do not delete comments from any of my blogs. I am always open to discussion and interested in hearing people's views. I have freely admitted here that I have some issues getting all of my post out on time and if you go back through all the comments on the site you'll find many where people have highlighted to me that they haven't received goods or replies to emails.
However, I reserve the right to delete any comments that are not left in good faith. For instance, comments from people who don't have anything constructive to say and are not prepared to post their contact details. Complaints about service from people who have never ordered with us or emailed us and who are complaining because of something they have heard from someone else will not be allowed. I can take constructive critiscism or comments with the best of them, but I won't have random bitching or complaints made with no substance on my website. There are plenty of other places on the internet that you can go if you want to post comments like that.
Posted by Kerrie at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)
December 20, 2006
More on the postal issues
Some interesting points being raised in the comments section of the last post, I thought I'd open up the conversation again today.
Currently I send everything out first class post and I do get a certificate of posting. However, I also seem to have a large number of parcels that are either slow or don't turn up at all. I send out on average 50 parcels a day and probably have 1 or 2 a week that don't get to where they are supposed to go. Thats around 1%. Not great.
My policy on parcels that don't arrive whether they are large or small is that I either refund or replace. No questions asked, whether the parcel is 1 skein of yarn or 10 skeins of yarn. If I dont have the yarn in stock I'll offer an alternative / custom dye - whatever suits the person who placed the order. Royal Mail ask that you wait 15 postal days after sending something out first class before they will consider that it hasn't arrived, I don't make customers wait this long but will start the process of replace / refund within a week or so of non arrival. Obviously at this time of the year the postal service is slower than normal and parcels have been taking around 7 working days for first class. Not too impressive huh?
So what to do? Part of the reason for wanting a new system is to improve customer confidence. I've had a fair few complaints recently about non arrival of parcels and that's just not nice for anyone. I want my customers to feel secure in ordering with us and know that I will do my best to get their yarn to them as quickly, painlessly and cheaply as possible. Another part of the reason for change is just to get a more reliable service.
As was pointed out in the comments, recorded delivery would not help the 2nd part of the problem but it would help the first one. I think that customers would be more confident if I could give them a ref number when their parcel had been posted so that they could see that it was on its way. I know that realistically it is just as likely to go missing though, which is very frustrating.
The points raised about couriers being expensive and difficult to deal with logistically are good ones as well. I'm beginning to see that there is no clear answer here, apart from maybe to give customers the option of choosing how they want their parcel sent to them. Thanks for all your input so far in comments and emails, keep them coming so that I can really make an informed decision. Whatever I do next year has to suit all you lovely customers as much as it suits me, after all.
Posted by Kerrie at 01:42 PM | Comments (7)
December 19, 2006
Time to vote now...
I'm sorting out lots of bits for HipKnits next year and one area of the business that needs a major major overhaul is the way I post orders out. Royal Mail first class / airmail is no longer enough, it is causing me untold headaches with regard to missing orders etc. So, I need a new solution.
Here are my choices as far as I can see.
1 - do nothing and continue to charge around £2 or £3 postage on orders under £40 and send out Royal Mail first class and deal with the late deliveries / missing parcels / unhappy customers.
2 - charge a little more and send out all parcels recorded delivery. This is not my preferred option as it means more time standing in queues in the post office and would probably mean I have to charge £3 or £4 postage per order under £40.
3 - send out all parcels by courier. This one would be nice and easy. Guaranteed next day delivery on everything, all insured and signed for etc. However it is not cheap. The cost would be in the region of £5 per order and that would still be subsidised by me.
What do you think? I could maybe offer a choice when you place the order (must check and see how clever shopping cart software is) but again that's more admin overhead for me. Its not an easy one to figure out is it?
Posted by Kerrie at 04:06 PM | Comments (9)
December 16, 2006
Huge Thank you
If there was such a thing as a prize for the most thoughtful customer (and there really should be, don't you think?!) then Julie would have to be this weeks winner. Don't get me wrong, the vast majority of my customers are lovely people and I really enjoy seeing orders / emails come through from people who I've "known" for the last 18 months since I've been running HipKnits. However Julie really cheered up what turned out to be a pretty rubbish week last week by sending me a box of Thorntons chocolates as a thank you for replacing some missing orders that we'd been searching for. How lovely is that? Thank you so much Julie, you really made my week. x
Posted by Kerrie at 09:48 AM | Comments (1)
December 14, 2006
Miriam Felton Patterns
HipKnits are lucky enough to have in stock 4 gorgeous shawl patterns designed by Miriam Felton. They only arrived here about half an hour ago but I can't resist sharing them with you, here on the blog for a limited time only. I'm busy redesigning the site pages for New Year launch but in the meantime you'll be able to buy the patterns here, there will be kits available as well in the New Year...
Pattern number 1 - Seraphim Shawl. Requires 900 yards of fingering weight wool or wool blend yarn. Gauge 5 stitches per inch using 3.75mm needles. Finished size 72 inches across and 36 from neck to point.
£4 - this is for a printed copy on card stock folded to approx 1/2 A4 size, perfect to pop into your knitting bag.
Pattern number 2 - Icarus Shawl. Requires 1500 yards of lace weight wool or wool blend yarn. Gauge 5 stitches per inch using 3.25mm needles. Finished size 72 inches across and 36 from neck to point.
£4 - this is for a printed copy on card stock folded to approx 1/2 A4 size, perfect to pop into your knitting bag.
Pattern number 3 - Hidcote Garden Shawl. Requires 1300 yards of lace weight wool or wool blend yarn. Gauge 6 stitches per inch using 3.25mm needles. Finished size 90 inches across and 44 from neck to point.
£4 - this is for a printed copy on card stock folded to approx 1/2 A4 size, perfect to pop into your knitting bag.
Pattern number 4 - Lightweight Mountain Peaks Shawl. Requires 800 yards of light lace weight wool or wool blend yarn. Gauge 8 stitches per inch using 2.25mm needles. Finished size 60 inches across and 30 from neck to point.
£4 - this is for a printed copy on card stock folded to approx 1/2 A4 size, perfect to pop into your knitting bag.
Posted by Kerrie at 08:35 AM | Comments (1)
December 12, 2006
Phew
Wow, I never expected that kind of a response to the sale. Seriously, you guys know how to shop! 2 weeks after the sale started here I am having sent out over 400 orders and with another 200 or so to go for the rest of this week. Insane, but a lot of fun.
Our last posting day before Christmas will probably end up being next Monday. I'm caught up on club postings, the sale orders and other website orders will be out by Thursday this week. Any remaining wholesale orders will be shipped before next Monday and then I'm going to relax and spend some time finishing off hte website redesign and photographing all our lovely new yarns.
I think I've caught up with everyone who was waiting to get hold of me, if you still have an outstanding query please please please email me one last time and I'll get back to you. I'm down to less than 50 emails in my inbox now so beginning to feel in control and organised. For once.
Posted by Kerrie at 09:29 PM | Comments (2)
December 07, 2006
ARGH
So sorry about missing the sale update last night, we went Christmas shopping after Brooke's tennis lesson which was straight after school which included nativity plays and christmas parties. By the time we got home at gone 10pm the last thing I was capable of was updating the website, I barely managed to get up 2 flights of stairs and fall into bed.
Never fear though - the site was updated at 7 this morning and the half price cashmere sock yarn will stay there until 8pm tonight. Have fun!
Posted by Kerrie at 07:48 AM | Comments (9)
December 02, 2006
Sale again
Oooh, this is fun! The aran weight silk has ALL SOLD OUT so I've updated the sale page an hour early with all of our laceweight silk colours, again HALF PRICE. I didn't imagine that the 12 kilos of silk would sell out in less than 24 hours but its great that they did. Now we can concentrate over here on our plans for the silk range for next year, its going to be great!
Posted by Kerrie at 07:11 PM | Comments (3)
December 01, 2006
Festive sale news
The sale page today has the last 5 4 of our shawl kits on it, at half price. I will not be buying any more of this yarn to dye into shawl kits so these really are the last ones available. One other has already sold but the person hasn't let me know what colour they want yet so go and have a look and see if the one you want is still available.
This offer will end at 8pm tonight at which point we will have lots and lots of aran weight silk on special HALF price offer. That's down to just £3.50 per 100g, bargain prices. I'm not too sure what will be on offer tomorrow but its just possible that it will be lace weight silk at half price, followed by our new and beautiful range of hand dyed cotton / silk yarn at half price on Sunday and then on Monday I think it will be the Schaefer Anne sock yarn. Isn't this good fun?
Go and grab a bargain while you can!
PS - yes, I will combine shipping for the entire duration of the sale which is due to end next Friday. When you place your first order please note in the comments to seller section of the paypal form if you want me to hold on to your order until Saturday 9th December and post it then. Any orders received after the initial one will have their postage refunded and I'll ship everything together in one lovely parcel on Saturday 9th. This is still in time for a pre Christmas delivery, even to the US. So now you really have no excuse not to shop for some lovely bargains..
Posted by Kerrie at 03:21 PM | Comments (2)
Yarn - named!
Thank you so much for all your thoughts on the name that yarn post a few weeks ago. I had loads of fun reading through them all and must admit that I changed my mind so many times before I finally chose the winner which is...
Sea Glass
Thanks to Amanda in GA for coming up with that one, drop me an email with your address and I'll pop the yarn in the post to you early next week.
Posted by Kerrie at 07:35 AM | Comments (0)