20 Years ago Margie Greenberg got her start in the party planning industry. In her spare time she took cake decorating classes, learning how to make cakes and cookies for her family and friends that looked as good as they tasted. When Abbey graduated from college her older brother told her “You better sell Mom’s cookies!” and five years ago she started doing just that. Margie and Abbey opened www.flourpotcookies.com to sell decorative cookies and accessories. About two and a half years ago they moved their site to Volusion because of the greater flexibility they had when it came to making changes to their website and the 24/7 technical support they could get when they needed assistance. As Abbey explains, “Prior to using Volusion, we would have to pay someone to change a picture or add a product.  It just wasn’t cost effective. I like that I can update anything anytime and if I can’t figure something out, the tech support is very helpful.” Their customers benefit most from this freedom to make changes quickly and easily because they are always getting access to new products.

Less than a year ago they launched a whole line of new products- their corporate logo cookies. Margie and Abbey’s cookies have been featured on The Food Network, and Entertainment Tonight. They have garnered the praise of celebrities like Al Roker and have been featured at company events for FOX, Kenneth Cole, Jimmy Choo, Saks Fifth Avenue, Marriott, Federal Express and many more. They supplied specialty cookies for Madonna’s “Sweet and Sticky” national tour. The credentials go on and on! The Mother-Daughter duo has also written a popular cook book and always has a full schedule for their cookie making classes on weekends. Abbey comments, “We’ve had people come from Massachusetts to Texas for the workshops.  We have a cookie decorating book published- so the workshop is really a chance to take what you may have seen in the book one step further.” They even sell the same cookie cutters and accessories that they use to make their famous cookies so that you can bake like a Greenberg in your own home.

When asked what their customers liked best about their site Abbey states it is the ease of navigation and picture heavy content that keeps them coming back. (Although, it probably also has something to do with the mouth watering cookies.) Abbey’s comments bring to light an important Volusion feature- cost effective bandwidth. The Volusion platform is a great choice for sites with rich picture content because the more pictures your site has, the more bandwidth you can use up each month. Unlike hosting companies that cap you at a certain amount of bandwidth per month Volusion allows you to use as much bandwidth as your site needs and only charges you a minimal fee per gigabyte (GB) of bandwidth you go over your plan during the month. Oppositely, there are hosting companies that fall at the other extreme- offering your hundreds of GBs of bandwidth with poor reliability in their hosting services. Volusion provides only premium managed hosting as part of their monthly plans while allowing you to use the bandwidth your business needs to run. Margie and Abbey have certainly benefited from this freedom and reliability, with almost 900 product photos on their site for customers to browse.

Despite the size and fame of their business Margie and Abbey run www.flourpotcookies.com like a small personal family business. They match wedding invitations to create custom favors for no additional design charge. Any cookie coloring can be substituted for a different shade at no cost. Each cookie is individually wrapped with stylish packaging. Everything about their cookies makes the customer feel like they were designed specifically for them, because well… they were!

-Kate Pierce eCommerce Specialist

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Five years ago Nancy Jaeger started selling bridal and wedding accessories online. With everything from wedding dresses and jewelry to attendant favors and cake toppers on her site www.shopforbridal.com essentially the only thing Nancy does not sell to help achieve the perfect wedding is the groom! Nancy stays ahead of the competition by going to bridal shows nation-wide and making sure she stays at the forefront of the latest trends and styles. This dedication has paid off! Since switching from Miva to Volusion about three years ago Nancy has had almost 12,000 orders. As Nancy explains, “We needed more functionality, inventory features, ability to customize, and reporting. Every function you want with Miva is a plug-in.  Every time I installed a new plug-in (all from different developers) there was a fear that something could go wrong; and there is very limited support.”

She made the decision to move her site over to Volusion and has fallen in love with the product editing features, ease of adding new products, ability to set up discounts/coupons, the advanced phone order page, and customizable shipping options. Her favorite features, however, are the quick and easy reporting features like the Return on Investment (ROI) tracker.

Nancy’s brides also benefit from the Volusion software. As she explains “Customers love the reviews- being able to read what other brides think of the products. The one page checkout is a great feature also. It makes it very easy for them to buy.” These benefits to her customers are more than icing on the cake though- they are essential. A reason many online businesses like wedding sites fail is because the more important a purchase is, the more reassuring customers need before they feel confident enough to purchase. A bride-to-be is not going to go online and order just any dress or accessory, she needs to know that that product she is choosing is going to be everything she ever imagined it would be. Nancy is there for her brides every step of the way- offering free expert advice before customers even purchase and promotions like “super sale” items and free shipping when they are ready to make their selections.

With about 14 years of experience in the industry Nancy certainly knows what she is talking about when it comes to wedding fashion, but after these last five years running her online store she is definitely getting a reputation as an online business guru as well. Satisfied customers all over the country are offering up a toast to Nancy and www.shopforbridal.com. So what is Nancy’s advice to other online store owners?  She offers two suggestions:

• “Look at all of your options before you choose your online store hosting. Remember that the quality of your hosting will reflect the quality of your business. The last thing you need is your entire website going down due to cheap hosting.”

• “Get a professionally designed web site.  I have used the designers at Volusion to customize the look and feel of my web site and they did a fantastic job. The prices were reasonable and the design was absolutely beautiful!”

-Kate Pierce eCommerce Specialist

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CuddleWorks founder Jim Richardson did his homework before selecting Volusion as the e-commerce platform that provided the best fit for his business. Emphasizing great prices and excellent customer service, CuddleWorks specializes in high quality, plush and stuffed animals ranging from teddy bears of all sizes to farm and jungle animals. “For just over three months, we researched several e-commerce packages, ranging from “A” to Zen-Cart. Many had a good feature here, or useful process there, but none met the strict requirements we had for price and flexibility, until we found Volusion,” says Richardson.

The CuddleWorks online store at www.CuddleWorks.com has relied on the Volusion platform since it went live in December of 2007 with what Richardson describes as “instant success,” breaking $10,000 in sales within 10 weeks of launch. Richardson credits the Volusion support team for the seamless and quick launch of his online store, which enabled him to immediately capitalize on the holiday shopping season. “The transition between free template and fully functional e-commerce solution was quite seamless, and saved us some startup capital at the right time,” says Richardson, adding “truth be told, the free tech support over the phone, via email, and surprisingly enough, over live chat, were essential to our store going live so quickly.”

Free support and a combination of robust features led Richardson to choose Volusion as the right ecommerce solution for the CuddleWorks online store. Features such as real-time inventory control, coupon ad functionality and campaign tracking have proven invaluable to CuddleWorks’ business operations. Richardson is also pleased with Volusion’s advanced import and export features, which allow for integration with QuickBooks and feed submission to online shopping portals.

Having spent two months ensuring that CuddleWorks has detailed and vibrant product photos to represent its high quality stuffed animals, Richardson is particularly enthusiastic about Volusion’s vZoom feature, which displays a real-time, up close view of any part of a product when you roll over the product photo. The vZoom feature gives CuddleWorks shoppers an up close view of the company’s stuffed animals, emphasizing their quality craftsmanship and making for a rich shopping experience. “With the new vZoom feature - only offered by Volusion - and the quality of our photographs, we have positioned ourselves for even greater success,” Richardson says.

Richardson’s short and sweet advice to other online store owners stems from the months of extensive research he did before choosing Volusion to host his online store: “do it right the first time.”

-Pam Westbrook, Ecommerce Marketing/Copywriting

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Artisans in the Mediterranean and Mexico have crafted and painted intricate ceramics by hand for centuries, passing down skills of the trade from generation to generation. Today, mass produced ceramic replicas made in factories and sold in major retail chains threaten the livelihood of the very artisans who have spent generations perfecting this exquisite art form. With an appreciation for genuine, handcrafted ceramics and a commitment to superior customer service, one Norfolk Massachusetts based company is doing its part to preserve this ancient art form and defend the livelihood of indigenous artists in the Mediterranean and Mexico that have relied on the trade throughout history.

Since 2002, Prevailing Winds has hand selected authentic ceramics crafted by artisans primarily in Italy, Spain, Turkey and Morocco, and made them available for purchase through its online store. The company’s devotion to customer satisfaction is backed by its generous 90-day “Relish It or Return It” policy, promising customers a full refund for items returned in new condition within that timeframe.

After facing a multitude of limitations with a previous provider, Prevailing Winds owner Leslie Kirschner moved the company to a hosted Volusion storefront in February of 2007. “My previous provider was not a hosted solution, so I had to deal with performance and hosting issues on my own. I owned the software, but did not receive any updates without purchasing the newest version, so the capabilities were lagging behind other software options,” Kirschner says, adding, “the software did not provide any of the SEO capabilities that Volusion offers, so it was harder to achieve high search engine rankings, which is the primary way that customers find our site.”

Prevailing Winds has more than doubled its profits since the move to Volusion, thanks largely to improved search engine visibility afforded by Volusion’s SEO friendly architecture. Kirschner, of course, is more than pleased with these results, noting “the SEO capabilities have significantly helped customers to find us online. The continuing software updates and regular addition of new capabilities makes sure that we stay current with (or ahead of!) other web vendors.”

While most e-commerce businesses ship multiple identical products based on a single product photo, Prevailing Winds faced a unique need - showcasing the actual one-of-a-kind items offered through its storefront. Volusion’s dynamic shopping cart software gives Prevailing Winds the flexibility to display multiple unique designs for each product, enabling customers to view the actual hand-painted items for sale and giving the company an edge over the competition. “Our customers really, really appreciate the ability to choose their exact design on many items where each piece is unique. Most other web vendors do not offer this,” says Kirschner, noting “they also like the ease of navigation to find the subset of items that they are interested in and the ability to see detailed photos.” Volusion’s vZoom feature, which instantly displays an enlarged view when the mouse rolls over a section of a product, accentuates the intricate detail of the company’s hand-painted ceramics and gives shoppers an up close and personal shopping experience.

Kirschner’s emphasis on customer satisfaction and search engine friendliness shows that she knows a thing or two about success in the online arena. Her advice to other online store owners embraces the transcendent sentiment of the golden rule, “put on your customer hat. Think about the experience you want when you deal with online businesses,” and “treat people the way you want to be treated - with respect, honesty, responsiveness, and customized, personalized service.”

-Pam Westbrook, Ecommerce Marketing/Copywriting

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“We don’t just sell product, we sell and foster what the Peake brand is,” explains Chris Richards, founder of PeakeUSA, a grassroots clothing and apparel designer focused on encouraging a “vital balance of a relaxed mindset with an active attitude.” Offering a versatile selection of surf, snow and golf apparel, Richards has relied on the Volusion platform since the launch of his storefront, www.PeakeUSA.com, in November of 2005. Richards and the Peake team have since worked incessantly to build a well-rounded community around the brand while providing a customer friendly shopping experience through their online storefront.

Peake has relied on Volusion’s e-commerce platform as a cornerstone of its business from the start. “Volusion allows us to market, sell, and deliver our clothing to our customers, keeping our focus on our brand and our clothing, not the technology and backend to sell and ship it. The platform is easy enough to grasp for a team with minimal technical background but has enough horsepower and features to allow you to customize and do whatever you need given your specific market,” Richards says. Richards maintains an emphasis on providing a complete yet straightforward shopping experience for Peake customers, pointing out that customer confusion leads to lost sales. He notes that Volusion provides “easy to use, secure e-commerce with tools that allow our customers to see our products clearly, buy them easily and receive clear receipts and acknowledgement of shipment,” adding “Volusion has done a fantastic job building a very easy to use, customer friendly e-commerce platform.”

Peake leverages the power of the internet to communicate directly with customers and continually strengthen its brand. The Peake team stays involved with an active following of brand enthusiasts through contemporary social networks like MySpace, where it currently connects with nearly 1,400 friends and counting. Peake also heads up a proprietary social networking community called Peake Pals, where Peake fans can gather, network and make friends by creating profiles, uploading photos and chatting in forums. Through active and diversified social media involvement, the company effectively fosters a sense of camaraderie and personal connection with the Peake brand rarely achieved in the online marketplace.

Social media involvement, direct wholesale options and strategic e-mail marketing programs backed by Volusion’s robust e-commerce software have given Peake the edge it needs to compete with athletic apparel giants in the online arena. So what advice does forward-thinking business owner Chris Richards have for other online store owners? “If you have a great idea or good products, Volusion has all the tools you need to sell online effectively. They have done the heavy lifting on the technology, leaving you to work on your company, products, services or brand,” adding, “harness this power, market effectively, never give up and work your butt off.”

-Pam Westbrook, Ecommerce Marketing/Copywriting

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