No Monkeys or Ponies were Harmed in the Making of this eCommerce Product
‘Round about 18 months ago, Mer and I realized that e-commerce options for crafters were…complicated at best. Since then, we’ve spent nights and weekends in our secret lair, taking things apart and putting them back together again, naming and renaming, fussing, swearing, and fussing some more. There’s still plenty of fussing and swearing to be done, but in the grand tradition of mad scientists everywhere, I stand back, shake my fists at the sky, and proclaim “It’s Alive!”
Meet Bob. Bob is the mascot for Wicked Plum, our new surprisingly sweet e-commerce product developed especially for artists, crafters, musicians, makers, and microbusinesses who need an easy way to get their products in front of their online customers. It’s a comprehensive hosted solution, built on open-source software, that’s designed to be easy for average folk to use and comes with plenty of free support. Other than some basic hosting- and software-related legalese, the user is free to run their own shop however they’d like – and it all happens on their domain, not on someone else’s. Did I mention the integrated blogging feature? How about the free shop designs?
Wicked Plum is currently in limited private beta. The next batch of beta invitations goes out sometime tonight, with the subsequent batch heading out in the beginning of March. Our first crop of beta sites is starting to find its way across the internet now…
The first Wicked Plum shop to break free into the wilds of the web was our very own jewelry store, Sweet Tarragon. This was, after all, where the whole thing started: we wanted to sell online but weren’t happy with any of the options, so we decided to build our own. This is a custom design, created to match the new-ish logo (the ST brand got an overhaul late last summer.)
Next up, we have Om Shanti Handcrafts. This was also a custom design, inspired by Kate’s existing logo and color palette. Kate left on an extended business trip just as the site was ready to go live, so watch this space for grand opening details. Her shop is waiting on a development server for her return, at which point it will call OmShantiHandcrafts.com home.
To keep up with Bob’s antics, follow @wickedplumshops on Twitter or subscribe to the Wicked Plum newsletter.
dani made this mess on February 9th, 2010