Join in the experience of having your own shop. Don't worry if you don't have a website or know how to do paypal. We will gladly walk you through all you need to do step by step. It's all part of the CDS service. Read on.......
GUIDELINES
For Prospective Shop Owners
Couture Doll Shop.com (CDS) is the name of our venue located at:
http://couturedollshop.com/
Please read our guidelines carefully. They are intended to help you determine if you'd like to join us.
Management
The people behind CDS are a group of doll collectors who met while doing online doll design competitions. Dot Festeu's business acumen was the catalyst for having her lead CDS in the position of Mall Management. She will be your main contact, and the person who is responsible for getting your shop up, and generally helping you when you have a concern.
Larraine Elcock has the technical expertise and hosting ability to make our website. The rest of our members remain as anonymous founding members of this project. They make up our Board of Directors (Board), and have played a major role in developing CDS, and continue in the decision making process.
Goals and Game plan
Whether you have a brick and mortar store or an online store, there are necessary criteria we have to meet to stay in business and achieve a profit.
To meet our goals we are focusing on a power in numbers theory which simply means:
We have to have enough shops with varied doll merchandise to entice collectors to come in, explore the shops, and make purchases, so we strive to develop a one-stop shopping destination. We have to have the proper amount of advertising to ensure people will not only come to CDS initially, but that new shoppers will continue to find us. For our goals to be realized we will need CDS to generate enough capital to advertise and maintain itself. Toward that end we are choosing to generate these necessary monies through small fees from many merchants rather than large fees from a few. By doing this we feel our merchants will have a greater expectation of profit and will stay and be valued, established businesses that our clients will want to shop with for years to come.
Our plan is not new. It is a business plan that has worked successfully for other industries, and we believe it will work in our venue. We are ready to achieve all our goals; are you ready to be a part of it?
Shop Owner Requirements
Website available
To be a part of CDS you will need a website, or you need to be willing to have one. It cannot be an online store in another location. We do not want to drive traffic anywhere but to CDS or to your specific shop. However, if you do not currently have a website, do not despair. Once you sign up our step by step process will guide you through this even if you have never thought of doing a website yourself. Our current shop owners say this Is the way to go if you want to be independent by having your own website! The cost for our set of lessons and online help every step of the way in developing your website is included with your one low cost subscription fee.
Of course, you also have the option of doing it yourself if you feel confident enough to do so. Please note CDS is not affiliated with any web hosting service and receives no revenue if you decide to use a suggestion generated from the CDS Mall Manager. You will be the only one to make a final decision on your web host.
Website modifications No matter where or how you host your new or pre-existing website it will be required to have an onsite shopping cart or another method for receiving payments directly. You cannot just ask your buyers to email you to make a purchase. Impulse buys are often lost that way!
If you don't have a shopping cart, it is relatively easy to modify your site, and we'll give you step by step information for adding a Paypal shopping cart. Our reasoning behind that is we want each shop owner to have a method for receiving payments that is efficient and professional. There is no setup or monthly fee from Paypal, and their fees are the same as used by other venues such as eBay or etsy. We are not affiliated with Paypal and receive no compensation from them, either. It is just an easy way to do this. The cost for this service is also included with your subscription. Of course, you can choose to do your shopping cart on our own if you would know how.
You may also choose to use another method other than Paypal to modify your site with a shopping cart - such as Google or other checkouts; you just need to submit the type of shopping cart you wish to use to the Mall Manager for review, and get approval to ensure it works properly so we'll know you have a functioning shopping cart.
But having an online shopping cart does not mean you cannot take any other form of payment such as checks or money orders. If you feel comfortable doing this, you can designate the other methods you take in your store policy, and even put a little notice on the front page of your website. A shopping cart on your site just ensures you have one reliable way of receiving payments.
Website maintenance
You will own your shop, set your policies, and keep your website up to date (still with help as needed). Your store policy is very important because your customers will expect you to live by it. Some things you might want to consider including will be information about returns, shipping, accepting foreign sales, layaway (if an option), and anything else that might present a problem if you are not crystal clear in stating how you will handle it. Have a distinct place on your website for your store policies, and encourage your customers to read them before purchasing to avoid any misunderstandings. So many problems can be averted simply by having your store policy in place.
Shop owners will be pleasant and efficient when dealing with customers. If you encounter a problem you can, at your own discretion, bring it to management for suggestions. If we receive complaints we will have to address them, but this just hasn't happened. We do everything we can to make this a rewarding shopping experience for everyone.
Regular maintenance should be scheduled to ensure: 1. Only current offerings are listed. 2. Your Paypal buttons are set correctly/modified for current store stock. 3. No broken links exist anywhere on your site. 4. You report changes/additions in links to Mall Management. If you don't take care of this maintenance, your customers will just become frustrated and leave your shop, and maybe the entire mall!
We realize you'll need some off time, so during those times you can hang a sign indicating you are on vacation, have run off to Paris with your beau, or whatever you feel appropriate. You just need to tell shoppers if you are not going to be available to take your payments and ship your product. This can be done with a typewritten notice or a graphic placed on your home page. Remember to indicate the dates you'll be unavailable, also. You can also notify the Mall Manager by email and your client list via your mailing list. This is all part of giving good customer service.
Quality Assurance
It should go without saying that shop owners will only sell quality items because we all want to have a quality mall. Taste is subjective, so when we talk about quality assurance at CDS what we are saying is whether you sell new or used, or even resale items, your listings need to include descriptions that honestly reflect each particular item.
We all need to work to satisfy our customers so they will not only return, but will also recommend us to others. And, no, Mall Management will not be policing your site for discrepancies. However, if they are brought to our attention, we will have to address them...again, none have been brought to our attention to date.
Also, providing new and interesting items serve to help ensure return visits, and can even bring in new customers looking for these new products. And, you can also join the CDS FTK list to show your new items. You may place pictures in a photo album on there, and you can also feel free to send customers to your website by indicating your link. We hope you will remember to have a CDS banner on any page you link to from CDS or the ftk list. This is how we cross promote throughout the Mall.
We require that you only sell dolls or doll related items in this mall. That is not to say you may not add something like a little dog to your inventory, but it needs to be a small enough dog to work with the doll size you are using it with! For example, a dog that is just the right size for your doll to hold in her hands works. But it would be stretching it to sell candles because you included one in your doll's bedroom diorama! If you are selling non-doll items we will ask you to remove them from your shop immediately.
Advertising
Shop owners should join management in working to generate traffic to CDS and their shop. This is not required, but is in your best interest because advertising will bring in both prospective shop owners and customers. Maximizing the number of merchants we have will keep our fee schedule low, and entice even more buyers to shop CDS. Some ways to do this are:
Putting a CDS link or banner in your email or on your website
Posting to groups doll boards, Facebook, or wherever you're talking dolls about new things in your shop or Happenings for CDS.
Find inventive places to advertise such as putting a link on your eBay mepage.
Your management team will perform similar tasks. We also have an advertising plan which includes advertising in doll resources (doll boards, groups, magazines, etc.) as well as generating articles in doll magazines. We also aid in your self-promotion by offering monthly Happenings to be displayed on the CDS blog. And, we have our CDSMerchants Yahoo group just for shop owners, that provides some valuable information from shop owners themselves as well as information from your manager!
Our management team consists of doll collecting artists who want to see many doll artists succeed. If we haven't addressed any questions you may have, please feel free to use the Contact Me form on this website to email me. Let's do this together!!
Want to join?
If so, you can click on Application on the menu bar top left on this website. Then fill in the required information, click submit, and you are done! That is how easy it is to get started!! I hope to hear from you soon!