People have asked if I sell the items I make, I haven’t really since there are legalities. I have investigated them a bit but not enough to feel comfortable selling to the public. It hasn’t been a priority since I have no real desire to mass make products. I want to formulate for each person, not the overall broader public. BUT, yep that lovely word, I do enjoy making things for people and they normally are introduced to my stuff by trying something I made for general use.
Given all this, I had decided a while ago that I would sell to my member base, but I hadn’t posted any herbal preparations (products) yet and it wasn’t on the top of the list until I got a phone call. My aunt visited last May, and I sent her home with a few of my products, and she fell in love with them, especially the pain cream.
She wanted to get more of the lemon balm glycerite I had given her and a few people she knows wanted to know how they could get the pain cream. This led to me letting her know more about the website and that I do sell to members but only to members. She said awesome I’ll let them know and off we went about our days.
This made me realize that if someone becomes a member looking for the pain cream, I need to have a page for them to find it or the status of if it is available or not. Given the hosting package I’m on I don’t have access to a shopping cart, but I can have buy now on each thing. This seemed not cool, so down the rabbit hole, I go looking for something I can use since I’m not ready to upgrade the site just yet.
I found a software that connects to my payment processor and I’m all good; I can even embed it into my site. I spend the 1-3 hours it takes loading the products into the form and getting everything laid out just like I want it. This includes loading pictures, writing product descriptions, setting stock levels, setting up shipping options, setting up coupon options, and general order options.
Then I go embed it into the site to see how it will look and crap, that doesn’t work so well. I don’t have control over how big the frame for the embedded site is and the sold-out buttons aren’t showing. That is not going to work.
I ended up settling for doing the order form outside of the website. A link pops open a new window with the order form, once you’re done checking out, it redirects back to Arizkatt’s Herbs. It isn’t what I would like but it is ok until I’m at a point where I can upgrade my hosting package.