I was told that this site was very female oriented. And well I must admit it is. My interests tend to be female oriented (especially as I am female). But besides, honestly, how much do you reckon I could speak about things like Yamaha rhino parts?
There is nothing I love more than organising a wedding. The fun of shopping that goes with it is endless. The money for shopping that goes into it… huge! The amount of wedding ideas that I have are endless.
Now to talk my hubby into renewing our vows ….
A friend of mine begged me to order some items from Fiesta Craft online. Now as you can imagine, I don’t need much of a push to hit the shops!
I went to the site to see what she was after and instantly had difficulties. To start with there is no search function. How can you not have a search function on a sales website?
I told her to place the order herself and have delivered to my house. Apparently she couldn’t as she needed a UK credit card as well as a UK address and they must match. She could not get the order to work.
I reluctantly agreed to place the order. I noticed they offer a search for stores facility. I thought, perhaps I can hit their shops rather than their site. This did not work. Not for the Isle of Man nor for England.
She told me what she wanted. I had to manually go and start each item from the beginning. You would think that you could pick and continue picking. Not the case. At least you could adjust the quantity from your order cart.
You had to pay via paypal. Still not sure if this is a positive thing or a negative. I currently have issues with paypal and would prefer to avoid using them. I think if they offered the option of using paypal or another method it would be positive but using only paypal is not a positive thing in my books. I also hate inputting my banking details in another sellers website. It does not feel safe at all. Perhaps it should open in a new window? On the plus side, the transaction was quick and easy. You did not have to log in or create an account. They take your email from your paypal account. This again might not be a good thing as I have different paypal accounts but predominantly use just 1 email! The email you get is also very basic. But I suppose basic is as good as any.
The worst of it, is there is no real contact facility (it is a noreply email address) and no ability to keep track of your order.
Over all, not a site I happily recommend. Now if they do improvements and want me to re-review it, I will gladly consider it. But reality I think they really need to improve it if they want to move from the amateur market to the professional! This is particularly bad as they try to hit both the wholesale and retail market on the same site!
I was also not able to find any affiliation, recommendations or discount codes. Says a lot doesn’t it?
There are all sorts of shopping. You can shop for necessity (grocery shopping), you can shop for pleasure (my favourite type – clothes, jewellery etc) and you can shop for business (stationery, wholesale, and businesses themselves). As a shopaholic, I have practically experienced all types of shopping. I have obviously bought groceries, and obviously shopped indulgently (otherwise I would not be a shopaholic) and I have shopped for my business. I have even shopped for property. I have however never actually gone through with a franchise purchase before.
You see, the thing about franchises is they have many negatives and many positives. Weighing them all up takes time and effort. It is not like buying a £10 top and if you then decide you don’t like it, you just stick it into the back of your wardrobe or give it to charity. We are talking multi thousand pound purchases.
If you ever get the franchise opportunity, do look into seriously. You need to remember that even if it is a successful business it might not work for you. McDonalds might be a well known franchise but opening another McDonalds right next door to someone else’s McDonalds would be counter productive. You would be sharing your revenue at best!
My issues with Franchises is that they have to be run the way the mother company decides. This is probably a good thing as it sets out parameters which have proved to be successful. However this limits your choices. For example you cannot have a Burger King Franchise and sell 7-UP because they have a multi billion deal with their own soft drinks company for exclusivity.
They can also be expensive versus setting it up yourself. For example buying a Subways franchise would cost you lots because it is Subways, where as setting up your own sandwich shop will be a negligible cost in comparison. However, the upside to the spending the money upfront is that everyone has heard of Subways. And if you have a choice of Subways or that new shop on the corner that no one has ever heard of before… where will you buy from?
Do you see my point?
So essentially do consider franchises seriously but do also consider the ties they come with. My current thoughts are for owning a Burger King or Pizza Hut Franchise in the Isle of Man. Neither are available in the Isle of Man. A winner surely? I had to give up on trying to Franchise my business… it was really hard work and I wasn’t a multi million dollar business!
Christmas is upon us and I can bet that you are busy shopping away. I thought of a quick and easy gift to send to all my relatives overseas. Cheap to post and very personal. I am talking about photos!
And to make it even better, besides being able to claim 50 free prints by clicking the link below, I have a code for all shopaholics to get a fiver off your photos! If you spend £20 or more on gifts and prints, you can get £5 off your order.
Simple as 1, 2, 3! No need to call Owen for PC Support!!
Note – The offer excludes Kids collection and Photo Fashion and is valid until midnight 31st December 2008. Standard Photobox terms and conditions apply.
