New Feature Discussion - NC Shopping
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simplyserendipity
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Posted 7:54 pm, 10/26/2014
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As the owner of a small boutique in North Wilkesboro, I think this is a great idea! Our boutique features the works of many talented artists and craftsmen from across the state. In fact, we're committed to selling only NC made products. As with any small business, advertising and name recognition are two of the major challenges facing locally owned and operated stores. Seems like this added feature to GoWilkes would certainly help in both areas.
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hipower
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Posted 7:29 pm, 10/26/2014
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I'm a frequent user of the GW classifieds. This idea could possibly benefit consumers and local businesses while contributing to the general growth of the site. What's not to like?
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GoWilkes
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Posted 7:23 pm, 10/26/2014
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smalltownman (view profile) | Posted 9:58 am, 10/26/2014 | This sounds like a nice idea in theory, but as busy with the site as you claim to be, would you have the additional time to monitor a new feature and keep it up to date? And who would be responsible for settling a dispute between a disgruntled customer and the seller? |
We've just hired a 4th employee (part time) to help with data entry, which should give me more time to build and monitor the new feature. In theory! 
I hadn't considered the idea of settling a dispute, but it's an interesting one. I don't want to reinvent the Better Business Bureau, but considering that they only handle disputes between consumers and BBB members, I don't know if they have any relevance to the smaller businesses that we would mostly target.
So I guess that I could foresee us having to handle dispute resolution in the future, but maybe that's a "cross that bridge when we come to it" issue.
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smalltownman
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Posted 9:58 am, 10/26/2014
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This sounds like a nice idea in theory, but as busy with the site as you claim to be, would you have the additional time to monitor a new feature and keep it up to date? And who would be responsible for settling a dispute between a disgruntled customer and the seller?
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GoWilkes
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Posted 3:51 am, 10/26/2014
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Fins (view profile) | Posted 10:44 pm, 10/25/2014 | Because websites aren't cheap to setup and maintain, especially with e-comerce options. At least not for a new business. But as a business owner I would question getting enough traffic and sales through a small third party site to make it worth it. Why would someone come to GoWilkes to look for a product? That's the question that would need to be answered |
In the last 30 days, 51.24% of our traffic viewed the Classifieds on GoWilkes, so it appears that a significant number of our users are specifically here to look for a product.
I really don't know if merchants would sign up or not, though, which is the big question. Being in business for about 20 years, I recognize the value to it; there's very low overhead involved to increase exposure and sales, so it makes financial sense.
But at the same time, there are a huge number of businesses in the area that simply won't make any effort at all, whether it's due to a lack of expertise, confidence, or just complacency. I see businesses all the time that focus on their Facebook page with 50 "likes", while ignoring their website or other online media that has hundreds, even thousands of times the visitors.
With more than 5,000 small businesses in Wilkes alone, though, even 1% of them using the feature would make it worthwhile.
So I guess at this point, I'll send out a few feelers to local retail businesses and see what kind of response I get. If at least 20 businesses sign on, we'll move forward with this feature.
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moon-shine
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Posted 11:27 pm, 10/25/2014
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If and or when this feature gets going...I'm hooked!! 
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Fins
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Posted 10:49 pm, 10/25/2014
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It's sure not to look for things to buy.
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moon-shine
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Posted 10:47 pm, 10/25/2014
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Why do you come to Gowilkes Fins?
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Fins
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Posted 10:44 pm, 10/25/2014
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Because websites aren't cheap to setup and maintain, especially with e-comerce options. At least not for a new business. But as a business owner I would question getting enough traffic and sales through a small third party site to make it worth it. Why would someone come to GoWilkes to look for a product? That's the question that would need to be answered
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moon-shine
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Posted 10:41 pm, 10/25/2014
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@ Fins, I like my bourbon too.
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redfly
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Posted 10:37 pm, 10/25/2014
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I understand the Classified Buy and Sell on here since it does not require Credit Cards, Debits Ect.
Question, Why would a new Small Business want to go Through GW when thet can set up thier own web site for mere Dollars ???
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Fins
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Posted 10:36 pm, 10/25/2014
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As for existing features, saying that restaurants don't update their menus is no excuse. if it won't work right, then get rid of it. That would look better than having a bunch of options that are out of date.
Note from GoWilkes: a portion of this post was removed that was off topic.
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GoWilkes
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Posted 10:30 pm, 10/25/2014
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snowflake2020 (view profile) | Posted 10:22 pm, 10/25/2014 | This sounds like a great feature to provide small retailers with an extra medium in which to market their products. Would this just include new or handcrafted items or would it be similar to Ebay, offering both new and used options? I have had great success with GoWilkes in the past from everything to selling my used furniture to acquiring tenants for my rentals. Thank-you for providing this much needed service free of charge. |
I see no reason to not allow both new and used items, as long as it's marked as so. I should be able to set it up so that each retailer could categorize their items in any way that they want.
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GoWilkes
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Posted 10:28 pm, 10/25/2014
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Fins (view profile) | Posted 10:12 pm, 10/25/2014 | Still seems to me it would be more logical to fix and improve the stuff you have before adding more features. The restaurant section is never up to date, and the automated disciplinary system never works right now. |
Fix what? Improve... how? Other than what we've already discussed at length previously, I mean.
I can't force restaurants to update their information. And the "automated disciplinary system" (I like the name) looks like it's working fine to me.
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GoWilkes
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Posted 10:28 pm, 10/25/2014
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I removed a few posts that were off topic and/or trolling.
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snowflake2020
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Posted 10:22 pm, 10/25/2014
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This sounds like a great feature to provide small retailers with an extra medium in which to market their products. Would this just include new or handcrafted items or would it be similar to Ebay, offering both new and used options? I have had great success with GoWilkes in the past from everything to selling my used furniture to acquiring tenants for my rentals. Thank-you for providing this much needed service free of charge.
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Fins
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Posted 10:12 pm, 10/25/2014
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Still seems to me it would be more logical to fix and improve the stuff you have before adding more features. The restaurant section is never up to date, and the automated disciplinary system never works right now.
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GoWilkes
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Posted 10:02 pm, 10/25/2014
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Fins (view profile) | Posted 9:50 pm, 10/25/2014 | And who would process the credit cards? Who's taking the liability for any cc information that is stolen? Even if you are completely clear of all liability, if something were to happen, how much damage would that type of PR do to your site? Target is still feeling the breech that they had happen a year ago. |
It's obviously still in the research phase at this point, but I had a few thoughts on it.
Although this is completely up for discussion, I'm thinking that merchants could either opt to supply their own merchant account, in which case they would be responsible for all liability, or for a small fee we could use our merchant account and manually approve all purchases before they are sent on to the merchant.
Naturally, if it's going through us then we're going to err on the side of caution.
We may end up having to require merchants to supply their own account, anyway, though. An Authorize.net account is only $10 /month through the company we use, so it would probably be cheaper for them than to pay us a fee, anyway.
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Fins
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Posted 9:50 pm, 10/25/2014
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And who would process the credit cards? Who's taking the liability for any cc information that is stolen? Even if you are completely clear of all liability, if something were to happen, how much damage would that type of PR do to your site? Target is still feeling the breech that they had happen a year ago.
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