Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpedhuez55
For a small store...shopping carts can be a problem. If someone puts in an order for something online and they run out of it...you may see that person going on all the message boards trashing them for not having it in stock.
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This may happen but it would be the same as peddling anything online when there are many one of a kind pieces offered. At this point they seem to tag the item w/ a "sold" tag which works well. If they had an online store (less the Ebay store option I offered up earlier) the payment is usually not processed until everything is close to being boxed and ready to go. If the item did happen to sell out a simple email or call from them (Boswell's) could quickly clear up the situation, usually with out much fuss but maybe a bit of disappointment. I know people can be unreasonable sometimes. We face that anytime we deal with the public.
I also wish their business to increase, growth is the hope of almost every business, and the possibility of need another hand may very well be necessary in the future. This only means that their products and services are sought after. All good things
Expanding their business doesn't mean they need to lose their family atmosphere and top notch service that I get the impression they offer.
I could see a larger online presence causing stocking issues in the fact they make beautiful pipes and they may sell out quite often. Hell I have a few of their pieces on my wish list now.
The online shopping option is a natural next step in the process and I hope they seriously consider it, which I would expect they probably have.
Ultimately I think I ended up steering this thread away from the OP's original question and I apologize, it just kind of morphed in a related matter away from his original inquiry.
Chris