Confessions of a shopping cart-a-holic…or how I chose my eCommerce Shopping Cart.

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Sheryl Checkman

As some of you might know, I have been busy starting up a new online business selling a new line of inspirational t-shirts that I have designed. The easy part was designing the shirts. I did that a couple of years ago. I came up with a design and a name. I then trademarked that name (Life is Balance^®) and copyrighted the designs. And then I tried to get them licensed. Simple, right? It didn’t turn out to be so easy. While at first it seemed that I was on my way to a great licensing deal, sure to put my designs on the map, it didn’t quite unfold the way I had originally anticipated. But, not wanting to give up what I still thought a good idea, I decided to go another route – produce the t-shirts myself and sell them online.

In order to do that I needed an online store. For that I needed an eCommerce website with a shopping cart. I started to do some research into what the best hosted shopping cart were. Since I spent a lot of time doing the research I thought I’d share my findings in the hope that someone else can benefit from my legwork. I know that when I was in the trows of trying to make a decision, I would have loved to read what someone like me had decided to do, and why.

I googled shopping cart and got to an independent review site: zippycart. They explain all the pros and cons of the top hosted shopping carts, compare pricing, ease of use, and various other factors in order to help you choose which cart to go with. They even let you pick different carts to see a side by side comparison. From their advice, as well as entering into various discussions on Linkedin, I picked two carts to try out. I learned that most reputable shopping carts will give you the opportunity to try them out for free for a few weeks, in order to see if they will work for you.

I tried out two shopping carts for their free trial: Core Commerce and 3D Cart. I tried adjusting the templates to make my store look the way I wanted to. It was pretty simple with Core Commerce to make changes to a selected template since I didn’t need FTP access to change the CSS (although I have ftp access now) and play around with changing buttons, colors, images, etc. I didn’t find 3D Cart as easy (although to be fair I didn’t try that hard).

I called customer service at Core Commerce several times and found them very helpful and didn’t have to wait long to speak with a live person. I have since found their customer service excellent. They are only open during business hours but since I do want a life (life is balance, after all), I don’t think that will be an issue. When I call customer service, I get a live person pretty quickly with very little hold times in most cases. They do have an online ticketing procedure so that I can send a question by filling out a ticket request after hours and I find that I often get pretty quick responses, even after hours. When I tried calling customer service at 3D Cart I was on hold so long that I finally hung up.

The other main reason that I chose Core Commerce was the pricing plans. I am currently in the lowest cost plan ($19.95/mo) which is the same as 3D Cart’s lowest cost plan but I get up to 100 products with that plan and then for $24.99 I would get 200 products. 3D Cart’s $19.95 plan gives you only 50 products and the next plan up is $35.99 for 100 products. So economically, Core Commerce gave me better options for growing my product line.

My site was relatively easy to set it up. Anything I didn’t understand I called Customer Support and they walked me through it. Being a graphic designer, I do know some html and css so I was able tweak the template in order to make the design my own. If I had a question on coding, all I had to do was post my question in their forums, and someone, either a company representative, or another shop owner, replied with the answer that I was looking for. I only needed a web developer to help me with a few adjustments that I couldn’t do on my own. All in all I am happy with my choice and my ecommerce website is now live and open for business. Now all I need are some customers 🙂

Life is Balance^® T-shirts Debut!

Posted on November 20, 2010 by Sheryl Checkman

Celebrate the balance we add to our lives through activities that make us smile!

The first Life is Balance t-shirts have been printed and I am excited to be selling them this Sunday, November 21 in Fort Lee, NJ at Congregation Gesher Shalom (the JCC): 1449 Anderson Avenue, Fort Lee, NJ from 10:00am-2:00pm.

If you can’t make it out to New Jersey, I will also be at PS 183 in NYC : 419 East 66th Street on Tuesday, December 7 from 5:00pm-9:00pm.

The designs, all based on a yin yang symbol, are specific to a particular sport, activity or lifestyle choice. I have over 30 different sport and activity designs that will be produced. The first 4 designs that are available are: Yoga, Ski/Snowboard, Peace and The Environment. To see the other designs, please visit my website, checkmandesign.com

We’ve got shirts for men, women and girls so come join us at one of our upcoming events and get your holiday shopping started early!

Taking a Risk

Posted on October 26, 2010 by Sheryl Checkman

This is the Yoga design. My intention is to make a big success out of this brand!

If you’ve checked out this blog before, you’ll know that I started it when I designed my Life is Balance® line of t-shirts. I went through the process of registering the trademark and then found myself an agent and waited for the licensing deals to walk through the door. At first it seemed like this was the way to go. There was interest in the brand and a manufacturer agreed to take the license and promised us great sales. Then the economy hit a low and retail stores just weren’t looking to add a new line to their already unsold stock. I sat back, a bit depressed, I’ll admit, and did nothing other than wait, hoping that my agent would call me with news of another licensee. So far that hasn’t happened.

Rather than let that keep me down, I have decided to try to get my designs out there on my own. A risk, but one I hope will pay off big. I think that Life is Balance® will speak to people like me – people who work hard and play hard too. We all have our sports and activities that balance out the hard work that we put into our careers and family. These inspirational t-shirt designs pay homage to the yin and yang of work and play. I’m hoping that I’ll find a niche where these designs will fit in. I’m about to produce 5 of my designs (out of 30+ sport/activity/lifestyle designs) to start and will be selling them at some craft shows and flea markets within the next couple of months. With the holidays coming up, these shirts will make a nice gift!

I’ll be producing both men’s and women’s styles, on nice quality, light-weight cotton jersey (3.7 oz for women and 4.3 oz for men). The styles are soft and fitted for a more fashionable look and feel. You can view all my Life is Balance® designs here.

I am anxious to get a feeling for the sports or activity designs that most appeal to you. So, if you feel so inclined to help out a designer, please post your favorites in a comment.