Name of your website?Fancy Glass by Gail
Your name?
Gail Lacey
Your Location (city, etc)
Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Designer Gail Lacey (me) presents a catalogue of her fabulous handcrafted jewellery. She combines semi-precious stones and Swarovski crystals in unique creations.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I wanted to expand my business and get more exposure and credibility for it.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
This was the only one. I did it myself and it took about 2 years. Needless to say I learned a a lot. I am proud to say I launched it Dec 15, 2007.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I started doing stained glass and fused glass under "Fancy Glass by Gail" and that evolved into fused glass jewellery pieces. The jewellery aspect took on a life of it's own! I became fascinated with the beauty of Swarovski Crystals and started incorporating them into pieces to compliment Semi precious stones. I love to "Bling them up" The name Fancy Glass by Gail has stuck and it's kind of too late to change.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
My creations are one of a kind items that I make myself. I've been told I have a unique sense of style. Usually my favorite piece is the one I'm looking at! I have extremely high quality standards and very good prices. Nothing less than perfection will do, Most other websites are just one page mine is a whole catalogue!
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
I would like to expand my business and to eventually have my pieces all over the world but mostly I would just love to make more jewellery.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
This is my passion. My friends say I'm on the edge of greatness. My business has grown a great deal and of course I keep buying new stock. Most of my money still goes into the business but I'm well stocked now and project much higher earnings in the near future. You have to spend money to make money.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would have one page with just text giving the properties of semi precious stones with a link from each stone to a corresponding piece of jewellery. I would add a description and picture of each category. I would also change quite a few things regarding inventory and checkout and tracking info. I would probably hire someone to take the pictures and do the blurbs.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
I would have to hire people but I could keep up.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
People understanding the difference between costume/junk jewellery and real stones and quality jewellery. As far as the website is concerned. Homestead(who I have my site through) were only newly set up for Macs there were a lot of glitches and they weren't the best at communicating. Everything took forever. They also didn't tell me my upgrade package with carts etc would put me back to square one with no way of using the info I had already inputted.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Doing the website and I would rather spend my time make jewellery than selling it.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Submitting it to the major search engines and sites like yours.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
I really didn't know what to expect. It helps mostly to give credibility. People don't seem to want to buy things they can't touch and feel so it's has been more of a preliminary part of the sale.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
I have only had it for 5 months and I use it in conjunction with other sales methods. such as sales in stores, trade fairs, parties etc. So far I will keep it.
What is your website address?
Fancy Glass by Gail
