Part 2 : Site design and seasonal sales

All those product images must have taken a lot of work - how do you generate the images to such a consistent quality and do you worry about the possible effect on downloading times (although I've noticed the site downloads very fast)?
All of our charms were scanned on an HP ScanJet, then brought into Corel PhotoPaint for cleanup and resizing. This wasn't the best method, obviously, but at the time (and when our inventory was a lot smaller) it seemed to work well. We now have a digital camera which makes things go a lot faster.

We have tried to keep an eye on download times by resampling each image to as low a resolution as possible without losing too much detail, but there's only so much compression one can do. We hope that when a customer sees the charms on the top of a page loading, they'll be interested enough to wait a few seconds for the rest of the page. Our web host is Concentric (has been since October 1999) and we've had very few complaints about our download times.

want to take a look at the seasonal angle, if I may. When does the "Christmas" season begin in earnest?
Probably in mid to late October. Last year (1999) was our first Christmas, so it's a little hard to tell when it will begin in earnest.

What kind of sales increase can you expect?
If last year was an indication, at least a 50% increase, possibly more.

And does this increase bring any special problems for you?
Not in terms of our website, but in the time it takes for order processing, pulling, and shipping, yes. Twice as many orders means twice the amount of time for getting them out. It will be difficult at times in November and early December, but we are well-prepared for it.

Do you have any special plans for making the most of seasonal gift-giving, perhaps new product lines?
We actually have a brand new website that will be ready to launch sometime in September. It will also be sterling silver, but instead of charms it will have bracelets (heavier cuff and link styles), omega chains, men's jewelry, rings, baby and kids' jewelry, necklace sets, and Christmas items too.

Finally, 18 months after launching the website, how would you reflect on your success and where do you see Silver Fantasy in another 18 months?
It took about 6 months for business to really begin, but since then it's been much better than we originally hoped. Major innovations like adding a shopping cart in February 2000 have significantly increased sales for us. In another 18 months, it's kind of scary to think what could be happening with the business. If things continue as they have been, we may have to find some employees.