Burl Source
Weird Wood Pusher
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2011
- Messages
- 4,340
- Reaction score
- 7
I would like to do better at what I am doing with the Knife Handle Materials business. I figure the best way to figure out how to do that is to listen to what you have to say. Thank you in advance for any advice, encouragement or constructive criticism you are willing to share.
1st to give a little background.
I came to It's a Burl in 2005. Worked 1/2 time making items to sell in our galleries and 1/2 time selling wood over the internet. Mostly whole burls and burl slabs on ebay. By 2007 I was working full time selling wood over the internet primarily to guitar builders, artists and furniture makers.
In 2008 I started focusing on the knife makers and started doing my own wood stabilizing. After a couple years doing my own stabilizing I found that K&G could do better stabilizing for close to the money I was spending on chemicals to do it myself. It was a no-brainer to switch to getting my wood stabilized by a company who was thought of as one of the best in the industry. When I made the change to K&G there was a significant increase in sales.
In 2011 I started paying more attention to the Kitchen Knife world. Turns out I was oblivious to the fact that a lot of the knife handle wood I was selling was going on Kitchen Knives. After a few of my regular customers invited me here, I visited the Kitchen Knife Forums. I found out that there was a lot that I didn't know about kitchen knives, like everything. You guys have done a good job teaching me. I have several good kitchen knives now and my cooking has improved dramatically.
Before I joined the Kitchen Knife Forums I was scared to spend the money it took to get the Best of the Best figured woods for handle material. It was from the advice and encouragement of the forum members that I got up the guts to take a chance with the really good stuff. Since I began to carry some of the really high end woods sales volume has had another significant increase. Directly related to the willingness of the people on this forum to give good advice.
Now that I have made a short story long, I am asking for your guidance again.
Since I do almost all of my selling through my web store I was hoping to hear your impressions good or bad.
I know it is having a good impression on some because of the volume of sales.
But........I think it is leaving a bad impression on some people as well.
This is what I was hoping to improve.
Some of this concern is based on analytical reports I have run on my web store. The rest is that I feel that you need to constantly learn and improve or things begin to stagnate. The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
In my web store.
Just last month there were 110 abandoned shopping carts.
This means customers had selected pieces they wanted to get and for one reason or another did not complete the purchase.
There were also about 20 unconfirmed orders.
This means customers had added items to their shopping cart, gone through the checkout process but did not complete payment for their order.
I am not sure what is the cause of this.
What it means to me is "I am doing something wrong".
1st to give a little background.
I came to It's a Burl in 2005. Worked 1/2 time making items to sell in our galleries and 1/2 time selling wood over the internet. Mostly whole burls and burl slabs on ebay. By 2007 I was working full time selling wood over the internet primarily to guitar builders, artists and furniture makers.
In 2008 I started focusing on the knife makers and started doing my own wood stabilizing. After a couple years doing my own stabilizing I found that K&G could do better stabilizing for close to the money I was spending on chemicals to do it myself. It was a no-brainer to switch to getting my wood stabilized by a company who was thought of as one of the best in the industry. When I made the change to K&G there was a significant increase in sales.
In 2011 I started paying more attention to the Kitchen Knife world. Turns out I was oblivious to the fact that a lot of the knife handle wood I was selling was going on Kitchen Knives. After a few of my regular customers invited me here, I visited the Kitchen Knife Forums. I found out that there was a lot that I didn't know about kitchen knives, like everything. You guys have done a good job teaching me. I have several good kitchen knives now and my cooking has improved dramatically.
Before I joined the Kitchen Knife Forums I was scared to spend the money it took to get the Best of the Best figured woods for handle material. It was from the advice and encouragement of the forum members that I got up the guts to take a chance with the really good stuff. Since I began to carry some of the really high end woods sales volume has had another significant increase. Directly related to the willingness of the people on this forum to give good advice.
Now that I have made a short story long, I am asking for your guidance again.
Since I do almost all of my selling through my web store I was hoping to hear your impressions good or bad.
I know it is having a good impression on some because of the volume of sales.
But........I think it is leaving a bad impression on some people as well.
This is what I was hoping to improve.
Some of this concern is based on analytical reports I have run on my web store. The rest is that I feel that you need to constantly learn and improve or things begin to stagnate. The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
In my web store.
Just last month there were 110 abandoned shopping carts.
This means customers had selected pieces they wanted to get and for one reason or another did not complete the purchase.
There were also about 20 unconfirmed orders.
This means customers had added items to their shopping cart, gone through the checkout process but did not complete payment for their order.
I am not sure what is the cause of this.
What it means to me is "I am doing something wrong".