Made you look! Kidding...
Don't worry, it's nothing bad, just want to offer up some information.
Please read on.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome To Walls & Time, an online boutique shop where you can find uplifting decor items for your home or office, and even your place of small business if this is a restaraunt, bar, cafe, gallery, salon/spa, gift shop, daycare, or clothing store. Finally, Walls & Time is where you can go to find unique, personalized items meant to be given as gifts to people who are celebrating a wedding, buying a new house, or well, being born! Currently I have only 3 pieces that offer customization for gifting, but this selection will grow bigger over time.
This article serves to inform you about important information about Walls & Time, such as what this store is all about. This means what goes on behind the scenes, how this business operates and who is behind it it all. On that note, please allow me to introduce myself! My name is Dionne Nadeau and I am a solopreneur and artist from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. In my opinion, disclosure is an important factor in building trust, which is the most important part of a good relatonship. In today's online world, people don't take as much time as they used to get to know eachother, for one reason or another, and sometimes peole nowadays will even have a long term relationship with someone for years without actually ever seeing them!
Since this is an online-only store and I hope to have a long lasting relationship with each one of my customers, I thought I would share some details with you in this article that I hope will leave you feeling like you know me a little better, and hope also that you learned a bit about Walls & Time and the products sold here as well.
GETTING PERSONAL
I slowly but surely built this ecommerce website, with the help of Shopify, called Walls & Time, since about the time the pandemic came to an end in 2022. During this period of time, I was in the process of deciding whether or not I was going to continue to work from home or not. I had worked in both investment administration and community work and childcare previously. My two kids were now living on their own. After exploring some options, I ended up staying at home, with my little dog and my long term partner in life, and chose to develop a home decor store using a dropshipping business model called print on demand. Amid a few other projects I was working on, I actually fell in love with designing wall clocks - at times it was difficult for me to stop and do something else!
THE BUSINESS MODEL
The print on demand way of business works well for me because it allows me to create and sell my own designs without the need to hold onto any inventory, or have any expensive printing equipment of my own. I basically just choose a blank product from a catalog, and then use graphic design software to create a design. I then just post a listing to my store using picures provided by the supplier, and lifestyle images I create with the help of Canva and it's AI Magic Photo Editing Suite, called "mock-ups". The actual product is only printed on and shipped by the supplier once someone makes a purchase from my store. This saves me time and money and allows me to outsource other parts of the business to professionals. Print on demand is a very eco-friendly and all around efficient business model to follow, because besides the personal benefits, there is not a lot of excess inventory that ends up in the landfill, which is a huge environmental benefit. Since I am not pre-stocking a store, I don't really need to hire any staff, pay to lease a shop, or pay for a whole lot of overhead. Its just me and my screen!
HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS
First, let me tell you that I love the events I already mentioned above: weddings, getting a new house, and being born. So it makes perfect sense for me to sell personalzed wall clocks that can be easily given as gifts at baby showers, housewarming parties, and weddings. Plus, we can give our kids or significant other gifts all the time and call it home decor, meaning it also makes sense to have things like "how tall am I" decals for kids, "fake window" decals for a small apartment dweller, and what it is that motivates me to continue to develop my store after a very slow start, and why I sell the products i do personal reasons and why decor is important, and why unique, personalized gifts are awesome and Fundraising info or mention here.
PRODUCT DESIGN
I will explain a bit more about my product design process to give you a clear idea of what you are getting when you make a purchase from Walls & Time.
I talk a bit about technology, software and Artificial Intelligence and how these tools come into play in my product creation and marketing efforts.
SOURCING SUPPLIERS AND PRODUCT CRITERIA
Sourcing my product suppliers is another area of business where part of my job is outsourced to professionals. Although I still do choose a handful of products from an extensive catalog, the suppliers I see laid out in one convenient place have already been pre-screened and vetted by a company that specializes in both printing and dropshipping. In this case, Printify is my production partner of choice. They provide some of the software, products, and support that makes this whole operation possible. Before I pick and choose which items to have my designs printed on and then listed in my store, Printify has already shortlisted the best suppliers for me. This company has grown exponentially over the last few years, and although I have had some challenges systemically and administratively because I live in Canada, or should I say because I don't live in the United States, I have nothing bad to say about Printify. They are supportive and professional - 100%.
SHIPPING AND SUPPLIER LOCATION
Once in the Home Decor section of the Printify catalog, I am mostly concerned with the following products:
Wall Clocks - Framed (Pinewood) / Unframed Acrylic"or "Glass"
Canvas and Poster Paper Art Prints - Framed / Unframed
Acrylic or "Glass" Floating Art Panels - Sets of 3 / 1
Reading Lamps - Tripod or Stem Side Table Lamps
Blankets for children
Window Coverings - Sheers / Blackout Panels
I always look for the supplier that will ship the same product from both Canada and the United States, depending on where the customer ordered from. Sometimes when deciding on a product, I need to settle for one out of two, but a supplier that can ship from two locations makes shipping less expensive, and therefore easier for me to provide free or discounted shipping to all my customers. I do not source any products from any other countries other than Canada and the United States, which makes Walls & Time a little bit more expensive than some stores out there that source their products from countries such as China or India where production costs are extremely low. And for the most part these suppliers are not located in both countries - that's just what I try for first - but are only in the states delivering to both locations, making my store a bit more expensive for Canadians also. This is unfortunate and I am always looking out for a way to solve this without separating operations.
Next, I choose the most environmentally friendly products possible, looking at factors such as printing inks used, wood treatments used, or types of packaging.
Finally, you will find here a section on each of my product suppliers provided through Printify, with information on packaging, shipping locations, and more, which can be read through entirely or just referenced if you should want or just need specific information at some point. This isn't exactly choice night time reading! But whatever you do please don't contact these individual suppliers yourself!
JONDO
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