Positive Yarn

We’re 12 days into 2012, and I’ve been thinking about the aging customer. The needlework industry is full of intricate designs and challenges for the experienced stitcher, but what about when that stitcher can’t hold the needle or see the pattern as well as he or she used to?

With the Winter TNNA and CHA shows just around the corner, I asked a couple colleagues to help me put together a roundup of newer products that could be of help to your older customers. Are you stocking the following at your shop?

The RS Easy Count: Connie Barwick, who guides the cross-stitch discussion at About.com and also owns Connie Gee’s Designs, confirms that this product can help stitchers old and young alike keep an accurate stitch count as they work a pattern. ”It slides through the fabric very smoothly, so it is quick to insert and remove,” she says, stressing she’s not a compensated endorser — just a stitcher who believes in its usefulness. “It is easier to use for the purpose of gridding than regular fabric because the needle slides past it when you are stitching instead of sliding into it, making it nearly impossible to remove the gridding floss such as when you use silk.  It doesn’t mark the fabric, either. I use it a lot on large projects.”

Craft Optics: These telescoping lenses are made to fit on glasses, and feature a clip-on light. Barwick notes they are particularly wonderful for over-on stitching: “If your eyes won’t cooperate, these are worth it!”

Barwick says that, like many stitchers, her eyesight is gradually getting worse. “I do have to change the way I stitch,” she says. “My patterns need more marking off, I need to make working copies more often, count more often, use stitch markers, take a little more time and just allow myself to adapt! Also, better lighting makes a big difference.”

Marketing idea: Try creating an “Easy on the Eyes” display that showcases your lights, magnifiers and stitching aids. Echo the product array on a table during your next class, so students can try before they buy. Your customers may discover that they can stitch longer and more enjoyably with a little help from their friends (at the shop).

Barb Grossman, who is preparing to host the 8th Annual Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival over Valentine’s Day weekend, has a few additional ideas for older knitters and crocheters:

Laurel Hill Forest Palm Triangular Knitting Needles: With a long taper and sharp point, these handmade, sustainable-wood needles are “guaranteed not to roll away.” Recent reviews note that they seem easier for arthritic hands to hold for longer periods. Here’s hoping a crochet hook version isn’t far behind!

Block and Roll: “This one has so many uses,” Grossman says. “It’s easy to take along wherever you go. You could even use it for doing puzzles.” Available from The BagSmith, it can accommodate multiple project sizes for knitting, crocheting, quilting, sewing, needlepoint, cross stitch and scrapbooking. Its Teflon-coated surface resists heat and water, so users can steam and wet-block to their heart’s content.

Interchangeable needle sets: I know from family experience that when a senior needleworker downsizes from a home to an apartment or even assisted living facility, he or she also loses valuable stash space. Rather than trying to shove a lifetime of hooks and needles into a drawer or box, where they can be misplaced and forgotten, why not have all sizes at one’s fingertips, with products like Denise (Santa Hubby brought me the Breast Cancer Awareness set this year!), HiyaHiya or addi Click? Chances are good you already have these products in stock, but are you marketing them to your older customers, and to customers who have mothers, grandmothers, etc., who might appreciate the way they take the weight of their arms and wrists?

Marketing idea: Mother’s Day is not far away. In your shop, sponsor a “Who Taught You?” gallery of customers’ mother-daughter projects, photos of them stitching with their grandmas and/or grandkids, small postcards of memories of being taught how to knit by a favorite neighbor. Host a special evening event where everyone can look at the display — and participants can get a special one-time discount on supplies and accessories. Don’t forget to call your local paper and let them know you’re seeking such items, and invite the reporter to come cover the event when it occurs. Reading about it and bringing up fond memories could be the push someone needs to stop by your shop, after letting many years elapse since they picked up the needle.

So, now it’s your turn: Are there more products out there that you believe can help older stitchers enjoy their needlework pursuits? Have you been marketing to seniors specifically, and if so, how’s it going? Sound off below, or drop me a line at positiveyarn@goochandgooch.com.

Did you hear the one about the 220-year-old startup business?

It’s true: At more than two centuries old, King Arthur Flour in Norwich, VT, is essentially reinventing itself for the Digital Age. And it’s doing it in a way that small businesses can easily use as a guide.

As detailed in an article in the Burlington Free Press, the self-proclaimed oldest flour company in America has done the following:

1. “Redesigned its website to allow its offerings to be displayed on any-size screen, including phone, tablet or desktop,” by going from a rigid 780 pixels wide to a responsive website design that can adapt its layout from 320 to 992 pixels wide. This way, they don’t need to create an app — their site can serve as an app on its own as a “mobile-friendly” website.

2. Streamlined the online checkout sales process, and offer further discounts for additional items as the visitor adds items to his or her cart. According to the article, this little incentive has garnered a 55 percent increase in completed checkout sales.

3. Launched a blog. As CEO Steve Voigt quips in the article, “Baking seems custom-made for the online community; a little online chat, then a little offline baking.” Personally, I think that’s a fair assessment of the needlework community as well, if sites like Ravelry are any indication! Their Baking Banter blog can be viewed here. There’s no hard sell in the copy; rather, it’s engaging readers with recipes, tips and suggestions. They are giving the reader a reason to bookmark the site and come back.

Yes, King Arthur Flour is a multimillion-dollar company. You aren’t. But you are likely as passionate about what you do as they are about what they do. If you watch the Google commercial I reference at the top of this column, I hope you become as inspired as I did when seeing all the cool things they can do online… because you can do those things, too.

Happy holidays, and see you in the New Year!

When I learned last week that Etsy launched a smartphone application (“app”), my initial surprise was not because they created one, but because I had assumed one was already available. After all, it only makes sense to make the site easy to peruse on a phone or table device. These days, browsing products online fills time on a work break or waiting for an appointment that a generation ago was spent smoking a cigarette, reading the newspaper or even (gasp!) knitting.

A shopping behemoth like Etsy having its own app is one thing; a small business like yours (and mine) having one is quite another. Do you need to jump on the app bandwagon? A recent article in the Fox Small Business Center goes over some excellent considerations:

1. Know why you want it. “Apps should help you build revenue or they should build user engagement,” Adam McNamara, co-founder of Select Start Studios, says in the article. “If it’s not driving one of these two things, then we recommend you don’t do it.”
2. Decide on whether it should be a mobile site or native app. A mobile site (which the article calls a mobile app — a bit of a misnomer, some may argue) can be read across platforms; a native app is specific to the iOS, Android or Blackberry platform. The benefit to the former is that one design does it all, while the latter lets your business be found more easily in via the platform’s app marketplace.
3. Don’t skimp on the cost. You do get what you pay for, the experts agree. They also agree that you’re paying anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000-plus for the privilege.

Hmm … so in light of the pricing sticker shock, chances are that your business is not ready for an app, after all.

Of course, where there’s a business opportunity, there are companies that spring up to fill that void. A number of easy-to-use online tools are available that allow you to create a basic app — which might include a feed of your Facebook and Twitter posts, YouTube videos, Flickr photos and recent site news, for example — on the cheap. Such tools usually charge a monthly fee around $25.

Still too much? That brings me to HTML5. This website standard, which is not yet widely adopted, promises to bring app-like features to mobile websites. If your site is ready for the HTML5 standard, it will allow customers to peruse it easily on their smartphone or web device.

Now, it’s your turn: Are you developing a native app or mobile site? If so, are you finding it’s worth the time, cost and effort? If not, do you have plans in place to be found anytime soon on your customers’ handheld electronic devices?

Photo: iStockphoto.com/astrali232

When you tell your employees to upsell whenever they can, are you arming them with tangible ways to do so? Or are they left with the ol’ “Didja want fries with that” model?

Consider John Matthews, founder and president of Gray Cat Enterprises, Inc., and his post on Convenience Store Decisions magazine’s website called Local Store Marketing: Greetings & Suggestive Sales. Among his great tips are to incentivize employees.

Now, there’s a fine line — and I know this from my own retail experience — between incentivizing and stressing out your team. Put too much pressure for them to reach certain sales goals, and you just might inadvertently create a surly staffer who can barely hide her contempt for the customer who deigns to check out with just a $3.73 purchase. On the other hand, introducing an incentive program and then not supporting it with reinforcement and enthusiasm leads to the team simply choosing to ignore it.

Despite my little jab at fast food workers above, the restaurant industry as a whole is a particular master of upselling. Check out this education piece from Food Service Warehouse. Its many tips — applicable to retail, too — include:

• Offer multiple suggestions. “Is there a particular brand of sock yarn you’re looking for? We carry some great ones, including ____ and ____.” Mention a high-end one, a slow-moving one, or one that has a trunk show coming up in the shop, for example. Don’t forget to track sales to see if focusing on a particular brand for a week has made any difference.
• Describe in detail. Whet their “appetite” for the product, so to speak, by highlighting its good points. Don’t veer off too much into Hyperbole-land, though. Claiming a skein has “super-soft hand” when it really feels like your ex-boyfriend’s ill-advised scruffy goatee is only going to damage your team’s credibility. But hopefully, your team is familiar enough with the product that they can say with authority how easy it is to work with, how well it wears, etc. If not, perhaps you need to at least designate a “New Product Tester” whenever you bring something new from market. That way, even if your other employees haven’t had a chance (or perhaps, realistically, a desire) to use it, they can at least note to customers something like “Well, Marlene is really the tatter on our team, and she says this new tool is a great help for making intricate projects.”
• Don’t forget dessert. The Food Service Warehouse piece discusses low-calorie options, a cart of mouthwatering samples and the practice of ensuring desserts are artfully delivered at the table level of all guests. Translated to your shop, consider making available low-price accessories right by the register for impulse buys. High-end accessories should be incorporated around the shop (Matthews discusses similar sentiments in the convenience store setting). Are you working on a project between classes and customers?
  Well, then, are you stashing it in plain sight in the most adorable new project bag you just happened to get in this season?

To train your staff, Food Service Warehouse suggests these five steps (parenthetical asides are mine):

1. Allow servers to taste menu items. (Play with new products!)
2. Train in menu (product) knowledge.
3. Suggest vivid descriptions. (For example, your circular needle might feature “anodized aluminum shafts that are dyed to pastel colors.”)
4. Role-play with servers. (Let them ask questions or concerns they think the customers might have, too, so they’re prepared for just about anything.)
5. Provide rewards. (Use gift cards, product, cash, time off, get-out-of-dusting-for-a-week card, etc.)

So, now it’s your turn: How has upselling worked for you? Sound off below or drop me a line at positiveyarn@goochandgooch.com.

If you have an idea for a large-scale project, but don’t know where to get funding, check out Kickstarter. It’s an online funding platform that lets users describe their project, set funding goals and pledge rewards, and then watch as the fund tallies rise. There’s no smoke and mirrors here: From your pledge, Kickstarter takes 5% of the funds, while Amazon Payments (the only way to make the pledges) takes between 3% and 5% to process the transactions. That said, if the fund-raising goal is not met by its agreed-upon date, there are no charges taken.

According to a post written by my distinguished colleague (and husband) here for an engineering blog, “Kickstarter has brought 13,000 projects off the drawing board and into production. Maybe yours could be next.” Neither of us have any ties to Kickstarter or to any of the projects on its site, so please don’t think I’m trying to sell you on it. I’m just personally fascinated by many of the projects there, which include:

• Gaia Yarn, a hand-dyed yarn business in development whose owner, Megan Kiehna, is trying to cover the costs of her first yarn base purchase, packaging materials, initial webhosting fees and business start-up legal fees. A $5 pledge gets you a handwritten thank-you note; a $100 pledge (and yes, there are levels in-between) nets you two full skeins of yarn. At press time, she has five backers, who have pledged a total of $240; she has 21 days to go to reach her $750 goal.
• A Kickstarter project that more than doubled its $2,000 goal, thanks to 85 backers pledging $4,830 belongs to the Ladies of Mischief, a group that wanted to publish a book “featuring the work of numerous knitwear designers, costume designers, writers, photographers, illustrators, and independent yarn and fiber artisans. Our goal is to use our talents and skills to publish a book unlike any currently available.”
• Obviously, there are many non-craft related projects as well. There’s a rather high-profile one by Sam Nelson, who has access to hours and hours of recently unearthed interview footage of his famous grandparents, Ozzie and Harriett Nelson (he’s Rick’s son). He is planning to restore the footage and turn it into a documentary — and has received plenty of support in his Kickstarter quest.
• A friend of ours was on the site recently and became taken with an iPad stylus design he found as one of the projects (he’s the reason why we even know of the site). For a $15 pledge, he received one for free. His figuring was, “I’d pay at least $15 for that at the store, so why not?” As you can see here, approximately 4,974 other pledgers were similarly minded.

The site seems to be a win-win, no matter whether you’re looking to pay it forward as a businessperson who wants to see someone also succeed at his or her dream, or you’re the one with the dream looking for both backers and exposure. I’m only bummed I didn’t know about it when I went through publishing my own book this year!

So, now it’s your turn: Have you done anything on Kickstarter, or used a similar platform to either become a small-scale project backer or get funding for your pet project? I want to know, and feature you, too! Sound off below or email me at positiveyarn@goochandgooch.com.

I recently had the stomach knot-inducing experience of having a credit card company tell me that because “one of its partners had been hacked,” there was this teensy-tiny chance that some of the purchases recently made on my card weren’t mine.

Turns out, they weren’t.

The purchases weren’t extravagant; I think perhaps the users were still testing the waters at the time of getting caught. For its part, the card company waived those charges. Nonetheless, it was irksome to have to figure out which vendors had my old account on file so I could update them with new. Bonus gripe: I was unable to use my card for about four days until a new one arrived in my mailbox.

My credit card provider is a huge company, but as the Wall Street Journal recently pointed out in its blog, the nightmare of hacking can also happen to small businesses directly. In a related post, the WSJ offers the following steps to protect your business from hacking (I’m paraphrasing below, so I encourage you to read the original post):

1. Train employees to not open email attachments or share documents with people they do not know.

1. Create a response plan, including such things as your lawyer’s contact information and what you’re potentially going to tell customers. Hopefully, it becomes a document that you’ll never use, but having it on hand gives you at least a basic plan of action… which can go a long way to calming the chaos.

1. Buy breach insurance. It becomes all the more worth looking into when you consider, as the article states, “the average U.S. breach costs companies $214 per compromised record.”

So, now it’s your turn: How are you keeping your credit card accounts (and those of your customers) safe from hackers? Sound off below or drop me a line at positiveyarn@goochandgooch.com.

Near-field communication, or NFC, is technology that lets two devices close to each other exchange simple transactions or data. While it has the potential to be used for a variety of things, one big focus currently is to make instant payments at retail outlets. Many smartphones these days feature a NFC chip, so that when you go near a register with a special card reader, you can just wave the phone, put in your PIN password and pay without cracking open your wallet. There’s two-way ability, so the shop could conceivably send coupons or special offers back to your phone.

A recent column in ComputerWorld describes the Google Wallet app, which is the first-to-market NFC payment system in the United States. It only uses the Nexus S 4G with Android, Sprint and MasterCard — but eventually that will change. (An article here notes that “Google will be getting around this by offering a NFC sticker that can be placed on the back of a phone, and when swiped or tapped at a NFC pay point, it will communicate via the cloud with your Android mobile phone.”) Give it a chance; it just officially launched Sept. 19!

“We in the U.S. must seem like dinosaurs to the South Koreans and Japanese, who for years have used NFC-ready smartphones to pay transit fares and make quick purchases at drugstores and newsstands,” says author Matt Hamblen.

“Cynics have said that NFC smartphones are no better than NFC-based smartcards, which can be used at the same payment terminals to pay for purchases via credit or debit card accounts,” Hamblen says. “But smartcards are one-way tools — shoppers can only use them to make payments — while smartphones will also be able to receive special offers (which will be based on users’ shopping histories and current locations). If retailers do start to send coupons and otherwise offer special deals to people who pay with their smartphones, demand for NFC-ready devices could jump.”

Ramon Ray agrees, in his article on BusinessInsider.com that asks, “Is your retail store ready for smartphone payments?”

It’s my question to you, as well. Are you going to be an early adopter in your shop, or are you waiting until it proves itself in the coffee shops, fast food chains and drugstores for a while longer? I want to know! Sound off below or drop me a line at positiveyarn@goochandgooch.com.

I was recently at an event where an older friend of mine, who uses a walker but is otherwise both spry and independent, excused herself to use the ladies room. Another friend noticed some time had passed since she had left, and went to check on her.

We soon learned she had fallen in the handicapped stall, which had both a toilet seat with a broken hinge, slipping around underneath her as she struggled to get her balance, and an improperly installed railing, which did her no good as she went from seat to floor.

The venue we were at was a fairly modern building, but these two oversights created a nightmare for her. Luckily, she was not seriously hurt.

It got me to thinking about things we take for granted — like the state of a public restroom. Check out these three great blog links on the subject of retail design for an aging population:

• Retail-display-stands.blogspot.com/2011/06/many-store-displays-going-senior.html
• WFDD.org/nprnewsstory.php/In-An-Aging-Nation-Making-Stores-Senior-Friendly/storyid135773106/topicid1091
• CBSnews.com/stories/2011/03/06/sunday/main20039772.shtml

The last one, a video piece from CBS Sunday Morning, was particularly interesting to watch as 63-year-old Rita Braver donned a special “aging” suit to make her reflexes slower, her sight weaker, etc., as she would be at 75. She then attempted to put groceries into a shopping cart.

It’s not pretty.

As the first Baby Boomers turn 65 this year, with seemingly no intention of slowing down, it may be time to take a look at your shop through an older person’s eyes.

Are your aisles wide? Your lighting bright? Your signage easy to read?

How steep are the steps outside? Is parking a maze from their car to your door? Is your door too heavy to pull open with older hands?

Last but not least, in what shape is your shop’s bathroom? Is it a possible liability?

OK, so maybe not last … as always, my question is about what your experience has been, and your opinion on the subject. Sound off below or email me at positiveyarn@goochandgooch.com.

In June, our local children’s clothing consignment boutique, The Gingerbread House, held a Bucket Sale. Customers could go through barrels of newly arrived summer clothing (sorted by size) and fill a pail’s worth of items, paying just $2 for each item. Although they routinely donate out-of-season clothes to local shelters when they need more room on the rack, this event was a great way to move inventory while creating buzz among customers for a fun shopping experience (refreshments and a party atmosphere were part of the program). The owner said this year’s success has made her decide to make it an annual event.

Now, if the thought of customers filling a 5-gallon bucket of your merchandise for two bucks apiece, even the heavily clearanced items, gives you heart palpitations, try the Sherwin Williams version: Their stores’ special sale lets you fill your bucket and get 35% off each item. The beauty of it is, they don’t do much advance notice of the two-day event: It’s a kind of bonus to reward regular customers, and keeps the true cheapskates to a minimum. Some stores add in a barbecue in the parking lot; the one in Olathe, KS, decided to do a music video and upload it to YouTube (it starts a little slow, but oh my goodness, it’s sure to bring a smile):

Olathe, KS, Sherwin WIlliams music video

The staff at this Sherwin Williams store went the extra mile to showcase their bucket sale...

On the other hand, if you are about ready to put some super-slow movers in the dustbin, why not try one last chance at a sale like many of our local libraries have done: For a $5 donation to the library, you’re handed a paper grocery bag. You can then fill your bag to your heart’s content with all of the decommissioned books they have on sale. What’s left over is headed for the recycling plant, so why not make a little cash while letting bargain hunters have some fun?

And now, it’s your turn: Have these types of sales bagged some cash for your business — or was it just a drop in the bucket compared to the effort it took to create? Sound off below or email me directly at positiveyarn@goochandgooch.com.

I just came across this online today: http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/21/etsy-shakeup-cto-chad-dickerson-takes-over-from-founder-kalin-as-visitor-growth-stalls.

With more handcrafted and needleart professionals spending their online efforts on Facebook, or becoming Web-savvy enough to establish an independent site online, it will be interesting to see what the future holds for Etsy. Your thoughts? Sound off below or drop me a line at positiveyarn@goochandgooch.com.