Hello Everyone!
Back when the pandemic started, we were forced to re-evaluate our online store and all that it could do for us. Back before COVID, our sales came equally from our online store and our physical store. But, we had no idea how long it would last and how long our brick and mortar store would be closed. Back then, we had a website that we had built; it was finicky, but served its purpose. Looking ahead to a world where our in-store income may dip, we knew that we had to make a major change.
So, we took a look at all the online store offerings from every company we could possibly check out, and we settled on Shopify. It was robust, came well-reviewed, was fairly easy to manage, was expandable, and felt like something that we could grow with. So, we took the jump, re-wrote our entire website on a new platform (for the third time in 10 years), and here we are. Over the past three years, Shopify has served us very well. But, the look and feel of our site came to feel dated and, as we grew, things became harder to find on our online store.
Over the past few weeks, we've been putting in some time to give our site a facelift. All the bones are still there. The foundation is strong. But, the structure and front-facing aspects of our site were in need of some updating. We're not entirely finished. We still have some work to do, and, we're sure, creases to iron out. But, we're ready to debut our new look.
We hope that you'll take some time to have a look around. We've made a lot of things easier to use and more functional:
- Categories take up less space on the homepage. A few are shown, and you can click to see more. This helps those on mobile devices more easily navigate our home page.
- Product variations are no longer hidden under drop-down menus. For example, choosing between Cherry, Walnut, or Bass woods for our AG Wooden Pendants is much easier—no more missing the options.
- Product photos are now more rounded—no more sharp corners. We think this helps to give a feeling of more space and lends a more airy quality to the site.
- Gift Cards can now be more easily sent to someone using the "I want to send this as a gift" check box under the product listing.
- When adding items to the shopping cart (especially on desktops and laptops), the cart pop-up is less obtrusive.
- Product descriptions are more easily seen (again, especially on desktops and laptops).
- Product photos are larger and magnification is more user-friendly.
- Text is easier to read and links are easier to see/find.
- Searching on mobile devices is easier and the search function is no longer buried under the menu.
- Important announcements and new products can be more easily seen on the homepage.
- You can now convert the entire site to any currency using the drop down menu in the footer of the site.
These are just a few of the user-facing items that we have improved, and we hope that it helps you find new and exciting things on our site. We've worked hard to make these changes for you, and we hope that it makes it much easier to see and navigate our site—and, we'd be remiss if we didn't admit we hope it makes it easier to purchase from us!
For a limited time, we're giving 20% off everything in our online store using the following discount link: https://www.allegorygallery.com/discount/NEWSITE. We're hoping that by having a sale, you'll take a look at the site and explore a bit to see what's available. We also hope that it'll help to test to make sure that everything is ok with the site and how it functions. Please know that issues may arise while using the site. We're not perfect. But, if you do experience issues, we hope that you'll email us info@allegorygallery.com and let us know. We can't fix things if we don't know about them :-)
Thank you so much for taking the time to read and check out our "new" site! We hope that it serves us as well as the last one did for the next few years!
Your friends,
William & Andrew