December 2017 – everwilde.com

Forum Forums Featured Clients December 2017 – everwilde.com

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    lexiconn
    Keymaster

    Website: https://www.everwilde.com/

    Description: Everwilde Farms is a seed company that provides a large selection of Wildflower Seeds, Grass Seeds, Herb Seeds, and Heirloom Vegetable Seeds.  Steve from Everwilde Farms states, “We primarily work with seeds that are either wild or open-pollinated, which means that the gardener can save their own seeds from the plants grown, and replant them with good success.

    We have had a lot of practical experience in growing the varieties that we sell, and are there to help our customers in their own gardening endeavors.  We do periodic tests on our seeds beyond the required lab tests, to make sure that the seeds that we offer are the best.  Many of our customers report superior germination rates when compared to other companies.  The seeds that we sell are packaged in our unique resealable mylar bags, which maintains the vigor of the seeds far longer than seeds that are packaged in paper or plastic packets.”

    Technologies Used: Steve continued, “We began as a farm, but have needed to also become a technology company in our years of selling online.  We began selling seeds with some DIY websites, but then began using ShopSite in 2006, and really liked the open-source feel, and the many ways that we could customize the site.  The data uploads also integrated well with our core of spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel.  We have moved away from spreadsheets at our core, but they still come in handy for several functions.

    We tried numerous “mega-hosting” companies early on, but had a lot of poor experiences.  We finally came to LexiConn in 2013, and found what we were looking for.  No more waiting on hold for an hour!  LexiConn is always very responsive and knowledgeable about any issues that might arise.  They also provide a number of useful add-ons that are helpful in various ways.

    In 2017 we worked extensively with Kyle at Merchant Corner to set up our dream website.  The site is not only beautiful, it is also very functional.  It utilizes a MySQL database to power search refinements to help customers sift through our vast array of species and discover what would grow in their garden.  We had a similar feature in the past, but the customer interface was clumsy, and changing information in the database was difficult.  This database is easily updated via an upload to ShopSite’s custom product fields!  Other key features of the new website are quick view, search suggestions, cross-selling, an intuitive ordering options table, and streamlined checkout.  One of the best parts of the website is the part that people do not even see.  The back-end maintenance is a breeze!  Goodbye to all of the manual uploads and complicated tweaks that we had to perform in the past!

    We sell seeds on a few different online channels, so we needed software to manage our current inventory levels.  We used StoneEdge early on, but then switched over to SKUVault because it was able to feed out live inventory values to our selling channels.  We then had Mike with AtStuff customize our SKUVault connection, and make it even more useful.

    ShipStation is the software that we use for shipping our orders.  We have used Dazzle, Endicia, and USPS.com in the past, and found that ShipStation is a much better fit for us.  LexiConn has developed an integration with ShipStation, so it is easy to get set up, and have your orders import automatically.

    Google Analytics has been integrated into our website and is a must for anyone that wants to know the full story of how their site is doing.  It has enough metrics to make even a devoted analyst’s head spin!  We also recently converted our site to all https and use GeoTrust for our SSL certificate.”

    Advice / Tips: Steve finished, “One of the hardest things about running an online seed company is putting together a suite of programs that will cover your needs.  Seed dealers have some unique software challenges, and I do not know of any single solution that provides what we need.  Thus, we had to piece together different kinds of software, without having too many gaps or overlaps.  Moreover, all of these software pieces keep changing in relation to each other.  It means establishing relationships with some good developers, that can fill in some of those unavoidable gaps for you.

    LexiConn has been a great starting point for us.  If they do not know how to fill your need directly, they can often point you to a reputable person who can create a solution.  In our experience, their connections with people in the world of tech are just as valuable as the internet connection itself.  LexiConn is more than your internet connection, they are your tech connection.”

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