A Site is Born

While most high school students were working on a tan last summer, my daughters were busy working on a website.  Pooling graduation and babysitting money, they purchased cute party dresses, crop tops and shorts from wholesalers across the country and began selling them online to friends and family.  

It’s been a year since my daughters Judy and Emily, launched their online clothing boutique www.metromorphos.com.  What a difference a year makes!

While some things haven’t changed much (my dining room is still a fashion showroom/ mailroom), the biggest change has been in our girls.  Wow.  This little website has been an incredible learning lab. They are both at the University of Arkansas and their website has not only become a way to make a little extra cash, but apply their newly minted business class knowledge immediately.  

They’ve learned some hard lessons about buying, forecasting, inventory management, online marketing and the day-to-day of running a business.  The quote of the year goes to Emily who said, “No fair!  We’re just teenagers” as they paid their first quarter taxes…out of the mouths of babes.

Happily, all that learning is starting to pay off.  They’ve outgrown their old Prestashop site, and have just launched a site redesign on Shopify.  The new mobile optimized site features larger images, stunning photography, and new merchandise modeled by their sweet friends.  Please check out their handiwork at http://metromorphos.com - we welcome your feedback.

Like any start-up, their site hasn't been without a few hiccups along the way.  While the Shopify platform features great, big, beautiful images, site traffic has dropped dramatically.

As a professional marketer, I have been able to advise them on graphic design, packaging, public relations and finance.  But I have not been able to help them build site traffic (we hire professionals for this at work).  My goal for this class is to assist www.metromorphos.com in building its site traffic beyond our wonderful friends and family.