Textile designer, I am adapting to the Coronavirus!

Thanks to Livementor for sharing this article on their Blog here

My activity

I have been an animal painter for 20 years and I have been fighting for my textile creation for 3 years. I create decorative objects from my graphics, mainly cushions.

I have only been a LiveMentorian for a few months. I followed the Vasco de Gama training and was coached by Marc.

My Shopify Site Odilelaresche.com was born in October 2019 and after a slow end of year for my e-boutique, which I had abandoned for my winter trade fairs at the rate of one exhibition per weekend in November and December (plus a part-time job on the side to keep my finances afloat).

In January I was lucky enough to be made redundant, so I returned to work on my site in mid-January.

A little wave of the magic wand after my appearance on the Maison France 5 Carte Blanche on February 21 and here I am, propelled to the position of queen of Shopify!

More than 5,000 visits to my site, 110 orders to manage with several items per order, packages to send! I had to manage the production deadlines, negotiate the printing deadlines with my printer, recommend linen for the back of the cushions, quotes for the personalized animal portraits and delegate the manufacturing of about fifty pieces to be able to breathe.

After 70 packages were sent, hello COVID 19 …

Unforeseen events to manage

Oops, will my printer follow? What about the post office and my customers?

Slowed down in full swing, I posted 19 packages on Monday March 16th… on Wednesday the problems began:

• Package sent to workplace but business closed
• Package against signature but the postman does not want to take any risks and leaves the package in a relay point which closes the same evening
• Package with “recipient absent” (in the middle of lockdown?)
• Package refused :(

…. will I stumble in the midst of glory :D ?

And surprising customers

The old-fashioned way is to call each customer to resolve the issues one by one.

And there…

Outpouring of kindness and goodwill from them!

“No worries, keep the packages that haven’t been sent to the workshop!”

“We will find a solution for my already shipped package…”

“Don’t worry, we’ll see about that after the lockdown!”

On my site I made the decision to continue selling , specifying that deliveries would be sent after the end of the lockdown.

In doing so I am afraid of shooting myself in the foot.

But since then I have new orders (even if I still notice a slowdown)!

On the other hand, I have customers who send me photos of their cushions in their homes and super nice and encouraging emails, amazing testimonials, in short, a godsend for my communication!

In addition, I am lucky to live in the countryside, surrounded by my children with a workshop open to nature, with cats, dogs, chickens and farmer neighbors.

In this strange and complicated time I send you lots of positive vibes and wish you the best, take care of yourself and your loved ones.

See you soon