One of the things that continues to amaze me is how crazy backward yarn stores are around the country. Don't they understand that even though they're located in Kansas, that someone in Georgia (namely me!) would buy yarn from them?
My yarn forays go something like this. Designer uses yarn that can only be found in dozens of locations around the country. A visit to the yarn maker's website shows that only yarn stores can purchase from them and there's a wholesale login screen a lot of the time. Next stop on the yarn maker's website is a list of yarn stores that sell their product. As I only have one yarn store nearby, their yarn is never sold anywhere I'm driving to buy it. Therefore I need an online seller of said yarn.
And now I begin to click links to yarn stores listed on the yarn maker's website. Keep in mind that anywhere from 25% to 33% of these stores have no website listed at all.
Click. Website is a blog.
Click. Website is one static page with their location.
Click. Website is multiple pages, lists classes available, but offers no online sales.
Click. Website offers online sales, but is nearly impossible to use to place an order. This could be because of technology or an assortment of other issues.
Click. Website offers online sales, but doesn't sell the yarn I am looking for although they have other yarn by the yarn maker.
Click. Website offers online sales, has the right yarn, I'm able to order, but they don't have the color(s) I want.
This sends me to look for a yarn substitute which is usually every bit as difficult to find and I go through this same process again and again until I give up and decide to knit something else.
What I don't understand is how any yarn store isn't investing in an online store. Seriously? Many yarn stores are struggling to survive and they're turning away customers from other parts of the country who can't drive to their store to shop? Why would you do that? There are women printing stickers for planners who have their own online stores! If a sticker seller can setup an online shop, why can't a yarn store?
There are a few yarn stores that get this. It's a joy to go to their sites and be able to order exactly what I want, but they are so few and far between that there is no way that all yarns and colors are able to be covered by them.
I wish yarn stores would understand that an investment in an online presence is a business expense they can justify and that it will earn back. One of the yarn stores that does handle online sales right posted pictures of the yarn orders they shipped out the day after Thanksgiving. It was huge! These yarn stores without a functioning web store are giving money away.
And yarn makers why won't you sell to me if I'm not a yarn store? Do you know how much business you're losing because of the situation above?
Right now I'm frustrated because a yarn company (I'm looking at you Plymouth Yarns) is only selling a sweater pattern I want through local yarn stores. I can't find one anywhere online selling this pattern. For heaven's sake, let me buy the pattern on your website.
It's super amazing to me that yarn companies and yarn stores don't want my money.
