Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Revealing the Wizard Behind the Curtain

Ok so a wizard is a bit much--I'm a pretty normal guy that has been marketing stuff for the past 11 years. I live in a small community just north of Salt Lake City, UT with a great wife and a good dog.

When CropChocolate.com started it was just me. Thanks to all of YOU, within a short few months CropChocolate.com has become a company 11 strong. We have a warehouse staff, a customer service staff, a marketing team, a developer, and we just brought on a product manager to give a broader depth of product. Enough about us though, let's talk about YOU!

At CropChocolate.com we are continually looking for SWEET deals. What's more, we are continually looking for ways to involve you in the sweetness. We've added a comment section and user profiles. Coming soon, we will introduce pages that you can create to chat with folks in your area, meet other scrappers, share ideas and more.

Our newest idea comes as we have listened to you, read your posts on CropChocolate.com, and read you ideas on The Crop. We have a whole bunch of new product coming into our warehouse in the next few weeks and we're trying to make room by selling out old stuff. We've done a pretty good job these past few weeks making room for the new stuff thanks to you.

As the new stuff arrives, our product manager will be sorting out kits and scheduling out dates. She will be looking for CropChocolate.com customers to evaluate those kits--actually, better said, she will be sending out free product to interested customers to design. We will take those designs and show them on CropChocolate.com when the product is featured.

While learning about the scrapbooking industry, we have seen several industry stars rise through blogs, boutiques and the like. At CropChocolate.com, we want to give a platform to be the "the like" for our customers. We want to give you a place to showcase your designs!

Here's what we want from you; send an email to sales [at] cropchocolate.com to let us know you're interested in participating. We will confirm we've received your email and contact you about what you are most interested in designing. When we find a product that might be down your alley--card making, page designs, tags or embellishing--we will ship you the product for free and give you the deadline (2 weeks or more) for when we need pictures of your design submitted. Each design will be tied to the product(s) and to YOU, the designer.

Like I said earlier, I am no wizard, especially when it comes to scrapbooking but YOU are!

Sincerely,

Jon N.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Keeping the Chocolate Sweet

So you may have noticed that you have not received a UPS tracking code today. We're trying to keep the sweetness in the product and shipping so here's what we're doing. We are testing with USPS!

Traditionally we have eaten about $2.65 in shipping costs in domestic shipments and much more than that to Canada. This has created heavy constraints on CropChocolate.com because we try to keep our prices so low meanwhile creating a win for the companies that we purchase product from.

So...if you don't get a tracking number your order is still on the way! That's the good news! And we will hopefully keep our shipping costs low and product cost lower--that's the SWEET news!

Sweetly,

CropChocolate.com

Monday, January 18, 2010

Any Requests for CropChocolate.com

CHA is this weekend -- you can bet your sweet buns we'll be there trying to get the best deals for YOU.

We know you want variety so please let us know what to look for and we'll do our best to get it.

Sweetly,

CropChocolate.com
One sweet deal at a time

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Why a Repeat Product?

Ok ok...so we know you've seen the White Embellishment Box by Making Memories but not for some time now. So we're showing it again. Why?

1. We've had requests for it.
2. We want you to be able to interact with the site by posting pictures of how you use the CropChocolate.com product.

Since we've sold over 1,650 of these babies--and we have some left--we thought this may be a good product to show. Here's why. When you purchase a product from CropChocolate.com it is indexed as something you've purchased. If that product is featured, you can add a picture of how you use it on your profile page and tag it by using the drop down box when you add the pic. Your picture will show up on the front page as a featured design. You can make comments on how you created the product so others can get ideas from you. After all, you're the experts!

We have some new items we'll be selling today so if you already have this one, create a profile and share your comments and pictures.

Then watch for more SWEET features and deals on CropChocolate.com!

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Sunday at Midnight...

CropChocolate.com will open an interactive site. Upload pictures of your projects. Make comments on product. Give ideas to each other on how to use the featured product. Earn CropCredit by telling your friends. Create a profile where you can choose to share pictures and interests... and more to come.

And SWEET deals - only at CropChocolate.com!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

A Sneak Preview...

One of the best things about going to movies is watching the trailers before the movie starts. It's exciting to see things to come.

By some of the blog posts, we are seeing that some of you may not be aware that CropChocolate.com sells multiple deals per day. These deals change based on a program developed to give you different product options throughout the day. Reintroducing the email alert will help you know when the product changes. If you're a current customer just check the email notification box and you'll start getting emails--once we start selling again.

Our goal is to offer at least 2 new products per day with added, previously viewed, product that you may have missed.

We want your input and other CropChocolatiers do too. You will be able to comment on the product being featured and you can add pictures of your creations that apply to that specific product. This can be tied to a profile that you have the option to create.

We are continuing to develop this and more at CropChocolate.com because we are SWEET on YOU!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Chocolate a la Carte and the New Site

Before launching CropChocolate.com we want to give you one last chance to clear out your la Carte by purchasing the sweets that are in it. In preparation for the new launch we will be emptying the la Cartes on the 15th so grab the stuff you want from the la Carte before it's too late!!!

Thanks for all the suggestions! We are way SWEET on YOU!

CropChocolate.com

Monday, January 11, 2010

What? Still? Closed?

So we loved your ideas so much that we're making a few more changes...you know, implementing them. So we're taking a few more days to get it right.

We'll contact you if we are using your idea and we'll send you a sweet surprise!

Sweetly,

CropChocolate.com

P.S. Keep the sweet ideas coming!

Friday, January 8, 2010

Curious...

So we're close...really close. The personal profile component is almost finished and we're excited to see what you think. So before launching, we'd really love your input. What would YOU like to see/share on the personal profiles? Would you like other ChopChocolatiers to see how many dollars you've earned through friend referrals? Would you like to be able to communicate with each other like the Facebook Wall? Stuff like that.

If we incorporate your idea, YOU WIN A SWEET PRIZE!!!

SWEET!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

New Year - Big Changes!

In addition to all of our sweet deals, CropChocolate.com is making some big changes for 2010. From Jan 2, 2010 through Jan 10, 2010 we will be closing the site to for implementation and testing. So what are they?

1. We will be sweetening the "Share the Sweetness" promotion. Every time you refer a friend to CropChocolate.com, if it's their 1st visit and they sign in and buy something, we will give you a CropChocolate.com credit for 2.00 USD (only to be used at CropChocolate.com).

2. Every customer will have their own profile. You will be able to communicate through CropChocolate.com, post about your local crops, post info on upcoming events such as fund-raisers, and share your creations. Think of it as a world-wide crop.

3. We will be turning on email notifications again. You will be able to sign up for them or discontinue with a click of a button.

We hope this enriches your experience with CropChocolate.com and that you'll find sweet new friends!

Happy 2010!!!

CropChocolate.com