Start Today: E-commerce for bespoke window blinds
Welcome to InterioApp. This blog post is one of my favourites so far, where I will personally guide you and demonstrate the necessary steps to create a window blind in your Shopify store using the Curtain and Blind Calculator. Whether you're aiming to attract new clients, expand to new cities or even countries, this post will provide you with all the steps you need to start selling window blind online.
In this post, you'll learn:
- How to upload and offer bespoke window blind online: From setting up your product listings to ensuring they stand out.
- How to create and upload variants in the window blind calculator: Including options for chain side, regular or motorised blinds, mounting types, and colour variants.
- How to create and upload pricing tables for your window blinds: Streamline your pricing strategy for clarity and customer convenience.
- How to add metafields to products: Enhance your listings with additional details and integrate a calculator for custom window blind measurements.
If you're currently selling window blinds only in your local showroom, you're missing a significant opportunity to reach hundreds of potential customers online. Window blinds are a product that customers love to search for and purchase online. They appreciate the convenience and price transparency.
Every day, we at InterioApp have 1-on-1 meetings with our clients from all over the world: the US, Canada, the EU, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, and Dubai. We see so many opportunities and understand where we can help business owners make decisions and speed up processes to compete with companies like Amazon or Temu. Small business owners must have the right tools to offer bespoke curtain and window blind online.
Myths about e-commerce stores
Before diving into how to set up and upload window blinds to your online store, let's address some common myths about the online window blind business.
Myth 1: clients do not buy window blind online
Many believe customers need to touch and feel window blind before purchasing, so they won't buy online. In 2019, 80% of window blind store owners we surveyed believed this. However, times have changed. Online shopping is growing, while retail has decreased by 2% in the last quarter. Customers are now more comfortable buying online, and with the right approach, window blinds can be successfully sold online.
Myth 2: an online store is super expensive and doesn't create value compared to a local window blind store
Some think building an online store is too costly and lacks the value of a physical showroom. This is a myth. While creating a fully functional online store does require investment, it can potentially double your sales in 2-3 years. The same budget spent on rent, samples, and staff for a local store can be used to build and market an online store that reaches a wider audience. Many entrepreneurs forget that every sale has a cost, whether for a physical store or online. With strategic digital marketing, you can drive more traffic and increase sales, making your online store highly profitable.
Myth 3: managing an online store is too complicated
Some believe that managing an online store requires extensive technical knowledge. While there is a learning curve, modern e-commerce platforms like Shopify make it easy to set up and manage an online store with user-friendly interfaces and plenty of support resources. Plus, you can always hire experts to handle the technical aspects while you focus on running your business.
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💡 Which type are you? There are two types of entrepreneurs: those who do everything themselves and those who delegate tasks to experts. If someone can do at least 80% as well as you, you should delegate and focus on more important tasks.
For example, if you are launching your local store, one type of entrepreneur will renovate the showroom themselves from wall to floor, while the other type will hire someone to renovate, design, and prepare the store for customers. The same applies to an online store. You can either DIY everything yourself: launch the window blind online store, create its design, develop 10-20 pages, write the content, upload products, and add pricing tables for custom/bespoke products like window blinds or curtains. Then launch the online store with the mindset that once you start selling, you'll invest in better design, new pages, improved content, blog posts, and SEO. I hope you get the idea. |
Myth 4: shipping window blinds is too difficult and expensive
Another common myth is that shipping window blinds is too difficult and costly. However, many shipping companies offer affordable and reliable options for bulky items like window blinds. Additionally, the cost of shipping can often be offset by the broader customer base and increased sales volume that an online store provides.
Myth 5: online stores can't provide good customer service for bespoke window blind business
There's a belief that online stores can't offer the same level of customer service as physical stores. In reality, online stores can provide excellent customer service through various channels such as live chat, email, and phone support. Additionally, online reviews and FAQs can help address common questions and concerns, enhancing the overall customer experience.
| At InterioApp, we believe in the power of both local and online stores. The online market for window blinds is projected to grow significantly in the next 4-5 years, with companies already making up to 1 million in sales per month. Embracing e-commerce can help you tap into this expanding window blind market and achieve similar success. |
How to upload a window blind in minutes
Today, we will skip some of the SEO recommendations to simply demonstrate how window blinds can be created within minutes, using just a mobile phone, computer, Canva, Shopify, ChatGPT, and the Curtain and Blind Calculator.
This will be very useful for DIY entrepreneurs. Follow the steps and you will upload a window blind to your store, making it available for your clients to purchase online.
Take a picture of your window blind
We recommend taking a few images of the local blinds from your store. If you have one in the store, also, our recommendation would be to use high-quality window blind images from your suppliers and distributors as well. These images will create an impression for your prospects, and the real images will show the reality of what to expect. This will eliminate their need to ask for additional images.
| ✏️Note: Please ensure that the images are similar. If the real window blind and the one from your suppliers look completely different, the prospect may leave the store and will purchase the one which will have a perfect look. |
Take pictures of the window blind variants your clients need to select
Another recommendation is to take images of the variants, like slat pictures, ladder pictures, and everything your clients can see in your showroom and select from. If you have motorised window blinds, please add this variant in the calculator as well. It will allow your client to buy motorised window blinds from you as well.
Use canva to edit images
Canva allows you to edit images as you want them to look. Spend 5 minutes editing the images, add a filter, or text to explain what your client is looking at. Sometimes simplicity and clarity can give you a better conversion rate, especially for clients who know exactly what they are looking for. They have spent hours choosing window blind in some local store, and now they find you with a better offering and transparent prices.
Curtain and blind calculator
Use the Curtain and Blind Calculator to create a product - window blind in your Shopify store. (We are assuming that you are using Shopify for your e-commerce). Open the calculator, and click on the window Blind section.
Creating window blind variants and adding pricing tables
In the Curtain and Blind Calculator, you will need to create a new window blind, add services and other extras, create product variants, and upload multiple pricing tables for the window blind. To do this properly, I will guide you through the steps:
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Add the blind you want to upload to the store
When you open the window blind calculator, please click the Add Blind button. When a popup appears with the information for the blind, please add the name of the blind, upload an image (this image will not be visible to your clients in the online store), and set the window blind status to active.
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Adding services/extras
Before we get to the pricing table, we should create the extras our clients will select when designing their window blinds.
- Click the second option below the Add blinds option.
- Name the option, e.g., Services. Please keep in mind that this is the only option that must have a price added to the selections. If you leave the pricing input empty, this price will be 0. Click the add button and create a service, like installation or measuring, you would like to offer your clients.
- Always set the option created to Active; otherwise, it will not be visible to select in the app.
- Next below is for your product colours. Upload your colours if preferred. You will select the colour options later when you create the window blind. In this section, you will upload all other blind fabric or material colours. Name the colour.
- Below you have multiple options to create for your selections, like recess, mounting type, direction, cassette system, etc. The process of creating these options will be exactly the same.
| Important: In these option sets, you can leave the price empty, and the price will not be displayed in the selections. This is very useful, especially when you are selecting the chain side. |
After you have created all preferred options for your window blind, you have to get back to the Add Blinds section.
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Creating and uploading the pricing tables
After your variants are created, and the blind, e.g., wooden blind, is visible in the application, you need to upload the pricing table to this window blind only. Please keep in mind that one blind can have multiple pricing tables, e.g., Pricing A, Pricing B, etc. For this step, we recommend using our template to create the pricing tables in a spreadsheet or Excel sheet. This will allow you to simply change the prices in the future and easily copy and paste for the other types of window blinds you will offer in your online store. Steps we need to take:
Use spreadsheet to create a pricing table CSV file
Open a spreadsheet.
In the spreadsheet document, please create a table:
| ⚡️Important: Please create exact table (Height/Width) and any measure conditions for the width and the height, and add the prices without the price label in the table. |
How to read the pricing table:
If the width of the window blind is up to 154cm/60'' and the height of the blind is 172cm/67'', the price for the window blind manufacturing, including material, will be $74
| Height/Width | 100 | 150 | 200 | 250 |
|
100 |
$70 | $92 | $114 | $136 |
| 140 | $74 | $98 | $118 | $144 |
| 200 | $80 | $104 | $124 | $150 |
How to download as a csv file
When the pricing table is created, please check if the prices are correct and if so, you are ready to download the file.
- Click the file button in the spreadsheet.
- Download.
- Comma-Separated Value (CSV).
- Upload the pricing to the Blind.
The next step is to upload the pricing to the Curtain and Blind Calculator. Get back to the calculator and click the created pricing. Click the edit button.
Name the pricing
After you name the pricing, please click to upload the file.
Select the file. You will see a bunch of numbers that are now visible in the calculator.
Scroll to select colour options you want to attach to this blind only. Leave the other colours you have uploaded for other window blinds. Now we are creating only the wooden blind.
Scroll below to check the variants you want to attach to this wooden blind.
After you select all preferred variants, set the pricing status to active and save the pricing.
Setting up the metafields
Add metafields to the product in Shopify
After the window blind pricing and the variants were created, we return to the product page in Shopify to add the pricing to the preferred product. In our case, this is a wooden blind we want to create.
Create a wooden blind
After we took the images of our wooden blind, we need to create the product now. Please keep in mind that for now, we have created only the pricing; we will be able to reuse it for multiple products or any other wooden blinds that have the same variants and pricing.
Click Products in Shopify.
Add a new product.
Name the product, e.g., Wooden blind.
| ✏️Please note: Recommended not use only ChatGPT to write a description for you. But use this tool wisely, e.g., write the description, and ask ChatGPT to check for the errors, or count your primary keyword you are using to be at least 2-3% in the content. You can check our blog post and leanr more on how to create SEO-friendly content for your store, where we explain step-by-step what primary keywords to use, how to define your Ideal Customer Persona, and target your products in the online market. |
Upload the images, and do not forget to write Alt texts for the images.
Add pricing for the window blind. It is recommended to add the lowest price to the preferred blind from your pricing table. In our example, the lowest price is $70, so we are adding a price of $70.
Scroll down to the Metafield section.
Search for the Product Metafields and InterioApp: Blinds Pricing Metafield. If the Metafield is not visible, click the View more button and select product metafields. Click to select the pricing you prefer to attach to this specific window blind. When you have multiple pricing, naming the pricing is very useful. Select the pricing and save the product.
| ⚡️Important: If you can't see the Metafield in the Product Metafield section, it means that you have unpinned this metafield, and you will need to take some extra steps to have the metafield visible. Another reason is that you have reached the maximum number of metafields in your store, and Shopify is not allowing you to have more than you selected. What to do next? Please get in touch with our team, and we will support you. We will send a request to access your store and will fix the metafield options for you. |
Last step
The last step is to activate the Curtains and Blind Calculator in your Theme to see the calculator in the online store.
Click the Sales Channels on your left bar and select the online store. In the online store, click Themes and customise button. In the Themes, click App Embeds and turn on the Curtain Calculator app.
View the store
Congratulations!🥳 We have a custom/bespoke blind created in our online store, and now we can offer the window blind for purchase online. If you could create one product per day, in one month, you would be able to offer 20 different products at no additional cost monthly. On average, our clients are selling $3500 per month using our Curtain and Blind Calculator. Please keep in mind that this is the average number, as some of our clients are still in development or bought the plugin but are still designing the store. We are counting all existing customers and calculating the average sales.
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