We have an exciting announcement - today we are launching a new design of our web site! We've been hard at work on this new site for quite some time now, and we think that you're going to love it. This new design moves our web site to an entirely new platform. The new system adds a ton of new features and other improvements, but it should also make it easier for us to keep up to date going forward.
You may be wondering why we went with such a drastic change, instead of upgrading the system that we had. Our previous system was built entirely in-house, starting when the company was founded in 2002. It had been upgraded quite a bit over the years, growing as our company grew. There were things about it that everyone loved, and it was completely tailored to our processes and the way that we did business. Ultimately, however, as the pace of technology moved forward, it became harder to stay up to date. We decided a few years ago to bite the bullet and move to a more standard system that offered modern functionality and the ability to customize.
As you probably know, we have spent a lot of time building content, writing articles, and recording videos and podcasts for this site over the past 16 or so years. For better or worse, we made a decision to migrate all of our products, pages, and content to the new platform instead of starting from scratch and just migrating select content. Basically, we wanted all of the old stuff to work on the new site too! This turned out to be not-so-easy and the source of many delays, but hopefully it will all turn out to be worth it!
Let's go through some of the new features that our new platform offers. First of all, if you're a frequent customer you'll be happy to hear that you can create an account. This allows you to see your old orders, reorder easily, save payment information (on a secure, off site PCI compliant server) and more. If you're on a mobile device (and our stats indicate that you most likely are!), you'll see a version of the web site that is more appropriate for viewing. Our navigation has changed to make it easier to find what you're looking for. It's easier to find promotions and discounted items. When viewing product lists, you can now often narrow your selection by clicking features from the left sidebar. Those are just a few things that you'll quickly notice. After the dust settles, we plan to host a webinar to take you through some of these updates and new features. If you've signed up for our newsletter, look for a message letting you know how to attend.
Considering the size of this project, we we are prepared for the possibility of a few bumps along the way. We would very much appreciate your feedback if you notice something that seems out of place. We also appreciate your patience with our sales staff as we adjust to our new system. Thanks for hanging with us over the years. This update was just the beginning - we have a ton of ideas for where we can go from here. Trust me, it's going to be a fun ride!
