What's New?

[SumpinSpecial]

Here's a thread for random news and updates. To start off, I've just added free shipping for all USA orders over $100. (I'm working on Canadian shipping, that always seems to cost so much more so it's tricky!)

I've also added a newsletter signup to my shop, along with posting our Marketing Policy. The newsletter is opt-in only and we'll send it no more frequently than once a month.

Also, I don't know about you guys, but it really ticks me off big time when I shop at some online store (and even some Amazon vendors are bad about this) only to discover that they've added me to their newsletter list. I hate it so much that I refuse to do that to my customers.

And as always... I'm working to find sources for high quality interactive toys for cats. It's strangely harder than it should be!

 

[Toa and Ross]

@SumpinSpecial thanks for the update! Hope a lot of people will buy the toys at your shop.

Natasja

 

[MaoSphynx]

Can you give me the link of your shop

 

[Yoda mom]

@DiegoKitty , here is the post with link

Introduction: Who is Something Special Pet Supplies?

 

[SumpinSpecial]

Just added to my shop: lots of interactive toys for cats from the high quality German manufacturer Trixie Pets! I'll give more details in it's own thread.

 

[SumpinSpecial]

I'm sorry everyone, I've removed the free shipping option. It surprisingly didn't draw any more sales and all of the sales I did get while that was shown on the home page opted to pay for shipping anyway. I did reduce the shipping cost a little, though, if that helps.

Estimating shipping for such a wide range of products as I carry is pretty hairy. I am learning my typical costs over time and updating the rates accordingly.

 

[SumpinSpecial]

Is anybody here in the Washington D.C. area? If so, I'll be vending my cat and rabbit/small pet products in person at the Super Pet Expo in Chantilly the weekend of March 17th-19th. Would love to see you!

 

[SumpinSpecial]

Hi Everyone, I have something new that I would like your feedback on, and also good news. The good news is that I have another lovely post by our lovely Silke in the works. "Real" life got carried away with me so I wasn't able to get it posted (or my newsletter out) in May and I'll be out of town the first two weeks of June, but I'm going to publish both when I get back and before the end of June. I swear! Silke's new article is about cat adoption (specifically sphynxies, of course) and includes some lovely photos. That's all the teaser you're getting for now, stay tuned!

The other new thing in my shop is that I've added a gift registry feature. It works exactly like a wedding/party registry: you set it up and mark quantities of items that you want, send the url of your registry to all your friends (or party guests) and they buy things for you from the list. It's pretty unusual to find such a thing on a pet supply shop, but I had two things in mind when I set it up: first, more and more people are doing birthday or gotcha day parties for their pets. So heck, let's make it even funner with gift registries for those pet parties!

The other purpose for it is that it works really well for rescue groups or animal shelters who need donations! For example, my first registry is for the Loudoun County Animal Services department here in Virginia. They need HarnessLeads for dogs, cat feeders and rabbit/bird toys. So their registry contains those and when people buy off the registry, the products are shipped to me (just in this case; if you set up your own, you decide where the things ship to) and I periodically hand deliver the items to the shelter. (That makes it clear that they are donations and not someone at the shelter gone rogue with online shopping. Our government leaders are touchy about money matters!) Anyone who operates a shelter or rescue group can set up a registry for their organization.

So the feedback that I need? If you guys love this idea but I don't currently carry any products you'd want to add to a registry, please email me (sharon @ somethingspecialpetsupplies.com) to tell me what you want. I work with suppliers that offer jeweled collars and cute little outfits and all kinds of blingy fun stuff. I haven't listed them on my shop but I certainly can add them if there is interest.