Boyoboy do I have a lot to tell you. Almost more than half a year has passed, the year number changed, and the Christmas tree is gone again, and a lot has happened since the last time we spoke. Did we sit still? Hell no! We did a lot of work, and can only hope you appreciate all the hard work I put into it.
In July…
We bought Wendy’s Miniatures (www.wendysminiatures.eu) and were hoping to get that in the air by November. Well… that went sideways. Since the site was already live in August and not doing well, we started over with all products. We kept the customer base/ orders. Basically, a total refresh of the site.
Wendy’s has been a household name in the past 10 years in the Netherlands. The owners could not manage the shop anymore. It either needed to go or had to be taken over by another company. Clearly, we chose the latter and that was an awesome decision. Not only did I gain their customers and order base, but the real treasure lies in the knowledge I gained while working on that site.
But what is Wendy’s Miniatures, I hear you say?
You have two main focusses in our great hobby, with the first being the logical one, the miniatures. The other one is the paint, the brushes, basing and basing materials. This is where Wendy’s Miniatures comes into play. In short, the shop focusses on the hobby side of the hobby, and CCGwinkel on the model side of it. So, if you are looking for some awesome hobby stuff like tools, paints or basing material, rest assured. Wendy’s Miniatures will have your back!
But something itched, and I could not find the scratch…
Until I started working on Wendy’s and it’s platform Shopify. Learning a new platform is always a tricky part of what you want to achieve vs what knowledge you have to achieve it. This also was the main reason I was cautious with setting the site open to the public again.
I wanted to use the 3 months between getting the rights to the shop and the re-opening the shop. These 3 months turned into 1 whole month and the site was opened 2 months before the initial plan. This is how easy it was to get stuff done on that platform, and the scratch became usable.
CCgwinkel and Magento2 had always been my go-to platform to develop my store on. Due to the insane difficulty to change just the smaller things, it was made impossible to change anything. It also was so expensive that the itch became scratchable with Shopify. This platform is so adaptable to excactly what you want and need, that my baby (the store) became an obsession to rebuild it in excactly the way I wanted.
And so I did
I made the (for me, as i have been married to Magento for so long) tough decision to step over to Shopify, buy myself a theme and started working. And work I did. The result is a site that only uses 3 clicks to get you to the desired product. My main premise is/was the 3 clicks. It might go over to 4 clicks, since that solves the internal factions of a game system (frontpage-wargaming-kings of war-factions). It also makes it easier to select the desired products.
Apart from the complete overhaul of the site, there is another addition to it that I really wanted to work on, but was too much effort to even think about it.
Boardgaming entered the building
CCGwinkel has always had a focus on wargaming and roleplaying in all forms of these product lineups. It was time to enter another big part of gaming and that is boardgaming. There is only one demand for these games and that is that there needs a either rpg element in them, or they have to contain miniatures to keep them in line with our product lineup. There is so much good stuff to be found that I am exited to start exploring this with you guys.
The Six Pillars of Gaming and Collecting
This means we have a dedicated pillar block for Wargaming, Boardgaming, Roleplaying, Miniatures and Terrain, Accessories and Action Figures. What more could you want as a gamer. Choosing a game system/ miniature or model has never been easier and against all odds of the developer saying my setup was impossible to get done, I did it, and it works like a charm! I said it before, but you can now find your purchase in 3 clicks of the mouse or taps of the finger if you are on a mobile device.
For the rest, we have extensive contact options to help you further towards your desired product, but we won’t stop there as far as I’m concerned.
Why these 6 blocks, or pillars?
Although Shopify is a million times better for smaller companies than Magento is, it still has it’s flaws. The whole reason I did not include the menu system and changed them for the blocks, is that:
1: They are insanely flexible. If there is a new game or system gaining traction in the community, I can easily change the pictures of them. They adapt to the trends, which makes it an awesome tool on their own.
2: The Shopify menu tree can only go 2 deep. This ties me down on how I wanted to make the site and loses flexibility.
3: With not using a traditional menu tree system, I made it significantly harder than it needed to be, but gained way more flexibility on developing the ultimate website for me. It’s easier on the eye, it’s immediately clear where you need to go and instantly explains what is to be found in the clicked menu block.
What’s next for both shops?
CCGwinkel is in its optimal form now. SEO (Search Engine Optimization, Google) is almost perfectly built, the products are found and hype is being built via the on site blog. Nothing more I can do to make that get closer to my perfect baby. I’m happy with it as it is now, and I will only expand on what I have now instead of another rebuild.
Wendy’s Miniatures still has a lot of flaws. These will be fixed in due time. Once again, the SEO of the site was more important than the global look of the brand. Rest assured though. Now that we have the near final form of CCGwinkel in place, once we have the funds to really start working on Wendy’s, that site is going over 9000! The look and feel will become the same as CCGwinkel’s, with the same style (6?) pillars and 3 (4) click mindset.
We are still thinking about something else when both shops feel finished, as I cannot sit still and am haunted with ideas that are easily accessible with the platform. Next to that, the rent per site is 80% less than with Magento, so I can basically rent 3 fully built stores and still have money for some snack in the end.
The Golden Trilogy
I always wanted the golden trilogy of hobby, and it’s finally within my grasp. Will the last part of the trilogy happen this year? Who knows, but as long as it’s on my mind, I will keep harassing myself about it, because standing still in development is the first sign of stopping.
As many of you already know, I am a content writer and translation freelancer when I’m not working on the sites. Unfortunately, AI is taking over a lot of these jobs for us writers, and thus need to find another way of keeping me and my family fed. This means expansion in ways that might surprise everyone, even myself. But for now, we will keep building on the 2 shops we have, keep expanding them and keep making them the best versions I can make them. I can only hope that the work i have put in the sites pays off, and you like the sites enough to earn your trust in purchases.
Simply said. You keep buying the goods of the shops, I keep investing in the best possible shop and keep working on them until there is no more work to be done! It might be a different comeback to this blog, but the comeback is there!
Next time, a chat about Starcraft the Miniatures Game?