Approved Etsy Manufacturer Plus Faster Checkout

I am excited to announce that FinerWorks has been approved to be an Etsy Manufacturer. Noelle Hines, one of our senior account executives and customer service representatives will oversee aspects of this as well as be our token Etsy expert. As an Etsy seller herself she has been able to view first-hand what many of our customers that are also Etsy sellers experience. Over the past couple years Etsy has evolved their policy so artists selling on Etsy are more easily able to outsource production without violating Etsy terms of service. I think to some degree that this was almost inevitable. If there was a flaw in their business model it was no mechanism in place initially that would allow their users to continue to use the Etsy platform once they reached a certain level of growth. Unless the seller had the capability or funding to setup their own production facility and hire staff, those abiding by Etsy’s original terms would find themselves having to close their Etsy shop and find customers elsewhere if they wanted to outsource. Admittedly many users chose to ignore Etsy’s policy and eventually Etsy began to loosen their stance on this. Now it appears they are somewhat endorsing companies that meet the criteria they require by allowing them to be part of their Etsy Manufacturer’s program. For us it is a good thing because it provides us a level of credibility in the eyes of new customers. For our customers it is just as good because it encourages us to continue to meet their demands and explore ways to improve things.

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New Metallic Canvas

We now have a metallic canvas. Metallic canvas has been around for a few years now however it is starting to be widely favored in some circles over even gloss and certainly any satin or matte canvas. Some in the photography world might be more familiar with the term pearl to describe the type of finish this has but it is essentially characterized by the metallic appearance it has when light reflects off of it. Granted it might now be to everyone’s taste, however I was in awe by its ability to show detail and color. In order to see what it is like, we are running a 50% off special that will give you 50% off the standard single print price on the metallic canvas. This will give you the opportunity to try it and let us know what you think. This intro special expires Monday, August 1, 2016 at midnight CT. Make sure you use coupon code METCANV in your shopping cart before your checkout.

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New Card Options

We are excited to announce our new line of card options. These include precision cut folded greeting card along with postcards and multipurpose, two sided flat cards that are available in sizes up to 8.5 x 11. Our ability to complete and process card orders has been accelerated dramatically due to new state of the art equipment that now automates the process for us unlike we would have been able to do before. It also has allowed us to offer these new printed card options.

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New Starter Kit Participants and Folded Cards

We are excited to announce new card processing technology coming soon for a better folded greeting card in quality and accuracy. But first I want to announce the selection of our new starter kit participants voted by our panel of judges. Check out their website and their work. Each winner is being sent a starter kit with a $100 gift card as thanks for their participation. Six are are being shown with their website and a brief testimonial on the back of the starter kit folder and two on the inside. We go through a ton of starter kits and order new batches at least a couple times a year. If you were not selected by our panel of judges this time, don’t fret because we will in all likelihood be doing another round later in the year.

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New Shpping Options and Changes

We have started to simplify our shipping options by consolidating shipping of items coming from our Atlanta, GA and San Antonio, TX color labs. This means if you order items shipped from both locations you will not need to select two shipping methods. Instead shipping cost from both locations will be consolidated into one. In addition this year we will look into moving production of some of the products you may order from our Atlanta based lab to San Antonio which could mean some of these items will ship from a more centralized location within the U.S. This would alsol speed up average delivery time for those products. We are also in the process of adding some new domestic shipping options and fine tuning the cost of International Shipping. These should go into affect next week. You may know that shipping rate increases by the US Postal Service have been ongoing with another substantial increase this year.  The good news is with these new domestic shipping options we will be able to keep overall shipping around the same and even less for some of the larger unmounted prints and posters. 

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2015 Holiday Ordering Deadline

We have been hearing that the various delivery services have been running behind so don’t wait too much longer to order if you want it to arrive by Christmas.

Keep in mind we produce different products at different locations so items ordered from both our San Antonio and Atlanta color labs will ship separate. For our San Antonio fine art color lab you still have some time (see the chart below) . If you are ordering from our Atlanta lab, try to get your order in today or tomorrow (Wednesday) at the latest since we have had to move up the deadline dates as a precaution.

Please review the ordering and shipping deadline chart to figure out which method is best for you. As said in our previous email, we will make every attempt to ensure that your order ships and arrives before Christmas. This may include changing the shipping method to one that we believe will be more likely to get the package to you on time. But be aware that during the last days leading up to Christmas delivery services like FEDEX, UPS and the Post Office are more likely to get behind. So make sure you do not wait until the last moment to order.

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What’s in New November 2015

We have plowed into our busiest time of year at full speed. We have at least two things to announce which have come about quite suddenly. First, and most exciting to many of our customers is that we changed to a higher quality gloss canvas that many of our professionals who have used various high end color labs will likely be familiar with. Second we because we are getting much busier, we are extending our hours into the weekend both for production and customer service.

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Update in Fine Art Paper Order History

If you usually order your prints on the “Fine Art Paper” under the “Fine Art Paper” category, you will now find that in your order history and elsewhere on our website you will see it labeled as “Fine Art Paper Velvet”. Same paper but just worded more descriptively. It’s true name, but too long to fit in some places, is Moab Somerset Enhanced Velvet. It is also known under other labels as Epson Somerset Velvet, Canon Enhanced Velvet, etc. Years ago when we first carried this it was our only fine art paper so we simply called it “Fine Art Paper” not realizing that producing prints on paper was going to eventually overshadow our canvas printing services. We still produce a lot of canvas prints, but really found our new love in producing highly colorful and vivid prints on various papers. This led to more and more papers types being offered.

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Weekly Followup

Last week was quite an exciting week for us and will keep us moving forward this week at full throttle. We introduced a new paper just the week prior which received an incredible response. We shipped out the first batch of our new wood prints. We just made some improvements to our new Web API and started looking for seasonal help for the last quarter of this year.

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Callling All Artists and Photographers

We are in the process of producing a new layout for our company folder. This is the same folder we use for our starter kits and a number of miscellaneous needs. On the back we plan to display the work of 6 to 8 artists and photographers, preferably 50/50, which reflects the type of imagery that we print at FinerWorks. Below that we want to include a small thumbnail portrait of the individual artist and a 15 to 20 word statement as to why that artist or photographer chooses to use FinerWorks to as a color lab they use. Myself, Brian and our Production Manager will be making the selection. A $100 gift card / voucher will be awarded to those that were selected and we will include a preview of the final layout in one of our newsletters.

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