Abby's Place
From his studio in northern Wisconsin, Pat Guilday transforms Lake Superior rocks and local scrap metal into works of art. His pet Doberman, Abby, is the source of his inspiration and his business's namesake. Since setting up his e-commerce web store from Zoovy, Inc. six months ago, his online sales have grown by 50 percent. And, thanks to Zoovy's auction integration feature, he has tripled the amount of simultaneous auctions he runs on eBay.

Guilday started making steel yard art after taking metal and welding classes at a local college six years ago. Initially, he designed a variety of garden ornaments reflecting wildlife and nature. Today, he has a niche focusing on designs incorporating popular breeds of dogs. On his website you will find vinyl decals, mailbox toppers, steel yard art, and sand-blasted etched glasses and mugs. There is also an assortment of stamped pet tags and etched Lake Superior paperweights and pocket stones.

As with most craft makers, Guilday started selling his art at local craft fairs and through the auction site eBay. Realizing the Internet's ability to reach customers worldwide, Guilday was looking for a way to increase online sales. He decided to try Zoovy Merchant, a build-it-yourself web store, on a 30-day free trial basis.

Zoovy helps small businesses create comprehensive web stores, from setting up domain names to hosting and managing the full storefront. What makes Zoovy unique is that it provides a complete online revenue building system that helps small businesses increase sales and build customer relationships. This includes automated auction and customer relationship management integration.

Zoovy provides an easy-to-use Windows-based software called Product Manager that helps businesses create, update and manage orders and content offline. Once online, the program automatically uploads the information to their web site. An online process is also available for businesses with high-speed Internet connections.

"The installation was simple, and whenever I had a question, the Zoovy staff was just a phone call away," said Guilday. "Their customer support is second to none."

Guilday put that customer support to the test with his unique shipping challenges. Since his products are made of steel, rock, glass and vinyl, he needed to determine shipping costs based on what materials could be shipped in the same package. For example, rocks cannot be shipped in the same package with etched glass. Zoovy set up a rule-based system that automatically recognizes the product type and calculates the appropriate shipping costs.

"Zoovy recognized my unique situation and worked with me to create a shipping system that fit my needs," said Guilday. "The system works great and leaves me more time to focus on filling orders."

Zoovy has also streamlined Guilday's auction sales. Using Zoovy's Product Manager, he can list an unlimited number of products to be auctioned at a future date. Zoovy automatically launches the auctions at the preset time. When the auctions conclude, Zoovy automatically sends email to the winning bidders, taking them to Guilday's checkout page, where he can sell them more products.

"With all the time I save using Zoovy, I'm able to spend more time responding to customer's requests," said Guilday. "I have totally stopped going to craft fairs. I am adding more dog breeds and expanding my product line - I'm always getting requests for different dog breeds and custom work."

Customers' requests have run the gamut. He recently received an order for 280 etched-rock wedding favors for a reception in San Francisco. A Greyhound dog adoption organization ordered 25 mailbox toppers - and put it in their catalog that is distributed to 6,000 people.

With Zoovy Merchant, Guilday has a wide variety of payment options. He currently takes three forms of payment - checks, money order or PayPal for credit cards. Occasionally, he even receives cash. His customers come from as far away as Japan and Norway.

Aside from teaching a course in sand carving at the University of Wisconsin Madison School of the Arts at Rhinelander in the summer, Abby's Place is Guilday's full-time job. While enjoying the peace and quiet of his isolated studio near Lake Tomahawk, he is secure in knowing that Zoovy is at work, promoting and selling his products to the world.

Abby's Place
Pat Guilday
http://abbys.zoovy.com
pjg@newnorth.net