Stitch Labs Blog on Tumblr

Welcome to the Stitch Labs Blog (on Tumblr)! This is where we share information on upcoming events, business tips for creative entrepreneurs, and occasionally silly photos and stories from life in the Lab. We want to help you get the most out of Stitch, so please reach out and say hello, and let us know if you have any questions. Note: These posts are pulled in from http://blog.stitchlabs.com

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Automatically Import Products From Etsy into Stitch Labs

Automatically Import Products From Etsy into Stitch Labs

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Etsy Shipping - Feature Update

Etsy Shipping - Feature Update

Great news, just in time for the holiday rush. Stitch will now send shipment and tracking information back to Etsy. Prior to this update, Stitch would mark an order as shipped on Etsy after being marked as shipped or complete in Stitch, but the detailed shipping information wasn’t transferred back to Etsy. Now, when a buyer goes to review their order(s), they will have all the necessary information to track their own package(s). This will help save time and cut down on convo exchanges.

Also, if you’re working with our amazing integrated partner ShipStation, you’ll notice that the shipping information, automatically generated by their application, will flow back through Stitch and onto Etsy. It’s like a holiday miracle!

This is guaranteed to save you time while you are working feverishly to get your products in the hands of customers during the holiday rush. Let us know what you think about this new feature by leaving a comment below.

Stitch on!

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Happy Programmers' Day! We're going to celebrate by writing code, writing more code, and then by writing even more code. (Taken with Instagram at Stitch Labs)

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New Features - Weekly Digest Permissions and Emailing Customers

While we continue to work on major projects like our recent integration with SAIL and our current work on Stitch 2.0, we want to keep knocking out smaller feature updates that will help our customers be even more efficient. Today we're announcing two new features in Stitch that will help our customers be more effective with their communication to both internal people (business partners & employees) and their customers.

1. Weekly Digest Emails - Determine which of the people using Stitch will receive the weekly digest email.

2. Emailing Customers - Admin settings allow you to adjust where emails are sent.

  Weekly Digest Email

A few months ago, we developed an automatic weekly digest email that is delivered to any Stitch user attached to an account. Now the owner of the Stitch account can determine if they want everyone in the organization to receive the email or just the owner of the account. See the images below for further instruction.

Emailing Customers

Prior to this update, Stitch users that sent orders, invoices and/or packing slips directly from Stitch would automatically get CC'd on the outgoing email. With this update, Stitch users can determine if they get CC'd, and also if they would like to send a BCC. See additional detail in the images below.

With feature updates like the aforementioned and the update from earlier this month, Stitchers can continue to make their Stitch account more personalized and gain more control of what the application is doing for them.

We will keep making Stitch even better on a regular basis; and we appreciate all the great ideas we get from Stitchers. No feedback goes unread and we have regular meetings to discuss what changes will have the most impact on our customers. Please leave us a comment and let us know what you think. We're all ears.

Stitch on!

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Stitch Spotlight: Modern June

Our Stitch Spotlight series is a way for us to feature our amazing customers and the products they make. We like to put the spotlight on the creative, power house business owners that use Stitch to grow their business and organize their lives! We love learning how people use Stitch, and sharing with our community. Our Stitch Spotlight series also helps show new customers the different ways our current customers are using Stitch.

This month, we're putting the spotlight on Kelly McCants of Modern June, specializing in handmade housewares for the hip home. Modern June sells retro-inspired aprons and other goodies for the cool "housewife" - including aprons, tablecloths, placemats, bags, floormats, and more! All goods are handmade from original Modern June designs. Modern June is a medium sized business with employees and is based in Virginia. They sell a standard product line, along with custom orders. Modern June is available through wholesale, Etsy, and soon through ModernJune.com!

Tell us a little about your business.

I run two shops on Etsy: Modern June & Oilcloth Addict. Modern June sells pretty and practical housewares and Oilcloth Addict offers a lovely selection of oilcloth, laminated cotton and chalk cloth. My team and I sell our wares at the Country Living Magazine Fair in Ohio, Georgia and Texas and at several Indie Craft Shows. I’m very excited that Stitch Labs will help us stay organized while we’re on the road.

Thanks to Stitch Labs, I have found Big Commerce! ModernJune.com is finally under construction and we’ll be adding a kitschy kitchen department in addition to our current wares. It’s long been a dream of mine to be able to sell related items alongside our handmade goodies. This dream is now becoming a reality thanks to the ease and convenience Stitch Labs has provided!

How did you find Stitch?

I found Stitch through a friend and fellow Richmond Craft Mafia Member, Meghan Barbato. Meghan has spent years helping her husband run his company and now she’s sharing her wealth of information and professional marketing experience by becoming a business consultant for her crafty friends.

When I first heard that Meghan was going out on her own and could help me with the business end of things, I told her that my company's number one problem was inventory. She suggested Stitch, and I joined up that night.

My best selling product is custom tablecloths so getting started in Stitch Labs was difficult for me because I needed to make time to manually set up inventory. In the end, I found it necessary to close up the shops for a few days so I could get everything in order. After that it’s been smooth sailing!

What have been the biggest benefits of using Stitch?

The biggest benefit to using Stitch Labs is knowing what we have in stock! We have one central inventory of fabric that supplies the two shops and, while it’s not ideal, it’s the best we can do with limited capital. Before I made the decision to switch to Stitch Labs, our inventory was a complete wreck! Despite our best efforts we were always running out of fabric; we never really knew what we had in stock. Now we’re never surprised, we know how much yardage we have in stock at all times.

For me the bonus has been the ability to see exactly what is selling. My assistant and I just love all the charts and grafts, it make us feel very professional. When Kathie first learned that she could collect data and create reports for me she got very excited! What person doesn’t like a pie chart?!!

Besides Stitch, what other systems (apps/websites/etc) do you use?

Stitch Labs has turned us on to Ship Station!! We’ve lost track of the amount of money that service has saved us thus far, but I know for a fact that it paid for it’s self within the first week. Being able to compare prices is amazing!!

Any advice or tips you’d like to share for other product-based business owners?

Working for yourself at home can be a lot like working in a vacuum, so finding like minded people that work in a similar field has been essential for me. If it weren’t for my crafty, entrepreneurial friends I wouldn’t have found out about Stitch Labs. I am thankful for Facebook and Twitter to keep in touch with these people while we all work away in our studios.

It’s really great to have all my inventory and sales it one spot. Stitch Labs is a life saver!!

: : : : : : : :

You can follow Modern June on Twitter, Facebook, and on their blog. Leave us  comment if you have any questions, or just to say hi!

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Stitch Sets SAIL and Hits the Road to Share the Good News!

As I mentioned in my initial post about SAIL, we were unbelievably excited to get out of the Lab and test the Stitch/SAIL integration with customers. We took a road trip East to share the good news with some of our closest friends at Etsy and Shopify!

Customer Testing

After working hand in hand with the SAIL team to get all the bugs worked out, it was time to get this integration in the hands of some Stitchers. Lucky for them, we make house calls! Several of our customers opened their doors, workshops and stores to let us test our most recent awesomeness. One example is our good friend Lisa Andersen Shaffer of Zelma Rose. Lisa was the first to get her hands on our integration in July and she has been swiping away ever since. She wrote an outstanding blog post about it recently. If you haven’t seen it, be sure to check it out. Lisa shares the best practices she’s already discovered and will share more in the future.

[caption id="attachment_4663" align="aligncenter" width="584"] Brandon and Lisa testing the Stitch/SAIL integration[/caption]

On the Road

Our first stop was to Brooklyn, NY. Yep, that’s right. We made a trip to the handmade capital of America - the Etsy headquarter building. We first visited Brooklyn last December, directly after we integrated Stitch with Etsy. That was a great trip because it enabled us to introduce ourselves in person and gain a better understanding of what went on at their home base, along with the direction of the company. That relationship has continued to grow throughout the year and we were very excited to share this integration with them and their community before the busy holiday show season.

This trip was even better than the last. We had an opportunity to visit with more people and share the good news about SAIL with their mobile and seller education teams. Brian Hamilton, VP of the SAIL project at VeriFone was also able to join us for the event, so we had the whole gang there! Being in a room with a group of people that are doing everything they can to help businesses save time and sell more is an exciting experience. We couldn’t be more appreciative of the opportunity to share the good news with Etsy. A special thanks to Carrington Williams (Business Development - Etsy) for helping us organize the day.

[caption id="attachment_4667" align="aligncenter" width="584"] Brandon, aka our Thinker Upper, demonstrating Stitch+SAIL at Etsy[/caption]

The second stop on our East Coast swing was North of the border. We shot up to Ottawa to meet with our good pals at Shopify. This was our first trip to Ottawa, and let me be very clear when I say this,  it was unbelievable! (I feel like Barack Obama with that, “let me be very clear” thing.) After visiting Ottawa and seeing the culture at Shopify, we had a hard time saying goodbye. They were unbelievably gracious hosts. Brennan Loh (Business Development at Shopify) provided us the opportunity to meet so many people on their team and discuss how they have gone from a handful of talented engineers, to a cutting edge commerce company empowering over 30,000 entrepreneurs and small businesses to reach their goals.

[caption id="attachment_4673" align="alignright" width="350"] Jake and Brandon with Brennan (BD at Shopify)[/caption]

A special thank you to Brennan for his hustle all day. Also, Mr. Harley Finklestein (CPO), for imparting wisdom on us and taking pity on a scrappy start up by treating us to dinner at an awesome Ottawa restaurant. Keep on coolify-ing commerce guys! You’re onto something special up there.

  So now our good news about SAIL is out publicly.  Even TechCrunch and GigaOM were excited about sharing the news earlier this week. Be sure to see what they had to say as well.

Parting Shots (Sports Reporters Reference)

Since we are constantly working to make Stitch happen in the Lab, we rarely get an opportunity to get out and see our stakeholders live. Everyone that is affected by Stitch is a stakeholder. From our team, to our customers, to our partners and investors, we’re all a part of this journey. It’s important to stay in close contact with them and share good news when we have a chance.

Finally, something really struck me when we were visiting the Shopify office building, aside from all the great people. They had inspirational signs and artwork everywhere, but one really resonated. When I asked Brennan about it, he said their CEO Tobi (awesome guy, by the way) preaches this saying, and I have to agree. People working on great projects should be proud of what they’re doing and tell people about it. Not in a boastful or tacky way, but in a way that shows their passion and how they’re putting their heart into everything they do. We have a weekly “all hands” meeting at the Lab when everyone talks about where we stand on our initiatives. We can do an even better job of this. Sometimes we get so caught up in the day to day that we forget to share all the great things we may be developing. There are people everywhere doing what they can to really change the world; and it’s exciting as hell! So simply, “Do things, and tell people.” It’s an interesting concept. We welcome you to share what you're doing with us! We're here to support our customers and stakeholders. Leave us a comment below :)

It was an excellent trip and we really appreciate both teams allowing us into their world for the day. More to come in the future, but for now, it's back to Stitchin'.

Stitch On!

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Stitch Integrates with SAIL!

Crazy Big Exciting News Summary

Today we are extremely excited to announce our latest integrated partner, SAIL, by VeriFone! What does this mean? It means that Stitch users will now have the ability to accept payments offline (e.g. trunk shows, trade shows, and craft fairs), easily select the products they sold on the spot, and have that sale, along with customer information, immediately added to their Stitch account without any further action needed on their part. The transaction will also automatically communicate with their online selling platform if they are using one our integrated partners (e.g. Etsy, Shopify and/or BigCommerce). There will be no more guesswork about what was sold, where it was sold, or whom it was sold to. The entire process can be automated.

Watch the video below to see this amazing new integration in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUcU1kLAVAqyiGkrszvBhFVw&v=mCvtgzDkkTE&feature=player_detailpage

Why SAIL?  

This is simple. The group working on SAIL is a small group of entrepreneurs working within VeriFone to create an application that will help small businesses succeed. Like us, they see the value in opening their network and working closely with other applications. They too want to make the Internet a place where small businesses can have access to powerful and affordable tools. They are iterating at an unbelievably rapid pace and have worked hand in hand with us to bring you this solution.

Benefits and Details

Since we began creating Stitch, we knew that in order for us to even begin to reach our potential as a company, we needed to provide a mechanism for our customers to automate the selling process for all the ways they sell. With the addition of SAIL, we're taking another major step toward that goal. Our customers have the opportunity to use Stitch to sell in one or any combination of the following:

Wholesale – Through their online wholesale shopping carts, or their offline phone and fax process, Stitch’s order and invoice management allows for wholesale businesses to prosper.

Retail – Whether they sell online with one of our integrated partners or not, Stitch affords the ability to track sales and segment them by channel. Now with the addition of SAIL, online and offline retail can be automated and “Stitch”ed together.

Consignment – Using Stitch’s order and inventory management capability, consignment sellers have a better handle on where they stand with their merchandise.

There are so many BENEFITS to share; it’s difficult to pack them in to one blog post. Here are a few major benefits that have risen to the top as we have tested this integration with select Stitchers:

Contact management - All customer information for every sale can now be automatically added to one central location. No more manual entry of people that write their name on a piece of paper at a show.

Inventory management - If you are selling offline (e.g. trade or trunk show), you no longer have to worry about going onto your online store and adjusting inventory during or after a show. Stitch can handle it for you.

Analytics - Stitch users can gain a better understanding of how they’re performing through each sales channel, so they can focus their resources more effectively.

What are these Stitchers saying?

"Using Stitch as an inventory management system, and now integrating SAIL means I can spend my time doing what I do best, which is a dream come true for any small business owner." Lisa Andersen Shaffer - Zelma Rose

"Integrating Stitch with SAIL eliminated all kinds of redundancies in my record keeping making it super easy to get paid!" Kate Ellen - Kate Ellen Metals and Crown Nine

*VERY IMPORTANT DETAILS*

Because we deal with many different selling platforms, there are several challenges with regard to how products move from one application to another. No two applications manage their products in the exact same way. For example, SAIL is the first application we integrate with that we can push products into from Stitch. One of the main reasons we can do this is because SAIL, unlike our other integrated partners (e.g. Etsy, Shopify and BigCommerce) isn’t meant to be a customer facing application. People aren’t shopping from it. Only the sellers will be interacting with the SAIL application, therefore, there isn’t much additional information, other than the product information itself, that needs to be added to SAIL. Because the SAIL integrations is different, it is imperative that those people planning to use SAIL in conjunction with Stitch visit our support center and read through our FAQs about this integration. Users are going to love the fact that they can integrate their SAIL account with Stitch and be up and running in literally seconds.

We have plenty more exciting news to share about this latest update. We have additional blog posts and testimonials coming throughout the entire week. Please leave us a comment below and let us know what you think. This is news we couldn’t wait to share with the Stitch nation. It’s definitely going to make their lives a bit easier…wait, I mean a whole lot easier! Yep, that’s what I meant.

  Stitch on!

**UPDATE** This news has been featured in GigaOM and TechCrunch!

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Feature Update - Customize Outgoing Email Messages

We are very excited to bring you this new feature update. Stitch will now enable you to customize your outgoing messages for orders, invoices, and packing slips. Prior to this update, there was a standard message automatically included that you could update each time you sent an email through Stitch, but now, you can set the default message of your choice. The message you create will be included in every message you send. Don't worry, you can edit the message on the fly if you'd like.

To set the messages, select Admin > Orders, Invoices & Packing Slips

Scroll to near the bottom of the page and you'll see the fields where you can enter your customized messages. Be sure to save your changes.

Next time you need to send an order, invoice or packing slip through Stitch, your message will automatically be included. You can still make edits as you wish.

We're sure this new feature will continue to help you save time and sell more. It has been a highly requested feature and we will continue to roll these out as we prepare for Stitch 2.0 in the near future. We've got more big news just around the corner. Stay tuned, and keep Stitchin'. Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Also, be sure to check out more of our recent feature updates.

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Renegade Craft Fair, Team Bowling, Free Stitch and Google Docs....all in one week!

As I sit here and reflect on the past week, all I can think is, WOW! A ton can happen in one week at a start-up like Stitch Labs. Last Sunday, we had an opportunity to visit RenegadeSF to see many of our customers live and in person. On Wednesday, the Stitch team headed out to the Mission for some good old fashioned team bowling, and by Friday, we had launched a new FREE Stitch plan and a brand new integration with Google Drive! Just another quiet week in the Lab.

Renegade Craft Fair Hits San Francisco

As I mentioned in a previous post, there is nothing better than getting out of the office and speaking to the people involved in helping make Stitch Labs what it is and will be. Last Sunday was one of those opportunities. Stitch customers from the East Coast, PacNW, Bay Area, Midwest and SoCal gathered at Ft. Mason for the semi-annual Renegade Craft Fair. Last year, as we were just starting out and building Stitch, we didn't know anyone at Renegade. We were just talking to anyone that would listen. This year, it was like we were going to see old friends. So many Stitchers were there and looking to talk about what's working, not working and how their businesses have benefited from using Stitch. It was so exciting to hear their success stories and talk about what's coming soon. We appreciate having time to speak with so many, and can't wait to do it again.

Stitch Team Bowling

I don't want to steal anyone's thunder here, so I'll just say we had a blast at the Mission Bowling Club. More to come on that, I'm sure. I will say, even though I didn't win (which royally pisses me off), it was a great time, and I did have the sweetest form. What? Doesn't everyone have their own bowling ball and shoes? They should. Bowling's back, baby!

Free Stitch is Here

On Thursday morning at about 3am, yes 3am, the ThinkerUpper himself (CEO, Brandon Levey), pushed the code to enable our new FREE plan. We had been contemplating this idea for quite some time and it's not a decision we took lightly. We know Stitch is a very powerful order and inventory management application, and is helping businesses everywhere sell more. We also know people are willing to pay to operate their business with Stitch. So, why would we have a free plan? We decided to have a free plan so the thousands of businesses that have signed up to use Stitch can effectively grow into hundreds of thousands and even millions in the future. We truly believe that small businesses and entrepreneurs are the driver of the world's ailing economy, and if they can grow their business by using Stitch for free, they can grow into a paying customer when they begin selling their wares through several different integrated sales channels.

Stitch Integrates with Google Drive

Our backend ninja Robert has been cranking out some serious code since he started with us. He's done everything from major server work, to our integration with ShipStation and finally to Google Drive this week. Robert has done an amazing job and has more up his t-shirt sleeves. Our integration with Google Drive allows all our customers to move completely to the cloud. Now, all the reports and csv files that used to have to be downloaded to a users' computer, can live in their Google Docs. No more software needed! All you need is an account with Google, another free service.

Things are a little different at an early stage start-up. In all my years in Corporate America, I don't believe we got this much done in one week, maybe even one month. It's not that one is better than the other, they're just different. We are still at a point where we can be extremely nimble and make changes very quickly that have significant impact on both our company and our customers. It's weeks like this that make you ask, "what day is it, no seriously, what day is it?" We have so many great things to share over the next several months. Stay tuned. It's going to be an awesome ride!

Stitch on!

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Stitch Now Integrates with Google Drive

We're taking your data to a whole 'nother level! Stitch now integrates with Google Drive (formerly Google Docs).

Can I get an "aww yeah!" for the cloud?!

With Stitch, you can generate beautiful reports from your sales data. Stitch has over 20 different reports available, giving you a deep insight into how your business is doing. Stitch also helps you manage your business contacts: vendors, customers, distributors, and more. With our exporting capabilities, you can maximize your marketing efforts by creating email lists, utilizing direct marketing, targeting by region, etc.

Now, you can work with your data any way you want! You can export contacts and reports right to Google Drive, allowing you to share your documents with others and collaborate in real time. We want you to control your data, be able to manipulate it to suit your needs, and access it anywhere.

Check out this video to learn how to set up the integration in your Stitch account and export your data:

http://youtu.be/vKV10UUphVM

Don't forget to leave a review in the Google App Store to let people know how Stitch is working out for you. We'd greatly appreciate your feedback.

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Stitch Introduces FREE Pricing

Our biggest goal is to support business owners. We thought a pretty great way to do that would be to offer Stitch for FREE! Yes, we’re serious. Over 80% of our customers now get to use Stitch for free. Zero, zip, ziltch dollars. None. Not a one.

We want to motivate growth, revolutionize order and inventory management, and build the best product around. With Stitch, product-based businesses are able to manage unlimited online and offline orders and inventory in one place. We want to excite our customers, invite new users, and get millions of businesses using Stitch.

We’ve built a beautiful product that is smart, efficient, and provides a much needed solution. We’ve put an emphasis on design, customer support, and perfection. We are ready to open the floodgates and help people take their business to the next level.

We love our customers and can’t thank them enough for all of the support and feedback they give us. This product is a labor of love for us, and we are so thrilled that it supports business owners and helps them reach their goals.

Now you have every reason to use Stitch, tell every single person you know about us, and rock the heck out of your business. Stitch on!

Want to share the love? Tweet about us. (Don't worry, you'll be able to edit your tweet)

Details. Details. Details.

Visit our new pricing page to see the changes.

Current Customers: Anyone who was a Stitch customer prior to this change will either continue paying their current price, or their account will now be totally FREE. If you fall into the free bucket, we went ahead and made the change for you. We figured you wouldn’t mind too much. :)

UPDATE 8/13: Anyone that had an account that went into suspension after their free trial under our own pricing model will have their account reactivated. This will cause Stitch to regain control of your integrated sales channel if you had your Stitch account managing inventory prior to the end of your trial. Please be aware of this change should your inventory actions be overridden within your online selling channel after manual editing.

For additional answers about these exciting changes, please check out the below links to our support center.

Links: How does the 14-day unlimited trial work? What is an integrated sales channel? What if I have multiple stores with one of your integrated partners?

We can imagine that you're pretty excited about these changes - dare we say almost as excited as we are?! We want you to spread the word and share this exciting news. Stitch is an awesome resource for your community, and it's now FREE! Please blog, tweet, and share our awesome news!

Spread the Word! Stitch is nOW FREE Click share buttons to preview message: [do action="tweet-stitch-is-now-free"/] [do action="Facebook-Share-Stitch-is-FREE"/]

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Stitch Snafu Clarification

Hard working, t-shirt loving, code slinging engineer, Robert here. As you may or may not have noticed, there were some service interruptions yesterday starting around 10:58am PDT. These hiccups were due to some faulty code deployment scripts. For those of you that don't speak computer geek, that means we had a minor bug in our program.  Unfortunately the errors manifested themselves in a rather round about way, making them somewhat difficult to track.

However, rest assured, our crack team of server chimps was on the job. After a few bananas, we were back in business!

We've since fixed the bug in the deploy process and added a few more sanity checks to ensure this doesn't happen again.

It's our job to stay on top of Stitch so you can feel 100% confident about the system helping you run your business. We want to help you save time and sell more.

Again, if you experienced any service interruptions yesterday, we sincerely apologize. While perfection is difficult, it's our goal. Would you want it any other way?

Thanks for being a part of the Stitch nation. We appreciate it!

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Happy {Creative} Independence Day!

On a day like today we feel very grateful to be a part of the incredible community of creative, independent business owners who are going out there and making their dreams happen!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"] Festive Cupcakes by Bakerella[/caption]

Here's wishing you and your loved ones a very happy and relaxing 4th of July.

p.s. If anyone decides to make these delicious looking cupcakes (above), you know where to find us. ;)

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True University: Stitch goes to startup school!

We feel incredibly fortunate to have the support of True Ventures. Not only because they stand with us in our vision to help business owners succeed, but because in doing so, they make a commitment to the companies they've invested in. A solid example of that commitment is their yearly event, True University.

  Five of us had the pleasure of attending TrueU this year, and I'm confident I can speak for all of us that it was an incredibly enlightening and educational experience. There's so much to learn in running a business - of any size! - and we know that by getting better at everything we do here at Stitch, we're going to be able to continue helping you grow and succeed in your business. Plus, it was a great opportunity for our core team to spend some quality time together!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Brandon, Robert, Willo, Michelle & Jake[/caption]

The leadership at True (shout out to Christiaan!) did a phenomenal job at rounding up an incredible roster of speakers from various backgrounds, levels and verticals; teaching our team new insights tips and tricks for everything from back-end development to customer service to design and culture/team-building strategies. Honestly, that short list barely scratches the surface, as there was probably almost 40 different presenters and topics, but suffice to say we all walked away learning a lot!

[caption id="attachment_4100" align="aligncenter" width="500"] True Ventures' Phil Black, wearing his 'True Blue' jacket[/caption]

Something super cool, in addition to all that, was I was among those asked to present! I was so honored and humbled to be among all the ridiculously talented folks droppin’ their knowledge. For those of you who have met me - either through my personal WilloToons blog and Twitter stream, or through our Stitch blog, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, etc - it'll probably come to no surprise that my talk was entitled, Building and Nourishing Your Customers through Social Channels. I had a great time, and it seemed to be a well-received topic for all of the other founders/start-up folks there looking to learn how to authentically share the word about their product or service. Thanks for having me, True!

  [caption id="attachment_4101" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Willo O'Brien, leading a talk at TrueU[/caption]

The whole event was done SO impeccably well. Held on the beautiful Haas Business School campus, they served us delicious meals, hosted fun happy hour networking events, and even supplied us with eco-friendly and useful fun swag. We made tons of new friends and allies among the other True portfolio companies, and came away inspired and ready to make Stitch happen!

[caption id="attachment_4102" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Yummy cupcakes? TRUE.[/caption]

Thanks for being awesome, True! We look forward to making you proud as we continue to improve Stitch and help more product-based businesses flourish doing what they love!

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The Stitch Photoshoot Adventure

Last week we had an ab. so. lute. ball. This Lab is hustlin' and bustlin' to roll out new features, improve existing ones, get the word out about Stitch, and prepare for the next big thing. We are really excited because we are in the midst of redesigning our website. This might not throw you into an all out smile-fest, but it sure does make us buzz with excitement and anticipation. (Okay, and maybe stress us out a bit, too.) We just want it to be SO GREAT for all of our customers, potential customers, investors, friends, and basically everyone on the planet. So, no pressure...

[caption id="attachment_4072" align="alignleft" width="150"] Photo by Sarah Deragon.[/caption]

The fantastic news is that I have no doubt our new site will be amazing. It will be beautiful, usable, and speak to potential customers with clarity so that they easily understand Stitch and all we have to offer.

The first step towards our awesome new site was brainstorming! We love brainstorming over here at Stitch, and are always voicing ideas. Some are silly, some are serious, but no matter the core of the idea, we always settle on good ones.

The direction we've decided on for our new site features our existing customers. We think this is great. Our users love Stitch Labs! We wanted to showcase their awesome businesses, infectious smiles, and cool products to show potential customers who's using (loving) Stitch.

To help us get the redesign ball rolling, we hired Sarah Deragon right away. Sarah owns Portraits to the People and takes amazing photos. We love her work. She stopped by our officewarming party and snapped a few - talk about great self-marketing! She'd been on our mind ever since. We love her openness, fun style, and amazing attitude.

After we booked Sarah and were equipped with the best-of-the-best, it was time to reach out to some Stitch-using product-makin' rockstar business owners. Luckily for us, there are a ton located right here in the Bay Area. It was crazy, I don't know how it happened, but they were all available on the same day! The website redesign gods were smiling down on us, I guess. That, or Stitch was saving them so much time that their schedules were wide open.

[caption id="attachment_4066" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Kate Ellen working away. Photo by Sarah Deragon.[/caption]

Our first superstar was Kate Ellen of Kate Ellen Metals and CROWN NINE. Willo, Sarah, and I (Camille) drove over to her Oakland studio at The Hive. What a gorgeous workspace! Really amazing. We got to work right away and Sarah's camera started clicking. We captured so many amazing shots and are really happy with how everything came out. Kate is a natural. Her work is amazing, and her studio is filled with jewelry-making tools, machines, and her own personal flair.

After Kate's shoot, we needed some sustenance, so we headed back to the city and rejuvenated with some delicious (and I mean DELICIOUS) Mediterranean food from Hayes & Kebab. Hummus, dolmas, eggplant wraps, greek salads, and sunshine. What more can you ask for?

[caption id="attachment_4067" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Pita from Hayes & Kebab. Photo by Sarah Deragon.[/caption]

Then it was off to the BeatWares studio, a totally funrageous line handmade by Phoenix Zoellick. At the studio, there is a doorbell marked "beast parlor" and a rotatable peep hole that closely resembles a monster eye. AWESOME. We got amazing shots of her space. Bolts of fabric, multiple spools of various vibrant colors, Phoenix's personality, and more were all gorgeously captured on film.

[caption id="attachment_4082" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Phoenix of BeastWares by Sarah Deragon[/caption]

After that, we obviously needed a tweet break.

Then it was off to our final shoot of the day! Brad Carrick of Solz generously opened his space to us, and we rocked it out. Sarah reminded us that 70% of any photoshoot is moving furniture. After three photoshoots in 5 hours, we believed her. But we didn't care one bit! After tearing apart Brad's space, we got some really killer shots. Brad makes foldable shoes (any woman who's committed to a pair of heels that she shouldn't have - this is for you) and solar backpacks that charge devices (like phones, iPads, etc.). His products are so cool, and we were able to highlight them really well.

  [caption id="attachment_4069" align="aligncenter" width="250"] Brad with Solz Backpack. Photo by Sarah Deragon.[/caption]

That's a wrap! I got to say that twice throughout the day and it thrilled me to no end. Now, we've delivered the images to our incredible designer Michelle, and she's going to work her magic. We can't wait to get our new site up and live, but these things do take time. We'll keep you posted as we are looking forward to your feedback!

Do you want to be featured on our customers page or in a Stitch Spotlight? Send us your information!

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[stitchlabs-blog]

UNIQUE SF | Design Show

This past weekend, Willo & I (Camille) made it to the 1st ever UNIQUE SF. UNIQUE is an independent design show that has been in LA since 2008, has now jumped up the coast to SF, and will be opening in NYC soon. UNIQUE focuses on helping designers grow sustainable small businesses by bringing USA made, beautifully designed products to the masses.

It was awesome to walk the show. We saw so many talented designers, amazing products, and had a blast. We also got to say hi to a few of our exisiting customers. We met a ton of new designers and let them know how Stitch could help them manage their inventory while selling at an offline event.

We took some really fun photos of the show. Head on over to Facebook to check out the album.

You can follow UNIQUE on Twitter (@UniqueSanFran and @UniqueLA) and on Facebook.

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[stitchlabs-blog]

Feature Update - Stitch Will Download Images From Shopping Carts

This is the final feature update for this week. We promise. Sorry for the bombardment of feature updates this week. We just love making Stitch even better, and you more efficient. We can't help it!

This update is about image importing. Stitch will now import images along with products from both Shopify and BigCommerce. Prior to this update, Stitch would only import product information. Now the image associated with the product will import into Stitch as well. Unfortunately we still don't import products and images from our Etsy channel due to the fact that their product structure doesn't support options/variants.

*Note: Any previously imported products that came into Stitch from your online channels won't import images. This feature is only for products built going forward. Also, you'll need to add any additional option/variant images via the file upload area should you want to associate a different option/variant to the product family in Stitch.

Once you've added more image options to your product family in Stitch, you can associate the images to the appropriate products in bulk. This will help you when you want to generate line sheets for buyers or potential buyers.

This is another feature update that will continue to help deepen our integration with our partners and make life a little easier for our customers.

We hope everyone has a great 4th of July! Feel free to leave a comment below and let us know what fun plans you have for the holiday.

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