Firtst Ethnic / Tribal Keffiyeh blouse was sold!

I am proud! The first blouse was sold. I felt the same as two years ago when I sold my first item on ebay - proud and nervous. Is my customer gonna like it?

Surprisingly, it was sold on amazon, not on my ebay store. I thought that my great reputation (100%) and high feedback score (currently 568) will make it go easier on ebay... You don't hear me complaining (-:



Next thing was to rush, pick two other keffiyeh and produce another two blouses - this time a bit more sofisticated. I should pick them tomorrow from the tailor and have Shani, my personal home model, wear them and model for my photos.

I am curious what else can be formed from keffiyeh...? ideas?

Kufiya Poncho (shirt) - the Visuals!!

My wife is a top model (-:
I took the pictures of her wearing the new shirts and here are a sample:

And some more:

I'm on amazon, finally.

Took ages, but I managed to upload some items to amazon. No sales yet.

Looking back, listing procedure on amazon is not that complicated - just so different from what I do for the past 2 years on ebay...

Just passing the UPC barrier took me a day: don't worry - amazon creates one for you in case your product does not have one.

And like a magic, after you list your first item, the rest of them are a function of staying awake.

Now, for the real challange: how do you produce traffic to your new store? Who are the buyers on amazon? What makes them different from the ebay buyers?

Will keep you updated.

Kufiya-Shirt is Here!

Received the first two! What can I say, my wife is a genius (-:

One was made from a pure white kufiya with a classic Palestinian pattern embroidery (white embroidery on white kufiya) and one from a green kufiya with white Checkers pattern embroidery.

They both look really great on her. Tomorrow we are taking pictures and immediately listing it for sale on my ebay Holyland Treasury store and my own store.

Just one thing keeps me thinking. It is trouly a beautiful shirt, but has a strong political context here in israel, preventing it from being a plain fashion item... All around the world, kufiya is a "hot" accessory while here in Israel no one wears it.


What a pity.

Developing a New Product - Kufiya (Shemagh) Shirt

My wife came up with a great idea - create a 'kufiya shirt', produced from Hirbawi kufiyas.

I have so many beautiful, colorful, kufiyas - doesn't have to serve as a scarf!

So... she took it as a personal project. Chose a nice turquise kufiya that was not listed yet,  took it to a tailoress and now we have to wait for a week...

Ethnic accessories are very fashionable nowadays and I hope she'll bring some innovation here (-:

I believe that besides the fashion say we may have here, the origins of the kufiya may also make it a valuble item. Isn't it?

I'll put some pictures as soon as I have a first model.

Traveling with my daughter

I was asked to join my daughters school trip to Jerusalem mountains. She is 11.5... Few year ago she used to beg me to join, but this year she was silent. Suddenly it hits me - I'm not sure I'm welcomed here. She reached the age where your parents are something to be shamed of :-(

We are raveling the "Sataf" area - really beautiful! One of the first places on earth where agriculture was implemented on mountains using man made reservoirs and "stairs" that were built on mountain side , 3000 years ago. 

Very hot today - I could use one of my kufiyas to guard my head from the sun:-)

Many years ago, I used to accompany such trips as a medic (my military profession), but now - for pure fun. 

I always enjoy traveling near Jerusalem - brings back lots of childhood memories. 

Setting Up An Online Store

So far, I was doing some eCommerce on ebay, learning its secrets, understanding how to be a seller, find what to sell (tough one). Quite fascinating!

I felt its time to move on and have my own store. Sounds simple? Yes. Sounds like it.

First, I had to choose a name. What comes first? An available domain that fits my store name, or a store name that will match an available .com domain... (-:    Not so obvious!

I am selling some unique stuff from the holy-land - key chains, amulets, olive-oil soaps, Palestinian kufiya (shemagh) etc. Guess what? I managed to put my hands on HolyLandTreasury.com!!!

Did any one mention a logo? 

I took a picture of this nice pendant with my iPhone, played with it in Paint.NET for 1 hour, and here it is.

Then, I had to select a platform. I chose Auctiva and discovered a whole new world. It took me 2 days just to set up my shipping methods (weight vs destination). I am a programmer and feel comfortable with continues dull work that has to do with tables of numbers. But this one was a record. I simply fell asleep so many times.

Now, I have to move on to product upload. It is so annoying to do it over and over again for each selling platform. I wish there was a tool that simply uploads to all your commerce sites at once (that does not cost $200 a month..).

...I read what i had just wrote - sounds like an old wailing bitter lady, isn't it?!

See you tomorrow, with some more stories.
A.

Wow. I have a blog of my own. Now All I have to do is write about... what?

That's funny. I never thought I can do that, but after 40, every day is the last day of the rest of my life. As I'm 43 (+), I already lost 1000 last days.

I'm Assaf, 43. I live In Israel in Ramat Hasharon, married to Shani and a father to Shira, Alona and Zohar.

I fill my days (and nights, and sometimes I even manage to invent some extra, "undocumented" hours)  with 3 major activities. First the family (kids are 3,7,11), second my startup company  - face4place that aim to change the way consumers interact with businesses (yes, so am I, with the rest of the world, think I have the winning card) and third, eCommerce - I sell holy-land unique items on ebay, amazon and my own online shop - holylandtreasury.com

 In between, I'm consulting to paying customers (what can I do - kids have to eat) about Information integration (data quality, data governance, data in general). I had quit my job and become self employed  about a year ago, so I can free time to turn my dreams into reality.

So, tomorrow is another day - with new stories to tell dr. Blog.

A.