What to Expect in 2023?
As it stands, we have a lot of things planned for 2023 that we will be working hard on to get done by the end of the year. Whilst lots of plans for masks and other products are indeed in the works, we first wanted to highlight some of the other things that people should expect to see from us this year.
Older Projects
Firstly, we have a number of outstanding customer projects that did not get the level of attention they deserved last year, so our aim is to focus on them at the beginning of this year in order to finally get everything sent off to their respective owners. This means that people may start to see some of the more complicated projects we accepted in the past pop up here and there, so don't be too surprised if you see something new being shown off that is above and beyond what we currently offer on the website.
Website
There are a lot of changes that we want to make to the website, so expect to see lots of small things happening throughout the year. However, there are also some larger, more noteworthy changes and features that people can look forward to seeing.
Dark Mode
When working on the website rebranding previously, we ensured that it was done in a way that would make it easier for us to implement a dark mode later down the line. Whilst we do have switching to dark mode fully implemented, the feature is currently disabled until we have ensured that the dark theme is as legible and visually pleasing as the current light theme of the website.
The dark mode will have a much darker background and dimmed photos while still maintaining the same look and feel as the current website. We plan to add a theme switcher function to the top of the website, so if the browser you use does not support automatic light/dark mode selection, you can still use whichever theme you prefer.
PayPal Update
We have been talking about this internally for some time, but we are still looking to update the PayPal payment module to the latest version. This will ensure that all customers can take advantage of the latest offerings from PayPal including their Pay in 3 option, which is a feature that we have received a lot of requests for in 2022. As we have made some small changes to the current payment module, this makes it a larger task than just updating to the latest version, but as we know so many people want it we are aiming to get it done as soon as possible.
FAQ Section
We plan to add an FAQ to the website to allow people to easily find answers to any simple questions that they may have. We find that it is hard to put all of the information that we want onto the website, for example the skinsuit product pages include a lot of text already, but we still feel that there are a lot of gaps in the information that we want to give customers, which has led to a lot of questions. Additionally, whilst the information people are looking for is often present, it can sometimes be buried in a wall of text, so we feel that an FAQ will allow us to present the current information and more in a much more accessible format.
We are currently undecided on the exact format that will be used for the FAQ, whether it will be on each product, be a global FAQ or both. We aim to have something in place before the end of the year, in order to make finding the information you are searching for easier without needing to email us for an answer.
Shipping System Update
There are a series of small changes that need to be made to the shipping system as a whole. Not many people may know this, but we ended up building our own code to handle the shipping, as we found that the options available in the pre-built modules did not do what we wanted. The system that we put in place works well, however lately we have found that it has a few limiting factors we did not previously account for. For example, you currently cannot buy ponytails at the same time as a mask from Kigurumi Menagerie, solely due to the shipping system, and we are looking to fix that.
We also want to add an option for shipping selected objects in an envelope using Royal Mail, which will primarily be used for fabric samples in order for us to change how they are sold. This will also be used for some of the other products we have planned for the future and will drastically bring down the cost of shipping these products, as long as you are happy to wait for it to arrive in the regular post.
Something Special
Last, but certainly not least, for our planned website features is a large project I have been working on over the past couple of years that I cannot wait to launch! I have only been working on it when I’ve had the time to do so, meaning I unfortunately did not manage to make much progress last year due to taking on mask making work myself. All of our customers managed to keep me busy and gave me plenty of time to settle into the role, though this meant I had less time to work on the website as a result, so I am now aiming to get this project fully finished and launched before the end of this year.
If all goes as planned, we aim to make this special project a core feature of our website in order to improve the overall experience customers have when looking to order our products. We’ve had a lot of fun so far using this system in its current incomplete state, as has anybody we have shown it to for testing, and can’t wait to get it finished so that we, and you, can really see what its capable of.
Photos and Social Media
As some of you may have noticed, we have been a lot more active on social media in the last couple of months. We have been making more of an effort to post regularly and have even started putting together a proper system for scheduling what we post and when, making it easier for us to do so without putting ourselves under too much pressure.
We have started to look back through a lot of our older photos and quickly realised that there is a surprising amount of content we have yet to post anywhere. We are looking to sort through that soon, both so we can share some of our favourite moments from the past, as well as to give ourselves time to plan new content for the future. Whilst our primary focus will be on social media, we also plan to put together more pages for our gallery.
As far as future content goes, we plan to put together smaller, more frequent photoshoots using pre-made masks and are in discussions with various people in the community to participate as either models or photographers. This is something we have wanted to try for some time as, not only will it diversify the range models we have for our products, we feel each person can potentially bring their own style and flare to the characters they themselves may have a part in making. There are also plans for a larger photoshoot or two throughout the year, but we have decided to put those on hold for the time being whilst we focus on other projects, as we aim to use these larger shoots to showcase what we have been working on.
This does mean we expect to have quite a few different pre-made masks for sale throughout the year, so keep an eye out and see what ready-made cuties pop up.