Customization of Shopify has always been something I’ve wanted Talking Pixels to get it’s teeth into, and finally we have! Website to follow shortly, but here are some thoughts that the process has triggered…

Talking Pixels have always excelled at, and enjoyed, building custom e-commerce sites (particularly since Ruby on Rails came along). However, I’ve always been concerned about the large investment involved in building a really good e-commerce site from scratch, even with Rails. It’s fine for businesses who already have a reliable turnover, where the cost of building a solution from scratch is offset by the value of having features built around their (often rapidly changing) business needs. However, many e-commerce business ideas are more experimental, unpredictable, and started on a shoe-string. While in theory the web is ideal for this, the realisation of such ideas is often, let’s just say - ‘underwhelming’.

Trying out a business idea in the real world (well, real-virtual at least), while not having to invest large sums of time and money into software, is liberating, democratic and exciting. The idea that start-ups could be selling products to the world in a matter of days, even hours, through a professional looking and operating web shop,
is a revolution.

Services like Shopify allows business to try the market, selling real products, without busting the bank in the process. I’m sure market research still has it’s place, however, when the cost of deployment is so low, I have to wonder whether it still has such importance.

Of course, the idea behind Shopify isn’t new. In the dotcom days, I was involved in the development of a conceptually similar service for a UK-based payment processor. However, three things were wrong, in my opinion - firstly, the market wasn’t ready for it. Not enough people ‘got’ e-commerce. Secondly, web interfaces were rudimentary and painfully slow to use. The customisation options were either highly limited, badly designed or both. Thirdly, online marketing was a just a nipper. Tools such as Google Adwords and Campaign Monitor didn’t exist. And even if they had, few people would have grasped their potential.

I still believe customized solutions are the way forward, if you have capital to invest and a tried and tested business model. But services like Shopify are very usable for retailers who are just getting started.

So, I’ll end on a plug - if you’re looking for a customized Shopify site and you like the look of our work, we’d love to help. If you have grown out of your shopping cart, we’d also love
to help  : )

Btw. we’re based in Clerkenwell / Farringdon, London, UK.

We’re excited to announce the launch of our first self-initiated project - Talks & Lectures For Londoners. The concept is simple - a site which provides a comprehensive, up-to-date and highly searchable listing of the large number of talks and lectures happening in the London area.

Visit the site at: talks.forlondoners.com

It’s still very much a beta site - currently with events only from the ICA, RSA and LSE. The list should grow quickly, but hopefully it’s already a useful resource.

We’d love to hear your feedback on the site. Please do send any to:
feedback@forlondoners.com

Update: We are no longer looking to fill this position, however, we’re always happy to receive interesting CVs to keep on record.

We are currently looking for an exceptional person to join our small team as a Junior Software Developer.

For all applicants we’d expect the following:

• - Good communication skills
• - Good verbal and written English
• - Experience developing web applications
• - At least 6 months experience with Ruby on Rails
• - General programming and scripting experience
• - Good OOP knowledge
• - Some CSS and XHTML/HTML knowledge
• - Comfortable with Linux/Unix
• - An eye for detail
• - Appreciation of design & usability
• - Experience or keen to use agile methodologies

The following would be advantageous:

• - Test-Driven Development (TDD) experience
• - Experience in other programming languages
• - Advanced knowledge of JavaScript and AJAX
• - Knowledge of usability issues

We’d look for the candidate to be…

• - friendly, honest, trustworthy in nature
• - organised and proactive
• - comfortable working in a small company
• - able to work in Farringdon, London

In return, we will…

• - be friendly, respectful and fair
• - give commercial, professional experience
• - share a ton of knowledge and experience
• - encourage and nurture self-development

Please send your covering letters, CVs and work examples to tom [at] talkingpixels.co.uk.

A Friday afternoon thought:

Everyone seems to have gone rather GTD (Getting Things Done) crazy. The fact that everyone is writing GTD software and blogging about it, surely indicates one of two things:

1. It really works and everyone’s got lots of time on their hands
or…
2. People are spending loads of time finding ways to avoiding actually employing the GTD methodology, whilst convincing themselves GTD is in the forefront of their mind … i.e. they are procrastinating

Can anyone clarify this for me?

We’re proud to announce the launch of a new e-commerce site for Elias & Grace, a boutique in Primrose Hill, London, selling designer maternity and children’s clothes.

www.eliasandgrace.com

The site is the fruits of what I consider to be a great working relationship between Elias & Grace, Aloof and ourselves. It has been designed and developed over the last few months, and despite the apparent simplicity of the end result, the process threw up some interesting design and technical challenges.

We look forward to hearing feedback from users about the site, seeing how Elias & Grace find the process of becoming an online retailer and working out how the site can continue to evolve.