Archive for September, 2011

WebShopApps goes Gold

Posted by: Karen Monday, September 26th, 2011

Busy times for WebShopApps. We re-brand with a new website and embark on our first significant marketing campaign since launch. 

Today we proudly announce ourselves as Gold Industry Partners of Magento.  We are Gold Sponsors of both X.Commerce Innovate and Meet Magento UK. I’m shattered 😉

Thank You

Its easy to say those 2 words, but trust me I sincerely mean it. Thanks to all our clients for supporting us, for downloading Matrixrate, for purchasing our extensions, for suggesting ways we can refine our code.  This company truly only survives by having your custom.

I particularly need to thank Rob Butler for pestering me to write him extensions, and Neil Atwood for giving me the encouragement and confidence to go for it.

Neil, you have free extensions for your site for life, stop offering me money for them 😉

Thanks also need to go to the Unleaded Group/Jarod Clark over in Denver for just believing in our company and trusting us in meetings to be an authority in shipping. You showed me what we could achieve and I hope we continue to serve your needs well.

Thanks also to Magento, without whom this company would never have existed.

Without wishing to make an Oscar speech I must give a nod to my colleagues.  Josh, Farai, Gen & Tom I really appreciate your intelligence, patience and support.

Where did WebShopApps come from?

I thought this would be a bit of an opportunity to show you how we came to be. Plus also to prove that maybe if you work hard, keep your head down, believe in something, and listen to your customers then good things can happen.

Sept 2008

I was contacted after posting on forums about shipping issues with Magento and my workarounds. After a few discussions Matrixrate was born. This gave the ability to publish multiple shipping rates based on destination & either weight, price or qty.

I used the name Auctionmaid. Why I hear you ask? Well I owned the domain and wanted to save some money. No other reason. The site is still there today and hopefully the values I had then still apply now.

Nov 2008 – July 2009

A steady stream of requests came in, for shipping and non-shipping extension work. I refuse at first, a full-time job in London and 2 very young children makes it hard. But I relent because, well it’s just fun! I write Dropship for a client for 140USD. Took me about 2 months in my spare time. Mug I hear you say 😉

July 2009 – Jan 2010

I pack in my job to develop Magento extensions full-time. It was Magento or London, Magento won. WebShopApps.com is born.

Taking payments via paypal donation links is breaking down – I throw together a magento website in a day to temporarily help whilst I wait for a ‘proper one’ . It stays for 5 months.

Feb 2010

Take on my first 3 employees. Move into offices in Leigh-on-Sea. We now have a growing client base and regular repeat customers. We have no infrastructure, at first we are using a mobile internet connection because of a lack of phone line.

The ‘jigsaw’ website goes live. This was produced by David Oliver who is a fantastically professional guy with a real eye for design. The idea behind the site was to be a little bit cheeky, keep it personal, like a boutique clothes shop.

May 2010 – July 2010

I up sticks and head to Australia for a while to train Genevieve in Magento. Genevieve is a former colleague from my London days and one of the best all-round engineers and developers I know. Over time she takes over much of the non-shipping side of WebShopApps. Josh learns a lot of Magento whilst I’m away – he had to!

April 2010 – Feb 2011

We build up our extension set, getting good coverage right across shipping in Magento. We expand up to 8 staff and cope with the growing pains of a small business. Lots of long days and nights.

Feb – Sept 2011

We attend Magento Imagine. Shortly afterwards I reduce the staff back to 5 and really concentrate on building knowledge within the team. A tough decision but this pays off and we start moving fast again.

Sept 2011

We launch the new website and brand. I have to give a massive shout to the design team, these guys did this really because they love our products and they wanted to help us. Designing is an art, and I have the most amazing respect for our design team.

They have chosen to remain anonymous (and mysterious). Respect.

Where Now

Let’s see. I have a plan….