NYX Sale Fail, Revised.

I'm forced to revise my initial opinion of NYX's Anniversary Sale fiasco. While I still maintain that it was simply a freak accident without an easy fix, a business has to do whatever it takes to keep their customers happy. While it's impossible to buy additional server space to fix the website bandwidth in time before the sale ends, there are other routes they could have taken to assuage their customers. At first, I couldn't help but to err on the side of empathy because all I could think was "What if that happened to me?" But keeping in that same mindset, I couldn't help but to think about what I would to do keep my customers.

When they initially agreed to extend the sale, I thought that seemed pretty fair. But now there's one hour left in the extended sale, and the website has still not been fixed, rendering the extension useless. Now they say they're giving a 50% coupon code, which is better than nothing, but it certainly doesn't compare to the original sale they offered ($1.20 for all cosmetic items).

After the onslaught of demands that they end the sale and reintroduce it once the bandwidth issue has been resolved, I'm certain that's what I would have done for my business. I would have been tempted to keep the sale going, because even though there is only a small percentage of customers that are able to complete orders, that percentage works out to be enough people to cause many items to sell out. However, continuing the sale and reintroducing it later gives an unfair advantage to those who have already made a purchase as it would give them a second opportunity to take advantage of the sale. This probably isn't something that would cross my mind if it hadn't been for the barrage of Facebook comments describing how unfair it is that only a select few have the sale available to them, and finally others have gotten through after waiting 7, 12, 20 hours or more, only to find that most of the products have already been sold out.

Secondly, if I were them, I'd have to take extreme precaution in reintroducing the sale. I honestly can't imagine how much server space they'd need to get their hands on to accommodate over 55,000 Facebook fans alone. I think I'd have to find a way to split up the sale so that there aren't so many people trying to log on all at the same time. I might even go so far as to offering the sale 10 more times, making it available to residents of 5 states at a time.

For example, I could offer the sale to residents of Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida on June 1st for 12 hours, using discount code TNSGF120. Then take a couple of days to restock sold out products and offer the sale to residents of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Deleware, and Pennsylvania on June 5th for 12 hours, using discount code VWMDP120.

This is of course, assuming there's a way to verify the restrictions of the discount code against the locations given in the billing and shipping addresses. I'm not that tech savvy just yet, but I imagine there's a way to do it.

And that's just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are many, many other ways around it. Now would be the time to spend some extra money on a consultation from an extreme web developer pro.

There's simply nothing that any business can do to keep all of your customers happy all of the time (something you learn quickly as a waitress, lol). But when you get 15 angry customers PER MINUTE for a solid 24 hours telling you to take down the sale and reintroduce it when you're better prepared, that kind of seems like a no-brainer.

I still can't find it in my heart to be nearly as angry as many of the other customers are, but I must admit that I have grown severely disappointed in the way NYX has been handling the situation. I hope they step up their game and offer something much better than the 50% coupon.

Sale Fail.

As some of my fellow makeup addicts may already know, NYX Cosmetics is celebrating their 12th anniversary with a wicked awesome sale. Sort of. They've been having major, major problems with their servers and the vast majority of the world is unable to access their website. The few that get through are unable to add items to their cart or checkout and complete their orders. NYX's Facebook fan page is blowing up with complaints; I literally just counted 13 negative posts on their page within a span of ONE MINUTE.

I fully believe that customer service is the most important part of any business. You can't disappoint your customers. But sometimes crazy things happen. Some things just can't be avoided. There are a lot of angry potential customers saying that this is some kind of scam, but trust me, it's not like they don't want your money. Many customers are even vowing to never buy from NYX again.

It just seems a bit extreme to me that so many people are being so harsh about a problem that no one would have expected and that there is no quick fix for. I'm not going to lie; this scares the crap out of me. It makes me wonder what kind of unavoidable freak accident could happen to ruin my business? NYX is already a big enough company to bounce back from this, as bad as it is. But if something similar happened to me in my first year- or five- of business, it'd be the end of me.

Of course in this particular example, the servers are overloaded due to extreme traffic, which is not something I'll have to worry about any time soon, but you get my drift.

I'm already worried that, although no one has expressed it, maybe people are starting to lose faith because it's taking me so much longer than expected to open my doors. There are just so many things that can greatly damage the very delicate balance necessary to run a business, especially with a one-woman-show like mine.

But don't worry about me. I'm stubborn. Vexxy is going to happen and be successful no matter what it takes. These are just some ramblings about the kinds of things business owners have to take into consideration.

The show must go on!

Stay Positive.

I mentioned in my second blog that I would grant FULL access to the behind the scenes look- including my fears and insecurities. Well here it goes. I'm starting off with just a handful of jars of five different colors for my soft opening, which is really more market research than anything. I made a comment on Vexxy's Facebook recently that mentioned that I had spent an entire paycheck on my new materials. That was no exaggeration, folks! If I don't at least get my money back on this, I'm completely screwed. In fact, I'm going to be phoneless for two days because I can't pay my bill on time! Suffice to say- I'm terrified.

I actually do feel confident that I can make my initial investment back, but I don't know how long I can keep pouring money into this to see if things pick up. But I am determined! This is my dream and SOMEHOW I simply HAVE to make it work!

I'm not looking to get rich off of this. I don't even need the company itself to profit; I'd just love to be able to pay my own salary. I'd be in a wonderland if I can eventually make this my full time job, but realistically I see myself working at least one part time job for, well, a helluva long time, haha.

Opening your own business is a scary venture, no matter how much research you've done or how careful you are. You just can't really know what's going to happen until you have a go at it. So I am praying, keeping my fingers crossed, working my butt off and doing whatever it takes to see this through.

Just stay positive! Stay positive, stay positive, stay positive...