I figured we’d kick off the first official blog of Westside Trains with a little insight into what went into the making of this new website. This is and will forever be constantly changing and under construction, but what great website isn’t.
In today’s world of business after coming out of a pandemic almost every company that sells products in a brick and mortar store needs a full functional website. This is almost a must as many companies who didn’t have found themselves the way of the dinosaurs over the past two years…EXTICT!
Last year I had a discussion with John O’Neill, the owner of Westside Trains, Inc. about his website. Although the store has one, it was antiquated, outdated and lacked what the consumer require in today’s market world. So I offered my services on giving his ecommerce store a facelift.
I wouldn’t say I bit off more than I could chew, but I had to change my way of thinking and coding of a website from the norm I was used to building in. Over the years I’ve had many businesses and have designed, coded and maintained them all, but mostly using HTML5 coding. As I looked into other sites that had been built for Model Railroad merchandise including other ecommerce sites I had more questions than answers. I had to also think about future expansions down the line to incorporate Point of Sales systems to better serve our customers worldwide so the idea of building in HTML5 alone was no longer an option.
So for months, I researched what others have done and expanded my knowledge base so I could make a very functional ecommerce site with flexibility not just for John on entering products but for the causal modeler looking for items without having to navigate complicated systems. For ease of use I decided to move back into a format I hadn’t used in years…WordPress along with Woo Commerce. What a learning curve as so much has changed over the years!
I am happy to say that after months of work we are getting close to launching our new website for Westside Trains. Over time we will be matching our instore inventory with our online store. The hope is over the coming year this will allow us to expand our inventory even more as well as connect with hobbyist worldwide looking for unique items at a fair price.
Yeah, we aren’t the biggest store on the planet…at least not yet! But one can only image the possibilities and hope the future for model railroading is just a bright and stays on the right track.
I want to thank John for trusting in me to bring his vision along with my vision together and inspire other modelers to not just support online stores but also mom and pop brick and mortar stores worldwide. Through the pandemic Westside Trains is one of the few hobby shops in Nevada still left standing that have an actual store front. That speaks volumes of John and his staff and what they do on a daily bases for this hobby. I am happy to be even a small part of this legacy as it moves forward into the new millennium of online sales.
Please feel free join our email list, follow our social media as we take this journey together. A lot of work still to do so back to grind for me, but this is one of the most challenging yet rewarding projects I’ve ever taken on in my life and loving every minute of it. Hope to see some of you in Las Vegas at the store.
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