Belchertown Bridals Interview Name of your website?Belchertown Bridals Your name? Kathy Your Location (city, etc) Palmer Please give us a short summary of your website? Unique bridal gowns and prom dresses. Hundreds of gowns in stock for immediate delivery, including plus sizes.~~ What inspired you to launch your own website? We have been in business over 20 years. We strive to be ahead of the curve is service and styles. This is also true in our marketing leading us to develop our first website in 1998!! We continue to refine our pages based on customer feedback. When did you launch your first website, and what was it? Our original site in 1998 was only for marketing. It has gone through many phases and is now a unique "store front" selling to brides interenationally. How did you decide on a name for your website? Our business has a unusual name so we decided to remain consistent. What makes your website different from other, similar offerings? We post much of our current stock that is available for immediate sale. we provide photos, descriptions and measurements. Many of our gowns are recently discontinue and become hard-to-find styles. We also offer plus sizes. What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?) We plan to continue our site and business for many years to come. How does your investment of time and money balance against your success? When we started with our online store, we did not have high expectations. Who would purchase their wedding gown form a website??? Well, the response has been amazing! Not only do we sell to customers from many countries but local people find us through the site, too. If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site? We would like to increase our traffic. If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand? YES, YES! We would love that challenge. What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with? I had to teach myself HTML at the beginning. I have done a lot of research, and my website costs are very low. I have free hosting and I purchased my domain name for 10 years for a discount. What has been your biggest challenge? Increasing traffic. What method has been most successful for promoting your website? My ebay store. Links. How has running your website differed from your expectations? I am still surprised that brides will buy their wedding dress without really seeing it. How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity? Started in 1998 and we have no plans to discontinue - it is a vital part of our business. Why did you start your business? I am a practical person, myself. I knew there had to be an alternative to spending thousands of dollars for a dress you'll wear for a few hours. I purchase and liquidate lots of gowns and make them available for resale. I also found several affordable lines for special ordering. We continue to evolve as we discover new ways to serve our customers. What is your website address? Belchertown Bridals | 
