Rabbit Treasures

In 2018, my mother and father decided to start their own eCommerce business. They wished for me to be involved in the IT work as they wanted me to gain the experience. I had been looking for a new project, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity. I agreed to help them set up the website and get everything up and running. It was a lot of work, but it was also a great learning experience. Not only did I gain technical skills, but I also learned a lot about running a business. It was definitely a valuable experience that will prove useful in the future.

When I started my parents' eCommerce business, I knew that a website would be our most important asset. Not only would it be the primary way to reach our customers, but it would also be the face of our brand. After doing some research, I decided that Shopify would be the best platform to use. It was easy to set up and had all of the features we needed to showcase our products and accept payments. Plus, Shopify has a reputation for being reliable and secure, which was important to my parents. It allowed us to create a professional-looking website without any headaches or hassle.

Some things I was responsible for:

• Building the website - As mentioned above, the website was by far the most important asset. I learned how to use Shopify's built in tools but wasn't completely happy with it. To have finer control over certain elements, I learned how to use Shopify's coding language, Liquid.
• Taking payments - Because we were an eCommerce store, we would need to have a way to accept payments online. We settled on using Stripe and Paypal for our transaction engine. It was my job to choose the best online PoS systems and ensure that they were correctly connected to the company bank account.
• Using software to help design the product - I will be the first person to admit that I am not a designer. However, I did have to help my family in getting the products ready to be manufactured. The manufacturer sent us a cutting dye that we had to put our designs on. We needed to use vector files, which I had never worked on previously. This is where I learned how vector files work and how to use Adobe Illustrator.
• Build a presence on social media - My parents also needed help building their brand on social media, specifically Instagram. With the help of my sister, we worked to ensure that the business was ready to communicate with the masses online.