News

The Importance of being Mobile Friendly

Would you like to know a wild fact? Studies show that 91% of people keep their phone within three feet of themselves 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year—pretty crazy, but not surprising. It is 2016, which, in comparison to ten years ago, is a time where many if not most people practically live on their phones. When they are trying to use the Internet, they do so on their mobile devices 9 out of 10 times. Just about anything you need to know can be found right at your fingertips now. This is why it is so unbelievably important for businesses, especially small businesses, to be on board with making their website, online stores, and overall content mobile friendly. The thought may seemingly be overwhelming considering how technology is evolving faster than businesses can keep up, but making a mobile-friendly website compatible with all platforms is simpler than you think. A mobile friendly web presence will prove to be beneficial for generating revenue as well as attracting new customers to your physical and online farm stores.

It is no doubt that you have put in a great deal of time and effort to make your business the best that it can be—but if you are skipping out on making the face of your business readily available to mobile devices, you could be turning down a whole lot of potential business. An additional research study shows that 79% of people who don’t like what they find on one site will go back and search for another site. How unfortunate is it to lose out on business to other competition simply due to somebody’s 30-second-long, poor browsing experience? Recently, Google and other major search engines have begun prioritizing search results by how mobile friendly the web pages are. As more people access the web more of the time using a mobile device, it's important to keep your business on their radar by catering to this growing trend.

Fortunately, there are multiple website-building platforms that are both inexpensive and easy to use. Many of you may already be utilizing one of these platforms, but ones we have found to be the overall best are Squarespace, Wix, Shopify and Weebly. While Weebly is known to be extremely user friendly and flexible, Squarespace allows more importing and exporting of blog content from other social media platforms to help tie all of your data together in one place. Shopify is very simple and clean and allows up to 70 different payment methods (wow!) where Wix has some great features with very cool integration's as well. Each platform has overlapping settings with one another, yet all have unique features of their own. Your decision in choosing a website-building platform should depend on your volume, your staff, your target market and whichever is easier for you to navigate through. The easier it is for you to navigate through your site, the easier it will most likely be for your customers too. In addition, all of these platforms include some beautiful design templates that you have the option of picking, making it easier for you to choose an appropriate theme for displaying your farm store.

While you want your website to showcase your products with aesthetic appeal, its main priorities should revolve around customer convenience and saving time. Even a tiny chunk of time is crucial to many people in this day and age, and any second that is hassle-free is lastingly beneficial. As you can tell, there are a multitude of advantages to making your website a mobile-friendly platform, and if you haven’t hopped on board with it yet, there is no better day to get started than today. It will not be too long until you are wondering how your business ever managed without it!

NEAFP Note: A Little Thank You & Becoming Mobile Friendly
September 2016

In case you missed out our latest email newsletter just went out. In September's NEAFP Note we cover:

• A Little Thank You
• Article: The Importance of Becoming Mobile Friendly
• Take Our Online Farm Store Survey!
• Farm Store Locator Registration
• Upcoming Alpaca Shows

CLICK HERE TO READ OUR LATEST NEAFP NOTE

View the NEAFP Note Archive | Sign Up for our monthly NEAFP Note Newsletter

NEAFP Note: Two Weeks left to Stock Up & Tools to Increase Sales
August 2016

In case you missed out our latest email newsletter just went out. In August's NEAFP Note we cover:

• Just Two Weeks left in our Stock Up Sale
• Article: Increase Your Sales
• Take Our Survey!
• Latest Catalog Additions
• Important Fiber Collection Dates
• Farm Store Locator Registration
• Upcoming Alpaca Shows

CLICK HERE TO READ OUR LATEST NEAFP NOTE

View the NEAFP Note Archive | Sign Up for our monthly NEAFP Note Newsletter

NEAFP Needs your HELP!

We will be analyzing (& sharing) all the information we collect as resources and articles in future NEAFP Notes!

Please take 2 minutes to fill out our (very) brief survey on Payment Methods!

We just finished up our first batch of Hunter Orange Watch Caps and Alpaca Beanies!

They are back on the website and ready to ship.

We've just added more color options available in the Knit Hats listed above!

Our Stock Up Sale has ended, Thank you!

Historically the month of August has always been the hottest and one of the busiest here at NEAFP. During the dog days of summer we've started working through this year's fiber harvest and farms have begun ramping up their inventory for the fast approaching Fall and Winter sales season.

To jump start the Fall and hopefully bring us all a little break from the heat, we are excited to launch our annual Stock Up Sale!

Let's make this August NEAFP's sweatiest month yet!

STOCK UP SALE

FREE SHIPPING on Orders over $500
+
10% OFF Orders over $1000

We've begun doing small DYE runs of our unlined Alpaca Mittens to offer a bit more color. This first limited batch is available in "One Shade of (Slate) Grey". We've added 3 packs to the website at both Fiber and Wholesale pricing - check them out!

In preparation of our next big manufacturing wave we are cleaning up some odds and ends around the mill. There are two new closeouts added to the website!

We received a small batch of our Basketweave Infinity Scarves that were knit out of our Huacaya Alpaca Yarn instead of the usual Suri Alpaca Blend. They are beautiful and functional in every way but due to us not planning to carry this design in this yarn spec, we are closing them out.

This DK-Weight Yarn is perfectly fine and usable. We are listing it as a closeout due to the yarn getting too much agitation when it was being washed and finished. The extra agitation caused it to become a bit too fuzzy so we have winded it up into yarn balls and are closing it out.

Each Ball weighs approximately 3.5 oz with about 185 yards of yarn.

Spindle City Collection: The Granite Headband

We are happy to announce the latest addition to our Spindle City Collection: The Granite Headband. This blur like pixelated pattern was inspired by the granite bedrock that makes up Fall River, it's iconic granite mills, and much of the Narragansett Bay.

via Fall River Granite Wiki

The Granite Headband is available and ready to ship!

Want to learn more about The Spindle City Collection? Check out our short introduction video:

NEAFP's office and mill will be closed for our annual Summer Vacation during the week of 4th of July.

We will be closed Friday July 1st through Friday July 8th and re-opening on Monday July 11th.

During this week we will not be processing orders so please get your time sensitive orders in before hand! All orders and support submitted during this week will be handled beginning Monday July 11th.

We hope you all have a safe and relaxing holiday and we look forward to hitting the ground running when we return!

It's been a few long days in the making but our upgraded website is now live and accepting orders!

All user accounts and order history have transferred over.

Right now there are a few odds and ends that need tweaking but 95% of the website is up and operational. If you notice something acting a little funny let us know about it and we will also be in the process of getting things up to 100%.

Read the latest NEAFP Note here: http://eepurl.com/b6Qv29

Register your Alpaca Store!

NEAFP will be launching an Alpaca Store Locator so people can find local farms and shops in their community that carry our U.S. Grown, U.S. Made Alpaca Products. Each year NEAFP receives 1,000's of inquiries from people across the country (and beyond) looking for our products at the retail level so this is a great way to promote your store and drive business to your doorstep.

We wanted to give everyone a heads up that our website will be going down on June 26th for scheduled maintenance and an upgrade.

The upgrade process should take 6 to 8 hours in total.

All user accounts will be transferring over to the new website, the only thing that may be lost is everyone's saved shopping carts.

To avoid any loss, we are encouraging everyone to checkout with their saved carts before June 26th.

Thank you!

The Spindle City Collection is:

• Made with Alpaca Fiber Grown on U.S. Farms
• Knit with Yarn Spun in a Century Old New England Mill
• Inspired, Designed, & Built in Fall River, Massachusetts

Watch The Spindle City Collection Video!

Read the Newsletter in Full: http://eepurl.com/b2pZ8v

In this month's NEAFP Note:

Around the Mill

The Spindle City Collection

A Sale Announcement

New Wrist Warmer Patterns

Upcoming Alpaca Shows

Regional Collection Points

& The 7th Annual Shearing Competition

Snowflake Earflap Beanies are officially back in stock with an updated look for 2016. This year we used our SURI Alpaca blend yarn for the base of the hat and added splashes of color for the snowflake design. They are available now and ready to ship so check them out!

Back in stock on the website:

We've completed production on two new wrist warmer designs: Zig Zag and Pointelle!

Zig Zag Wrist Warmer

Pointelle Wrist Warmer