Question

I'm tentative to buy yarns/fabrics online simply because I can't touch them. Are they soft, are they durable, rough? I'd be a fan of an online store that takes time to describe the textures to me, as well as to comment on the relative durability of a certain type of yarn. Another potentially useful thing might be to offer small samples of yarns, for a small fee.

Varigated yarns that don't cost me an arm and a leg are always nice. I recently saw one site offering to dye a few skeins of wool yarn for a price- you pcik the color scheme.

Project suggestions or ask customers to send you a description/photo of a FO so others can get a feel for what the yarn looks like knit up.

Options to lower prices if you buy a lot of yarn/a lot of the same type of yarn.

These are just potential solutions to my small complaints about the few places I've bought yarns online. There just may be an amazing place out there already. Also, I'm no businesswoman- these are perks on the consumer's side- but may be terrible for the merchant

My gripe about online shopping vs the real thing is that the ability to browse is so tunnelvisioned- you only see what you ask to see- so the whole shopping experience of a real yarn store- it's just not there.

My requests would be more along the website design computer programmer end of things- it would be great IMHO if there was a way to display everything really like a yarn store- not like a menu of words. I'm imagining something like the color palette squares you'd see in a paint program- only instead of color squares- they were little thumbnails of the yarn nestled in virtual yarn cubbies that were each hyperlinked to the yarn's info page.

Another thing I would love to see is searchable sorting of the offerings... in ways that may not seem the most logical. For example- an online yarn store may let you look at yarns by brand name or design... but can you ask to see all the green yarn in the store?- regardless of the maker or the size or fiber? can you browse by texture, size, fiber content, dye style... even price... - marled or self striping etc.

I think I turn to an online store when I want something specific and I turn to a real store when I want to be inspired... I guess what I'm getting at is it would be nice if you could tap into the impulsive and creative end of browsing. I'm thinking it wold take some amazing programming to display your wares in a way that would set you above the other online stores.

Another idea is to host a customer's gallery- by showing off things people have made- you could reward you customer's ego a bit as well as showcase the yarns in use... seeing knitted items might drive sales. I know many people really love the creative selection process.. but there are just as many who want to have the assurance that they are not going into uncharted territory- they want to see that yarn in that color in that pattern does work.