We’ve often had the pleasure of working with our ecommerce clients on their Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions and it’s always been one of the most exciting sales periods of their year.

Weeks ahead of time offers are being considered, campaigns are being planned, content is being created using video and still imagery, creatives are being generated from the content, ad budgets are being discussed – there’s so much to do for a successful BFCM campaign.

Well this year, for the first time ever, we got to do all of these tasks – but for ourselves!

Earlier this year, we launched our own inhouse online store, MarkESheehan.com, which promotes some of my favourite Irish designers involved in jewellery design, leathergoods and accessories. I originally met many of these designers at the amazing SHOWCASE event which in a pre-lockdown world was one of my favourite events each year.

Seeing the creativity of these designers and craftpeople over a number of years made me want to collaborate with them and build an online store which would feature the very best they had to offer.  

That long-held dream became a reality earlier this year and it’s been no surprise to me that there many online shoppers who seem to love these products as much as I do. No doubt part of the appeal is that almost all products are created in low volume numbers – so any piece you acquire will be far more unique than something from a high street store. When the products themselves are also beautiful and high quality, then it’s a no-brainer.

With my webmakers hat on, if we are asking our clients to trust our advice on ecommerce and promotion, well unless we are walking the walk ourselves, then all our advice is just theory.

So the best way for our webmakers team to have an understanding of what works in ecommerce is to be actively working in ecommerce. You can trust our advice so much more readily if we can show you strategies  we have used ourselves on our own store. 

Overall, we were thrilled with the store’s reception to date, the sales achieved and the knowledge we are gaining in this, our first year, as a retailer in our own right.

I’m personally looking forward to growing the Mark E Sheehan brand and partnering with so many great designers from around the country over the coming months and years. 

No rest for the wicked, there are Christmas purchases and deliveries to be handled!

Mark