Custom Katana and Shipping Module

Hi everyone!

I'm in a good mood because after 2 weeks of trying to get the new shipping module to work in EVERY situation it should I am pleased to say that it is now 100% operational!

Because SBG has several different shipping rates - for example, across the board free shipping in the USA, some free shipping in Canada and some at $30 per sword, and then international shipping from locations in the USA and Canada, the system had a lot of trouble adapting to our unique shipping cost needs.

But now, you don't even have to think about it - if an item cannot be shipped to your destination, it won't let you accidently order it and will display a message telling you as such, otherwise - it just calculates the shipping based on where you are and what you are ordering, just the way it SHOULD be (but anyone who has worked with computers for a bit will know getting a computer to do something the way it SHOULD be is like pulling teeth!).

Anyhow, I'm really glad this is working properly now - and none too soon either. Because the other reason I am in a good mood is because batch 19 of the custom Katana is about to open orders within the next 24 hours!

With new options, new tsuba and lots of people waiting in the wings to get their order in, it's all very exciting - read about it on our dedicated Custom Katana Blog here

Thanks all! As we are really about to go into "custom Katana mode" please be sure to visit the other blog frequently because it is where all of the real action will be over the next couple of weeks or so.

- Paul

Shipping module update

Just a quick note about the newly added shipping module - while I tested it extensively before roll out, a customer recently emailed me to advise that he was having trouble - and it would appear that there is one ordering scenario that it has trouble getting its 'head' around.

If you order more than one sword with a different shipping price (for example, a SBG Katana with free shipping and a Cheness iaito with $30 shipping) the system gets confused and doesn't know which shipping rate to use - and despite spending the better part of a day trying to teach it this simple concept, it still doesn't 'get' it.. (gotta love computers!).

Anyway, sorry about this - but for the time being if you wish to place an order for more than one product with different shipping rates (i.e. the example above of a free shipping offer and a $30 shipping option) please place two seperate orders.. :-(

Hopefully I should be able to find a better solution to this shortly - as SBG ships from several different warehouses it's hard to make the software understand when it thinks everything is coming from the one central spot.

We will figure it out (note - the store and site is still working fine, apart from this one scenario. If someone does find something else not adding up right with the shipping though please let me know and we will get it working like it should).

Thanks all,
- Paul

Store Functionality Upgrades

Over the coming weeks and months I will be spending a lot of time updating the store and working on ways to make my customers experiences better.

Two of these changes have been added in the last couple of days - the first one is a much better and more robust shipping module. In the past we had some orders come in for products that cannot be shipped to some countries, or that did not automatically calculate the shipping cost which created a fair amount of extra work and delayed the order. This has since been fixed, and it would seem the new module is doing a great job.

The second update is an 'out of stock' notifier so if you click the order button on a sword that is out of stock you get the option to enter your email address and be notified when it comes back in.

Many more changes and updates are on the books - our goal is and has never been to be the biggest store. The store is, after all, just a way to fund the site and SBG community. So competing with normal sword stores is not something that we want to or will do - the more varied the vendors the better for everyone!

Our goal has always been to highlight a few really good swords that are not widely distributed elsewhere - and do it in a way that makes it as easy and informative for the sword buyer as possible.

More coming on this shortly, we have some very exciting months ahead. :-)

Talk again soon,
- Paul

Quick Update

Phew, that flu really did mess up my schedule (first time in 7 years I have had a cold or flu, so I felt like I got 'up to date' and came down with at least 7 years worth in one go! Lol).

Anyway, there were actually quite a few new products added to the store during the flu downtime - including the 3 for 1 price deal on 3 models of the Hanwei/Tinker Pearce blunt training swords, the latest batch of Hattori Katana (including my favorite, the model 2202) - the last of the $149 Raptor Katana sold and post-flu, recently added, a LAST chance to pick up the Hanwei Yasukuni Colonels Gunto (pictured below).



Oh, and I nearly forgot, we also added one more in stock SBG Katana - the Yukiken (snow sword):



Speaking of the SBG Custom Katana - an official update is coming soon, but batch 18 is nearly finished and will ship out from the forge within the next 2 weeks, so that means we will be gearing up for the next batch VERY soon. For more information on these, please check the SBG custom Katana blog.

Anyway, apologies for the lack of updates - talk to you all again soon!

- Paul















- most notably the fourth addition to the SBG