The four-week New Zealand COVID-19 shut-down starts 26 March. And since announcing that Queensberry's production will be on hold for the duration we’ve had lots of people asking whether Print Shop will be available.

It's obviously unfortunate timing, but the short answer is yes. However, order deliveries will be delayed.

Print Shop functionality will remain active in Workspace, and we encourage you to continue setting up — not just Print Shop but also, if you haven't done so yet, your standard Image Gallery shopping carts. The shut-down of person-to-person contact occurring around the world may well be followed by nervousness among people about getting back to normal. And there may be a new "normal"! So this is a perfect time to optimise your online presence — working ON your business at a time when working IN your business may not even be possible.

Once your Print Shop is set up we encourage you to start taking orders. Yes, there will be delivery delays —but getting in early will mean your work is as close as possible to the front of the line when production resumes.

What's really important is to ensure your customers know what's going on. We obviously don't want to make such a big deal of this that buyers are discouraged, but here's what we've done to ensure they get a heads-up:

1. When you set up your Print Shop we pre-populate the "product description" and "delivery" tabs so you don’t need to. We’ve now adjusted the Delivery tab to alert your customers to COVID-related delays.

2. We’ve also adjusted the email Workspace sends when an order is placed to remind the buyer of the delay.

Working ON your business...

Looking on the bright side, these production delays mean you have the chance to knuckle down — working from home?! — and work on your product catalogue, prices and online marketing. That way, when production is back up and running, your store will be ready to roll … with your early buyers at the front of the line.

To help you along the way we’ll be publishing blog posts with marketing suggestions, ideas for promotions and much more!

We’re also going to run master-mind groups for anyone who wants to join. Details will be posted here. They'll be hosted on zoom and will be a way for us to share ideas and keep each other accountable. And of course they'll help us stay connected while we can’t meet in person!

If you have any ideas for topics you’d like us to cover please send us an email. We’d love to hear from you!

Alexandria x