Shopping in The Village is Safe.
Worried about shopping in The Village and whether your card information is safe? Don’t be. The Village website is secured by an SSL certificate. (This is what makes the padlock appear beside our URL in your browser, and why on desktop it says Secure https://.
Also, all transactions are processed on PayPal’s secure platform. This does not mean that you have to have a PayPal account. You are welcome to use whatever payment methods you prefer. It just means they safely process all money transactions for us.
We have invested in the best security measures on the market to keep our customers safe! So enjoy a worry free shopping experience! 🙂
Did you know this too?
Did you know you can add multiple items from multiple shops to your cart and check out at one time! Keeps things simple and easy and that’s how we like it:-) -The Village-
Clarification!!
Hello to All!
The Village has a very important clarification to make. We fear we have been misunderstood by some. This is NOT an exclusive website, and we had no intention of portraying that attitude! We welcome all to come and shop. If friends or neighbors have an interest to join and start a shop they are welcome. All we ask is that they comply with the same guidelines that all our shops do. The Mennonite people are not an exclusive people and we truly want to reflect that here in the Village. In our initial announcement we made the statement that this site was “by our people, for our people”. This was said with no thought of occlusion, but simply meant that a couple of Mennonite gals started it, and we wanted to offer a service to our people, a place where they could be found and get their name out there. We are sincerely sorry if we offended anyone by this or gave the wrong impression! Thanks for understanding! We are learning together as we go!
~ Valerie & Monica
Did You Know?
Did you know that you can save The Village website to your phone home screen? It is super easy, and then you don’t have to go to your browser every time you want to pull it up. Here is how:
Iphone – Pull up the village in your browser > look at the bottom of the screen, there is a box with an arrow sticking out of the top, click it > in the bottom of the pop up is a row of gray buttons, slide over until you see “add to home screen” > click that. Close out and you should see the pin on your home screen. There, all set!
Android – Pull up the village in your browser > In the top right hand corner are 3 vertical dots, click them. > A box will drop down with a list of options > Select add to home screen. > Close out and you should see the pin on your home screen. There, all set!
Note: Some browsers may have different steps but most will let you do this in some way or another.
Why “The Village?”
Hey ya’ll, aren’t we having fun?!;-) It is so exciting to get The Village up and rollin’! It has been months in the making, and a lot of thought, time, and discussion has went into it. This was a brainstorm that hit us one day, and we started hashing as sisters do… there is so much talent out there, so many awesome things being created, and so many artisans and businesses that are trying to reach customers, why not bring them all together in one place and make everyone more visible and easy to find! We decided to call our brainstorm “The Village of Artisans” ( ˈär-tə-zən )
We want to explain just a few things about the site to you:
First of all, the SignBoard. This is a place where we can communicate with everyone. It is mainly to post information, such as this. If we have a new feature or issue that needs to be explained we will post it here. But actually, there is no telling what all might show up on the SignBoard- A new favorite recipe? An inspirational Quote? We might just post that too:-)
And don’t you like our snazzy banner? We do:-) This will change periodically also to remind us to shop for upcoming special days (such as mother’s day), tell you about different types of products, etc.
As you can see, the Main Street shows a few featured shops at this point. For now these are the shops that are the most set up and ready to go. This all will change as time goes along- different shops will be featured.
Window shopping is similar but shows items, our goal is to select a few items from each shop to be featured on the home page.
Right now we have a quote plugin running at the bottom of the page. These are random quotes just to give us something interesting to think about. If at anytime you see something inappropriate pop up down there, please excuse it and let us know. We can “unplug” it.
Although we spent a lot of time testing the site before we went live, we still find a bug here and there that needs to be fixed. If you run into a prob with something not working correctly, again, just let us know.
Happy shopping!
All About Shops!
Hello! We are excited to announce the launching of “The Village of Artisans”!
This is a modern website for our people who have goods and services to sell. Its purpose is to bring us all together in one place so shoppers can come to one site and find the perfect gift, customized item, business, or service they are looking for!
Among our people we have sign makers and potters, quilters and seamstresses, bee keepers and cheese makers, travel agents, people who have gift shops, build custom furniture, roast coffee, sell fabric…, the list goes on and on. Each seller is trying to connect with potential customers. Many are not even known about by someone in another state! Our goal is to bring us together in one place, one Virtual Village, and deliver a comprehensive shopping experience to all!
All about Shops
Shops are designed for people who have products to sell. Perhaps you have a craft or hobby on the side like roasting coffee or sewing garment bags? Then a Shop in The Village is just right for you! Maybe you have a bulk food store and would like to reach out to more customers online? A Shop in The Village would suit you perfectly. Do you design custom signs? Make wedding gifts? Sell a special brand of cleaning supplies? A Shop would work great for you as well. As you can see the options are endless.
Setting up Shop
-The process of setting up Shop is streamlined and straightforward. Simply set up an account in The Village and select that you want to be a vendor. You can add a catchy banner to the top of your page, name your Shop, and start adding products. Details in settings can be added as you go. The site is optimized for mobile, so you can easily work from your smart phone or tablet as well as a desktop PC.
Shipping
– Now, what about shipping? The Village knows this is a very important part of online shopping. We have made it a streamlined step by step process to set up in your shop. It is easy to tweak your shipping costs to offer low shipping or free shipping if you want to. Also when an order is completed you can add tracking info and your customer is notified with an email.
Shop Page features
-On your Shop Page are some other fun features. You can drop a pin on Google maps to show shoppers where you are. If company is visiting your area they will be able to find you no problem!
Each Shop also has its own QR code to post wherever you want; on products, business cards, flyers, etc. This takes people directly to your store in The Village when scanned with a smart device.
New Shops and items will be posted on the Home Page for a period of time!
Pricing
-Maybe you are wondering “What does all this cost?” Well here is the good news, it does not cost anything to set up your Shop. The Village will collect 4% of sales to support the website. This offers you a risk free startup with no front end costs and no monthly fees. It also lets you know we are committed to helping you make sales, and that’s how it should be!
Transactions
-All money transactions are handled securely by PayPal. Simply link your account to your shop and withdraw your earnings whenever you wish. Paypal charges a fee to use their secure platform. We collect a 4% fee to cover those fees also. It is all automated and you don’t have to do a thing.
This is a Christian website with a mission of serving others and is meant to be for the benefit of all. Every potential seller will be screened and approved by the administrators of the site to ensure a clean, quality shopping experience.
Coming SOON!
“Business Pages” – full page, full color, fluid advertising for businesses with smart links to your existing websites!
“Village Bulletin” – a place for ads and notices for folks who have one item to sell or want to post “help-wanted” ads etc.
We are so excited to get this going and have big ideas for the future! We will be enhancing the website, adding new features, and possibly creating an app as we go along!
So now… Take a stroll through The Village, peek in Shop windows and see who is on Main Street! Join The Village by starting a Shop to market your own unique items. Become a part of The Village and watch us grow!
Have questions? We are happy to help! Contact us at:
~the administrators,
Valerie Unruh & Monica Koehn