Store sorting, searching, filtering, and more.
Once upon a time, the only thing you could buy on Cotton Bureau was a t-shirt. Like literally a t-shirt. One t-shirt. If you were the person selling this t-shirt, you would grab the link and send it to your people. You would say something like, “Here is my t-shirt! It’s available in any color you want, as long as you like black. Please buy it now, because it will be available for just two weeks.” Or whatever. Nobody would show up on your profile page only to be immediately overwhelmed by the sheer number of always available products you had for sale.
It was a nice system, people liked it. But for reasons good and proper, our little Cotton Bureau pre-order machine has mutated, growing sideways, outwards, and in more than a few odd, unpredictable directions: sweatshirts here, stickers, hats, totes, and posters there, phone cases everywhere. Thus, we present searching, sorting, and filtering for stores. Just like the home page, anyone browsing your catalog can now (we hope) find exactly what they want.
Suppose we spin the wheel of mystery. The wheel lands on Adam Selby’s store. A quick tour shows the new sort options up top: newest, most popular now, and random. Down the left hand column (or just below the sorting if you are on mobile) are filters for category (apparel or phone cases) and availability (on demand or pre-order). Jumping into a category reveals additional filters like color, material, and cut. Search has also been added. Perhaps your outie likes Severance.
While we’re talking store improvements, it’s worth noting a few small bug fixes / philosophical changes. Out of stock or otherwise unavailable items are now listed last, and stores with more than 50 products are paginated to making loading snappier.
Don’t forget, people can also sign up to be notified when you release a new product. It’s in that little box on the left or in the expanded profile on mobile.
Premium Store Improvements
Standard Cotton Bureau stores weren’t the only ones to receive an upgrade, however. In addition to the features mentioned already, premium accounts like Letterboxd are now able to choose one (or more) products to feature. Behind the scenes, premium and standard accounts have been brought closer together in the code, which allows us to develop new features for both more efficiently. Premium accounts gained the new product subscription box this round, but free accounts may see features begin to trickle down.
Phone Cases are Here
Everybody has been talking about our new phone cases, saying things like “these are great” and “how did you do this???” We like to let our work speak for itself, but… we agree. These are great. The print color, quality, and vibrancy is 🤌. If you haven’t added a phone case (or 10) yet, what are you waiting for? Existing products can be migrated in two minutes or less, and we’re standing by to help if you have any questions. Heck, we’ll convert them for you ourselves if you want, just say the word.
Bits ’n Bobs
If you haven’t stopped by the home page in the last few weeks, you’ve missed out on a few of my lowkey favorite changes. The featured product carousel is new and improved with more accent colors, and the default product list is a randomized collection of our favorite designs over the years. It’s a tough list to crack, but we’re adding more every week. Show us what you’ve got. We want to feature the very best.
What’s Next?
Such a lovely question. The answer is… well, you’re going to have to wait and see. Holidays are approaching muy rapido. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be leaning into that with our next update. See you in four weeks 😉.