As if passing us by in the blink of an eye, we are rounding the corner into Christmas and eventually, a new year. This time of year is a special one, not only in the birding world (we love winter birding!) but one in which we all take the time to reflect on everything that transpired in the year prior and what we plan to accomplish in the coming year.
The past year(s) have been truly special to us here at the store as we have really focused on “spreading our wings” as we have taken on exciting and challenging projects, met so many people along the way and have had to shift our strategy and focus along the way.
We owe it all to our outstanding (and growing) customer base and we are truly thankful for each and every one of you who has been with us on this wild and beautiful ride. Here are a few of the things we are both reflecting upon and planning for the coming months and year!
Our Preston Street Location
We flung open the doors to our Ottawa location in late 2016 to rave reviews. After visits from the Ottawa Citizen, among many others, we were fortunate enough to host and met a number of birders from all walks of life.
The Preston store was officially open for a year and was successful beyond measure but when it came time to renew our lease, we were faced with a number of important decisions about the business and where we wanted to grow.
While the second location was fruitful and we enjoyed every minute of it, we ultimately decided to circle back and focus on our flagship location in Almonte. While not as convenient for some, we have been fortunate enough to pull much of our Preston location’s clientele out to the “Friendly Town” where they are treated to all of the other wonderful businesses Almonte has to offer.
Closing in on 8 Years
That’s right! This crazy idea we had to launch a full-service backyard birding store hatched nearly 8 years ago and that in itself is something to celebrate.
It’s been a roller coaster ride and we have continued to not only provide our customers with the very best in birding products and solutions, we’ve also managed to increase the number of resources (videos, blogs, seminars etc.) to answer many questions that we field on a daily basis in the store.
Here’s to many more!
New Website
Speaking of resources, we also began the planning process of the redesign and relaunch of a completely new web property. Staying with the all-too-familiar GilligallouBird.com, our new website launched this month and is even better than before.
In addition to a crisp new design and features, we have gone all-in on ecommerce. We now offer our customers the opportunity to shop our products, feeders and seed on our website in one seamless experience.
While we are still in the early stages, look for additional features to be added through the beginning of 2019 and be sure to let us know if there is anything you would like to see in our online property moving forward!