HelloDesigners

Did you know that Lisa, Step Brightly’s Creative Director, was originally a Fashion Design major at The Academy of Art University in San Francisco? That was until she realized she didn’t have a clue how to sew. Switching majors to Graphic Design, Lisa found her calling. And as fate would have it years later, she was blessed with the opportunity to work with Nicki Brasher, the Proprietor of Fashionista Chicago, Your Go To Source For Style on her custom WordPress website. Inspiration board... Read Full Story

We are head over heels to have been one of 122 businesses selected to the 2nd Edition of The Urban Girl’s Manifesto, CRAVE Chicago’s ultimate guide to women-owned businesses in the Chicago Metropolitan Area! In addition to our editorial and photography shot by the awesome Adam Daniels , some of our favorite clients and friends are in it too: Le Papier Studio , BabyDolls Boutique, The Founding Moms and Lightspan Digital . Here are the rest of the interview questions and a few pictures from the... Read Full Story

I am extremely grateful to be selected among the 122 sassiest, gutsiest, most inspiring women-owned businesses for CRAVE Chicago’s city guide this year. We were asked a series of questions, which I want to share with you. The guide will be out soon and I will be sure to post the photos from our photo shoot which was a blast. Pick 5 adjectives that describe your business: Thoughtful Witty Sophisticated Inspirational Functional Write your business description in 65 words or less... Read Full Story

Your product page will make your break a sale on your ecommerce site. Seriously . The layout of the product page, hierarchy of information, and functionality, is essential to making a sale. The product, or item page, is where the customer will see multiple images of the product they are about to purchase. Here they will read your specifications and customize the product accordingly. Because of our extensive background working in the retail and gift industries, we know your customer is... Read Full Story

We hate the word Blog. Literally the term Blog is a blend of web and log . But does it have to sound so ugly? We tossed around the idea of calling this portion of our website The Sunny Side of the Street, Cool Stuff, Stuff you need to know. But at the end of the day we have to practice what we preach: Consistency and user-friendliness. So we named it Blog and put all the cool stuff in it that will help you with your business, Ideas for Clients , our Ecommerce 101 Series , Recent... Read Full Story

Part 3 of our Ecommerce 101 series is going to look at features or ‘add-ons’ and services that your shopping cart should provide you. In addition to what you are going to need to get started with an online shopping cart, there are certain features that are offered with any ecommerce solution that are kind of a ‘given’ and should be inherit in any shopping cart you consider. First and foremost any shopping cart solution should be PCI Compliance – this is huge and means they are a solution... Read Full Story

Step Brightly is going to share the terms you need to be familiar with to need to get your online store running in a legitimate and professional way. All of these items; Merchant Account, Payment Gateway, API integration and an SSL certificate are additional fees, which are often not included in the package price you see on shopping cart websites, and are all of which you will need to set up your online store. Merchant Accounts Every payment made online with a credit card involves the... Read Full Story

Step Brightly offers many services to our clients in the realm of retail and online ecommerce solutions. From initial strategy to front-end navigational issues to a fully functional online shopping centers, we have 12+ years of experience working with on and off-line retail boutiques . Recently, we completed extensive research into four top-ranking shopping carts, 3dcart , BigCommerce , Shopify and Zen Cart and we want share our findings with you. We are also going to share tips and trick... Read Full Story

“As one door closes and another door opens itself.” Who said that? I don’t remember, but it is a good fit to this past week. I have been so blessed to have shared such an amazing experience with the AIGA Chicago board of directors over the past three years. I can’t even list the names of all the generous people who I have shared my time with. From other board members to our sponsors; great relationships are at the heart of my experience, and I am so grateful. Tonight we are topping off... Read Full Story

Creative ladies! We continue our video series about how-to run an online business from a design, marketing and business-savvy perspective. To start our second part in our series, Vana Chupp and I share our experiences about how we each built the right online selling platform—aka; website. We start the conversation with the benefits of having an Esty site verse your own ecommerce website and then you can decide what works best for you. And often neglected by creative folks, our next video is... Read Full Story