Our Original Website
Our website, PalmFanStore.com, was originally launched February 2003. It consisted of only three ceiling fans, each coming in several different color choices. Those fans were the Gulf Coast Palm Breeze, the Gulf Coast Palm Bay, and the Fanimation Palisade ceiling fans. All three models used palm blades for a unique tropical look, perfect for beachfront home décor. Amazingly, sixteen years laters those fans are still in production today.
Not Knowing What to Expect
We approached the world of eCommerce expecting a small supplement in sales to our local brick and mortar fan store located in Greensboro, NC. What we got was not what we expected at all, as during the first week of launching the website, sales were more than double what we had anticipated. The second week a little higher, and the third a little higher yet again, and so on…
Updates and More Fans Added
Soon we knew we should focus more on the website, and this meant we needed to add more fans. We added more and more fans, all of which would be considered tropical designs to fit the name of our domain. However, by February of 2007 we had decided it was time to broaden our reach, and so the website was redesigned and all design categories of fans were added.
We added categories for Contemporary, Rustic, Victorian, Kids, and various designs of Outdoor Ceiling Fans. We thought we were big time! And then…
January 2012 Major Upgrade
More than 8 years after launching Palm Fan Store, our corporate offices finally shelled out big bucks on a seriously upgraded web platform. The new and improved site went live January of 2012, and our website became one of the best looking and best functioning websites anyone had ever seen at the time for an eCommerce store, especially when compared to the other specialty fan and lighting online shops.
For the next 8 years we left the website the same, only adding new products as they became available. Things were great, but we also realized times had changed since 2012. More and more people were using mobile devices to browse and shop online. We soon realized our beautiful new website was old. It was outdated. It was suddenly not as user friendly as it once was. It was time for a change. And that’s exactly what has a been quietly in the making, while know one was looking, since early March of 2019.
And finally…
The Brand New PALM FAN STORE dot COM!
Just launched, the biggest, and baddest (in a good way) ceiling fan retail website you will ever see.
Our new website works perfectly on any device. It is “responsive”, meaning it resizes itself based on the type of device you are viewing it on. If on a large computer screen, the new site adjust to the size window you have open. If on a small cell phone it resets to fit your phone screen. A tablet, if resizes somewhere in the middle.
Our customers can find items faster. A search bar is at the top of the page, which accurate filters items if the name of the item being searched for is known.
There are filters set up. Filter products by finish, by size, by name brand, all fans or outdoor fans only, etc. The only filter we purposefully left out is a price filter.
This is why we felt it in our customer's best interests to leave out the price filter. Let's say you have a budget of $300 max. So you set the price filter for all fans below $300. You find a fan for $299.99 you like, it’s not perfect, but you settle for it since it’s the best you have found. What if the absolute perfect fan for you is $301? Would you have spent the extra one dollar? If so, by setting a price filter to show fans $300 and below you will miss out on the perfect fan all because of only to $1. Now, can you see why we left that filter disabled?
However, if you’re on a budget, you can easily sort fans based on price from lowest to highest, or highest to lowest. By shopping our website, or any website this way, you won’t miss out on the perfect product for you because of one measly dollar.
Ceiling Fans Condensed for Quicker Shopping
Another FANtastic feature (pun intended) with the new site is when a ceiling fan is available in multiple finishes they are all condensed onto the same product page. Yet from the main catalog category pages you will know this by looking just below the price. If you see small squares of finishes, click on them. When you do, the image will change right from the category pages and show you the other finish choices. If you like the design fan, and one of those finishes, move on to the product details page, because many times you will find there are additional blade finish choices, and sometimes other options also available for that product.
We Now Have Smart Fans
Yes! Smart Ceiling Fans are here. These fans connect to your secure WiFi connection to give you full control from your smart phone or tablet. Just download the fan manufacturer’s app and your smart phone or tablet becomes your ceiling fan remote control with limitless range. As long as you have a WiFi connection you can control your fan, no matter if you are on the other side of the country.
And, for an even better experience just say, “Alex, turn on my new fan to speed 4.” Alexa will say, “Okay. Turning your new fan on at speed 4.” That’s right, our smart fans will work with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Nest, and even an Ecobee thermostat. How cool is that?
Better Selection, Best Fans, Lowest Pricing
We have always took pride in offering our customers only the best fan name brands on the market. We have always offered each and every one of our fans at the manufacturer’s Minimum Allowed Resale Price Policy. Some store’s sell above this price to help cover the cost of free shipping. We don’t. We sell at the lowest allowed prices and still offer free shipping on each and every purchase above $249.
Another difference from our older versions and the new version of our website is that we expanded our selection within each brand. As we always have, we offer the high end and better built models that our top of the line brands are known for, but we are now offering many of the more affordable models from these same brands to our online customers.
Our past reasoning for only offering the higher end models was to ensure our customers would only get the best of the best. With the new lower price points we feel it will bring in an entirely new customer that we may have been missing in the past. We only would like to remind our customers though, just because a name label may show a brand such as Minka Aire, a Minka Aire ceiling fan for $500 is in an entirely different class when compared to the same Minka fan at $150. This is no different with any brand.
Keeping this in mind you can know what to expect with the different price points. The good part of it is for our customers building a new home, that may already be over budget, they can now have one stop shopping for fans at Palm Fan Store, and no longer need to go to the local building supply store to purchase fans for rooms where more affordable ones are needed. This will make it simpler if something should ever go wrong and a warranty claim needs to be filed. We are here to help our customers with the warranty process, whereas the big box stores typically aren’t much help a few years after the purchase. This gives our customer a better insentative to purchase every fan in their home from us.
In Conclusion
All of us here at PalmFanStore hope you enjoy your new shopping experience on our brand new website.
As many fans as we have, new fans are being added almost weekly. Therefore, if for some reason you are not finding what you are looking for, we simply ask you to give us a call. We probably have it, and we are here to help you 6 days a week via phone, and 7 days a week via email.
We are looking forward to hearing from you, and together, by keeping the air moving, we can do our part in making the world a more comfortable place to live.
