personalized christmas ornaments 
About OrnamentShop.com
Last year we celebrated our 31th year in the business of selling Christmas decorations and gifts. The year 2013 is our 15th year of selling personalized Christmas ornaments on the Internet. In 1999, we offered 500 ornaments. Maybe you’d like to see what we looked like then? Here’s our 1999 home page. What a difference 13 years make!
I’m always asked about how we grew, what’s our business like, etc. It’s embarrassing, but our business is often the topic of conversation with our friends. So, I thought you might like to know a little about who we are and how we run our business.
Over the past 14 years, satisfied customers have helped us become one of the Largest Online Retailers of Personalized Christmas Ornaments. At OrnamentShop.com you can expect high quality products and personalizing at reasonable prices. In addition, you can feel confident with our secure shopping cart system and our very high customer ranking, as recorded by the independent survey company, BizRate (see side bar to the right).
They say that the sincerest form of flattery is imitation. If this is true, we’re very flattered, as many other sites have copied ours. Some actually copy the way we put images on our site, so they have our same look and feel.
Rest assured: none of the other sites offer the number of ornaments we do. Let me talk about this, too. If we say we have 2500 ornaments on our site, we do, at least at the beginning of the season. If one of our ornaments is offered with three hair colors, we count that as one ornament. Don’t be fooled by others claiming to stock our numbers: they count that same ornament as 3 ornaments! If our counts are right, we also have more different suppliers on our site, giving you more styles and materials from which to choose.
This is why companies like Byers’ Choice allow us to carry their products. Indeed, they’ve told us we are one of two Internet companies they sell to, who don’t also carry their products at retail brick and mortar stores. I feel it’s a great honor to be recognized in this manner.
I don’t go much for blowing y own horn, but I am proud to say that I’ve been buying ornaments for 28 years. That’s a lot of traveling, looking for the finest and most unique ornaments for our customers. I started out buying from crafters, who make such wonderful gifts. But, as our business grew, I expanded our offerings and types, keeping in mind that the crafters would always be a part of our product mix. That’s why we still carry more “lines” of ornaments than other sites.
We’ve also helped some of our “crafters” realize their aspirations by encouraging them to work with larger companies, using new materials which would help them grow their businesses. Their products are exclusive to our site.
And, we have retail kiosks as well. Look for us at the following Chicago area malls: Westfield Shoppingtowns at Hawthorn, Fox Valley, Louis Joliet, Chicago Ridge and Southlake (Merrillville, IN), plus Yorktown Center in Lombard. Come visit us!
Over all these years, I have made sure our staff knows that the most important part of our business is making sure our customers come first and that their needs (and, sometimes, problems) must be addressed with 100% satisfaction. That’s a term a lot of people use, but we deliver on it. You’ll note the many “Testimonials” we have on our site. They are but a fraction of the notes we get about the nice job we do.
So, to our new customers, know that we have been around for some time and have developed into the leading seller of personalized Christmas ornaments on the internet. We’re so pleased that you visit us, look at our ornaments and buy them, knowing that you will be happy with both our products and our service.
And speaking of Customer Service, it’s a culture of ours that we do everything we can to make you happy. We replace all ornaments if we’ve misspelled names (provided you spelled it correctly for us!) and ornaments broken in shipment (yes, it happens, unfortunately). We want you to come back and refer us to your friends.
Our company is run based on what we hear from you. And, since there are more of you giving us valuable feedback on our products and services, know that you are the reason we will continue to lead….because we deliver on what you want.
Proudly Supporting Canine Companions
I wanted to tell you about a new “happening” at OrnamentShop.com and ChristmasOrnaments.com. We are proud to be partnering with Canine Companions for Independence® to raise funds to provide assistance dogs for people with disabilities. This nonprofit organization provides highly-trained assistance dogs for children and adults with disabilities, free of charge. The most advanced technology capable of transforming the lives of people with disabilities has a cold nose and a warm heart!
Russ and I became supporters of Canine Companions when our son, Don, received his first assistance dog, Expo, back in 1990. We think Canine Companions is one of the finest run charitable organizations and worthy of anyone’s consideration and support. Perhaps you, too, would like to learn more. You can do so by visiting their web site www.CCI.org. There you will find a coupon. Use it and we will make a contribution of 20% of your purchases, on either www.OrnamentShop.comor www.ChristmasOrnaments.com to Canine Companions, through the end of the year.
Proudly Supporting American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO)
We’re excited to announce that as of mid November, Ornamentshop.com’s long history of local charitable giving will become national in a fundraising program with the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO). We’ll donate a percent of all purchases made by AYSO families to the Hugo Bustamante AYSO Playership Fund, AYSO’s national scholarship program.
The Hugo Bustamante AYSO Playership Fund, a national scholarship program, helps ensure that every child gets the chance to play AYSO soccer.
Our family has been supporters of the AYSO since the early ‘70s and we were looking for a way to get more involved. AYSO is the largest single-entity youth soccer association in the U.S. with nearly 500,000 players and 200,000 volunteers. AYSO has Six Philosophies: Everyone Plays®, Balanced Teams, Open Registration, Positive Coaching, Good Sportsmanship and Player Development. You can learn more at www.AYSO.com.
What you should know about these two logos
We “partner” with only the finest suppliers. That’s why you’ll find the below logo throughout our site. It represents a company whose products are integral to your shopping experience with us. I’d like you to know what it stands for, as it is very important to our customers.
First is the BizRate.com logo.You’ll find it on each page of our site. The ratings are based upon actual reviews of our site by our recent customers. These reviews are gathered by a third party and represent the true opinion of people that have recently shopped at OrnamentShop. We at OrnamentShop have no way to influence what is said, or what is shown. For detailed information beyond the overall rating, we invite you to simply click on the Bizrate.com logo.
You’ll find this logo on every page of our site, right at the top, because we want you to know your shopping experience is secure. That’s why we’ve chosen McAfee Secure as a partner. Quite simply, McAfee Secure is one of the most advanced security auditing systems available for websites on the Internet. This program assures you that we know the safety of your
personal information is critically important. Displaying a valid McAfee Secure Logo (click it to make sure) lets you know our website is scanned continuously for software and network vulnerabilities that could compromise your information. If a vulnerability is identified, OrnamentShop is notified of the exact details so our technical team can correct it immediately. Since McAfee removes its seal from our website until the issue has been corrected, you are guaranteed our quick response to any issue that may arise. We’re proud to do business with McAfee as it is internationally recognized for the integrity of the products it markets and shares with us and you.
