New website update news

The long overdue new version of my website has been receiving some improvements recently. There was a flaw in the date range search when narrowing down results for a date range to list only available costumes using the search filters. For this same purpose the themes navigation needs to get an overview page that is not a specific theme and not everything because of long loading times and duplicate content what search engines concerns. There is also the consideration of applying themes based on season.

Various changes and new costumes

Here are a couple of things to get off my mind:

Two of the three superman costumes were retired due to wear and tear reasons. Someone purchased the Wonder Woman costume which was actually also in need of replacement. Four out of eleven new costumes are still expected. They have to be collected at customs.

Due to repeat computer problems, working overtime and vacation, the new version of the website still has not gone live and this now really starts to bother me. The new site is more mobile device friendly. The site is basically ready, but it needs to be tested once more before going live.

January and February are usually quiet months which is good for availability but not good for trying to finance new costumes.

Due to popular demand, I will try to finance some more mascot style costumes. Prices are slowly being adjusted due to maintenance expenses.

New changes happening for BKE Costume Rental

After a long quiet time there is finally some worthwhile news about BKE Costume Rental:

1. Before the Halloween weekend there should be 14 new costumes arriving. Some are useful for Halloween and some are useful for the rest of the year.

2. A purple dragon costume is being made by someone in Pretoria.

3. The website is undergoing several changes:

3.1. Home page updates with instructions on how to use the website since many seem to not know.

3.2. A "coming soon" section on the home page that only shows if new costumes are being expected.

3.3. The search filters are getting new choices like age range (adult, child, teenager) and availability by date as well as a new search results display choice.

3.4. Search results are getting a new view for displaying primarily an image and are grouped by character.

3.5. Image uploading per costume is being created but might only be added later due to security reasons.

4. Plans are being made to replace the old Wendy House and set up something bigger that will last longer.

Various costume requests changes

Lately I have found an interesting shift in costume requests patterns:
Teletubby
Astronaut
Toy Story
Rock 'n Roll
Power Rangers

Teletubby and Astronaut requests got a fairly sharp increase in requests. Barney is requested occasionally by desperate parents, but that costume is not actually available for adults. I have also seen an increase in requests for children size costumes as well Power Rangers.

Most popular costumes over the years

According to some new statistics that I ran recently, I have compiled a list of my top five costumes per year starting since 2006. Left to right is highest to smallest.

2006: Batgirl, Batman, Catwoman, Supergirl, Mr. Incredible
2007: Batgirl, Superman, Batman, Mr. Incredible, Spider-Man
2008: Batman, Batgirl, Spider-Man, Superman, Mr. Incredible
2009: Batman, Dinosaur, Superman, Spider-Man, Supergirl
2010: Dinosaur, Batman, Spider-Man, Supergirl, Bunny
2011: Bunny, Dinosaur, Spider-Man, Power Ranger, Supergirl

Contact lenses experiment

As a new experiment, I am going to start selling or at least taking orders for coloured contact lenses on my website. This is at this stage an experiment, but it might turn out well. The pricing model is based on a percentage of the selling price.

Starting something new

I will be having a meeting with a supplier this coming Sunday to sell coloured contact lenses via my website for enhancing costumes. Due to various reasons, contact lenses should not ever be hired. I might also investigate some rumours that I heard about some interesting costumes in Chinatown.