more about ali asaria
Well.ca is hiring. We’re looking for talented Software Developers that are excited to work with some cutting-edge technologies. We’re also looking for the greatest designer ever. Full postings here.
One of the ugliest pages on our site used to be our category listings. This page is an example:
Sometimes you see not-so-pretty pages on a website and you wonder if the creators know that the page is ugly, or are really bad designers. I want you to know that we know ;)
Chris had a quick fix to make these pags look nicer that was incorporated to the live site today. The idea is to pull a single image of a single product from each category to represent the entire category. Our algorithm chooses one of the most popular products. The human eye, of course, is able to scan through lists of images much faster than a list of text, so this makes the lists easier to use, simpler, and certainly more visually appealing.
Take a look:
I like! (Here’s a link to the above page on our live site)
Great job, Chris.
STEVE JOBS AT HOME IN 1982 — “This was a very typical time. I was single. All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and that’s what I had.” —Steve Jobs
This picture (link) means something to me. The quotation is true to my life right now. I spend my home life sitting on the floor, cross-legged, drinking tea. Scary: I am wearing a black long sleeved T and wearing blue jeans as I type this right now.
Don’t worry, I don’t believe I’ll ever be as important as Steve Jobs.
Interesting fact about Well.ca:
Every day, we get an average of 2 calls that sound like this:
Me: Hello, Well.ca — this is Ali. How can I help you?
Customer: Uh… umm… hi… is this L’Oreal [or Almay, or Maybelline, or Neutragena..] ? I wanted to …
Me: Umm… We sell L’Oreal products, but we are not the manufacturer …
See, people (a frightening number of people!) just assume that the first link that comes up when you do a search like below is the manufacturer of the product.
It is funny to get these calls all the time (we’ve made a list of all the manufacturer’s contact numbers to give to people like this) but it’s a sign that we’re doing better than the manufacturers themselves at making our products findable on search engines. If any manufacturers are reading this blog contact us and let us know if we can help!
When work gets stressful, I read this blog post by the CEO of Redfin. It’s realistic, inspirational, and relatable.
A quotation:
Like college students bragging about how they barely studied, start-ups today take care to project a sense of ease. Wherever I’ve worked, we’ve secretly felt just the opposite. We’re assailed by doubts, mortified by our own shortcomings, surrounded by freaks, testy over silly details.
(Image from Jennie R. F.)
Of all of the products pharmacies sell, some of them can only be sold by pharmacies, and some of them could be sold by any store.
Drugs, which only pharmacies can sell, are further divided in subcategories called “schedules”.
Schedule 1 drugs are prescriptions drugs — you need a valid doctor’s prescription to buy them at a pharmacy.
Schedule 2 drugs don’t require a prescription but are stored “behind the counter” — so you have to talk to a pharmacist in order to get them.
Schedule 3 drugs (also called “OTC’s” as in Over-the-Counter drugs) are the last category — these are drugs that anyone can buy but can only be purchased at a pharmacy. A pharmacist has to be available for questions.
Everything else (e.g. Colgate toothpaste) is “unscheduled” — any store can sell them. These are often called “front-shop” items.
So pop-quiz!
Q: Which of the following products are OTC drugs (only sell-able by a pharmacy) and which of the following are frontshop items that anyone can sell?
a) 
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)
A: it’s a trick question. Everything above is an OTC item except for (c) the Q-tips. It can be surprising how many products (for example common sunscreens) can only be sold by pharmacies. Well.ca has the ability to sell these items because we are an accredited pharmacy.
The Well.ca offices are a bit hectic. Just as we finished building our last piece of IKEA furniture, for reasons we can’t fully explain, the numbers of orders coming through our website doubled.
This is good. I mean more orders means business is good.
But, ahem. It also means that I am answering customer calls and packing boxes in our shipping room instead of dealing with lawyers and accountants in our nice office.
Predicting order volume has always been a challenge for us — things like Google rankings, sudden bursts in customer referrals, and seasonality can cause tremendous strain on our packing process. Thankfully no packages have been delayed, but my coworkers and I are looking tired.
At the same time, we’re always experimenting with new forms of marketing. We don’t know, ahead of time, how much our experiments will affect our order volumes. What if orders double? What will we do. This should be a good problem but part of us wants the number of orders to be the same.
The solution, of course it to build flexible capacity. This is hard for a startup.
Further compounding the problem is the time it take to build capacity — we need to hire people, train them, and retain the others. It could take a month to find another order processor. What will we do for a month?
Welcome to a growth company. Orders may continue to double. Or they may slow down by next month. Call me then and I can update you!
A pleasant side-effect of having to having our CEO and lead-developer pack boxes is that it has accelerated our software development that handles order processing. Over time, we created many features and processes to help with inventory management, picking & packing, and the shipping process. These days, we’ve been forced to use the software we developed — this has given us numerous opportunities to find improvements and see what really works.
So yeah. We’re hiring.
Do you know anyone that is looking for a job in the Guelph area? We need to find someone that can help us get health products into happy customer’s hands. We draw smiley faces on all packages, so you have to be able to draw smiley faces. We are looking for someone that is cool and hardworking. Here at Well.ca, we eat breakfasts together, have the nicest work environment, and friendliest coworkers you’ll ever meet. Experience picking, packaging, and/or shipping is necessary but if you’ve done something similar, let me know. Interested people can write to jobs [at] well.ca
