Preorder: This is an item on sale that has a later ship date.

These are normally only done through our website erinlanebags.com and are RARELY on a live sale.

Hankmas is considered a preorder and is done live. You can see our preorder policies here.

Preauthorization: This is a feature that allows you to reserve an item in case someone returns it or cancels an order.

If you preauthorize something, and it becomes available, we will charge your card (or prefered payment method) when we are ready to process your order.

This does not guarantee you the item, it just tells us you want it should it become available.

You can shop a live sale either on a social platform like Facebook, the Erin Lane Website or on our free App.

It is personal preference, and we will always broadcast to all three places.

You can download our app on either Apple or Android here.

Registering is not required as you can checkout as a guest. However, if you do you won't earn rewards! (and we don't want that.)

On a browser:
Go to erinlanebags.com and click the account button in the upper right hand corner. If you have an account on our website already, you are set. If not, you can create one here!

On the App:
Click the three bars in the upper left hand corner, and just under the image, you can see if your logged in. If you see guest, you will checkout as a guest and not earn rewards. You can click in this box to log in or create an account.

This account will work across the app and the website. One log in to remember!

You don't have to register. You can check out as a guest if you want to. However, if you want to earn rewards (floofbahs) then you need to have an account.

Having an account means you can check out more quickly on items that are in high demand. This is what we recommend.

On a browser or website: You would type the word "sold" and then the number (101, 205, etc) that appears on your screen over my head.

On the app: you would click the little photo in the upper right hand corner and then click the button that says ADD TO CART.

If it is an item you know you want (you don't need to think about it) then you will need to check out immediately. You will not be charged shipping until we combine orders going to the same recipient and send shipping invoices after the live.

Nope!

We don't believe in making money on shipping, so we don't.

After a live sale, we combine orders going to the same address, and then send you one custom shipping invoice for what it costs to get your goodies from us to you.

After you pay that invoice, we pack your order and ship it to you in one package!

We get it. FOMO is a real thing.

If this happens, we are happy to cancel the unwanted order as long as we have not started processing and packing the orders.

We don't want you to miss out on your favorite fabric since everything is limited run.

ABSOLUTELY!

After the live sale is over you can shop the items from the live in the LIVE tab on the app, or you can shop the collection on the website or app without watching the replay! We post the items on the app and the homepage of the website after the live ends each night!

You can also rewatch it on Facebook.

On Facebook: You will have to watch the live (you can skip around if you want) and comment for the item the same way you would if we were still live (sold + #).

In the app: Just open your app and you can click the LIVE button on the bottom bar and find the live you want to rewatch.

Once in the replay, on the bottom of the screen you can scroll through all the items that were live on the bottom of your screen.

To see a demonstration of a product just choose the last item before the product type (bucket, large project bag) changes, and you can see the bag demo and dimensions there.

You sure can!

You just need to grab it off the website first.

If you are logged in, in the bottom right hand corner the you will see a little present icon. Click that and you will see your rewards available!

You just click redeem and you can grab your code, come back to checkout and enter it for your discount!

We do ask that no coupons are used during Hankmas. It is fine to use them all other times, but that is the one event a year we ask you to not use a coupon.

If you are having issues with a coupon code, please feel free to contact us. We will need the coupon code to look it up.

We have an awesome rewards program here! It's our way of saying thank you for your choice to support a small handmade business.

To earn rewards you need to go and create an account here at erinlanebags.com by clicking the little, green present at the bottom right of the screen. Click log in (if you have an account here already) or click create account and follow the prompts.

It's that easy. Once you have an account, all purchases made tied to that email address will earn rewards.

PLEASE NOTE: If the email address you use on erinlanebags.com and the one tied to your Facebook account are NOT THE SAME ADDRESS, you might have two rewards accounts.

If you have two accounts on the website, we can combine them. We just need to know both email addresses that you have accounts under and which email address you WANT TO KEEP.

If you have any questions about possibly having two accounts or not receiving rewards, please feel free to contact us.

ABSOLUTELY NOT! I have never sold out a live sale. Though I would super love that. It has literally never happened.

Here's the truth, at the end of the actual live, where I sign off, yes, it looks like everything is claimed.

It changes live sale to live sale, but we never sell out. One fabric in a few styles, but it is rare to even sell out of a fabric completely.

Technically, yes you can.

But we do live sales to keep everything as fair as possible for everyone. So we have a policy that if you are shopping the app before the live and check out with items reserved for the live, we will cancel your order and move to the next person in line.

This is not a policy we want to have, but unfortunately it is a limitation of the program we use. Therefore, we will have to enforce it if it becomes an issue.

If you do this repeatedly, we reserve the right to block your ability to participate in live sales for a period of time.

After the live we post the remaining inventory and let people shop if they don't like the live format or if they missed something they now want.

This normally takes about a week. So we begin packing the Friday after a live event, and in most cases the packages are picked up on the following Monday from our studio.

I wish I had a crystal ball that could tell me what that was going to be!

Truth is we don't always know what will be a break out hit fabric wise or which bag will be the most popular that live or that season.

While I am a pretty good guesser, there is no formula for what will be the thing everyone rushes to.

I guess wrong a lot, so I just have to do my best and make more of what I *think* will be the most popular.

In the world of yarn, so many people use this model to great success.

However, when dealing with fabric and not yarn, things get a little different.

For a yarn dyer, they know they have X number of skeins. That means they can dye any color on those skeins.

That's not how fabric works, much to my chagrin. Because 100 yards of fabric could be 100 one yard fabrics or any combination of fabric prints to that 100 yards.

We design every fabric you see in our shop (with a few limited exceptions). That means we have to have our fabric printed. The lead time on getting custom fabric printed and delivered is on average 30 days. (But a few times it has taken more like 45.)

So if we do a preorder, you have ordered and paid for product that I then have to order fabric for, and wait for it to come in and then process into bags. That process is at least another 30+ days. Most people do not like waiting 60+ days for their bags or really any preorder.

If I buy the fabric and then offer the items for preorder, there is an inventory issue. I still have to decide in this case how many of each thing to make so that I don't run out of fabric.

And then what happens if I guess wrong? What if I allotted for too many project bags and not enough totes? I can't just say, "Well, I will move this fabric from product A to product B. No big deal." Because the reality is that no two products are the same length requirement to do that. Every product is it's own unique snowflake of fabric needs.

(File that under things I wish I knew when I started.)

So that leaves me with having to make the decision on how many of each thing to make no matter what. And it is easier on the customer side to say, "I like that" and have it shipped out quickly than it is to wait.

So, if I already have to decide how many of each product to make, I might as well make it up and take the waiting out of the equation for you.

We love the idea of a shorter live sale; however, that would mean we have less time to make items up.

Production sewing is an assembly line. I might set zippers on 5 different products for two days, and then move those items into next steps, but setting all the zippers at once, is the best way to do that.

The only way to make the number of things we produce is to sew this way, and that means we generally end up with everything getting finished in just a matter of two to three days of each other, so that means one long live sale at the end of the month.

That is totally fine. We know that this way of shopping isn't for everyone. This is just what we have found is best for our business.

That said, items from every live sale are posted to our website and our new app.

Obviously, some items sell out and are not available on the website after a live, but that does not mean that there is nothing left. We have LOTS of bags from LOTS of live sales hanging out on the website all the time.

As much as we loved CommentSold, Shopify (our website provider) and CommentSold broke up.

Basically, one or both companies decided they couldn't agree on how payments should be processed, so they decided to part ways.

As much as we hate to see CommentSold go, we are in love with our new app and think it will offer a more streamlined and better shopping experience.

Other than the look, live shopping will be very much the same.

The new app is built withing the Shopify framework, meaning that there is only one platform. That makes a lot of things easier straight out of the gate.

The notifications should be more personalized for you and your cart as well as your rewards points (floofbahs).

The two things that we no longer can offer as they go against the terms of service with Shopify is the waitlist feature (which is super sad) and the free shipping window.

To keep you from incurring multiple shipping charges, we send custom shipping invoices after we combine orders. So you only ever pay what it takes to get your goodies to your door.

We do offer free shipping on orders over $300.

The free shipping window was also a CommentSold feature.

I have asked the app developers if there is a way to do this, and they have told me there isn't.

However, the way shipping is processed now is based on your packages weight. That means you are only paying for how much it will weigh for your product to arrive to you. You can also choose your carrier and speed it is delivered. So that gives you more choice and will hopefully save you money.

I had to average the cost to ship things to the farthest point from my studio, meaning if you live 30 miles away, you were paying for it to be able to go 400 miles away.