There seems to be a direct relationship with the order frequency on the store and the amount of blog posts I manage to complete. This year has been the best/worst ever. We've processed the most orders ever in the last calendar year, 1000 more than last year, and I've posted exactly zero times on the blog. One if you count this one.

TL/DR: We won't be shipping from Wed 23rd Dec to Thurs 7th Jan.

I know there are a few people who enjoy my more technical posts on the various projects I do so I'm sorry for the lack of interaction from me this year. It's been pretty full on with consulting work, the store with a lot of orders, and with staff coming and going.

Checking in our database, we've added 584 products so far since the start of the year and now have over 3000 products available with a large percentage of those in stock in our store room. A lot of those have been added at the request of customers. If there's something that you want that we don't have, feel free to let us know, we can more often than not get it for you.

In the last couple of weeks you might have noticed some minor updates to the look of the website, this is the first real round of changes since I designed the current version back in 2008. It's served us very well over that time and continues to do so now but I thought it was about time for a freshen up and some new features.

The main areas I've focussed on so far are;

• A more mobile friendly layout which works on phones and tablets as well as larger monitored devices. This is ongoing and is definitely a work in progress but it's a start.
• Wishlists. These have been popping up on other retails sites around the place more and more and I think they are a useful addition, if only just for myself. People often contact us and ask if we have a kit for this that or the next thing. We often don't as I mostly like to let people build their own. Some people aren't so keen on that though so this is where a wishlist comes in handy. It's also useful for educators who are running a class and can show people what they need to participate.
• A better account management area where you can update your details, manage your addresses for orders and other day to day things. I really neglected this previously which has been frustrating for people so this is a good thing. More to come here too.
• More automation. This may not be interesting to a lot of people but it's important for us. The most changes in the site by far have been in automating more things in our backend and making more intelligent decisions for stock ordering etc. This helps us to keep our quick dispatch targets (overnight most of the time) and response time to queries. There's a lot more that could be done here but it's a very incremental thing.

I'd like to take the time to say thanks once again to all our great customers for your support through the year. I wish you all Happy Holidays and a great break with family and friends. We will be taking a break ourselves, I believe it's very important to spend time with family and friends relaxing and recharging for the next big year to come. The office will be closed from Wednesday 23rd of December, the website will of course still be accepting orders but your order won't ship until we reopen on Thursday 7th January.

The last chance for orders to be shipped before the holidays is 3pm, Tuesday 22nd of December. After that time orders will be dispatched after the break unless by special arrangement.

If you have any urgent requirements feel free to email. I (Hadley) will be sporadically checking emails and may be able to respond during the holidays, please don't be upset if I don't though.

All the best to you and yours for the holidays, enjoy yourselves and stay safe. Here's looking forward to another great year in 2016. Here's hoping you hear more from me on the blog!

Cheers!