Macdonald Sporrans

We’ve recently moved to a snappy new server and so far we’re pleased with the results!

A server is a computer which is on all the time and our website sits on that computer for everyone to access. Everytime someone accesses our site, that server needs to give them the pages that they want as quickly  as possible. This becomes more difficult when you get more people on the site at the same time, more content on the site to display etc.

Previously we were on a grid-service, which means that the hosting company (the people that own the server) have lots of little computers attached together to act like one big computer. They then split that big computer up into lots of little bits, and each website gets a little bit. The advantage of this type of server is that when you need more oomph, you can get it, because you’re part of this big computer.

However, we were noticing that our site was getting a bit slower than we’d like, and occasionally we were being affected by other people on the grid-service.

So, to combat these issues, we moved to a virtual dedicated server. We’re still effectively on a big computer made up of lots of little computers, but now we have a little space on that system set aside for us at all times. It’s quite a lot more powerful than what we had before, as we don’t share it with anybody else. This also means that we’re not affected by what other people are doing, and hence, our site is more secure (less risk from viruses on the server etc).

So far, we’ve seen our average page load time (the time it takes to display a page on our site) drop from 3-4 seconds, to about 1.5-2 seconds. This is a great improvement and we hope you’ll be pleased with the difference.

Don’t worry…we’ve not stopped there…we also have a few other ideas up our sleeve and will be activating some other tools in the very near future which will speed up our site even further.

Graph showing average response time for approx 2 weeks – can you tell when we moved?

We’re signing off for the last time in 2009.

See you at 9am on the 4th January 2010!

As you may be aware, UK Value Added Tax (VAT) on sale of standard rated goods is due to increase from 15% to 17.5% at 00:00 on the 1st January 2010.

You can find the relevant HMRC report here.

We’ll do our best to make this change at midnight, but in reality we’ll probably be sipping whisky and singing Auld Lang Syne as the fireworks roar over the city centre.

For all our international customers who live outside the EU…the prices will remain exactly the same.

Due to high demand, we advertised our Standard Tartan Trews a few months ago, and we’re pleased to say that they are proving very popular despite not having a single image of our trews!

I’m pleased to say that we now have some quality images of our standard trews, and hope to have images of our fishtail back tartan trews and military style tartan trews in the near future.

After a Christmas rush on our popular tartan rugs, I’m pleased to say that our hugely popular Antique Buchanan tartan rug is now back in stock.

Tartan blankets are a great gift for someone this Christmas. They’re roughly 60″ by 70″ in size, which makes them big enough to cover your car seats, to throw over your couch or any of the other useful things you can think of to do with them.

We’ve also upgraded our processing time of our lambswool tartan rugs and can now dispatch them within 1 working day. So, if you’re looking for a rug to snuggle up in this cold winter season, a lambswool tartan rug may be the ideal solution.

Despite the recession, we’re busier than ever and happy to report that we’re still providing our excellent order processing times and general high level of service.

I mentioned a couple of months ago that we were pleased to hit 200 positive feedbacks in the last 30 days on our eBay account.

I’m very pleased to say that for the last couple of days, we’ve hit over 300 positive feedbacks in the last 30 days! Busier than ever, and providing service that’s better than ever!

We constantly review our kilt outfit packages to ensure that they are built from the best value items we can find so that we know we are offering great outfits.

I’m pleased to announce today that many of our prince charlie outfits now feature a new range of  sporrans to choose from. We made this move in light of the impending ban on the use of sealskin, so have introduced 4 new options including a faux longhair sealskin full dress sporran, a black bovine full dress sporran, dark  bovine full dress sporran and a light bovine full dress sporran.

You can also find these new sporrans, which are exclusive to Macdonald Sporrans, available individually in our store via the links above.

We’ve added a new page on our site detailing current vacancies.

You can find it here.

We’ve just added our extensive range of pure new wool tartan scarves to eBay.

All these scarves are made from 100% pure new wool and woven in a multitude of tartans including popular clan tartans and generic Scottish tartans.

With over 170 tartans to choose from, we’re sure you’ll find at least one to suit a loved one this Christmas. As the darkness draws in and the days get colder…it’s not a minute too soon!

It’s about time that we stopped selling sealskin, and other animal furs, and that process took a big step forward today.

We’ve just launched 3 new semi dress sporrans that will become our core stock and will replace our existing semi dress range.

These include our faux sealskin semi dress sporran, and two bovine options – light bovine semi dress sporran and dark bovine semi dress sporran.