The Easyart.com Christmas Story – 10 years on.

 9.5km of frame moulding, glass used in those frames 1310 m².

That is equivalent to 7 tennis courts.

7,000 cardboard tubes and 6,500 teabags ….

Pioneering online retailer Easyart.com is celebrating its tenth Christmas. Like many UK-based, medium-sized, online businesses that provide professional craftsmanship to satisfy many customer orders, Christmas is a frenetic period.

Once orders are taken, real craftsmen, not computer operated robots, are making the products ready in time for the last mailing/ courier slots before Christmas. By mid-November the Easyart team operate like Santa’s elves busily packing up and making presents behind the serene calm of the snow covered peaks at the North Pole! Except their North Pole is rural East Sussex and they hand frame art prints and posters and custom size canvases, despatching them all over the UK and Europe, from snowy Sweden to sunny Italy. The use of Santa’s sleigh would have been helpful last year, due to the trials caused by the snowy weather.

Over the Christmas retailing period: 

• The amount of frame moulding used is 9.5km,.

• The amount of glass used in those frames 1310 m², which is equivalent to seven tennis courts.

• Easyart gets through some 7,000 cardboard tubes sending unframed prints to customers between the dates of 1^st of November – 31^st of December.

• In the build up to Christmas 6,500 tea bags are used, not to mention the tins of Quality Street!

• Staff are urged not to take leave from the middle of November.

• Last year the team had to put as much effort into clearing snow and ice from the car park as they did in finishing and packing framed art prints and canvases, otherwise delivery vans would not have been able to deliver the items ordered by customers.

• The chaos caused by the cold weather also meant that some staff had to walk more than five miles through the snow to get to work as the roads to Blackboys (Easyart HQ) were impassable to most vehicles.

• The warehouse operates out of rural East Sussex, supporting the local community, who all pulled together to keep the tracks & roads as safe as possible.

• The last pre-Christmas courier collection from our warehouse for unframed prints in the UK is at 12pm on December the 23^rd, even though we are still working to complete orders at that time. In order to get all of the Christmas orders out to customers, Ian (MD) loads up a hire van with the last of the completed orders and drives it to the courier’s main operational hub himself.

• The busiest online day taking orders is usually Monday 13^th December.

• Best selling prints are The Singing Butler by Jack Vettriano and The Three Ages of Woman by Gustav Klimt.

Easyart sells affordable art prints, posters & canvases and offers custom framing – it works with internationally renowned art publishers and museums to bring a collection of 100,000 images to offer its customers. The best seller is Klimt, year on year.  Celebrity posters are popular too with prices starting at £5.95, whilst limited edition prints are around £1000. Easyart has just launched its own free iPhone art app (http://www.easyart.com/iphone) where you can take pictures of your walls and play with the art before you buy it – so expectation this Christmas is high.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

• Easyart.com is a dotcom pioneer, founded in the internet boom of 1999, with over 10 years of successful trading.  It can trace its heritage back to Arthur Tooth, who established his art gallery in the early 1800s.

• Commitment continues to be:

Easy, Secure and reliable Online and iPhone tools allow you to find your perfect picture and make shopping for art hassle-free. You can choose from different shipping options to make the delivery suit your schedule. Our generous 'no quibble' returns policy means 100% satisfaction or your money back.

Inspiring: You do not have a Master's Degree in art to find the perfect picture. We are here to ensure that shopping for art is not only easy, but also an inspiring, fun and exciting part of home decorating.

Choice: With more than 100,000 different images and thousands of framing and size options, our range is guaranteed to inspire.

Passionate about art: Our network of leading global suppliers and partners such as the British Interior Design Association and the National Gallery ensures we are always on top of the latest trends in the ever changing world of art and design. For us, art is a passion; we hope it will be for you too