Well, it has been a while, just been busy adding pockety stuff to the site, but I thought I would write a bit about how I get the clothes on the site.
First I contact the retailers, to ask them for access to their product feeds, which is basically, just a text list of product infomation. Then I use a script to download all the product data and try and wrangle it into a format that makes it work for the site. This is easier said than done, as each retailer has it's own particular format. Some have a listing for each different colour, some for each size, some have them all in one. Some have no size data at all, so I have to find a different way to get that. When there's an entry for each size, working out whether they're the same product can be tricky. Sometimes there is a reference number which matches each product. Sometimes you just have to go on if it's the same image it must be the same thing, right?
Once you have all the data, how do you decide if it has a pocket.? Well the easiest thing to do is to search for the keyword 'pocket', but making sure you don't include those with MOCK POCKETS, FAUX POCKETS, NO POCKETS or DECORATIVE POCKETS. As I go through process I am finding more of these. The other day I nearly put something in my newsletter that had the phrase FRONT MOCK POCKETS, which passed the filter and I missed on my check, because, well they actually looked like pockets. I do check through everything when I first add them to the site to check they do indeed have a pocket ( apart from that one I missed - please tell me if I miss any), and that it's also not a bag. I also look at the pictures to see if they do have pockets because, sometimes they don't say they have a pocket, but they actually do. Also, there are ones where I really don't know. Where it doesn't say it has a pocket, and it looks like it might have a pocket, but no-one's got a hand in it. I'm thinking suit jackets particularly. I'm thinking of adding a voting mechanism to the site, so you can tell me if it does or not. Because, I'm not an expert on fashion, I'm just a programmer. who loves clothes with pockets. As the great Caroline Criado Perez says, "no pocket, no purchase".
So, lastly, how can I afford to do this? Well, at the moment, I work on other projects to fund this one, but if you click on the links to the products, and then buy something, I will get commission from the retailer ( which they will need to set a cookie on your device to track this). So far I have made about £20, so not buying that yacht anytime soon, but hopefully, the plan is to be able to earn enough to work on this full time. The dream would be to have a team of developers working on it, all working school hours ( because even if you don't have kids it's still nice) and paying a good wage. But maybe, in the meantime, all clothing retailers will add pocket filters to their sites and then I won't be needed anymore.
