Storiole adds accessible element

Website reaches new people in the community

Photo+Illustration+by+Anika+Hanson

Photo Illustration by Anika Hanson

Amaia Barajas and Jenna Cook

According to senior Grace Lynch, creator of the Storiole website, the purpose of a website is to create increased accessibility for students and community members.

“We thought it was necessary to provide a service for people that aren’t always at school, like parents, so that they can buy stuff too,” Lynch said. “It helps us reach a bigger audience and we also made it to help promote sales of products in our store.”

According to Storiole adviser Sophia Ross, the school store staff looked into the idea of a website by using the recent sweatshirt sale as a test-run.

“With all of our research we found that doing a basic (website) through Square worked out the best for us. (The website) is kind of in test-mode right now, we haven’t done any promotions. We tested it through the senior alumni sweatshirts and a couple people in the class purchased things online,” Ross said.

According to Lynch the process of making the website required trial and error.

“I ended making like four different websites because some weren’t working and we had to figure it out in a way that would go through our system that we use for money. It probably took me two months to make it,” Lynch said.

Ross said there have been many inquiries on community members who want to purchase Park pride merchandise, but there is a lack of accessibility for people who are not in high school.

“We get a lot of people in the community asking if they can get access to our brand because it’s only open during lunch hours, the community didn’t really have access to (the store),” Ross said.

According to Ross, the website allows for students and community members to have easy access to Park merchandise.

“It’s easy for (students) too. If they don’t want to go to the store during lunch hours, it’s easy for them to order online and then they just pick them up at the student office during their time,” Ross said.

Lynch said she hopes the future school store staff work on promoting the website.

“I hope that they promote it more and they are able to figure out a way where a lot of purchases are made on the website because not very many people knew about it because we didn’t really try very hard (in promoting the website),” Lynch said.

According to Lynch, the school website is currently closed, but should be open in the fall of 2019.