This has been an exciting week. We’ve now sold enough boxes of swaddles that I’ve had to place a new order. I had a few things to think about before re-ordering.
When I first set out on this venture, my biggest fear was not selling anything (or not selling many). I am so excited that this has happened – and sooner than I’d expected.
This time around I’m placing a slightly smaller order, as I want to keep some money aside for my next goal of launching a new project.
Despite everything not going entirely smoothly last time, I’m not actually making that many changes for this order.
New packaging
We’ve made a small tweak to the box, to make it a bit more sturdy (as a few were damaged in the Amazon warehouse).
Getting shipping quotes
I did plan to arrange my own shipping, after the fiasco I went through at the end of last year. I went as far as to contact freight forwarders for quotes and planned to ship via sea. However, surprisingly, the Chinese freight forwarder that my supplier uses actually provided the cheapest quote and could get the shipment here in the fastest time. So that was a no-brainer.
From what I can gather, sea shipping is only going to work out cheaper if you have a big shipment. I’m not sure when exactly that shift is (what size cargo), but will keep you posted as and when I do find out.
Direct payment
The only thing I really did do differently, in the end, was make the payment directly from my bank (which I could do over the phone). Last time I entered my (credit) card details into Alibaba and paid that way, but you then get hit with pretty hefty charges.
Making the payment this way means only £4 in fees (so not a bad saving – last time I paid ten times more), but the downside is it can take five business days for the payment to clear – and, when you need your products to arrive in a hurry, every day counts.
So rather than a ‘what I did better this time’ post, what I realise I’m actually saying is ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ Which is also a nice lesson to learn!