Hi Everyone!
I have GREAT news! The Tom and Jessica bags arrived successfully to me on Friday! :D I originally had the container going to my friend's warehouse in Rancho Cordova where we were ready to unload the shipment with forklifts, but when we opened the container doors, we saw that the boxes were loose and not on pallets! So, I switched the delivery to my home in Sacramento where my family and I unloaded the 171 boxes of merchandise into the garage.
Since then, I've been ordering shipping and packaging supplies and setting-up my shipping plan. I will be shipping out over 700 Tom and Jessica bags this week through next week!
Over 900lbs of boxes that requires a ladder for me to unpack! Haha
For my Kickstarter campaign, I lightly subsidized US shipping and subsidized the international shipping quite a bit. At the time, I chose to do that because I didn't think a couple dollars domestically and the $15/$20 internationally was that much. After receiving advice on shipping and fulfillment from an operations expert friend of mine, I quickly realized that those dollars add up to A LOT if you multiply it by 700! Now I understand why investors have been adamant about having me really understand my total cost of goods, including ancillary costs when determining pricing.
So I've come up with a couple solutions to help off-set the costs and one of them is to deliver some of the Sacramento orders myself! The Sacramento deliveries made by me will happen sometime between Saturday-Tuesday. In general, if you ordered a Tom or Jessica bag from me, I will estimate that you will receive your bag in the next couple weeks (dependent upon your location).
This week I also turned 27 on Monday (time flies!), did another short segment on Good Day Sacramento, and presented my final pitch to the panel for the Sacramento Calling All Dreamers competition. I will keep you guys updated on the outcome!
I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! I'm going to focus on delivering and packing these bags so that I can get them to all of you as soon as possible so you can bring it with you on your next 3-day weekend trip! :D
Thank you for your patience throughout this process, and your support!
Xoxo,
Steph