The start of my 2021 was a little rough for me. I had problems, and still have - dealt with /dealing alone. The root cause of it happened the previous year.
I bet you guys do not know yet that I am a small business owner too. I own The Magic Box - a DTI and BIR registered K-POP shop. I open group orders for merchandises that mostly are from South Korea, some from Japan, Taiwan and United Kingdom.
Last year, there were a lot of merchandise releases from K-Pop idols especially BTS. There were albums, tour merch, DVDs and BT21s.
Lots of Orders...
To be honest, I received a lot of orders from my shop. I was really happy about it because I thought I was earning extra. It was until the time that I noticed I am receiving a lot of boxes shipped from South Korea and that I kept on paying for the box costs and consolidator fee.
A background.
What I do and most of the other K-Pop shop sellers also do is to fill one jumbo box first before it gets to be dispatched to Philippines. A partner consolidator in S.K. does this and you have to pay for their service. The average cost per 1 jumbo box is 8,200 pesos.
Before I continue, I would like to say that I am no way putting blame to anyone. This is just a count of my experience and how I learned from it.
No to Low Profit
There was one time, I received two jumbo boxes that only contain BT21 and Tinytan large plushies. I was expecting I will be receiving other items such as albums, dvds and other merch yet since the plushies are big, they occupied the box. I was not expecting it since I was not informed of what do these incoming boxes will contain. Had I been informed, I would have requested for the plushies to be vacuumed so I can save up with space, and cost.
During this time, it has been hard as well to reach out to my consolidator since she was too busy sorting the merchandise she is receiving from her warehouse, plus she also has a lot of other partner shops in the Philippines.
That said, the boxes continued and I paid a number of boxes and consolidation fee I did not expect. To cut the story short my estimated profit did not materialized.
Missing Items
There were also missing BT21 items - such as dolls, face cushions and plushies. I was only able to find out that it was Line Friends' fault because they sent incomplete items from my bulk order. However, I cannot file a complaint anymore as I only found out about it months after when I asked for inventory check with my consolidator.
I was receiving a lot of orders, opening a lot of group orders, I was busy that I just accepted what was being sent to me. It was too late already for me to realize there were missing items as well.
Refunds and Decluttering...
I do not have the energy to request for refund anymore nor to email Line Friends, and even complain. The customers have waited long enough only to be informed their items were lost etc. So I offered refund. I shelled out money from my little profit and my own money. These refunds were on top of my unbudgeted payments for the consolidation and boxes fees.
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All that you lose, you willII missed a lot. It is only removed for the process for the process of learning." -Maitreya
That was the time when I decided to let go some of the merch I love. I sold my BTS X Samsung Buds + , my Starbucks KR whale mug, tinytan keychain, some of my BTS DVD photocards and my unsealed RJ keyboard, RJ portable charger and my BT21 Jumbo RJ.
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It was hard to let go of the buds + since that was limited edition and the whale mug since that's already sold out. Yet I have to since these can be sold as high price.
While doing the refunds, I became inactive on selling. I focused my energy on dealing with my pendings and budgeting. I even thought of closing the shop permanently. (・へ・)
"Rest if you must, but never quit."
I know I missed a lot. I know I lost customers because I was not opening any group orders. However, those months that I was inactive gave me time to cope and learn my lessons.
What I learned is it is never wrong to ask. Always follow up if you need to ask something. Communicate with your business partner all the time even if you know they are busy. That's what I did not do. Because I was aware my partner was too busy, I chose not to bug her with questions. I just accepted what are being sent. That lead to my problem. Always check your inventory. Most importantly, rest if you must, rest if you need to.
I have now reopened the shop and is slowly gaining new customers. I am happy.
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