A busy couple of months

What can I say, looking back I can't believe it is 6 weeks since my last post.

Sales have taken off really well and I have been kept very busy each evening packing orders and dealing with enquiries. I can't believe I have actually sold out of my highest value item, the 100 piece wooden train set - unfortunately this means some lost sales in the run up to Christmas.

I have also been slightly stymied by Amazon's rules which mean that as a new seller without much of a track record they will not let me sell over the Christmas period - this was frustrating as I had just started to see a few orders coming through from this channel. Still come the new year I will look to continue to develop this channel so that I am in a position next year to sell through the peak Christmas period

I am now working out what to order for my second batch of goods from China - obviously some more of the 100 piece sets and then more on the accessories side of things. My reasoning is that people will get bought sets for Christmas and then hopefully in the new year they will want to expand these sets with additional track and accessories.

In terms of marketing I have mothballed my Google Adwords campaign - although it was driving people to the site these weren't being converted into sales and therefore until I can take action to rectify this (i.e. get more stock) there seems little point in continuing to incur spend - fortunately Google were kind enough to send me a voucher for £30 credit against Adword spend.

Sales via the JKToys.co.uk website are beginning to climb and I put this down to the discount cards which I send out with all of the orders I process via eBay. This still seems to be the most effective channel to market so although the fees are high it appears to be money well spent given the business it is driving.

I have actually stopped listing on eBay until the New Year now, we are moving premises and I don't want to run any risk of not being able to fulfill orders at this critical time - I would not forgive myself if I let somebody down on an important order for a Christmas present.

In the New Year JKToys will be back with avengence selling a wider range of stock and actively pushing to open up new markets.

Merry Christmas everyone and here's to a prosperous New Year!!