Still Kicking

Well, here I am. PayPal didn't kill me after all. A couple of orders pushed last week's receipts over $100 after I posted, but it still won the Worst Week Since 2011 trophy. I'm sad/glad that nothing technical was wrong since I can eventually fix technical problems but I can't fix fickle shoppers. Advertising harder doesn't help when traffic is already running on the high side of normal.

My last six eagle kites (and virtually nothing else) sold out by Wednesday, propelling this week to triple last week's anemic sales. Jackite still doesn't have any eagles, falcons, blue jays, or create-a-birds. I presume that the supply chain is empty since shoppers only wash up on Curio City's shores after more popular stores are stripped bare. 

(I know that reporting weekly sales isn't riveting reading, but thought I should balance out last week's cry of despair. Sales are running on the high side of normal this week and I'd be cautiously optimistic if it weren't for the kite supply problem.)

Demand should be building up now since nobody else can get eagles, either, and there is no equivalent product on the market AFAIK. There's no rush on my last six falcons yet so other stores must also still have stock. That's likely to change within the next week, and then I won't have anything that anyone wants. Maybe some people will buy ospreys when the falcons are gone.  

I did put out a Switchables newsletter with a free shipping coupon. The results were predictable: 396 sent, 89 opened (beating the 19% industry average, so yay for that) 16 clicks, no conversions. Free shipping is supposed to encourage people to spend a little more than they otherwise would have in order to reach the threshold; that doesn't really happen very often -- most coupon redemptions are by people who were going to buy their stuff anyway. The one person who used the coupon to get an eagle kite shipped to Washington state for free (costing me $12) certainly would have bought the kite anyway. She isn't even a newsletter subscriber. I don't know where she found the code.  

My email list died when Turnkey removed the signup box from Sunshop's responsive themes, and I ran out of money before I could pay my contractor to re-implement it. We'll see if the Metal Earth newsletter going out tonight does any better. If not, issue #82 of the Curio City Chronicle will very likely be the last. I figure that those 16 clicks cost me $32. That's nuts.