The Pink Star Game Retires

Hi everyone!

Every Monday for the past several months, we've had a lot of fun playing the Pink Star Game on our Facebook page. Too many times, though, the glitches of Facebook have caused confusion and disappointment - disappearing posts, players unable to reply to the game, etc. Yesterday, it was so bad we had to abandon the game altogether to regroup later - it was an awful feeling, knowing some players had found the Star, but couldn't successfully post, and if they did, I couldn't see it appear. Ugh. That's not fun for anyone.

I'm so sorry to say it, but it's high time for the Pink Star Game to retire. The playing board of Facebook is much too unreliable for a race-like game that determines a winner by her real-time answer.

Don't worry! I'll find out new ways to give out some free goodies, but likely more along the lines of random drawings - something that is not as time sensitive. I really appreciate you guys following Abbamart on Facebook, and I'll always make it worth your while!

The Italian (and Mexican) Job

Despite their rich cultures and beautiful and friendly residents, international relations have been tense between Abbamart and Italy and Mexico in recent months. And it's not because we don't like each other - no! Not at all! I'm blaming it on the postman.

As more and more customers from these countries started making orders, it became painfully obvious that somewhere, something in the system is failing. About 65% of all packages sent to customers in Mexico and Italy were lost altogether or dramatically delayed (Gee, I wonder if she wanted those eyelashes in time for her wedding last January?). Frustrated customers, refunds and replacement packages galore meant each new order coming from either country felt like an omen of trouble on the horizon - which was usually spot-on.

Premium carriers like UPS, DHL or FedEx have much better track records of successful deliveries to Italy and Mexico, but they are prohibitively expensive. Who's going to to be willing to fork out $65 to ship a $5 makeup brush? I suspect not many! And there isn't anything Abbamart can do to improve the US Postal Service we already use. As a result, several weeks ago I made the uncomfortable decision to close Abbamart's doors to Italy and Mexico altogether.

Many of you let me know you weren't happy about it, and I completely understand. I didn't like it, either. At the same time, it wasn't good for business to keep things the way they were. So I've come up with a compromise I hope will be acceptable.

As of today, you'll once again be able to select Italy and Mexico for a shipping address! There will be a difference, though. You'll notice a higher shipping amount because a $11.50 surcharge will be added to each order from either of these countries. This is the exact cost of adding a 'Registered Mail' service to the package. By shipping via Registered Mail, the package will be

1. handled separately from all other mail during transit,

2. be accessible by only certain postal personnel, and

3. be kept by a registry number.

Theoretically, this should mean an overall better chance of your order being delivered safely and on time, the first time!

I value all of your business very much, and I want Abbamart to be able to provide the very best service it can to as many countries in our wide and wonderful world as possible. This is one way we can continue to do so, and hopefully put an end to our international lost package crisis once and for all!

Bottles and Cases

As loyal customers may have noticed, Abbamart has been sporting two identical shopping categories - Bottles and Cases - in its menu for about the past 3 months. An embarrassment! An eyesore! But no button could fix it, no command could remove it - it was stuck. After too many hours wasted trying to coax it off, I rolled my eyes, threw up my hands and decided to just ignore it and hope it would eventually go away on its own, like a pimple or a stray cat.

But of course it didn't go away.

Tonight, I was working late to get ready for the new brushes coming in (yes, they ARE arriving very soon, I promise!) and that stubborn extra category was still sitting there, as ridiculous-looking as ever. And it occurred to me for the very first time that our web host probably has a support team. A few Googles later, I found in fact they do, and they operate 24 hours a day.

12:47am: I request a phone call from tech support.
12:47am: I receive the phone call.
12:48am: I exasperate to a tired-sounding woman on the other end about this extra category that has plagued our site for the past 3 months and I cannot get rid of it no matter what I do and it's making our store look positively unkempt and ill maintained, just to spite me.
12:48am: The tired-sounding woman gets rid of it in about 12 seconds.

The moral of the story: If you don't know, someone else does. Don't forget to just ASK!


Enjoy the weekend, everyone!

This Item is Out of Stock!

I am soooooooo tired of saying that! It seems like almost every email I write these days begins with 'I am so sorry, but we have run out of...'.

Abbamart is most definitely having growing pains. Quite simply, right now the customers outnumber the supply of products. Also, once word got out that certain items were running low, there was another surge of orders that has quite completely wiped Abbamart out of several of its best-selling items, namely all the sizes of stippling brushes and Beau-Make brush sets.

Not only did this happen to the USA branch, but in Korea as well, and it happened very quickly. Our manufacturer is working as fast as it can to make a large number of new brushes, and it can't happen fast enough!

It makes me very uncomfortable having a store out of so many products, but there's nothing I can do now except wait for the new stock, which will be here as soon as it possibly can, and use my down time during the move to begin thinking on a larger scale and prepare for a higher volume operation.

So yes, it's been a frustrating time, but I'm not unaware that it is overall a good sign - people like Abbamart's brushes, and want to buy more! The good news is that by summertime, all should be well stocked again, and there will be many new brushes debuting as well, and I can't wait!

Thanks to you all for being so patient with Abbamart while it stretches and grows to become a better company for you!

Big Move for Abbamart

It's been a busy month for Abbamart! Some days I've worked 15 hours straight just to keep up with orders and customer emails, and also had to enlist the help of a certain reluctant male to pull products and organize them into outgoing packages. It's fun to imagine where we might be in another year - perhaps getting some more paid hands on deck to help out with the volume!

Just a disclaimer now so everyone knows I'm not completely in the weeds, yes, I do know there are two identical 'Bottles and Cases' categories in the storefront. Why the second mirror category manifested itself is a mystery. Maybe it's a miracle? I don't know, but for some reason, it is not an easy fix. Delete one and it deletes both with no recovery. I'd need to build the category again from the ground up, each and every product and all the little nuances linked to it, like quantity available and keywords. So... please enjoy the miraculous appearance of this twin Bottles and Cases until further notice!

Another great bit of news - the taxes have been organized and filed for Abbamart's very first fiscal year (yikes!), and the accountant says my business records weren't nearly as awful as I imagined. One scary milestone conquered and one less anxiety attack for this girl right here.

OK, onto the BIG DEAL! Abbamart is moving! In roughly four weeks, we're packing everything up and shifting over a couple of states. The store may need to close during that time, but if it does, the information will be posted clearly, and all orders in the system will be filled and mailed before the closing date.

The bad news is that we won't be able to restock any of the items that are currently OOS before the move, but the good news is that the next restocking shipment will be able to be gargantuan so that running low on brushes in demand will hopefully become a thing of the past (or at least a lot less frequent).

I am really looking forward to the move, and to expanding Abbamart to serve its amazing customers better and better as the months go by!

The New Stuff!

It would be a huge understatement to say that I'm glad the inventory shipment arrived yesterday. Abbamart was running out of stuff left and right and with all the different venues and item titles, it was getting really hard to keep my head above water! All the staple brushes are back in stock and that's a huge relief - we're back in the comfort zone as far as supply goes.

And there's some brand new things, too - but, disappointingly, a lot less than I was planning on. I picked out close to 100 new products that were expected to be available to the Abbamart Group several months ago. For whatever reasons, only about 15 out of those were sent to me this time. The communication has been a little fuzzy, but I think they are doing some heavy testing on about a gazillion new products at the headquarters in Korea and gleaning out the most successful ones in terms of quality and popularity. Perhaps it will be all sorted out by the time we can move into a bigger space and order a mega-shipment!

In the meantime, I've got a bunch of new goodies still to put up on the site. I also received a big batch of complimentary sample bags and pouches that I'm not sure what I'll do with just yet, but I'm sure I'll have fun figuring it out.

OK, back to work I go!

You gotta spend money...

...to make money.

Boy do I know it now.

I'm really only able to brag that Abbamart is a debt-free business because my co-owner graciously left the remaining inventory he had provided in the business when he decided not to continue supporting this branch anymore.

Abbamart has been doing fine on its own this year because of that, but I'm going to have to think bigger if I want it to continue doing fine without dramatically raising product prices.

One cringe-worthy expense Abbamart is suffering right now is SHIPPING. Oh. My. Goodness. DHL does have pretty darn nice customer service reps, but that's probably because they're rolling in dough. MY dough. Every restocking shipment I've received has shipped for a price tag of about 30% the value of its contents. That is one swift kick to the financial knee caps right off the bat.


What I really need to do is go through the dirty business of ocean freight shipping again. It's a scary world of humorless customs brokers and and a guy named John Wu down at the port who keeps x-raying my boxes every 3 days for 2 weeks before letting them through, but my shipping to product value percentage drops to about 7%. Ahhhhh. Even with John Wu and his x-ray machine in the picture, I'm breathing easier already.

The only problem is a freight shipment has to be significantly large with a minimum value of about $5,000. That's a lot of clams. And even if I save up my clams for one mega-shipment, the be-all to end-all is... where am I going to PUT IT?

Which leads us to the next logical step in the 'spend money to make money' equation - more room. It always seems to come down to more room.

More room more room more room. How to get more room? Hm. I bet spending more money would help!

Yep, I definitely know it now.