Down in the dumps over business :(

Lord TSC

So writing this as much to get it off my chest than anything else.

I run a small e-commerce toy store. Started it two years ago, got on the BTWEA scheme. Started off GREAT! I sell through Amazon, using the FBA service, so buy stuff, ship it over to warehouses in England, Amazon take care of customer service and shipping. First year is brilliant, really rapid growth.

Second year starts ok. Then I hit the VAT threshold, and things go bad. The nature of Amazon is I can't just jack up the prices by 23% to cover it, so that 23% has to come out of the profits I'm making. That sucks. It got really hard to turn decent profits, since anything that sells needs to cover...

1. Amazon fees and costs (about 40% of the sale price)
2. VAT (23% of the sale price)
3. Transport from here to England (Usually 75c an item)

...and whats left over comes back. The margins become tiny. Brexit hits too, which kills the exchange rate (something I had benefited on; selling in England, I was being paid in £, which the exchange rate helped with).

So that sucks. I'm having to spend €10 to make €1 profit, if I'm lucky. And because I don't have a massive operations budget, that really grinds things to a halt. But I get to September, and then the Xmas market starts to kick in, and that means higher prices AND higher sales volumes.

And then Xmas ends, and Amazon ****ing dies. I know it's been bad the last two years, but business is practically dead over the last few weeks. This time last year, I was selling 20-25 items a week on a slow week. Now it's 6 or 7 on a good one. Competition has gotten stronger too; if I lower my prices by a cent, someone else lowers theirs by 2 in a race to the bottom. Which means its harder to sell toys.

BTWEA scheme is over. I managed to get partial JSA, but the entire reason I started the business was to get off that, and I'm nowhere close now. I've got a tonne of stock, but none of its moving.

In one of those positions where I'm just massively down in the dumps by the fact I've hit the densest of brick walls, and don't know what to do. I'd clear everything out and start fresh, only I have no real faith in being able to get stock that will sell at a workable profit. I'd try another platform, but I chose Amazon for a reason; it's more expensive but reaches a larger audience. I'm half-tempted to sell everything and see about doing something completly different, but I've no actual ideas as of now that are viable, or if they're viable, I don't know if the market is there or if I have the ability to carry them out.

Not looking for answers here, mind. Just wanted to vent about things

alig123aileen

Firstly well done wow what an achievement to set up your own business and step away from the security of paid employment to the wonderful workld of being self employed.

Its clear from your post that you are innovative insightful talented and a gifted entrepreneur and I am sure whatever you decide to do you will have ultimate success. I know you didn't want advice but please don't give up. Success will come to you I know.

tea and coffee

Would selling it through a social media network be an option- set up and drive traffic to a FB page, for example? Or through something like Donedeal or Adverts?

CIARAN_BOYLE

First off are you claiming vat on all purchases that you are paying vat on. Have you checked for Irish suppliers where you would be paying more but claiming a vat input? It might be better now that you are vat registered.
Have you considered cutting your volume dropping under vat threshold and continuing to trade part time (not charging vat) and therefore having more of a profit but less of a trade.

zenith

Can you up your cashflow by selling direct/through website or even the dreaded car boot?

Jodotman

As others mentioned, Adverts, donedeal, Your own website and facebook page(Promoted through facebook ads), ebay, brochures, gumtree,

Axwell

Well done for getting it to the point its at. Rather than getting down over it and sticking your head in the sand you need to look at ways to reinvent yourself and try pivot slightly or add something to your current offering.

You sell toys - one type of product or lots of different toys?

Assuming I can buy this toy off other people do you do anything different to make me want to buy it from you over them?

Outside of lowering your price to be cheaper, is there any incentive to buy from you? Can you add value to the product to make me buy off you because it seems like a better deal but at the end of the day the cost to upscale is minimal to you and you can make some profit off that?

Is it a seasonal purchase or something people buy all year round?

Do you have a website of your own and are you selling on there, if not you should consider this and then using adwords, facebook ads and social media to drive traffic to the site. Depending on how long you are in business you may be able to avail of the LEO Online Trading Voucher which will match fund you 50% of your spend on a website up to 5k. Send me a pm if you want to know more about it and I can point you in the right direction and advise you how to get the most out of it.

meijin

Lord TSC wrote: »

1. Amazon fees and costs (about 40% of the sale price)
2. VAT (23% of the sale price)
3. Transport from here to England (Usually 75c an item)

You need to reduce your costs, and sort out VAT.

some ideas:
- setup your own ecommerce website
- find a pick&pack place in UK which will ship it for you
- use money saved for promotion (adwords, Fb ads, etc.)

Lord TSC

alig123aileen wrote: »

Firstly well done wow what an achievement to set up your own business and step away from the security of paid employment to the wonderful workld of being self employed.

Its clear from your post that you are innovative insightful talented and a gifted entrepreneur and I am sure whatever you decide to do you will have ultimate success. I know you didn't want advice but please don't give up. Success will come to you I know.

Thanks, the kind words are appreciated

tea and coffee wrote: »

Would selling it through a social media network be an option- set up and drive traffic to a FB page, for example? Or through something like Donedeal or Adverts?

I've tried through Adverts before and currently. The market is pretty small, but it only costs 25 cents to make a listing, so when I try Ebay, I tend to stick it up on Adverts as well. Donedeal though, I have found it's dreadful for selling individual toys. Job lots, sure, but even then, it's all people offering 20% of your asking price

Social media is something I feel I need to study big time though.

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

First off are you claiming vat on all purchases that you are paying vat on. Have you checked for Irish suppliers where you would be paying more but claiming a vat input? It might be better now that you are vat registered.
Have you considered cutting your volume dropping under vat threshold and continuing to trade part time (not charging vat) and therefore having more of a profit but less of a trade.

There's a massive lack of toy wholesalers in Ireland, and other wholesalers tend to sell generic and cheap pound shop style toys, for which I think there's no market of online. I do have one Irish wholesaler I use when they get decent stock in, but they seem to go through patches of having really great stuff and absolutely nothing. Shopping abroad often lets me get branded stock that sells well, just not for much. But the search for Irish toy wholesalers is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

I have considered dropping the volume down as you said. Its happening naturally anyway :P My main worry is that I fear I'd jump above the threshold quite quick again if I got the boon from not having to pay VAT, and it would turn into a massive juggling act of trying to keep sales up without crossing the threshold again.

zenith wrote: »

Can you up your cashflow by selling direct/through website or even the dreaded car boot?

Have tried the website idea. Find it very, very hard to get people to go through it, as opposed to just going on Amazon/Ebay. I worry there's a philosophy there that when people are buying from Amazon/Ebay, they feel they are buying off that group, not off me as the individual. So if there's other items of a similar nature they want, they'll just go back to Amazon/Ebay, rather than checking out a direct website. Selling on those platforms don't seem to generate any loyalty whatsoever to the seller.

Not tried car boot sales. Its on the list though.

Jodotman wrote: »

As others mentioned, Adverts, donedeal, Your own website and facebook page(Promoted through facebook ads), ebay, brochures, gumtree,

As above

Axwell wrote: »

Well done for getting it to the point its at. Rather than getting down over it and sticking your head in the sand you need to look at ways to reinvent yourself and try pivot slightly or add something to your current offering.

You sell toys - one type of product or lots of different toys?

Assuming I can buy this toy off other people do you do anything different to make me want to buy it from you over them?

Outside of lowering your price to be cheaper, is there any incentive to buy from you? Can you add value to the product to make me buy off you because it seems like a better deal but at the end of the day the cost to upscale is minimal to you and you can make some profit off that?

Is it a seasonal purchase or something people buy all year round?

Do you have a website of your own and are you selling on there, if not you should consider this and then using adwords, facebook ads and social media to drive traffic to the site. Depending on how long you are in business you may be able to avail of the LEO Online Trading Voucher which will match fund you 50% of your spend on a website up to 5k. Send me a pm if you want to know more about it and I can point you in the right direction and advise you how to get the most out of it.

Different types of toys, mainly based on Amazon sales ranks and what I feel I can turn a profit on. Amazon doesn't offer much chance to retain customers, in that you're really just a name on a list to buyers. The only incentive to buy from me is because I have the lowest prices. Otherwise, there's zero mechanism to help (other than to try their advertising programs which I have never seen any good come from)

I try and convert Ebay sales into sales through my direct website or into social media followers, but not having much look. Toys are seasonal, definitely; Xmas, as I said, was amazing.

I'm certainly looking at the pivot though; I've been looking at clothes (which I know are a similar issue to toys in terms of margins, etc), and trying to find other wholesalers of other goods too.

But doing serious research into how to develop and grow a website, so I'll get back to you on the offer if I reach that stage

tacofries

It would help a fair bit if you could post a link to what you are selling (fair enough if you don't want to). This would help us to see if we think affiliate marketing/micro-social-media-influencers/vloggers would be a good shout to help shift some stock.

Here is a bit of a breakdown of a quote that I received from a UK pick and pack company. See how it compares to Amazon FBA and if you want to send me a pm then I can send on the companies contact details:

• Goods In rate – these can vary depending on how the carton/boxes/pallets arrive in to us, however if you work on a basis of £0.35p per box.
• Storage is based on £2.50 per week per m3, so if we have 25 x boxes making up 1m3 then your rate would be £0.10p per box per week.
• Unlike other fulfilment houses we tend to charge @ the box rate rather than the pallet rate as we think it unfair to our customers to pay for ½ full pallets.
• Pick & Pack rates - £1.00 per order, £0.30p per item in the order, however if we are making up packs the item rate could be down to £0.10p.

Also, is the toy very big? €0.75 transport cost per unit seems pretty expensive considering it costs around €110 to ship 1 pallet to the UK.

Well done on giving it a great shot to date!

Jack the Stripper

Jodotman wrote: »

As others mentioned, Adverts, donedeal, Your own website and facebook page(Promoted through facebook ads), ebay, brochures, gumtree,

Adverts is the pits, all op will get is offering swaps for used Penneys clothing.

whiskeyman

I've no advice to add but just a massive well done on the drive and determination shown so far.
Really wish you best of luck.

jimmycrackcorm

I don't have any advice but I have to say I admire you OP. I'm not brave enough to think about starting a business until I have my mortgage paid off and have the luxury of my wife earning a public service salary to keep things going when it's rough.

From what I've picked up in your OP, I do believe you'll get through this. I spent a lot of my career working in small businesses, which weren't mine but I've gone through periods of not getting paid and suffering the impact of the downs (never the ups of course). But I simply believe you cannot beat perseverance as it builds ups.

mrcheez

Would you be able to let us know the specific toy products you sell OP?

Are they items you are reselling, or custom-made toys?

BattyInNZ

If it were me, I'd sell the stock I have at weekend markets and start over with something else. Go back to the toys at Christmas but stay away from them in the offseason. If you're signed up with Ali Express, for instance, they send out texts with what is selling in Ireland at the moment so you can sell what's in demand. Online shopping is not going away - are you targeting Irish customers because they have a low online shopping presence - approx 40% as opposed to approx 60% in the UK. Is your stock going straight to Amazon from the supplier?

There's also this - http://answerthepublic.com/ You enter a keyword and see what questions people are asking about it - this gives you insight into what people are looking for. It doesn't have Ireland but it does have the UK and that is going to be pretty similar.

If you need help with social media marketing contact me - I've got loads of resources I could send you.

onedmc

You have an autumn winter range that works you now need to add a spring summer range. gardening fishing homeware etc this may not be quite as bug but it would even-out earnings.

Other than that I think other comments about adding more sales channels are valid and keep innovating.

hairyslug

When you had your own site, what were you spending on promotion.
I'm running something along the same lines as yourself, probably a bit more niche but 99% of my traffic came from Google ads and could see a massive difference in traffic and sales when i changed my ads.

tracey turnblad

I bought some sports stuff for my son on Amazon at Christmas m. After a few days I received an email from the seller see below.
I thought it was a nice touch and when I was buying something else i searched his company because I liked his style. Would this be something you could do?


Hi xxx

My name is (name withdrawn) and I'm one of the co-founders of (name withdrawn). Amazon has just notified us that your (product withdrawn) has now been dispatched so I wanted to take a second to say hello and thank you for your purchase.

On behalf of the (name withdrawn) I want you to know that we're truly grateful that you decided to purchase from us.

I know that your new (product withdrawn) is going to be an absolute game changer for your muscle massages, no matter what your sport is or what level you're currently training at!

Here's what you can expect from us…

A top rated, (product withdrawn) (with your exercise book tucked inside) that will last the distance, because I mean at the end of the day that’s what we all want…stuff that lasts, that’s good and lives up to its promises, right? RIGHT!

Some more paragraphs I deleted

Sound fair? GOOD!



Talk soon,


Company owner
Company name

P.S. If your order doesn’t arrive on time or if something is wrong please reply to this email and I will do my best to help out.

P.P.S. If you have a second, I'd love to know the following:

Why did you purchase a product withdrawn from Company withdrawn?

Just reply to this email and it will land right in my inbox.

Lord TSC

tacofries wrote: »

It would help a fair bit if you could post a link to what you are selling (fair enough if you don't want to). This would help us to see if we think affiliate marketing/micro-social-media-influencers/vloggers would be a good shout to help shift some stock.

Also, is the toy very big? €0.75 transport cost per unit seems pretty expensive considering it costs around €110 to ship 1 pallet to the UK.

Most toy wholesalers I've found are selling end-of-line stuff, but its really just branded toys that vary month on month, depending on what they get in stock. So one month it can be Barbie dolls, Marvel Action Figures and Pokemon cards, the next it's Dungeons and Dragons board games, novelty bobbleheads and Disney plush toys. I tend to stick more towards "nerdy guy" stuff. At the risk of running into "self-promotion", I've got some stock up on Adverts right now that there's a link to under my username (not a lot; just testing the waters with Adverts to see what its like).

<

---

Because I'm "smaller", a lot of manufacturers who have larger minimum orders are out of the question. I tend to avoid looking for brand new (as in just released) stuff because the competition on them tends to be crazier and the prices drop way quicker; when I get end of line stuff, the prices tend to be better because there's less competition, and its harder for other people to restock. "Newer" stuff also tends to be more freely available in shops; I've got some Pokemon toys, for example, on Ads and Ebay, cheaper (even with P&P) than Gamestop but people seem to rather go there to get them.

Cost of transport SUCKS but it's the best I've been able to get, shopping round with the various couriers. In general, it's only two shipments out to the UK a month, and most couriers just had no interest in me if I wasn't doing multiple shipments a week. DHL were the only ones who'd facilitate a business account and decent business rates with the level I ship out. I have managed to negotiate cuts once or twice, but its still expensive, I know

Jack the Stripper wrote: »

Adverts is the pits, all op will get is offering swaps for used Penneys clothing.

In fairness, set up a shop account and "Offers" seem to drop quickly. You still get people trying to convince you to drop prices, but its very rare anyone tries offering swaps to a shop :P

BattyInNZ wrote: »

If it were me, I'd sell the stock I have at weekend markets and start over with something else. Go back to the toys at Christmas but stay away from them in the offseason. If you're signed up with Ali Express, for instance, they send out texts with what is selling in Ireland at the moment so you can sell what's in demand. Online shopping is not going away - are you targeting Irish customers because they have a low online shopping presence - approx 40% as opposed to approx 60% in the UK. Is your stock going straight to Amazon from the supplier?

95% of the Amazon stock goes to UK customers. It was a massive advantage of the Amazon system starting out; using it gave me access to a far, FAR bigger market than here. I find selling stuff here makes it hard to compete with UK sellers, because the postage costs get so much more expensive for customers.

I've not gone anywhere near Ali Express or China, cause I've heard absolute horror stories there. I did try running a custom product for a while (A Zombie Survival Kit, custom printed to have names and such), but despite it selling very well last Xmas, it sold nothing this year, even at a reduced cost. So I've scrapped it. I am trying to think of other custom stuff though. I'm a big admirer of Loot Crate and such subscription crates, and am trying to think of something along those lines :P

hairyslug wrote: »

When you had your own site, what were you spending on promotion.
I'm running something along the same lines as yourself, probably a bit more niche but 99% of my traffic came from Google ads and could see a massive difference in traffic and sales when i changed my ads.

I've not really invested much in Google ads yet. If I switch over from Amazon to Ebay/Adverts/Personal Site, then I know thats an avenue I have to explore more. I've been researching, but seem to get such differing opinions on the worth of such programs tbh.

pedroeibar1

Lord TSC wrote: »

I've not really invested much in Google ads yet. If I switch over from Amazon to Ebay/Adverts/Personal Site, then I know thats an avenue I have to explore more. I've been researching, but seem to get such differing opinions on the worth of such programs tbh.

There is a time when you have to question the sustainability of a business. Many just do not get off the ground fully and fly because they do not have sufficient to offer or to differentiate themselves. It has nothing to do with your management skills or hard work/input; it simply is what happens. Never marry a business or a share, the time always comes when the link must be cut.

A small mail-order business outside of a specialist sector never will reach the economies of scale to really succeed – it can provide a small income, but it never will make decent money. Too many are ‘me too’ type operations and competition is too intense from a high number of new entrants. If you want to succeed you need to be the best in a chosen sector and become known as ‘the’ site for XX. That takes money burn just look at the history of Amazon! Look for example at the number of bricks & mortar vegetable shops that have closed due to the weekly 49p offers from the big supermarkets. Look at the failure rate of non-specialised online ‘artists’ supplies’ vendors, due to the big chains selling paints, brushes, canvases, etc. every six months or so. Buyers stock up and wait.
In retailing terms you are sitting on stock you hope to sell; it sits there, and will remain if it is out of favour or you, if lucky, can shift it with a deep discount. In manufacturing terms, you are producing for stock, which is why so many factories fail.

Tweaking AdWords, SEO, etc., is something you should look at later, after you have first studied – in depth - your business model and its viability. Changing to clothes from toys is not a runner, you would be simply transferring an existing problem into a new field in which you have no benchmarks.

Digital_Guy

Pedro's post is spot on. I would rethink things and change your focus. You couldn't pick a more competitive, saturated and low margin area. You can pick up toys anywhere from Amazon to Dealz to Heaton's, so you are better off looking at a different area of business really.

davindub

Something you might consider is data capturing email addresses, I think you don't get an email address of the purchaser from Amazon, but on your shipping docket maybe use some kind of competition etc to get customers to register.

This would be the only reason to recommend selling on Amazon or group discount sites, otherwise the margins kill you.

You can use a bulk email once a month or less frequent to advertise special offers etc, you should be able to offer some very competitive pricing if saving on amazon fees.

Deub

If you want to sell the stock to change your business, can you setup a promotion on Amazon?
You can't decrease the price without other sellers following you to be cheaper but I see seller offering 10% off if you buy X and Y, 15% off if you buy X, Y and Z, etc
I know you have a low margin so it is only worth doing it if you want to get rid of the stock with little profit.

enricoh

Forget amazon so - 40%! Only one making money is amazon.. Land the stuff here, website, Facebook with all prices on it and fairyhouse market? Deregister for vat too.

sat matt

Have you considered listing on Amazon but not using FBA? I understand there are some negatives (listing positioning?) to not going FBA but you may be able to retain a better margin, managing shipping yourself or by a UK third-party while still availing of the larger audience that Amazon offers

Lord TSC

Sorry bout the delay replying, have had a busy few days so not had a chance to write anything up here.

enricoh wrote: »

Deregister for vat too.

The more I think about it since posting this topic, the more I realise this is the way forward.

Being honest, I think I grew so quickly, it hid the reality of trying to do this on a large scale. But the thing is, I'm "lucky" given I've not got massive overheads on me. Originally, the plan was to make as much money as possible as quickly as possible to expand from my dining room into opening an actual brick-and-morter store. If I can dial everything back to how it was pre-VAT, I'd still be able to withdraw as much as I'm making on the dole, without the misery of having to be on benefits.

So yeah, I guess I can honestly thank everyone for opinions and feedback here, cause it has helped me gain some optimism. Not in terms of growth, but in terms of realising how the best way to move forward.

sat matt wrote: »

Have you considered listing on Amazon but not using FBA? I understand there are some negatives (listing positioning?) to not going FBA but you may be able to retain a better margin, managing shipping yourself or by a UK third-party while still availing of the larger audience that Amazon offers

Listing on Amazon from Ireland is an absolutely non-runner. Despite cost of fees and shipping everything over, it still works out cheaper than trying to hold everything here and post. Because of postage costs being higher here than in the UK, I couldn't store stuff here and charge the same price. Fees would lower (I think to 25% instead of about 40%) but I'd have to slash the price of everything to the point there'd be zero profit at all. Plus Amazon drastically favours giving the buy box to FBA sellers. If I lived over there, it would be an option, but there's zero way it would be viable to ship stuff from here while remaining in any way competitive

sunny2004

I would consider putting a time limit on all of this..
Sometimes it simply wont work, and a total rethink is needed..

BRAVO for all you have achieved, you have my respect.

Graham

Lord TSC wrote: »

Being honest, I think I grew so quickly, it hid the reality of trying to do this on a large scale.

You didn't grow too quickly, you picked the wrong product for the wrong market.

Unless you're buying container loads I just can't see how your current business model is ever going to be sustainable.

As you're (now) aware you are playing in a market that anyone can enter without any big financial/technical/infrastructure commitments, I'd be surprised if you weren't competing with another dozen Lord TSC's all making similarly miserable margins and hoping things will pick up. They won't. For every seller that wakes up to the reality, there's another 3 to take his place.

That's really not to say you've wasted the last couple of years. Far from it. You've tested a product/market and it hasn't worked, horse is dead, stop flogging. Along the way you've picked up a fantastic education in a dozen different areas. Now you need to work out where else you can apply that education.

New products? New marketplace? Adding value to existing/new products? Bundling products into kits?

Decide what phase 2 of your plan is and get going.

drdeadlift

tracey turnblad wrote: »

I bought some sports stuff for my son on Amazon at Christmas m. After a few days I received an email from the seller see below.
I thought it was a nice touch and when I was buying something else i searched his company because I liked his style. Would this be something you could do?


Hi xxx

My name is (name withdrawn) and I'm one of the co-founders of (name withdrawn). Amazon has just notified us that your (product withdrawn) has now been dispatched so I wanted to take a second to say hello and thank you for your purchase.

On behalf of the (name withdrawn) I want you to know that we're truly grateful that you decided to purchase from us.

I know that your new (product withdrawn) is going to be an absolute game changer for your muscle massages, no matter what your sport is or what level you're currently training at!

Here's what you can expect from us…

A top rated, (product withdrawn) (with your exercise book tucked inside) that will last the distance, because I mean at the end of the day that’s what we all want…stuff that lasts, that’s good and lives up to its promises, right? RIGHT!

Some more paragraphs I deleted

Sound fair? GOOD!



Talk soon,


Company owner
Company name

P.S. If your order doesn’t arrive on time or if something is wrong please reply to this email and I will do my best to help out.

P.P.S. If you have a second, I'd love to know the following:

Why did you purchase a product withdrawn from Company withdrawn?

Just reply to this email and it will land right in my inbox.

Did you buy a foam roller?

Silverbling

I am in ecommerce and teach google analytics to follow the customer footprint, I would be considered a specialist in my field (I just got a degree plus have my google certs)

But..... it is tough going, I have recently bailed out of Amazon as a Prime brand seller and am getting all of my sales through organic traffic. You need your own website, you need to do it properly and follow the google rules, my sales are increasing rapidly so there is money to be made. I recently audited a toy website, google is king, you have to do exactly what google wants or you will not get the sales.

My story is well documented, following the ecommerce dream caused me some issues but I kept fighting and it is paying off.

It can be done but needs the groundwork, I genuinely believe that ecommerce is the future, the sales and customers are out there, be active on social media, have ways for your customers to contact you, find a price point and stick to it, listen to what your customers are looking for, adapt and diversify.

My original business model has gone through more changes than a Kardashion, all customer led and in another 2 years I will have a very steady viable business

Keep going! network, network and network

antoinolachtnai

I think you did great. You have learned a lot more about business doing this than you would have learned if you'd spent $250,000 on a Harvard MBA. Look at all this as an investment in yourself.

Graham

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

I think you did great. You have learned a lot more about business doing this than you would have learned if you'd spent $250,000 on a Harvard MBA. Look at all this as an investment in yourself.

+1

I can't think of a better education.

sReq | uTeK

PM Me, I know you from the united forum so would be happy to help you out.

I could help you with a website, free of charge so long as you're happy to pay for the domain and hosting yourself

nosilver

Setting up your own website and trying to make good turnover to cover costs will be difficult especially in the toy trade where margins are very small. (as you know)

One option to look at is to offer your expertise in listing on amazon to local Irish companies and get paid a fee + commission.

Quite a few companies even within the toy trade are based here, gosling games and natures craft (Irish jigsaws), are two I know of and there are bound to be others within the same sphere.

Sometimes the expertise you have built is the valuable part.

OP, people like you are an inspiration to me who is about to embark on the same journey. Ive came up with a figurine design which i am currently making in China. I genuinely wish you well.

Perhaps its time though to rejig your whole supply chain? Can you drop ship from China perhaps at a small extra cost or can it be more profitable to import into and sell from Ireland?

Do you need amazon at this stage? You have established demand so that is something. For example, Im planning on opening my own site (starting off with a shopify template) and selling from that.

The nature of business is to constantly move and pivot as the times and environment change. You have received some top advice here from posters. Im not sure how much ive actually added but dont be a stranger - pm me if you need anything more.

You would benefit from others offering fresh perspective because we all get too close our projects.