It's pretty incredible - when we started this shop it was an experiment really, we wanted to see if there were cool ways to interact with you guys and things we can do that are not just selling through other retail. Basically - we figured there's cool stuff we can do that doesn't take away from ordering on Amazon but adds to the experience as well as being able to offer you a chance to buy direct.
This kind of thing requires a two year plan - the first phase was meant to last for a year (til May next year) where we tested if there was even a demand and getting the system smooth. The former part we've already ticked the box for - the second we're still improving on daily (nobody's perfect, but we're trying our best to get there).
So with that in mind here's a few of the things we've done in the background in the last two weeks globally:
- Activated a Payment Gateway - meaning you can pay directly with a credit card, no need for PayPal if you don't want to.
- Tightened up the back-office a bit.
- Working on setting up fulfilment partners so we can get stock out to folks quickly every time as opposed to any trouble on orders.
We've also added some new products:
- Time of Eve: Collector's Edition (Film)
- Attack on Titan OST
- Garden of Words (Blu-Ray but DVD will follow)
We've also altered our policies on:
- Pre-orders: To avoid any issues with authorisation going forwards - we'll be putting pre-orders up one week before release and payment will deduct automatically to avoid any issues. So 1 week before any release they'll go up and we'll shout it out.
- Shipping: With our new fulfilment partner coming up - things are changing a wee bit. UK stock will go out via Royal Mail from early December onwards (December 8th) and we'll ship international stock from our offices directly. UPS will still be used for international but due to costs being hard for us to absorb the international rate will go to a flat fee of £15 from now onwards we're afraid to cover costs there.
What's coming up?
We're currently thinking about our first real promotion over the run up to Christmas - we'll have a bit more detail soon but either a 12 days of Christmas style Steam discount or a promotional give-away competition is very likely on the cards! Watch this space and any ideas you have also are welcomed...
Catch you all soon folks!
Andrew
* For products we're allowed to ship outside of the UK :).