My very own online boutique!
Unfortunately- I had quite a few missteps on this venture and ultimately real life happened and my online boutique died.
Olly Polly was a simple enough idea- buy some jewelry on Alibaba and sell it!
Lessons I learned:
Alibaba has great prices but requires attention to ALL the details (high minimum order quantities, manufacturers willing and ready to customize will have LOTS of questions, quality isn’t a guarantee, and returns aren’t really an option)
If your minimum order quantity is high, don’t assume you’ll sell all the items immediately. I went ahead and ordered all the boxes and supplies as if everything was going to sell out immediately! Boxes, envelopes, tissue paper, etc take up a lot of space!!
Despite all the time and attention I put into my website, it gained no traction (in fact it had absolutely no traffic)- which obliviously isn’t great for sales.
Ultimately, my husband’s job was transferred; trying to revive an already struggling business while moving across the state was just a little more than I could handle so I closed “the doors” to Olly Polly.
Again I have no regrets because even this taught me some valuable lessons and continued the journey God has designed for me, so on we go!