good elephant pottery

It turns out that having an online store is very inexpensive and not very much work. The largest expense are the PayPal fees that are deducted from each payment, and that has only totaled $25 so far. I can now process and pack an order in 15 minutes. And unlike packing a large wholesale order, which takes hours and fills me with dread, these boxes are so small and light that I have no worries when I send them off. In the two weeks between my store launch and Christmas, I made a net profit of $650. Not too bad for a newcomer! The storebuilder/shopping cart I'm using (which I really like, BigCartel.com) costs only $10 per month. Now I can easily justify keeping the store open for all of 2012. 

So here's my plan for the online store going forward ... I will keep it open all the time, even during months when I don't really expect to make any sales. I will try to update the inventory every month, removing the sold items and adding new ones. When I'm gearing up for an art festival, I will unlist all the items in the online store, so I can take all my available pots to the show, then re-stock the online store afterwards. 

Right now, I'm busy putting together my 2012 wholesale catalog. As soon as the samples are fired, photographed, and published, I will list some of them for sale online. It should all be done around mid-January. Stay tuned on Facebook! 

Happy new year to all!