First and foremost. Thank you. If you are reading this…you deserve to hear that. I had to go take a break today and just sit back and contemplate things. This is one of those moments I actually stopped to take it all in. No tears (none that you can prove), I was just in shock, these numbers are far beyond my wildest dreams.
It was mentioned in a thread a while back I should do updates more often. You all are my support team, engineers, advisors, and cheerleaders (sometimes)! You ask for some more here is a mid year briefing for the crew. I can’t tell you how awesome things have been since the 3 year update, well, I am going to try and illustrate it.
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Thingiverse views are just about double now, 1000 to about 2000 average, sitting even a little higher for some reason.
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This site itself is absolutely insane. Thank goodness I spent all that time a few weeks ago optimizing. Just about 5 million pages views this past year. 77,000 sessions averaging almost 8 pages and more than 5 minutes each. That has to be 99% forums and the amazing community we have going here. FREAKINGAWESOME! That bounce rate, is so perfect it is almost fake. Everyone that comes to the site stays for a while. This does not count the Store side of the site, at all. So these numbers are just some of it. so all of you lurking and to those of you chiming in, high five from me to you.
Things are getting ordered by the pallet now, some large air freight boxes are still needed. I have doubled my orders so many times my local suppliers are asking for longer lead times on orders.
I am still working mostly out of my second room, and single car garage. Besides all you guys in the forums (the biggest best Crew ever!!!) I have two friends that come and help a few hours every other week or so.
Sales wise, August was my biggest month ever…then September was considerably bigger. October was not as big, November…is absolutely shattering every record ever. Sunday 11/25/18 was my biggest single day ever by more than a 25% margin. Holy cow, holy cow. Gross sales are actually up 52% over last year, with these last 4 months making up a large portion of that.
WOW.
Now. It is not all roses, and I think this leads to a downside. Gross sales are up 52% but my profit is projected to be 19.3% lower than last year. Meaning I am working 1.5X harder for 20% less money. Obviously it is not much as I am doing this in a 12x11 bed room. Some of this can be attributed to more inventory on hand and more in transit but, now for the bad news. At some point here I am going to have to raise the price a tiny bit. I will comparison shop all of my items and see where I stand. I think most of you know I absolutely hate the thought of that.
Import taxes are between 20% and 34% up 10% over last year and that is starting to trickle down the supply chain, Or I am getting closer to the sources. The e-packet was (as far as I understand) voted out and will be phased out over the next year. Good for me as I already pay full priced shipping, bad for everyone else as cheap shipping from China from small items will go away. Again. Good for the site as more will buy from here I assume, but it still sucks as I like to buy cool things and try them out. I am going to remain neutral on this topic.
Any way. Thank you all again. Cheers. Here is to another good 6months!