Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Getting It Done / Upgraded Shipments / Coupon Deal Extended

We're two weeks deep into the holiday shopping season - so far so good. In fact, our performance metrics this year have been absolutely excellent. The fill rate for orders has been nearly 98% next business day, and we have broken the 99% complete marker for the first time during a holiday season. In fact, we've only booked 7 backorders out of around 6,600 unit shipments over the past 10 days, so our aggressive stock and inventory plan this year has worked out very well, and I'm glad considering the amount of hours we've all been putting in.

The only two snags have been with that darn Black Mokona and the Lyrical Nanoha DVD boxed set. The Black Mokona has been the most popular 'gift' item under $15 this year (we're out, but more are coming), and you guys have absolutely burned through our more than ample supply of the Lyrical boxes with one (I swear) being on every 4th or 5th order for the past 2 weeks. Funi sent more out to us in an emergency shipment yesterday, so they should arrive right before we run through the last of our stock on them. Having watched about 1/2 of it so far I highly recommend the series myself (hey, I like Lolicon shows...), and Steven Den Beste also liked it giving the show 3 stars, and let me tell you - he's so damn finicky that's about the best endorsement an Anime can get!

I've also been authorizing a lot of product and shipping upgrades when possible. Don't be surprised if you ordered the regular version of something and actually get the limited version, or if they throw in a little Omake with your order. We can't afford to do it for more than maybe 1 in 10 (I wish we could), but still, some of you will have a nice holiday treat when your orders arrive compliments of me and the crew. So far we've had great luck getting orders delivered to you guys very quickly with only a sprinkling of the delivery issues and delays we normally run into this time of year. In fact, we worked out some free ground to air upgrades as part of our contract renewal with FedEx, so a couple hundred of you who ordered using our free Super Saver or FedEx ground methods over the past couple of days will be surprised when those orders are delivered by FedEx air tomorrow instead of next week. Surprise! :-)

Our "Shop Early & Save an Extra 5%" coupon deal was supposed to expire at midnight tonight, and as we move into the 2nd half of the Christmas shipping cycle we'll be transitioning the discount offers into shipping offers. Trouble is we're all so drop dead tired from filling orders that no one has had the time to workup the new graphics for the upcoming shipping promotions, so I've quietly extended the current 5% offer another 48 hours until midnight on Thursday the 11th. That gives us a little more time to get the new offers setup. That also gives you a couple more days to take advantage of the 5% coupon before it goes away.

That's it for me folks, I'm on the tail end of a 16 hour day and I'm pooped. As always - try to get your holiday orders in as early as possible - and enjoy your Anime. :-)

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