From Seoul to the Amazon

I received a belated, if well appreciated holiday gift from my son.  He's a sophomore at University of South Florida right here in Tampa but is spending the academic year studying International Business as an exchange student at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.  What an adventure it's been for him, and thank goodness for Skype for me, as we're able to talk frequently. (I still miss him though!) He's blogging about his year here if you'd like to find out more.

Anyway, during his holiday break he did some sightseeing in Seoul and went to a huge market that is apparently an entire square city block of 2 things:  fabric and food.  I WOULD NEVER LEAVE.

There were all types of fabrics but he picked out this cotton print for me.

Let's see:  bright colors, a large scale print, contemporary style.  Yes.  I trained that child well.












In other news:




I received an invitation to apply to Handmade@Amazon a few weeks ago.  I filled out the application and was accepted!

I'm not leaving Etsy but my 2015 sales there were way, way down not only from the previous year but dating all the way back to 2011.  (I opened my store there in July 2010).  I've never been a high volume seller but had steady and dependable sales for several years.

It's not a fluke or just bad luck.  It's a change in how search works on Etsy (for more information here's a highly informative article:  click here).  And more changes are coming, which might be good or bad, there's really no way of telling (click here for the latest announcement from Etsy concering their search function).

One can always hope that things will work out. But one thing I've learned as a small business owner:

Hope Is Not A Business Plan 

Around the time that I was assessing what had happened in 2015, and wondering what to do about it, the invitation from Amazon showed up in my inbox.  It seemed silly not to at least try.  Like all online selling platforms the reviews are mixed, with some people loving it and others not so much.  I think the big test for all of the H@A vendors will come in August, when they start charging a $40 flat monthly fee.  

First things first:  build another store!  Time for lots of sewing to make new merchandise!