Illustration by bleuhmeuhdesign

I wish you all a Happy New Year 2009! We are back in office now after arriving back from Austria where we spent our Christmas Holidays. I hope you all had a good start into the new year and have lots of resolutions to focus on Be sure, I have lots of goals for our cute kawaii shop for this year and I can’t wait to start.

All the best,
xoxo Sandra

The writer of the kawaii blog “Kawaii Gazette” was so kind and added our online shop to her link list. In return I would like to mention her blog here. Have a look: Kawaii Gazette

She writes a lot about kawaii items like Hello Kitty, Rilakkuma and other cute characters from Asia. But be aware, she writes in Italian

Another big milestone in our business history: We got 50 orders in our kawaii shop. It’s worth being patient and investing the time. The 50th order went to Niort in France. Next milestone we are looking forward to: 100 orders.

Today we finally got our first bunch of San-X items with Rilakkuma and Mamegoma merchandise. These things are so super kawaii! Their quality is really great and the design is so cute. We got some bags, cellphone charms and stationery items like pencil cases. Here are some pics of the products:

Today we received our 30th order in our kawaii shop. Really cool. The order came from a German in Berlin. The 10th order we got on 9.6.2008. Coming up next: 50 orders **YAY**

We worked very hard on adding this. From now on, our wholesale customers (retail shop owners, online shops, wholesaler etc.) are able to create a wholesale account on our website and then they will be able to login and see our items with wholesale prices. This way, they are able to see our current stock, detailed photos, quantity, prices etc. and can order directly online. It is much more convenient than any other way like catalog orders or by email, fax etc. I wish I could order like this from the manufacturers and other suppliers we have.

Anyone interested in ordering from us in bulk? There is NO minimum order quantity, just a minimum order value of 300 Euro (or 474 USD) per order. More detailed wholesale information can be found here: Wholesale Information

Our items are suitable for shops selling kawaii, Japanese, Asian, Rock, Rockabilly, Emo items and other cute, crazy shops.

YAY, we got our first 10 orders in our new online kawaii shop! It took a while since we opened on 23.3.2008 but we have to be patient with our new baby. The shipment went to Marseille in France. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for the future. Let’s see when we can pronounce the first 30 orders.

Today I finally received the samples I ordered from the factory I found on the trade fair in April. I got some really cute fans and the quality is really good. Not the usual bad quality I am used to get as samples. The only problem is the MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) for these items. I would need to order at least 3,000 sets. So I am not sure yet if I am going to order them. That’s a lot of fans to sell.

I went to the Gifts & Premium Fair the first time today. We were just curious what they are offering there and hoped that we are lucky and find something interesting for our shop. The fair was huge; so many halls. Every time I go to a trade fair I come back home with burning feet and legs. It is SO exhausting. You don’t realize it while you are there because there are so many things to see so you are totally distracted. But after leaving the premises you suddenly realize how many kilometres you must have walked. High Heels are a No-NO, you just wouldn’t make it through countless aisles of booths.

I was really lucky this time as I met a Japanese guy who is the official distributor of San-X. If you don’t know San-X, here is the official website. They have lots of cute kawaii-style characters like Rilakkuma (a cute bear) and Mamegoma (a baby seal). San-X didn’t have a booth there but the factory who is producing their products gave me the contact details. I will definitely contact them. Their items would fit perfectly into our shop.

Rilakkuma, the cute Relax Bear

Mamegoma, a baby seal

We also found a contact for a printing shop here in Hong Kong who could make low quantity of t-shirts for us. The printing quality is really good so that could be a useful contact in the future. We plan to make our own t-shirts soon. And low quantities are always welcomed. There was also a company who could make our prints on stickers, so our customers could iron the designs themselves onto their t-shirts. But I personally think the printing shop is more interesting because the quality is just better.

We are constantly on the lookout for new products. This year I decided to go to all trade fairs in Hong Kong that sound interesting. You never know what you will find. As I live in Hong Kong and there are so many international trade fairs here, I should take this chance and check them out.

Today, Alan and I went to the Gifts & Houseware Fair to look for some new ideas. And we really found some interesting things. Alan is really into ceramic knives and we found 2 factories who could manufacture them for us. I also found some factories for badges, cute fans, plastic accessories (mobile phone straps, bracelets etc.) and factories who produce blankets and doormats for one of my customers. Alan also found a company who makes iPhone skinz but unfortunately, their quality isn’t good enough for his expectations. He is doing a local chinese blog related to iPhone news, software etc. and always looking for new products that could be interesting to blog about.

For my my company modeS4u, the cute, kawaii-style fans and the badges could be interesting to add to our current collection. Here are some pictures of the fans, aren’t they cute?