Little tour of our warehouse, some of the brands we ship and a few details about how we run our China Fulfillment operations youtu.be/dOKiC1Wxdx4

Only one thing better than a double espresso in the morning

7PM @ Rosewood Hotel, October 31st. We already have a little something planned for the night as well 🎃

Space is filling up nicely. Going to be a good Q4.

Achieved a lot in the last 10 days to help our clients scale for Q4 >Optimized our local bounded EU 3PL services to mitigate the rising cost of doing business in Europe >Renegotiated air rates to U.S & Big 5 countries to keep them at the highest discount, even during Q4 >New, larger payment terms to help move stock in the U.S. so our clients don’t have cash stuck in inventory >Locked-in deals for bulk shipping to be less affected by oil surcharges >Hired +10 additional customer service agents to support after-sales service Glad to help anyone who needs last-minute quote or supply-chain consultation

For the past few weeks I've been receiving about 30-40 samples a week and personally getting involved across minimum 7-10 product development projects at a time. The demand from operators to build something that can offer a good brand experience, excite people to come back and differentiate from the masses is immense right now To build a kick ass product isn't easy, however there's a few tricks that can make the progress much easier 1. Doing research & understanding the gap perfectly in the market This is the most important decision as from here you decide all the possible marketing angles, and avatars you are able to go after Here's a few questions we ask our clients to ask themselves to help find a clear direction Cosmetics: What are the trending ingredients that your competitors in your category have not yet introduced? Pet Supplements: Do you want your brand to introduce wholefood ingredients, to be the healthier option that isn't filled with chemicals? It will be more expensive, but is that a product direction you think will help? And this is an example in Home Cleaning of what we want the direction to sound like. We want to create a powdered solution that dissolves into water, that allows us to save on shipping, and be more aggressive on price than our competitors. Steer away from ingredients like [X,Y,Z] - Please let us know how much it would cost to develop 3 options with [X,Y,Z] % of fragrance. 2. Providing clear expectations on price, budget, and desired outcome Set clear expectations on target margins needed to achieve and understand how it goes back and relates to your shipping rate Otherwise, all the progress you might make for 3-4 weeks will go to waste because you would be stuck with a product that you're ready to take to production but never be able to sell profitably 3. Purchasing many products for reference points For most of the projects we work on, we buy the top competitors in the niche we're working on (and sometimes products from completely different niches to find the best packaging option) Mainly for two reasons > It puts you in the shoes of the customer. You feel exactly what they feel when they open the box, use the product, and compare you to what they already know. > It also acts as a benchmark when comparing the changes you're trying to make and gives us something we can measure against. An obvious example is any cleaning product that is scented. Say you're developing a hand cream for smokers buying scented creams from Chanel or Frederic Malle can be a reference point to benchmark a masculine smell, and also packaging design Without reference points developing happens blindly. With them, every decision on taste, texture, packaging and price has a benchmark behind it, and moves the project forward much faster. 4. Executing Execution & going to market to collect data is everything. Improving a product is an on-going process, and spending countless weeks iterating small tweaks is a huge momentum killer Instead focus on small iterations that have a huge impact, launch to gain feedback, and go back and make more changes. - Can think of a few more things, but need to go back to finish those projects lol. Will probably do a part two soon.

Q4 push for our clients > Improving product quality > Securing better payment terms > Scheduling production 75+ days out Having good factory partners & being organized is the key to having a backend that allows you to crush it during the biggest time of the year

Life lately, living out of factories in China 🇨🇳

Hard to explain how much I love what I do For the last 30 days, been heads down on bringing all types of improvements to our services Mainly because there's a new era of ecom approaching where brand is going to mean a lot more Brand can mean many things... But as someone in supply chain for me brand is a means of creating a product that keeps a high perceived value and trust in the eyes of the customer So we've been developing everything needed to elevate this… >Relationships with raw paper/plastic material factories to support custom low MOQ branding >Ready-to-go packaging options that help you save time and launch with strong perceived value >An in-house packaging reference library with strong examples we can use to advise clients and help them move through these projects much faster >Additionally, we've been adding some new talent on R&D and supply chain to help take on more product development requests Mainly because we need to be able to advise and help brands at scale launch the products they need to connect with consumers. Week after week I hear stories of people finding out their factories are using cheap raw ingredients, cutting corners on formulation, promising one material for packaging but delivering something else. Making a vision feel impossible Our goal is to patch this gap by being boots on the ground and having all the tools necessary to help founders launch & scale without skepticism, and feel confident that they have someone who understands their vision. Anyways this takes time to build, but we're moving fast and the pieces are coming together

Shit… forgot I wasn’t in an East European server…

Haven't posted much this past month, but it's been a productive one > Hired a new fashion supply chain lead — 13 years in textiles & apparel, built multiple 8-figure clothing brands > Added a new warehouse and brought on new account managers & support staff > Completed 11 custom product development projects in supplements & beauty > Almost done pushing our custom Shopify app out of beta Also been to like 4-6 fairs... Hell of a month. Hope everyone has a good June and success strategizing for Q4

Sunny spring day in Shanghai 🇨🇳

Got to say the Canton Fair is getting worse and worse with time... Compared to the fall edition, I think there's fewer and fewer buyers and vendors Factories that had large booths last year have now downsized, and many haven't returned Not to mention the prices and MOQs remain high — maybe 30-40% higher than what you can usually get As usual, the highest quality factories are also missing — the best factories don't need to be there They already have the referrals, the partners and clients bringing them all the traffic & sales volume needed to scale and grow Many of the ones around are those that have heavily invested into facilities recently, expanded, and need to be aggressive with acquiring new clients to fill up the large production capacity that is left over Needless to say, if you're here and trying to improve your supply chain, make sure to visit the factory But most importantly if you're receiving a quote make sure to ask for a line-by-line breakdown of every ingredient you're getting Compare those with other factories to actually see where the high cost for your supplement comes from and benchmark them one against the other If everything looks good make sure to do a COA test to make sure you're actually getting what you pay for I live around here, so if you need help building any type of custom product or improving your current one feel free to hit me up Glad to help for free and give any advice

You should study how fast this has grown if you’re in ecom Complete 180 from last summer

Quick little trip to Shenzhen, checking some packaging & packing machines before coming back to Guangzhou. Who’s around this weekend?