Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, fellow embroiderers.
I hope you had a great rest over the holiday period – I had one of those terrible head-colds that is going around and has set up camp in my household, so I’ll be glad to be rid of it when it leaves. I’ve been quiet on the blog front and have not posted much in 2019 and I’d like to write more material this year that is engaging and useful.
We went through a transition last year. Having worked on many new things in 2017 and 2018, I realised that nothing is going to be more successful than what we did in 2015. Our best-selling items in 2019 are the same as in 2015, so I went and refocused my attention on our stable range of classic Cubbies. I closed the illustration department in April and said goodbye to Leo and Sarah, they are super talented and I’m sad to see them go but I’m proud of the great work we did together.
We’re bringing back some of the retired Cubbies from 2016 and making new animals with the same classic identity. We have five new classic Cubbies coming this Spring and we have two new Harlequin Cubbies to join the existing range in the summer, a Hippo and a Unicorn. I am also adding a new, neutral Harlequin Bunny with a carrot print that looks fabulous!
We announced last week that we’re discontinuing our 2018 & 19 ventures with the Ragdolls, Backpacks, Storybooks and Puppets. They are currently 30% off while stocks last. I really enjoyed making all these great products and thinking of ways to make embroidery easier and coming up with really imaginative stories for children. It’s a shame that they didn’t take off, but you cannot win them all. The Hooded Towels have been a good seller for many, so we are continuing with them as well as the Blankies and Dumbles. By the end of the year, we will have more Cubby animals available but fewer categories, overall.
I hope you noticed the improvement in stock last year. 2019 was the year we got our act together; I took a step back from the day to day activities and put Joanna in charge of the office; this has really helped and lots of progress has been made. I know what some of you are saying – “But you’ve had no elephants and brown bears for months!” – Well, you’re right, and we have lots arriving next month and we have planned to keep them fully in stock through 2020.
Policy Changes
I have good news, more good news and even better news.
Having spoken to many part-time crafters and hobbyists, they told me that they don’t have room to hold stock and only like to top up on orders with five or six Cubbies. However, with our minimum order surcharge, it made it quite expensive. We also had another policy that has turned people off, which was the PayPal or credit card fee. It is cheaper for us if you choose to pay via debit card but if this policy has turned people away, then it hasn’t worked. Therefore, as of today, I am removing all the minimum order surcharges and all payment method fees.
Shipping: US
We are introducing a flat-rate fee of $15 per box for all US shipping and removing the ‘half box’ tariff. This will benefit 70% of customer orders. For those who place an order for small quantities, the $15 shipping still applies but you still end up saving not having to pay the surcharge. If you are only ordering a few items, it will be cheaper for you to order directly through one of our Distributors.
The Free Shipping threshold is being reduced to $400 – every little helps.
UK & Europe
The Free Shipping threshold is being reduced to only £150.00. We are also introducing an ‘Automatic Payment’ option for all those who will always be ordering £150 or more. This will enable you to pay for your order immediately and not have to wait for an invoice. With this option, the minimum order is set at £150 so you would not be able to check out online for less. Less us know if you wish to opt-in for this feature (UK only).
For those of you living in sunny Western Europe (Germany, Austria, France and Belgium), we are lowering the Free Shipping threshold to only €300.00
Weekly Special
I’d like to offer one final incentive that we thought would help and that is a weekly special where one random product is 20% off for one week only. We will change this every week so if your favourite Cubby appears that week, don’t miss out!
This is great news I look forward to seeing the new items and will be pleased not to have to pay the charges as I’m one of those who just cannot hold too much stock at one time so a massive thank you from me!!
How much will the threshold for free shipping go to Spain? And on the other hand, thinking of your future brexit, have you taken any decisions on this matter taking into account future tariffs that we’re going to have to pay for imported from outside the UE?
Hi Elena,
Thank you for your comment. The free shipping threshold will stay at €500 for Spain.
Regarding the UK leaving the EU, there will be no changes. However, we will see what transpires this year.
Fabulous news for us smaller businesses as the surcharges caused an expense we could do without hence people buying from other businesses.. hopefully now this will work better for us. Happy New Year buy the way to you and yours x
There are so many good news in this newsletter!
Exciting news! I’ve been hesitant about ordering due to the shipping costs. Also I am super excited to see some classic animals come back. I’ve had so many returning customers wanting what they had ordered back in ‘15 and ‘16 But I couldn’t oblige them since they were discontinued. Thank you for helping us “hobbyists”. I’ll be glad to be a part of the Cubbies family again!
Great news for us small businesses!
Really Looking forward to the new yr and add more to my inventory.. Good News is always good to hear for us Small Businesses..
Any hints on which classics are coming back?
Gut, dass es dir gesundheitlich besser geht ;-)
Ich finde es super, so viel tolle Neuigkeiten zu hören.
Schön, dass auch kleinere Unternehmen bei euch eine Chance haben. Freue mich auf die “Neuen”.
Exciting times. I have had to take some time off due to battling the big ‘C (I’m on the mend now and very proud to be a survivor ?? Coming back to this news has motivated me even more. I can’t wait to get back on top again. Happy New Year to you all ??
No change on shipping for Canada?
I’m happy to hear about the minimum order surcharge. I’ve ordered a lot of extra inventory to avoid it, and am now seriously overstocked on some items.
This is great news. I would love to see the animal that started it all, the original or an updated version of the Cubbies dog.
This is great news! I haven’t been a big fan of all the changes and am very happy to see the classics coming back. Thank you!!
Great News!!!! I am a small business embroidery and with the minimums and other restrictions I have been unable to keep the
ones I wanted in stock. Now I can order exactly what my customers want. Thanks and Happy New Year to you all.