PROGRESS IN 2013

The end of the year is always a time to step back and look at the things we accomplished. My answer is, as usual, not as much as I had planned and way less than I had hoped. However, on the perfume front there was some progress, although a lot of it happened behind the scenes. Here are a few highlights:

The new website: The work on the new Olympic Orchids Perfumes flagship e-store is finally complete. It really didn’t take that long in terms of hours spent, but the problem both for me and for the person helping me, who also has a day job and a life, was finding little blocks of time in which to do it. The good news is that it’s in countdown mode, ready to launch on New Year’s Eve. It will have a link to the old website, which will live on as the Olympic Orchids Original Perfume Boutique. The Boutique will also have a link to the flagship store. The link is hidden, ready to go live on Tuesday night. There will be more about the respective roles of the two sister websites in another post.

The new packaging: A new design and greatly improved custom packaging was a big step forward this year, but is only now starting to trickle out to the public. The 30 ml bottles and their boxes have been in service for about two months, and the 100 ml ones are just about ready to go. The 100 ml boxes are here, I’m waiting for the liners to arrive, and the bottles are in the queue to be printed. I’ve also ordered matching boxes with liners for the original triangular 15 ml screw-top bottles. All that’s left to complete the makeover is a set of boxes for the old-style, square 30 ml bottles, which will remain on sale in the boutique for the fragrances that haven’t (yet?) moved up to the flagship store.

Increased production capacity: Over the past year the number of full bottle orders has increased greatly, and I’ve started to get a few wholesale orders. To fill these, I need plenty of stock on hand. I’m gradually getting better about this, expanding my studio, making concentrate in larger amounts, and filling a big batch of bottles all at one time. I still struggle to keep stock on hand when I get busy with other things, but it’s getting better. 

Plans for 2014 include several new releases, including a couple of exclusive, single-batch formulas, an upgrade in the appearance and organization of the Original Boutique website, and a big push in the publicity department. This past year, I’ve just been coasting on momentum, but next year I’m going to make a big effort to increase awareness of Olympic Orchids Perfumes. 

To celebrate the grand opening of the new e-store, there will be some sort of drawing, to be announced here on New Years Day.