{"id":692,"date":"2021-11-15T21:44:19","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T20:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.callvin.com\/?p=692"},"modified":"2021-11-15T22:06:07","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T21:06:07","slug":"episode-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.callvin.com\/en\/episode-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Episode 3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.9.4&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221;][et_pb_row _builder_version=&#8221;4.9.4&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221;][et_pb_column _builder_version=&#8221;4.9.4&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; type=&#8221;4_4&#8243;][et_pb_text _builder_version=&#8221;4.9.4&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; hover_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243; sticky_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243;]<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">December 2020 marked 9 months since we had found ourselves thrust into a Stephen King movie adaptation. I\u2019m a big fan of The Stand\u2019s author, but strictly as fiction!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Up to this point, we\u2019d managed to hold on. Now we were looking for our second wind.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And it came very quickly. Which just goes to show, magic always works when you dig deep, when you keep believing, and you don\u2019t give up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reversal of Fortune<\/span>\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The trial in 30 Gifi stores went really well. People liked our product. In January 2021, Callvin was rolled out across the whole chain\u2014550\u00a0stores. That gave us some breathing space. It might not seem much, but it meant we could keep going. We needed to go further though.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And One Day, I Saw This Ad\u2026<\/span>\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the end of February, I saw an ad for a US site called <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/callvin.faire.com\/welcome\/r\/personal?signUp=widget&amp;widgetToken=bw_9at3w55u7f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Faire<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It said\u2009 \u201c<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">direct to retailer<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d I took a look at the site.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.callvin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image2-1.jpg?resize=300%2C137&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-689 aligncenter size-medium\" width=\"300\" height=\"137\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I realized it was a B2B marketplace. It put suppliers and stores directly in touch with each other. A bit like a big online trade fair.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They offer incredible conditions. The platform takes a commission. The retailer enjoys conditions they\u2019d never get dealing directly with a supplier:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">free delivery<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">60-day payment terms<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They can see all their suppliers in one place.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They can do all their shopping in one spot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I looked into it some more, and I realized there were a lot of marketplaces like that! So, I signed us up to several: one in the UK, one in Germany, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Faire <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the US, and one in France, called <a href=\"https:\/\/fr.ankorstore.com\/lift\/callvin-5136?utm_campaign=callvin-widget&amp;utm_content=widget-5136&amp;utm_medium=widget-v1&amp;utm_source=widget\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ankorstore<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.callvin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image3-300x136.png?resize=300%2C136&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-686 aligncenter size-medium\" width=\"300\" height=\"136\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.callvin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image3.jpg?resize=300%2C136&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.callvin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image3.jpg?resize=768%2C347&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.callvin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image3.jpg?resize=480%2C217&amp;ssl=1 480w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.callvin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image3.jpg?w=936&amp;ssl=1 936w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We were quickly accepted by all of them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Faire<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the US platform, there was a deadline. \u201cYou are signed up. You now need to be ready to deliver in 30\u00a0days. Otherwise, you will be removed from the platform.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.callvin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image1-300x137.png?resize=300%2C137&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-682 aligncenter size-medium\" width=\"300\" height=\"137\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.callvin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image1.jpg?resize=300%2C137&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.callvin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image1.jpg?resize=1024%2C467&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.callvin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image1.jpg?resize=768%2C350&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.callvin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image1.jpg?resize=1536%2C701&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.callvin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image1.jpg?resize=1080%2C493&amp;ssl=1 1080w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.callvin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image1.jpg?resize=1280%2C584&amp;ssl=1 1280w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.callvin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image1.jpg?resize=980%2C447&amp;ssl=1 980w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.callvin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image1.jpg?resize=480%2C219&amp;ssl=1 480w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.callvin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image1.jpg?w=1876&amp;ssl=1 1876w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once we got the products online, our first order came through within 12 hours. Amazing!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our First US Sale!<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was crazy. It went so fast. Every other day, we had an order from the US. We set up a Google drive. We were caught off-guard. We didn\u2019t think the orders would come in so quickly.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not long after, Ankorstore finished an 86 million euro fundraiser. To grow its customer purchases, the platform enabled us to offer our customers \u20ac200 off if they made \u20ac300 or more of purchases.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even for our own customers, we could offer them the same deal if they ordered from the Ankorstore platform: you make \u20ac300 worth of orders; you pay just \u20ac100. In a few weeks, we\u2019d got all our customers using the platform.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was great for us. Ankorstore had set up simplified parcel handling with UPS. And Callvin got paid on delivery. That meant no more hassle with sending out customer invoices or chasing them up to get paid within 30, 45, or 60\u00a0days after 5 reminders.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We realized we were saving a lot of time.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And so, everything we were working on (creating a pro space on the Callvin.com site) fell by the wayside.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But we were going in a clear direction with our new partners. It was a big plus point for the retailers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another False Start!<\/span>\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All our US development was being done through the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Faire <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">site. We very quickly got into around a hundred stores without needing any sales reps. Just because we were on the platform.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The types of stores were:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2\u20133 souvenir stores<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1 beach store<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">otherwise, all concept stores,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">except for 1\u00a0secondhand store (old furniture and figurines, believe it or not)!<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As soon as we could get over there and start approaching retail chains, we were sure we\u2019d see exponential growth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While waiting, we were still doing what we could. Instead of traveling, we sent emails and contacted companies to set up video calls.<br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">End of Episode\u00a03: To Infinity and Beyond<\/span>\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And a few days ago, we got an email from a group called <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hudson News<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. They have stores in all the stations and airports in the US. They have over 1000 sales points!<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The email said, \u201cWe received some samples of your products a few months ago. We\u2019re interested. Can we talk?.\u201d It was the mailings done in the wake of the Business France project.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We had a telephone meeting. And, like Gifi, they wanted to do a trial in 10\u201315 stores in Las Vegas. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hudson News<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has several brands. They also do gift, souvenir, and electrical goods stores.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unfortunately, after having completed and returned the supplier contract, they told us they didn\u2019t work with overseas companies!\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ouch!<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a few days, we\u2019ll be in NY, and we\u2019re hoping we can fix the problem via our US subsidiary Callvin Limited.<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.4.1&#8243; global_module=&#8221;415&#8243;][et_pb_row _builder_version=&#8221;4.4.1&#8243;][et_pb_column type=&#8221;4_4&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.4.1&#8243;][et_pb_post_nav in_same_term=&#8221;on&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.4.1&#8243;][\/et_pb_post_nav][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>December 2020 marked 9 months since we had found ourselves thrust into a Stephen King movie adaptation. I\u2019m a big fan of The Stand\u2019s author, but strictly as fiction! Up to this point, we\u2019d managed to hold on. Now we were looking for our second wind.\u00a0 And it came very quickly. Which just goes to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-season-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.callvin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/49702999_s-e1637006307464.jpg?fit=797%2C489&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.callvin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.callvin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.callvin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.callvin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.callvin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.callvin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":698,"href":"https:\/\/blog.callvin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions\/698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.callvin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.callvin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.callvin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.callvin.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}