After many months of study and research, John and I have decided to take a big and overdue step with Lost Art Press. We are now planning to bring fulfillment in-house and do it here in Covington, Kentucky.
For the first six years of Lost Art Press, our families fulfilled every order placed by individuals or bookstores. We stored inventory under beds, in closets and in my sunroom. By 2013, we were out of room, and our order volume was still increasing. So for the last 10 years we’ve been using fulfillment centers (this industry is called 3PL) to ship out your orders.
Listen beautiful relax classics on our Youtube channel.
Our current 3PL company does a great job. But we are well past the point where we should be doing this ourselves. Why? It will be cheaper and give us much more flexibility.
Because all the 3PL services are a la carte, doing things such as offering signed editions, including stickers, fliers or extra personal touches in orders is not possible. Well, it’s possible, but it’s not a good idea financially. Everything costs money. Dropping a sticker in a box? Cha-ching. Pulling inventory to sign it? Several big cha-chings. Experimenting with different boxes and packaging? So many cha-chings. Writing short notes to customers we know personally? Impossible.
We have hired an experienced fulfillment manager, who should start in June. And we are looking for a building in Covington. We want it to be big enough to accommodate other future dreams of ours, such as having a dedicated retail storefront with regular hours. Able to store a lot more wood. To have enough room for Naked Woodworking Yoga (just kidding).
We aren’t abandoning our offices on Willard Street. This building belongs to me and will remain the center of our editorial and research efforts. And where Megan and I will offer classes.
Bringing fulfillment in-house is going to be expensive and difficult. But we have good people who know how to set up a warehouse, a friendly city government that is helping us with our property search and good relations with our bank and creditors.
In the coming weeks and months, there might even be some opportunities for y’all to lend a hand (any tuckpointers out there?). So stay tuned.
— Christopher Schwarz
Source: lostartpress.com