The tempo of operations here at The Motor Pool has certainly picked up in recent weeks, with new merchandise flooding in at a record pace and outbound orders noticeably increasing well before the holidays arrive. That said, we just wanted to remind everyone about the shipping deadlines we’ve instituted for both domestic and international shipments that are intended for holiday delivery. Please make sure to check out our Calendar of Events page to determine the dates and service method that best suits your needs and remember it pays to place your order as early as possibly to avoid disappointment.
In October 2018, the Trump administration announced that the US was withdrawing from the Universal Postal Union, a system set up way back in 1874 that was designed to level the playing field for shipping small packages across 192 countries. While the system made sense back then, and helped to standardize rates and other facets of international shipping, it has, in effect, provided certain countries with an unfair advantage over the US. More specifically, US businesses have been hurt by the arrangement since businesses operating out of China have been able to ship to the US at a fraction of the cost for what a US business must pay to ship a similarly-sized package to China. A last minute vote to keep the US in the UPU is scheduled for late September but many feel the effort is futile and that the US will still withdraw from the accord some time this October.
From our standpoint, we welcome the decision for the US to withdraw from the UPU. China was first granted this privilege in 1969 when it was still considered to be a developing nation. Fast forward to 2019 and China has become one of the largest economies in the world, second only to the US. To grant them an unfair advantage at this point in time would be foolhardy and it would come at a time when the US Postal Service continues to report record deficits.
While we recognize that it will cost much more for a US-based consumer to purchase something from China, we feel that the time has come to remove any and all advantages a country such as China has held sway over the US, particularly in light of the failed trade talks between the two countries. If China wants to act responsibly and in good faith then they must abide by the conditions of the US trade representatives and any and all advantages they currently hold over US businesses must be removed in order for fair trade to exist now and in the future.
Ordinarily we offer our annual look ahead towards year’s end, after the dust has settled down, we’ve had a chance to catch our breath and generally get a better sense of where we have ended up come the post-holiday season. This year, however, we decided to change things up a bit by sharing our plans for the coming year several months earlier.
For starters, we’ve decided to launch a lengthy, multi-issue print ad campaign beginning with the December issue of World War II magazine. This is where things started for us almost two decades ago so we decided to both return to our roots and expand our customer base by reaching out to those magazine subscribers that may not be aware of our store or the lines we stock. As such, the first print ad will cover the re-launch of Corgi’s Military Legends series and will be picked up again in the January issue of Military History magazine. As the series expands, we will likely run follow-on ads covering some of Corgi’s latest offerings.
Next up, we will be moving our storefront to Shopify, a Canadian-based e-commerce solution that offers greater flexibility than our current web hosting solution provides. Our plans are to move over all of our current product, customer and order records to the new service so we can provide a seamless migration that will not impact sales and/or the customer experience which has proven to be so vital to our existence. We will likely run both sites concurrently for at least a month to ensure all of our records have been successfully migrated to the new platform. Look for the transition to occur in the first quarter of 2020.
By moving over to Shopify, we will also be able to offer true multi-channel support across all of the marketplace sites we now operate on as well as those planned to come online in 2020. This will include satellite sites on both Target+ and the resurgent Toys “R” Us, and could include others still on the drawing board that have yet to be finalized. Presently, we must operate each channel independently, which creates a bit of a problem maintaining correct inventory levels across all platforms. Its a bit like trying to keep several plates on sticks spinning freely instead of of watching them crash to the ground for lack of attention. By moving to Shopify, everything will be “under one hood” thereby preventing instances where we could, theoretically, outsell an item or make available inventory on one channel and not on another. Shopify provides real-time inventory updates that are designed to prevent these types of occurrences from ever happening.
Going deeper in inventory to support multiple retail channels also means we cannot go quite as broad. As a result, several lines are being cut and/or phased out so that we can make room for additional stock. In most cases, the lines we are shedding were either experimental categories that never quite took off or ranges that are under-performing largely for lack of support at either the manufacturer or distributor level. For instance, the Eaglemoss Warships of the World line has run its course, no longer in vogue due principally to the unavailability of certain models.
Additionally, Shopify has fully integrated additional payment gateways that we currently are unable to offer such as ApplePay and Venmo, along with Apple’s newly launched credit card. As more and more payment gateways come online, this will prove essential for a growing business to thrive in a digital world.
So, that’s pretty much it for now but we’ll keep you posted should anything else change. As always, we look forward to serving your needs in the diecast military space. Have a wonderful year.
Let’s get something straight right off the bat: there is no science to diecast. While some people would like us to peer into a crystal ball and predict the availability of certain items with the utmost of certainty, the fact is that there is a lot of grey area in this business, complicated by the fact that this is a relatively small industry continually affected by the vagaries of trade squabbles, big business dealings, private “don’t quote me” discussions and, dare I day, a lot of hocus pocus. There are no conspiracies, just people who would like to believe they exist to better help them understand why things happen the way they do. There are things I feel comfortable discussing with the public-at-large and other minutiae better left for my memoirs, provided I ever get around to writing them.
We’ve been doing this for almost twenty years and the one thing I can predict with certainty is that every day is unpredictable. We wake up every morning — sometimes well before 6am — pour ourselves a cup of coffee, read our e-nail, poor out a second and oftentimes a third cup of Joe, and wonder what each day will bring despite our best planning the day before. Now I know this sounds a bit amateurish in today’s world of “get it to the customer in a heartbeat” but the fact remains that the world of diecast is not governed by the same laws of physics that rule the real world. Its a “catcher’s catch can microcosm” where we sometimes have a handle on things based upon what those in-the-know tell us only to be confounded by things we never saw coming by those that think they know better.
So, as we close out the first half of the year and begin looking at the all-important third and fourth quarters, I just wanted to remind everyone that it helps to be patient, read and re-read our posts, and generally keep a smile on your face if you hope to enjoy this hobby as much as we do. While we admit we aren’t perfect, we strive for perfection each and every day. When I was a young lad, maybe no more than six or seven years of age, I fondly remember my grandparents pulling me aside one day, looking me straight in the eye and telling me the following which has stuck with me to this day: “You are of German blood. Always remember that. Persevere when other falter. Achieve when no one thought it possible.” And with that, have a happy Fourth of July.
Ever since we started accepting AmazonPay a couple of years ago, we’ve realized that Amazon has become one of the more progressive voices in the world of e-commerce. Now they are literally as well as figuratively looking to put their money where their mouth is. This year, Amazon plans to roll out voice communications and specialized vocal commands for prospective customers interested in placing orders with select merchants. So, instead of having to enter loads of information by hand or over the phone, shoppers will be able to use their Alexa-enabled devices to check on their existing orders as well as place new orders at any time of day or night. This will no doubt simplify the order-taking process and should make things easier for those shoppers that may not speak English as their primary language.
Next week, we will be attending an Amazon-hosted webinar that seeks to spell out the process in detail and hopefully provide dates as to when the system will be rolled out to merchants and customers alike. Once we feel confident that it is working as advertised, we will provide further details and go from there. Start testing your vocal chords!
The Toy Association has created a pair of moving videos that are designed to raise awareness about the proposed 25% tariff on imported Chinese goods and its impending impact on the toy industry. We encourage you to both view and share these videos and pay a visit to the newly-created Don’t Tax Toys web site to voice your opinion and gain further insight on the tariff that will affect our industry shortly.
When I broke into retail management back in the late 1970s, one of the responsibilities that came with the job was walking the store’s floor each day before it was opened to the public. “Patrolling the physical plant”, as its called by some, means just that – picking up any rubbish on the floor, inspecting and aligning dump displays, repairing torn or hanging signage, and returning stray shopping carts to the queue. Its a relatively simple task that pays dividends each and every day, particularly if your store was due to be inspected by upper management. It also meant your store looked good for the public-at-large, ready to cater to their every need.
Today, with many retail establishments eschewing brick-and-mortar store fronts in favor of online virtual ones, I’m constantly amazed at how this simple concept seems to have fallen on deaf ears, fallen out of favor, and even fallen by the wayside. Time and again, I see manufacturer web site that feature old, out-of-date information, incorrect information and even no information at all, as if it was a job left for some one else to one day repair and update. There are web sites that time out day-in and day out, are slow to load and even have information that is completely useless to anyone in or out of the industry, making it all but pointless to visit.
People seem to think that Hobby Master has risen to prominence simply by producing an ample supply of collectibles month-in and month-out, outstripping and outselling the competition with an avalanche of product. While that is partly true, one of the reasons they have succeeded where others have failed miserably is the fact that they also update their web site, constantly and continually freshening up the site so that it contains pertinent and up-to-date product announcements. They also provide Hobbymaster.com, an enthusiast-operated and owned site that has been around for a number of years, with regular imagery and updates, making it a go-too page for anyone interested in Hobby Master products. Why this fact has alluded the attention of many competing firms is beyond me. I don’t understand how they can expect to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Hobby Master and a handful of other manufacturers when they approach the business with what can best be described as a lackadaisical attitude, failing to understand the importance of putting their best foot forward by offering timely and accurate information ahead of the release of every item they make.
Ladies and gentlemen, its time to walk your virtual floor. Clean up before the clock strikes twelve.
Earlier today, I read, with great interest, an email sent out by one of our competitors to their clientele regarding the collection of online sales tax. In it, the owner expressed his dismay regarding the onerous task of collecting sales tax for states outside his immediate purview. While I can understand his frustration and cause for alarm, I just wanted to point out something he and the rest of the collecting community may not be aware of after doing some due diligence of my own.
The following text was excerpted from the SalesTaxInstitute.com web site and may help to explain why some sellers are collecting sales tax and others are not: “On June 21, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., addressing South Dakota’s economic nexus law. This decision overruled the physical presence rule for sales tax nexus for sales made over the internet. States now have right to require tax collection from online retailers and other remote sellers that do not have physical presence in their states. Looking strictly at the South Dakota economic nexus legislation addressed in the case, South Dakota’s law minimizes the burden on online and out-of-state sellers. The legislation provides a safe harbor for small sellers: a remote seller must make in-state sales exceeding $100,000 or makes 200 or more separate sales transactions in the previous or current calendar year for the nexus provision to apply. The legislation also ensures that the nexus provision does not apply retroactively.”
So, in effect, unless the seller is doing a truly bang up job in a particular state, they are exempted from this Supreme Court ruling by this so-called safe harbor. Online sellers such as Amazon and eBay are clearly exceeding these thresholds, which is why they are currently tacking on sales tax to online transactions made in states mandating the collection of sales tax. Now, should things change from a legislative standpoint or we start doing incredibly well such that we are meeting or exceeding these thresholds, then I doubt a retailer of our size and stature will have to collect and remit sales tax for states other than New York, our nexus, which is where we are currently located.
As states seek to raise revenue in the wake of store closings and online sales continue to increase vis. a vis. brick-and-mortar businesses, this ruling will likely be reviewed again and possibly amended to reflect the state-of-affairs. Until such time, however, we will continue to collect sales tax from customers located in New York but will certainly notify everyone if it appears as if we must follow suit and start collecting sales tax from and for other states.
From time to time, we get asked an uncomfortable question or two where the answer we provide never seems to sit well with the customer. Two of the most pervasive issues have to do with holding merchandise for the customer and refusing to ship to an alternate address. To get everyone on the same page, here’s the reason we do what we do.
To answer the first question we have roughly 15,000 customers in our database. Now if every customer asked us to hold an item or two for them so they could save on shipping costs we would literally have to open a separate warehouse containing held merchandise potentially for indefinite periods of time. Not only is this problematic for any number of reasons, the simplest answer is that we have invoices to pay and cannot do so with held merchandise. Our cash flow would be crimped and, from a logistical standpoint, it simply would not work for us as we continue to stack and dodge piles of unpaid merchandise that could have been sold off.
Now. to answer the second question. We did at one time ship to an alternate address, oftentimes because the item was meant to be given as a gift or no one was going to be home to receive the package. Lo and behold, a few years ago we shipped two radio controlled vehicles to an alternate address as stipulated on the order. A few weeks later, we received a charge back notification in the mail from our credit card processor. It turns out that even though we provided proof of delivery, the credit card company would only protect the merchant if he or she ships to the billing address. It doesn’t matter that we got a legitimate authorization code when the sale was entered, did our due diligence by going over all of the order’s details, or shipped the package where it was intended to go and provided proof of delivery. As a result, we got stung and lost the case, leaving us little else but to lose out on a couple of hundred dollars as well as a charge back fee to boot. Now I know that by publicizing this, other merchants might get a bit nervous, but have hopefully taken similar steps to protect their business from fraudulent transactions. I cannot speak for them and they are certainly free to do as they please. But for me, that one bad transaction left a sour taste in my mouth that I never quite got over.
Ebay offers one solution to this quandary. If the mailing address is different than the billing address, the customer must stipulate where the package is to be sent in their closed messaging system where the merchant, customer and eBay representative can see the back-and-forth communiques. At that point, eBay will protect the merchant should the customer still decide to open a case for non-receipt of goods or claim they never ordered the merchandise to begin with. Its not the best solution for everyone concerned, but one that seems to work given the vagaries of e-commerce and the risk the merchant is willing to undertake to help a customer and complete a sale.
We’re just a handful of days away from saying farewell to 2018 so we thought it a good time to look back at the past twelve months as well as gaze ahead at the coming year.
For starters, we’ve moved the current shipment of Corgi and Dragon Armor products from our Product in Transit section to the New Arrivals area so that we can close out the books at our end and get ready for our end-of-year inventory. These last two shipments are still scheduled to arrive during the first week of January barring any unforeseen shipping issues brought on by the holidays and/or the weather, so we appreciate your patience should you look forward to receiving them sooner rather than later.
2019 is stacking up to be quite a year for us. In the first quarter, we plan to spin up our new Walmart and Jet.com marketplace stores, bringing our marketplace tally to five (Ebay, Amazon and Facebook being the others) in addition to our main site. There are some other irons in the fire, so-to-speak, which will require a bit of fine tuning on our part to get them completely aligned with our present marketing strategy. More on that later.
We don’t foresee any issues with the current crop of product lines we stock — in fact, as Forces of Valor finally comes on line in a meaningful way, we anticipate things will get hectic early on without the added pressure of the holiday season bearing down on us. Again, this all depends upon Waltersons, the new caretakers of the brand, sticking to and maintaining a reliable release schedule all the while expanding their product portfolio to cover all of its previous ranges as well as those still expected to be bolted on.
Naturally, there are the old stalwarts to consider too, which include Hobby Master, Corgi, Eaglemoss and a few other longtime brands, who continue to improve and expand upon their own core ranges and synergies to round out our selection and those of our customers. Several manufacturers have made quite a name for themselves and will likely continue to carve out respectable niches in the marketplace that few can ignore.
We will have more to say about 2019 shortly, which could include a relocation for us should we decide to move forward with the change. As always, we wish all of our patrons a happy and healthy new year and continue to say thank you for your patronage as we embark upon our nineteenth year of operation.
