Plushie Progress

It appears that there has been a bit of a misconception with this particular item. I had tried to be as transparent as possible, as is noted on the product page, checkout page & all social media posts; but this plushie is listed as a pre-order.

As with pre-orders my shop has done in the past, this pre-order process follows the same exact guidelines, which are as follows:

❀ Pre-orders open

❀ Pre-orders are watched for 1-2 months [can occasionally be longer if not enough orders are placed to fulfill manufacturing requirements] to determine how many products I should order from my manufacturer in correlation with orders placed / interest for the particular item [during this timeframe, production has not yet started]

❀ Once I have a general estimate of how many plushies I need to order, I begin planning production with my manufacturer. Before the plushies are physically made, I need to confirm all fabric colors / types, labeling, details, etc. to ensure the plushies get made in accordance with the samples made in the past. During this period, my manufacturer will give me an estimate of around how long it will take to make "x" number of plushies. Which can be anywhere between 1-3 months depending on how long it takes to receive the bulk fabrics, holidays, production delays, and so on. This tends to be the longest part of the process.

❀ After all the plushies have been made, they go through a quality control check. This is done to ensure there are no large amounts of damage or missing parts on the plushies. In the event of issues, some of the plushies may have to be remade before they're shipped to my shop.

❀ When the plushies are finally cleared by me [please keep in mind, I am only one person & I can only get things done so quickly] they are packaged & begin their shipping journey.

❀ To keep costs lower for my customers, I have to unfortunately opt for the slower shipping option. The slower shipping option is shipping by sea as opposed to plane & takes around 30-45 days from port to port.

❀ The boxes that the plushies are packed in are brought to a port, where they need to wait the arrival of a cargo ship. Typically this is only a 1-3 day wait as the shipping plans have been taken care of previously. As my plushies are not the only items being taken overseas, it understandably can take an entire day [or more] for the cargo containers to be filled properly & secured onto the ship.

❀ For reference, the last plushie order I had made with my manufacturer ended up being around 67 boxes & the cost to ship by sea was just under $4,000. If I had wanted faster shipping, which cuts the time down from 30-45 days to around 10 days, it would have cost around $10,000. Which means in turn, the cost of the plushies would have increased to assist in covering the costs.

❀ After the plushies finally arrive at a port on the west coast, I need to wait for my specific boxes on a specific cargo container to be opened & inspected. Once they pass inspection, they are loaded onto a truck & brought all the way over to the east coast where my business is located. This process takes about 10-14 days depending.

❀ The day the plushies arrive to my doorstep, I immediately begin opening boxes to inspect & make sure the correct number of plushies have been sent & no damage was accrued over their long journey. At this time I also do my own quality control checks to ensure my customers are only getting the highest quality plushies for their pre-order purchase.

❀ Typically that same day [or the next if the shipment arrives late in the day], I start immediately packing orders for those who had placed pre-orders. Keep in mind, that again I am one person quality checking anywhere between 300-700 plushies & shipping out a similar number.

❀ Finally, orders are shipped & your order will arrive!

Large corporations & other established businesses have the funds available to them to cover the costs of manufacturing pre-order items beforehand. Unfortunately, as a small business, I don't have access to those types of funds, meaning the money accrued from pre-orders goes directly towards manufacturing costs [which at times can be thousands of dollars for each pre-order campaign].

This is typically why pre-orders are watched for the first 1-2 months of them being open, to ensure the product isn't being over ordered on my end & that I'll have the funds available to order the products.

I will 100% admit when I am at fault for something & it is entirely on me for not keeping on top of proper updates across my socials. I genuinely apologize & this email is the first step in rectifying that issue as I work to be more transparent.

But, listed directly on the product page, within the product description, is an estimated time frame of when the plushies are expected to ship. When delays or anything occur, this is the first place to be updated.

In addition, I'll be adding a plushie pre-order update page directly to my website. There had been an entire FAQ page dedicated to pre-order items & their processes, but it appears to have gotten lost during one of the many updates to my website.