12/03/2016
Hello Stashers!
I've been putting off this post for a few days, but I wanted to give everyone an update on The Hero Stash and the future.
When we took on this project, we wanted to come up with a fun family business that would play to my interests - namely geeky, cool stuff and subscription boxes. I'd received a lot of feedback from my subscribers over at The Middle-Aged Kid that I should try to curate my own box and I thought it would be a fun thing to try out.
That being said, I think we did a pretty good job with our boxes - lots of value, some interesting and different items, and we got some great feedback from you guys on what we were getting right.
Unfortunately, we also ran into some hurdles that gave us some difficulty in providing the best possible service for you guys. Shipping issues have been a big problem, as well as supply and profitability. Our first box came out in the spring, and I don't mind telling you that every dollar we've received has gone back into the expenses of building the boxes and shipping them out. With 0 profit, it is just impossible to improve our boxes and services.
As we work on our 4th box, we are down to less than 30 subscribers, with many cancellations for various reasons and not a single new subscriber for this upcoming Yoda themed box. One thing I realize is that we are going through a time where the "big" boxes - LootCrate, Nerd Block, the various Funko boxes, are expanding their lines, developing even more box types and taking market share from independent smaller companies like ours. Most folks can't subscribe to 3, 4, 8 boxes a month and when those decisions are made, we are generally left on the outside right now, understandably.
With such a low subscriber number, we cannot order product in the bulk quantities that are necessary to add variety to boxes, and stay away from the 'filler' that I swore would not permeate our box (keychains, air fresheners, etc). We need at the very least 50 consistent subs to maintain the quality that I want for our boxes.
All that sounds pretty discouraging, but overall this has been a great experience, and we've learned some great lessons moving forward.
As such, after this upcoming box - Yoda, shipping later this month - we are going to take a break to analyze our successes and opportunities to come up with a better plan for The Hero Stash! There won't be any renewals in January, and the 4 of you that renewed for 3 boxes will be refunded for the 2 remaining boxes in your subscription.
We will be revamping everything about our company - from our shipping to item variety to social media and marketing. To those of you who have stuck with us I can only say thanks so much I am so grateful to you and I hope you will come back with us when we relaunch in the spring (hopefully). As a side note, I will be sending out some personal gifts to our long-time subs as a thank you for going through this journey with us.
We are excited about taking a step back over the winter to improve our service, and I look forward to coming back to present a subscription box that will be a no-brainer for your entertainment budget!
