Today, en miniature, an aquarelle that is not finished, yet. It needs some fine grasses in the front. In about every 10th mid European hotel there is at least one picture of a belling deer in late autumn, or winter. A clichée. But I could not help drawing it. So there you go: Andy’s deer in a misty sunset environment. Not belling, though. I think the “belling deer” is in the hotel rooms because one way or the other hotel guests are expected to like the picture. But how do you know? It is hard to say what people like and even harder why.

Here comes Rose flash. What I got back, from the limited number of people who got the scent already: They love it. A lot! This is wonderful.

If I say the “limited number of perfume lovers who got it”: First it was a limited offering. And then, there were shipping delays and issues. Some of them are solved, some of these issues will be solved by me by simply shipping again. The Rose flash was back ordered for the last 70 orders. These back-orders ship now. Uff. And then we will see how the second shipment will work. Let’s hope for best.

You know: Rose flash was fun. It still is, and the world is wide and open there. For me, it was a fun test, of a couple of things. With rose flash, and other flash scents, I can come up with tons of ideas. I actually do come up with tons of ideas, there.

But, again in order to be honest: We are walking up a steep learning curve here, and I have to admit that not everything worked the way I wished and that I did a couple of mistakes. The only way to get better is to accept the mistakes, learn your thing, and adjust properly.

Lesson one: We got a lot of combined orders, samples and the Rose flash roll-on. This is nice, but I did not communicate properly that these two, samples and Rose flash, ship separately. This is confusing to many and I need a better way to communicate this. Or, alternatively, to streamline the process, offer Rose flash as product that can not be ordered in combinations.

Lesson two: We picked USPS as shipper for the Rose flash, from my US warehouse. This did not work as it should. A lot of orders were not handled properly by USPS. I do not blame USPS. It might just be the way the system works. But fact remains fact: And evidence based decision making translates into a different shipper might be considered which ultimately will bring shipment costs up.

Lesson three: We were overrun with orders and got more orders than expected, resulting in back-ordered product. The next time, we must ship more into the warehouse before offering the flash scent. And make use of my sales software tool: Manage stock.

Thank you for reading all the way down here.

Here’s my facit so far: Rose flash is a great success, but needs a more integrated approach when offering it, in order to reduce the workload that comes with it. What I find fascinating, coming back to the deer, and me not knowing really why people love the belling deer motive:
I was expecting that I get a lot of mails and comments where perfume lovers wish to get a little spray flacon, instead of a roll-on, for this perfume. I am still prepared to consider offering it in -let’s say- 25 ml spray. Anyhow, I was prepared for all sorts of discussions about the format. But the world is full of wonders. I did not get any wishes for a different format for the Rose flash. So I wonder… maybe the roll-on IS the right format for a perfume?