Exploring Bora Chung's Role in Korean Science Fiction Literature

Speaker 2
Because unlike this skin cream, it seems like this is likely to be a one and done type of purchase until I get my next Kindle and it doesn't fit anymore or something. We're in the process of kind of working out our cost for
Speaker 1
acquisition. We've been a bit loosey goosey on all that stuff. And I think for us, it's just really nailing down the numbers. Now you're absolutely right. Our repeat traffic is pretty low. But then we're going to get a little bit more attention. It's a great gift. It's a great gift. So we're trying to encourage that level of purchase behavior now. That's true. We're in the thick of Q4. I imagine it's
Speaker 2
going to be a big busy season for you. Yes. Yes, it is. Well, what are
Speaker 1
you doing to drive
Speaker 2
email just through your own list? This is through lists of our partnerships with lists that cater to Kindle readers. Back when I was doing like a lot of book marketing, there was all these lists where you could promote your book for 99 cents and we'll put it in front of this huge list of people. Is that like discounted books and stuff? Is there something similar there or is it primarily like your own list? It's primarily our own list.
Speaker 1
We do have that on our radar to explore. So I think at the moment, it's obviously capturing that data on our website. And then also as soon as we run any kind of giveaway or competition, we can really rent that up. We're currently actually running a very low price acquisition campaign ahead of Black Friday. So I think definitely building the list is a priority once we get through Q4. It's a big priority for early next year. And then also getting into wholesale. That's the next thing too. To get into like brick and mortar. Yeah, to
Speaker 2
find some retail distribution
Speaker 1
partners. So we've got some great new packaging coming out. And so just getting that on the radar will be key for next year. So many different options. Somebody that will from a little like I just can't
Speaker 2
get over of like how small and lightweight like it checks all the boxes of like, well, how did nobody else think of this? Yeah, exactly right. I'm on the site now and there's the email list builder pop up is you get 10%
Speaker 1
off your first order.
Speaker 2
Friends don't let friends drop their e-readers get 10% off enter your email here. So I like that a lot. I would say that social channels that I'm most interested in right now are tick tock Pinterest and YouTube.
Speaker 1
Primarily because of the organic reach they still afford. So we're really kind of starting to play around with Pinterest and seeing some great results in terms of impressions and clicks and those stick around.
Speaker 2
Yeah, if you can get a pin that starts to rank well for a team work because it's like an evergreen content search engine in a lot of ways. What's working on Pinterest these days?
Speaker 1
We are just repurposing our video content from tik tock. We get probably every I would say every day we are getting customers posting photos and videos and we obviously with their permission we just repurpose it and keep it simple. Pinterest can be a bit rough and ready YouTube shorts. We do the same just repurpose your content. But you're absolutely right. Those are more evergreen search channels.
Speaker 2
We would definitely bucket Pinterest in that category. And that's interesting. It's like becoming like everything else becoming more a video platform than just a straight up image platform.
Speaker 1
Yeah, and they will I think they do reward you for video actually. OK. And then for me it's just that constant working the Amazon algorithm to drive the traffic there. So it's knowing the impact I can have if I can find that that US influencer to drive that content through to virality can really make a massive difference to Amazon sales.
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's trying to translate. Hopefully that one sale and sending positive signals to the algorithm that translates at one point two or something like down the road. So somebody comes up to you on the street. Where do you send it? Do you send it to Amazon or if they're in Australia versus there in the US like do you send them to strapsicle.com? You send them over to Amazon like what's easier, better, more profitable for you.
Speaker 1
If they're in the US or they're from the US, I say German Amazon. OK. Next day delivery. Great. That's what I know they're used to. I mean, it's something like 30% of the population of shopping Amazon before they shop your site. Yeah. Obviously Australia. Yeah. Jump on our website, but also we're on Amazon. We do obviously pay those additional fees and you don't get that customer data through Amazon. But I think we're more likely to make that sale to give the customer the best shopping experience. Yeah.
Speaker 2
Now you're on the lower end of like a price point that through the grapevine I've heard is like really tough to eke out of margin with all of the different Amazon storage and fulfillment fees and marketplace fees and everything else that they tack on. But hey, we're making it work. We're happy with this. Yeah.
Speaker 1
I mean, I again, if you were starting from scratch, I would really think about your product, product weight and size. Yeah. The actual practical impacts that has. I mean, our straps, they're not going to take up much room in Amazon and they
Speaker 2
don't. Yeah, they don't weigh anything. Yeah, they're inexpensive. We're like 40 grams. I think that's like 0.1
Speaker 1
pounds. I'm not sure. But and obviously the ship. So everything's done based on weight for Amazon. The category you're in. Obviously, that's a percentage fee. So yeah, we're pretty lucky in that regard. A friend of mine has rugs that she ships. So that's a whole nother thing. Yeah.
Speaker 2
I think of like huge bulky items. Yeah. I'm just looking around the room like, well, what else could I add a strap to? Like product expansions here.
Speaker 1
How about your phone?
Speaker 2
Yeah. Well, like the pop sockets were a big thing. So it's like, well, maybe there's a strap angle to that.
Speaker 1
Pop sockets are probably our biggest indirect competitor because they're the hack that people use for Kindle. But they actually do cause hand cramps after a while. Whereas with a strap, you can just wear it any which way.
Speaker 2
There you go. Yeah. So I got to make the sale. Sorry
Speaker 1
for the plug.
Speaker 2
I love it. I love it. And you're still working the day job, yes.
Speaker 1
I do. I went back three days a week because I knew I needed two days to commit to this. Yeah. Ben, my partner is full time runs an agency. So he's a partner in an agency. So it's a lot. And we have a two year old. Yeah.
Speaker 2
I mean, that's kind of crazy. What you've been able to build on such a part time basis. Is there a point or is there a revenue target at which it becomes, well, it's cost me money to go to work or does it become
Speaker 1
a full time thing for you? That would be an amazing goal to have at the moment. We're just looking at when you start a business, the costs involved and actually projecting the next production run and what we've just had to spend for Q4. I mean, where's I only gone? So I think just
Speaker 2
in terms of like inventory, you
Speaker 1
mean inventory, our biggest order ever. Yeah. Huge.
Speaker 2
How much like are you comfortable sharing? Like because I think people will be like, well, how much? Yeah. I mean, we spent if you think about started with $500 investment,
Speaker 1
we've going to spend 50,000 on this run for Christmas alone. And for me, that was just a bit of a. Yeah. But
Speaker 2
you have to do it. Yeah. Capital intensive for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 1
You have to really get, you know, get your big girl pants on and jump in. But because of that, I mean, we just haven't got that. I don't know. Do you ever get to that even keel of going, oh, we're still there. I put a bank this month every month. I mean, obviously we do. But so I think the goal right now is can we kind of replace my income over a series of months and then see where we're there when we get to that.
Speaker 2
And that seems to be super consistent with other Amazon sellers and other econ sellers that I've talked to is like, number one, like you got to do all this home work. And marketing effort to find a product that hits for one. And then when it does hit, your game is not over. Like you don't get to take cash off the table for a while because you got to like, hey, this is great. We're selling. I would like that to keep happening. So now, of course, I got to reinvest into more inventory and more inventory and more inventory. And it was the same in, I don't know if you read a shoe dog, the Phil Knight memoir, where he talks about like the first 10 years of Nike's life. It's like there is no leftover money. It's all plowing back into inventory. And it's just like these physical product businesses take a lot of cash, especially ones that hit. We had some friends who were doing, they were having it to Amazon and they like ordered a shipping container. And I swear it was like $650,000 or something. It's like check the box for insurance on that. Like what?
Speaker 1
Oh my God. House. I guess it was just nuts. Yeah. That's why Amazon is so good for us, right? It's almost passiving. It's not passive because they have to check that store all the time, but it's all done for me. So I'm paying for that luxury so I can go and work my job and those Amazon's I was a pumping through and I didn't have to touch them. So yeah, that's a big bonus.
Speaker 2
OK, so it sounds like a day in the life managing that storefront, managing the orders that come through the Shopify site, building managing relationships with the influencers, repurposing some of the content. Like where else is the time going on the non working days or the non day job days?
Speaker 1
Apart from like just life managing life, managing child. Yeah. So listen, you have to be really, really careful with your time, especially when you've just got, I've just got those two days. So a friend gave me a great piece of advice. You know, do five proactive things a day probably can get to two, but I think
Speaker 2
you've really got to focus on set the bar. Sure. Yeah.
Speaker 1
Yeah. Set the bar high, but I think you've got to focus on the things that are actually going to reach and drive revenue outside of just your reactive day to day. So for me at the moment, really making some website improvements because we want to start increasing that conversion rate and then just starting to look at bigger picture opportunities, Amazon influencers starting to build a program with them wholesale. Just trying to make the time, even if it's an hour a day to spend that time on those proactive things is really important because otherwise you were just caught in the constant emails and customer problems.
Speaker 2
I'm an Amazon influencer. I got to make you a video as a whole order up that thing and I can make a video. That would be fun.
Speaker 1
Yeah. I'll send you one. Absolutely. You can have to tell me what model you've got.
Speaker 2
That's why you were asking about the model. Yeah. I have no idea actually. That's all right. I got chuffed. Tell me that. Well, this is super cool. Like I am excited for you. What's next? Obviously focus on Q4 and beyond, but where else is this thing going? I think literally focus on Q4, Collapse in a heap at Christmas
Speaker 1
has the time off. There's no time off. What a joke. I think for us it's yeah, how do we kind of build that reach in the next six months really aggressively so that we touching every Kindle user in the world? That would be the really big goal. We've got to watch for those competitors. It's only a matter of time and become a brand name in that space. And then yeah, how can we expand? Let's expand it. Let's look at iPads next. This is all about helping people read more comfortably. And that's our vision is that everyone can do that. Whatever device they're using. Were there any big surprises over the last couple of years? Look, I think one thing we have was when our factory sent the wrong size into Amazon. That was a big surprise because we didn't know until we started getting all this negative feedback. Oh, shoot. So yeah, that really freaked me out of it.
Speaker 2
Luckily, we caught it pretty quickly. Yeah.
Speaker 1
But those are the kind of things that can happen. I mean, Touchwood, we haven't had any big disasters other than that. I think the biggest surprise for me though, as I said, is just discovering these audiences of people we can help has been quite amazing. It's really touched me that we're not just pumping a product out. We're actually making a difference for people.
Speaker 2
Yeah, I think so. And that's super frustrating about the manufacturer. I think they're on that's how FBA was always sort of, oh, it's hands off. You know, like the manufacturer considered straight to the warehouse. You never have to deal with any of this inventory. Well, you might want to put eyes on it just to double check.
Speaker 1
Going back to that point, I made about do the things that don't scale one really successful tactic for me on Amazon has been actually liaising with my customers on there. So if someone leaves you a review three stars and under, you can actually contact them. And every single negative review, I will reach out because often there's an underlying issue they haven't talked about or I will reach out. I will make sure they know that we're a small Australian business. That's really important. We're not just a faceless brand on Amazon. And then I'll work with them to rectify. I'll send them a free new product and forgot the wrong size. In that instance, I sent out free new products. So in that regard, I've been able to turn one star reviews into five star reviews on Amazon, which is really important. Yeah.
Speaker 2
This company actually cares about me. Yeah. And especially, yeah, there's this hesitancy, like, I was wrong. I'm going to leave a one star review and then you kind of feel this guilt. Well, oh, it's a mom and pop company. I'm like, I'm hurting their livelihood. Like, okay. That's exactly right. Let me dial that back a little bit. I'll upgrade this. So they update the comment. They rectified it. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1
You can read those as that reviews updated. Yeah.
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Speaker 1
So again, like constantly building that community and staying in touch with your customers. So important.

Author Talks: Bora Chung & Anton Hur

The Korea Society

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