Bkanz started off a s business to sell used books on the internet(specifically amazon.ca)
We started during covid. And because of it we sold a lot of items(because people started going out less and buying goods online more. The business is based in Ontario and we ship from here as wel.
Bkanz is a arabic word that is amalgamated from B- the founders first names first letter, and kana which means treasure of heaven.
Blank is a business run by two people, mother and son.
We provide toys the give countless hours of fun to little kids. Blank now has over 100 different types of stuffed toys
. Shipment usually takes 4-5 business days in the us. And 8 -10 days in Canada. I founded the company with one core value – sell premium quality toys but for a good price.
Story of business and founders story(what motivated you to start the business)
Bkanz started off selling used books on amazon. But we soon learned that there were other market niches that were very profitable. the initial business went great, we used the amazon fullfillment option and sent about 120 books per week to amazon. But it was very hectic for my mother, because she had carpal tunnel syndrome and her hands were not able to work at efficiency. We realize that we could sell more than just books through amazon. So we sold stuffed toys, car cleaning products, dog leashes, pens, Christmas toys, envelopes and car lights. We made the most money through selling stuffed toys. So we increased that part of the business. The business was flourishing for a while, however soon the top Level management of amazon changed( namely – Jeff besos’ retirement. The new eco layer down some new rules and restrictions. One of these rules was for toy sellers to get certifications for these toys, and some of these certificates cost more than several throusands. Many online entrepreneurs suffered due to these new rules. Secondly amazon started to wholesale trending items themselves. And because it is such a big company – competition with them was impossible. So many business went out of business (because nobody could give prices cheaper than them) This prompted me to begin looking for alternative ways to sell my toys, most of which were blocked and sent back to me by amazon. My whole room and garage was stuffed with boxes upon boxes of toys and books that weren’t able to sell on amazon.
We decided to the remianing toys over the internet , so a website was built and we used shopify to get the products on the market. We also bought some more toys from Guns and sold those with the toys as well.
Soon enough we started receiving orders on the website. We used chit chats with is very familiar in Canada to ship items in Canada and the us, which is where we do business. In the beggning there was a trickle of toys sold, but soon enough we started getting bigger and more frequent orders. Some people contacted me from other countries where they wanted to ship the toys and some people wanted to pay by PayPal, which is also an option while paying for the toys.
We did a Christmas sale and we were very successful in that sale. We also host on and off sales on the website,
Recently we ship toys every 3 days in a week. But if we have more orders we increase the days of shipping in the week. we also tried to sell the toys in the flea market but that was not a good idea , so we stuck to the online business.
The good thing about this business model is that we can do all the work from home and have the time and leisure to do other work a well in congruence with this one. We can sometimes skip work, because we ourselves are the boss.
The audience for thes business range from young adults to old people, however the toys are made for little kids.
The toys that business sells are rarely found on other online retailers. This is because we keep some toys as collectables and some people grow attached to said toys and contact me about buying them at a premium because they have an emotional connection with their kids,(or adults).
In the past customers from all around the world have come to our business asking for shipments to their respective countries. While we don’t explicitly sell to countries other than us and Canada, we do offer shipment to other countries provided that they contact us first through email. Then we give them an offer including the price of shipment to their respective addresses. While being a very new company we move about 300 dollars worth of product every week.
Some of the challenges we faced in the begging and are still facing right now is that we are in direct competition with at least 2 other big market internet stuffd toy companies. These companies can offer even cheaper shipment than us, because of their size. However we counteract this by selling unique items that are not catalogued by these other companies.
Second, we believe that since covid has been brought into control , we might see a return to the physical business locations shopped by customers. But that may not be the case, we will find out as time progresses.
Advice for other people about your business
Our advice to other people about our business is that after struggling for at least 1 year is that finally we ar eon the right track. We believe we will be successful in this market, because of the quality of our products at the price point. We are getting traction and positive responses, because we carry only branded toys and items.
At this point we are getting a positive response from our customers, out shipment is fast and most of our clients are in the northern part of the u.s. people simply love our high quality prouduct.
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