#010 (07/08/2022)

It's time for another weekly journal entry! What's there to share this week?

There's something I need to address this week regarding courier companies. We've always wanted to support more different companies and try out various courier services, so we've been distributing some orders through different courier companies, not relying solely on a single dominant company. This was also a way of supporting smaller companies. However, after using other companies for a while, we encountered various problems, such as delivery delays, failure to meet promised delivery dates, and drivers sometimes disappearing. These issues caused significant inconvenience for our customers, forcing us to stop using them. Therefore, starting next week, we will temporarily switch entirely to SF Express and Kerry Express for shipping products.

Something really exciting happened this week: one of our customers told her that she recently bought one of our pillows, and then she said that it led to over a dozen of her friends buying our pillows too... That's definitely a record! Actually, we often receive messages from customers saying they'll buy more or recommend it to others (mostly family or partners), but we've never encountered anything like this before, with over a dozen people buying our pillows. We're truly grateful to this customer.

To be honest, our little Re Pillow Co. has always relied on word-of-mouth to promote ourselves. Yes, we're actually much smaller than any of the well-known brands on the market. The biggest problem with being small is that we lack the resources for advertising, making it difficult to gain significant brand awareness in a short period. We can only work hard and gradually build our brand.

Speaking of promotion, we occasionally receive offers from various marketing companies to help with advertising and promotion. They might offer to hire their KOLs and micro-influencers, or place ads through various channels. Unfortunately, we simply don't have the extra money for that. If we had the money, I'd want to focus on our core business, improving and perfecting our product. I understand. It's possible that spending the same amount of money on promotion with these companies would be more profitable, but I don't want that. I feel that money isn't being used wisely, it's not truly for the good of the product. I want to focus on making good pillows, not just making money. Even if they offered free services, I'd feel bad; they have families and need to eat. I don't have the money, so I'd feel bad accepting their services. If I can't repay him someday, or if he doesn't feel the money I give him is enough, I'll feel bad. I'd rather work harder myself and only treat him when I can truly afford it.

I can also say that I'm truly grateful because over the past year, we've received several media interviews, which has made us known to a few people. If it weren't for that, we would probably be even more unknown and ignored, like someone shouting alone in a well, but no one on the surface can hear them. It's so lonely and unbearable. I understand, because I've been there.

For the first year, Re Pillow Co. was like that too. Nobody paid attention to it, nobody knew it. I was just playing around with myself. I made a really nice website and translated all the English on it, but nobody paid attention to it.

It all comes down to faith—believing you can do it, that you will one day. Yes, that's all there is to it. Of course, you're alone in the process, and the people around you won't understand. They can't see the path you've chosen or what the future holds, so out of love, they worry about whether you can succeed, all for your own good. Because I'm not really good at communicating with people, sometimes it's hard to express what I'm thinking, so I can only do it silently on my own. I've also started trying to write things down, like these weekly journals, hoping to train my expression skills.

This week's journal entry was indeed quite special, and the writing style was different from usual.

Back to the updates: This week we added PayMe online and in-store, giving everyone more payment options. I personally use PayMe frequently, so I want to make it convenient for everyone. Also, the new packaging (more eco-friendly packaging) will be launching soon, and we're waiting for it to arrive. Re Pillow will soon have its third version of packaging. We've also been thinking about how to ensure a more stable supply this week, and we're researching several options. After all, our production is like handicrafts, so a stable supply is challenging, but it would be so much better if we could achieve it… When nobody wants to buy, well, out of stock.

Okay, that's all for this week.