2021 Review & 2022 Plans for Wooden Wonderland
Posted by EMMA POPE
Wow!
Just when we thought 2020 was a challenging year, 2021 did everything possible to surpass all milestones set the year before!
2021 brought many challenges for us at Wooden Wonderland. The most notable being stock shortages and shipping delays. We tried our best to keep our shelves as well stocked as possible and offer alternatives where we could but ultimately there were some wonderful products that were out of stock for longer than we would have liked. Shipping delays were widespread for the second year in a row and while we were fortunate to have very few parcels lost in transit, many parcels did take longer to arrive than they should have.
On a more positive note, 2021 also saw some wonderful progress for our business. We have now refined our warehousing processed to ensure that all orders are being dispatched within 1-2 business days whenever possible. We added Russian Treasures, Kidkraft (after a long hiatus), My Little Set, Trauffer, Astrup, Wheely Bug & Wishbone to our range providing even more variety and choice on our shelves. We also have a great team of long-term staff that are committed to our business and dispatch your orders and assist with your customer service enquiries with smiles on their faces every day. Our Brisbane shop has also become even busier this year as more and more locals get to know that we are here and we make the Click & Collect process super simple.
We have some big plans for 2022 and we hope that we can bring back many of the fabulous wooden toys that were hard to source in 2021 with our usual smiles and friendly customer service.
Here is what we have in store for 2022:
New Website
At some point this year we will be re-building our website. This will hopefully improve upon our website speed and also update our menus and collections to ensure that every time you click on a category it shows you every available product linked to it. Simplicity while still being feature rich are our two main goals for our new website layout.
Revised Loyalty Reward Program
Our current Loyalty Rewards Program will end on 30 April 2022. This decision has not been taken lightly and has led to many long discussions working through ideas and alternatives. We believe we have arrived at an outcome that will still recognise the loyalty of our repeat customers and provide them with discounts and special offers but at the same time simplify the process and ensure that it is easily accessible to everyone without the need for assistance from our Customer Service team. We will provide more information on this over the coming weeks.
New Brands
Every year we add new brands to our shelves. We have a nice long list of brands we are "watching" that we would love to add to our range at some point but every year we must prioritise those which most closely align with our brand and provide our customers with a unique offering that complements the other brands we stock. This year we have our eyes on Animal Magic, Eco Nook, Beadie Bug Play and Freckled Frog. If there are some other wooden toy brands you would love to see us stock, pop us an email and let us know!
Brisbane Shop
We will continue with our same shop opening hours in 2022 of 8am to 4pm Monday to Friday. Click and Collect is always recommended to secure what you are after before you come, especially in the case of products which may be low in stock. However, we welcome walk-in shop customers every day as well.
Same Service, Same Smiles
And finally, we will continue on with our same team of staff members to continue providing you with the best customer service experience possible. You can call us, email us, message us on live chat, or visit us in store and we will always do our best to answer your questions in a timely manner with with as much detail as possible.
If you were a customer of ours in 2021, thank you! If you aren't a customer but watch us from a distance, thank you too! Customers and supporters are what keeps small businesses like ours afloat and we sincerely appreciate every order and referral we receive. Have a wonderful 2022 and let's make this one memorable in the most positive of ways.