2 December 2018

Several days had passed since our group participated in the TGIF Bazaar.

Amidst our exams and work, we set aside some time for a Skype discussion session recently to reflect on our experience of the bazaar and suggest ways for improvements for the upcoming events. We have also looked into our plans for the month of December in terms of the events that we would be participating in, the ordering of the supplies and our terrarium production dates.

Review of TGIF Bazaar

Although all of us were quite satisfied with our sales during the event, there was still room for improvement. The following are some points that we noted down, during the discussion, on the ways that we can improve:

• Terrariums were shaken when we were transporting them to and fro the event location using our vehicles. Due to that, we always had to do minor touch-ups on the terrariums at our booth before the start of event.
• During the start and the end of each event day, carrying the terrariums and other items to the vehicle was a hassle as they were placed in flimsy cardboard boxes. Perhaps we could look into investing in trolleys and wooden boxes/ crates that are much sturdier.
• A customer feedbacked to us that the sand of her terrarium shifted as she brings it home, thus affecting the overall design. Although we had reminded customers not to shake the paper bag too much during their purchase, the shifting of sand is inevitable. Hence, we have looked into ways to minimize the effects which is to offer our customers small touch up kits that they can use to"mend" their terrariums if it shifts.
• We did not sell much of the squirt bottles due to lack of promotion. However, nearing the end of the event when we asked customers if they would like to add a dollar for a squirt bottle, most did. Hence, we should work into promoting the squirt bottles and increase the visibility of it.
• Quite a few people approached us to ask whether we would conduct terrarium making workshops for their company events. Perhaps Frond could look into the aspect of workshops in the future.
• The layout of the event table on Day 1 was quite cluttered and messy and we managed to make it more attractive on Day 2. We should plan out on how we should set up the booth a day before any event starts
• On the second day of the bazaar, we did minor customization in terms of shifting of plants and changing the colours of sand in terrariums based on special requests from customers. We received good responses for doing this service and we discussed how we want to enable customization of our terrarium for our future events.

December Events

Corporate Event (10 - 11 Dec)

During the TGIF Bazaar, Shiju managed to gain a new friend. His name was Sathia and he worked at OCBC. He really loved the concept and designs of our terrariums when he visited our booth and he felt that his colleagues would love to have such products in their office desks. He got our contact number and through the OCBC Recreational Centre, he managed to arrange for us a free booth at the OCBC Centre South Building located at Raffles Place. The event would be on the 10th and 11th December from 11am to 3pm. It would be a private event just for OCBC employees working around the area. We would be required to create and send an email, with photos and descriptions of our products, to the OCBC Recreational Centre who would forward this email to all OCBC employees to advertise our booth. Cleo would be working on creating the email for us.

This would be a great opportunity for us and we may even look into selling terrariums to corporate offices if it proves to be successful.

Christmas Event (21 - 23 Dec)

Our team had always aimed to utilize the Christmas season to generate good sales. Therefore, securing a Christmas event booth was very important to us. However, after the TGIF Bazaar ended, we noticed that there were not much booth vacancies for most of the Christmas events. After much searching, we managed to acquire a booth through The Event Society. The booth we secured was for the Christmas Bazaar at City Square Mall. The event would be held from 21st December to 23rd December from 11am to 9pm. As it is a Christmas event, much preparations need to be done in terms of the designing of our terrariums and the products we would be selling.

Supplies

During the Skype chat itself, we decided to order the figurines that we needed for December on Taobao. By doing so, the figurines would arrive just in time for our terrarium production session. During the TGIF Bazaar, we noticed that many were attracted to the figurines that we had. Thus, we decided to order more variety of figurines to reach out to more customers. As we would be participating in a Christmas Bazaar, we ordered quite a few Christmas themed figurines to suit this festive season. Our team also ordered Christmas gift cards so we could better promote and remind customers that they can get our terrariums as gifts for their loved ones.

In terms of the succulents, we decided that we would still be ordering from Pick-A-Plant as we could not find a supplier who would sell their pots as low as Pick-A-Plant would sell. Apart from using succulents, our group also planned to diversify into using cactus for our terrariums as we had several customers interested in them during our bazaar. Soil would be continued to be bought at a good price from Hua Hng Trading and as for the coloured sand, we would still be searching for good suppliers who would sell coloured sand with a variety of colours at a reasonable price.

After a very productive Skype discussion, Frond is now looking forward to a beautiful and successful month of December!