David's AW News: Secrets

Greetings from AW Warehouse, Bali

Hope you are doing well, and business is good!

Last week I was telling you about how Donald Trump delayed me and I could have missed my flight to Bali. If you missed it you can catch up here.

This week Tomas arrived and we have been working in (what we call) the beach office.. with our team of young programmers and digital marketing folk.

We have been working on a big upgrade to our system. You see AW is all bespoke, we don't use Shopify or Squarespace everything, all the backend: warehouse, stock control, websites, marketing tools it's all in-house. Masterminded and constantly reinvented by Raul, our IT wizard. It's a lot of work actually.

And today, as I write, we are loading a container from the warehouse here. This one is going to Slovakia. It's too hot to work later in the day, so they start loading in the early hours.. we came to check..

Tomas might just see this container in Slovakia around Christmas or New Year.. so for fun (yes I know a little bit naughty) we secretly signed our names.. to prove we could be at either end of the process.

Temu loophole closure hope..

Well I read that maybe, just maybe, the dodgy de minimis loophole, that allows Temu and the like to import dangerous, untaxed and unfairly traded products directly to the UK.. that loophole is going to be closed in the upcoming budget.. LET'S HOPE SO!

As you know - it's NO SECRET - we have been lobbying hard on this issue at AW.. letters to MP's, petitions, YouTube protests and even an AI music video (just for fun) and to make a point!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EH-k1LxpfLI

So much great stock arriving!

So happy to see all the new products going online.. I think the team must be working like crazy..

The new wellness & gratitude notebooks are finally in stock. Have you seen them? I particularly like the "Silver Zodiac" design - inside the journal, you can track down your mood, highlights of the day. 

They are incredible for Christmas gifts... Stock up now... Your customers all need somewhere to write down their SECRETS..

New "Can You Sell This?" from Holly.. she takes a deep dive into Massage Oils..

Which to me is like a blast from the past. You see massage oils were one of the first products at AW. 

Ancient History of AW - let me tell you a secret. 

If you are a regular reader, you probably know I'm the founder and I started AW almost 30 years ago.. (the anniversary is approaching soon). From a street market in Sheffield. I sold essential oils, and soon people were asking for massage oils.. After lots of research and testing I launched a range.. I called it Massage and Bath Oil, because I thought maybe people could be embarrassed (I felt) buying massage oil. Anyway, there is basically no difference, it seemed to me, between massage and bath oil. Why couldn't it be the same thing? 

Well, I had one product I developed for my mother, who suffered from arthritis joint pains.. I called it Arthritis Ease. And it was a big success on the market, with regular customers. Much later, years later I was told we couldn't sell it because of course you can't make medical claims. I remember getting emails from old folks, regular customers complaining (I think this was about 2007) so we quietly put it back on sale, with the same formulation.. (Rosemary, Lavender, Myrrh, Ginger).. but just called it "Special A2 Mix"  - if you know you know..  and to this day we sell it!

Ancient Wisdom has come a long way in 30 years.. I'll tell you some more secrets next week.

Meanwhile,check out the other new products below..

All the best.. have a great week..

More news next week

David