Hi Witches! It’s the HWIC with some holiday-related info that I think you’ll wanna know!
First of all, a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who helped us re-imagine October. We’re beyond thrilled with the response to the Wandering Witch City boxes and putting them together really reminded us what makes Salem in October so magical. Knowing that we successfully managed to translate a little bit of October magic into a box has us all kinds of inspired for future possibilities. Having a completely SOLD OUT month of appointments with the raddest people ever wasn’t so bad either! ;) We had no idea what to expect this year, but I’m happy to say it was great and everyone was lovely and safe.
Now that we’re in this most crucial time of the retail year, I wanted to check in and let ya’ll know what you can expect from HausWitch as we head into gifting season! There are a lot of different factors (mostly Covid-related) that play into our holiday plans this year and I wanted to offer some transparency around that, and around our holiday sale plans!
Covid is making many, many things difficult for retailers right now. Supply chain disruption is one of the biggest things impacting us. Meaning: there are shortages on many of the supplies that go into making or packaging treasures, many have long backorders or are out of stock completely. As some of you may know we dealt with some major supply chain issues over the summer with our magical cleaning product line LightHaus, when every 8oz plastic bottle in the known universe was on indefinite backorder. There’s a domino effect, where in this case, without those bottles we couldn’t make Holy Smoke and Aura, which also meant we couldn’t sell our 7 and 11-piece bundles either. That particular problem was solved by September, but we’ve definitely had to shift to different bottles, sprayers, and suppliers, in order to be able to keep making/selling the products. This is just one example, and the issue exists across many different industries. It creates a lot of anxiety in an already challenging time.
It’s not really just small business struggle either. Have you been in a store like Target lately? There are whole sections with no merchandise in them! We’re not really talking about it (I think because it’s scary) but things are not normal in the retail world right now and so this holiday season is not going to be “normal” either.
So how are we working and witching this holiday season within those limitations? I’m so glad you asked!
1. By asking you to shop earlier. Please give us some extra time to make sure all of your gifts arrive on time! As an incentive, we’re doing our "Black Friday" THIS Friday, the 13th (because, duh)! The entire shop, online and in-store will be 20% OFF! Newsletter subscribers will get the discount code at 10am on Friday morning and Instagram followers at noon.
2. We’re giving you the full deets on our holiday-related sales!
- Nov 13th: Black Friday 20% off Everything
- Nov 27th: Black Cat Friday, 13% Sales donated to Gifford Cat Shelter in Boston
- Nov 30th: Cyber Monday: Free US Shipping
- Dec 12th: Holiday Shipping Cutoff
- Dec 14th: Second Paycheck Sale 20% off Everything
Now you know what's happening and when so you can plan! Not ready for Black Friday yet? Well now you know that on Cyber Monday, you can get free US shipping. Still won’t be ready? The Second Paycheck Sale is Dec. 14th, but online orders may not make it to their destination in time so plan accordingly!
3. Which brings me to domestic shipping deadlines! We’re going to have very firm boundaries around this. The USPS suggested deadline for holiday orders is Dec. 15th, but we need a few days to lovingly pack your treasures so ours is the 12th. Anything ordered after that is not guaranteed to make it in time for xmas. We’ll still be shipping orders out, but we aren’t making any promises about when they will arrive. To be honest, I don’t really know how many promises we can make in 2020, period. International witches, I would order before the end of November for sure.
4. The Brick and Mortar Shop is and will remain open by appointment in November on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and in December on Saturdays and Sundays. You can make an appointment here! You can also place an order online and choose "Local Pickup" if you're going to be in the neighborhood!
5. Please keep in mind that HausWitch is a small business with a small team that works almost exclusively with other small businesses with small teams, all of whom are facing the same types of hurdles as us. We are going to do our absolute best to keep all of your favorite things in stock all season long, (we’ve had Katie making Witches candles basically around the clock for months now lol) but keep in mind that we will run out of some things early, and in some cases we will not be able to restock in time for holiday orders. So, if you are waiting to shop the sales, just know that we may be wiped out of some things by then. Or if there are specific things you have in mind, you may want to snag em’ early.
Finally, we’re really excited to roll out a few cute holiday items like altar cantle gift sets, DIY Treasure Boxes with some sweet gift wrapping, digital gift cards, a Lighthaus starter kit and some brand new goodies as well! We recently upgraded our behind-the-scenes space in a pretty major way, so we’ll be able to pack and ship more orders, much faster. 2020 flipped this business right on her head and we’re now doing a majority of our business online as opposed to in-store. The transition hasn’t always been easy, but we’re pretty psyched about where we’ve landed, and even more psyched about the opportunity to grow our virtual coven!
This year more than ever small businesses, artists and makers need your support and I don’t just mean monetarily. Start early, stay kind, and know that we are all doing our very best to help spread lightness and joy in these wild times. We know that you witches are invested in shopping small and making sure your hard-earned dollars are spent with intention and integrity and we appreciate you so, so much.
Stay safe, soft and sane!
The moon is in Libra and the Witches say, "Bring them together."
