Lets get our Swag on!

Who doesn’t like some good swag?? Gecko swag is a big part of being a patron--we  try to do our best to ensure you are getting high quality products. Over the past 5 years we’ve had many different types of swag. Some examples are stickers, beer koozies, Christmas cards, pictures, calendars, shirts and hats.

When we first started doing swag, we wanted to quality check everything, so we had it all shipped directly to us. This was easy at the time because we were still living on land or at least in the United States.  We were able to view the product, feel it and test it out. When we were happy with the products, we would put in a mass order and keep it on the boat. Once a month I would package it all up and make a run to the post office. It was relatively simple at that time. 

It started to get tricky once we started cruising into the Bahamas and through the Caribbean. Shipping locations were very hard to find and to get to since we lived on the water. This sadly caused our patrons to wait longer than needed to get their swag. But the problems didn’t end there; the bigger issue started when I realized just how long shipping from islands actually took! It was taking up to 8 weeks for patrons to receive their items after shipping the swag out; insane, right? At this point I knew I had to make a change! 

I decided that Puerto Rico and the USVI would be the last time I did a shipment. Then I went to work researching different drop ship companies. The only issue I was concerned about was what if the product looked great on the computer screen but didn’t in real life, or what if the quality was bad? So, I asked our best friend John to view the products for us. 

John received his swag and gave a vague response as I know he didn’t want to hurt my feelings. I knew that it probably wasn’t the best but we went with his opinion--what else was I supposed to do? I decided to ship to patrons and ask for their feedback in hopes that they would love it. Typically no news is good news, but when I didn’t hear back, I assumed that it was probably junk. 

I decided to stop all shipments and wait until we got back to the States to view the products ourselves. We did just that, and let me tell you how embarrassed we were! I quickly went into action to put a decent product together and have been shipping that one out ever since. I’ve always wished that we could go back to how we did it at first with the original products (since they were awesome!), but I just couldn’t figure out a way to do it because I’m not able to keep inventory on the boat and ship at this time. 

Recently, one of my best girlfriends Nicole reached out to me with a proposal to take on some tasks for us in hopes of growing her new virtual assistant business. My eyes lit up when I read her proposal and immediately, I knew I could use her help! Of course, I jumped on the idea and told her all about the swag issues I was having, and she agreed that she’d love to take care of it for me! 

I am happy to announce that we have gone back to the original swag we once had! Nicole will be taking care of all the footwork for us, so those of you needing your swag can look forward to some great products once again. We hope you enjoy all of the products as much as we do!!

Brittany

P.S. Photo of Nicole and I above :)