This week on What's Up Wednesday, Balloon Fiesta Stuff gets recognized thanks to you, and a long anticipated item finally makes its appearance.
Balloon Fiesta Stuff, the merchandise area of Balloon Fiesta has been around for a while. Both via the physical gift shop at 4401 Alameda Blvd NE, in Albuquerque and online. But it wasn't until 2020 when the pandemic hit, and we scrambled to have a Balloon Fiesta Siesta, that our online presence really took off. It quickly became apparent we needed a different platform to serve the needs of both you the customer and us the business. After a long search and some trials, we finally settled on and implemented Shopify as our backend in January 2022. And what a ride it has been. Our email list of What's Up Wednesday subscribers continues to grow and is now more than 4,000. Sales volume is also up, and on the first day of Balloon Fiesta 2024, we recorded order number 100,000. It happened in the South Merchandise tent to an "unnamed" guest. They bought a number of pins and a couple of t-shirts. But what's pretty cool is that Shopify took notice and sent us an engraved metal shopping bag commemorating the milestone. By the way, check the order number of your next order, we've already passed the 131,000 mark. Not bad for a non-profit organization with only 2 full-time people assigned to merchandise.
Now for that long anticipated new item. It's a pajama set. This dark blue, 100% cotton fabric is specially printed with colorful balloons and are the perfect weight for year round comfort. The top is a button down, and the pants feature a drawstring waistband to keep em up. Roomy, comfy and playful are the words that come to mind when we look at this pajama set. While the buttons are designed for women, even guys will rest comfortably in a pair.
Finally, it's not to early to start thinking about holiday shopping hours. First up is the Thanksgiving holiday. Our physical gift shop will be closed on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday, (Nov 29-30). Online orders can still be placed but they won't be processed until Monday December 2. And there will only be two weeks of shopping before it's time for year-end inventory and processing. More details coming up in the next couple of week here on What's Up Wednesday.
Thanks to everyone who has ordered from us, in person or here online. We appreciate it and will continue to work hard to create the items that make you happy while you celebrate the oldest form of flight, Ballooning.