BEAUTIFY YOUR BOOKSHELVES WITH OWLCRATE Loca) bus ness of FeP§ Monthly box of ook$ ANd ood e$ Cheryl Minns Columnist Fo bookworms of all ages who enjoy young adult (YA) novels and a dash of mystery, OwlCrate offers a monthly subscription box with a newly-published novel and several book-related items. The twist? The contents of the box aren't revealed beforehand, so it's a complete mystery what subscribers will receive each month. OwlCrate was founded in Vancouver by Korrina Ede and Robert Madden, former toy store employees who met at work in 2009. The couple had wanted to start their own business for some time, so in November 2014, they took a week off of work to finally solidify their entrepreneurial dreams. “Even though our interests are quite diverse, we always connected over books,” Madden said. “When we decided to start our business together, we thought books were a great idea because we both like to read.” “Robert said he liked the idea of a subscription box, which sounded really fun. Then we were like, ‘What should we put in it?’” Ede said. “Within an hour we had just created OwlCrate,” Madden said. The name OwlCrate was inspired by the Owl Post in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, which involved owls delivering mail to wizards. Ede and Madden write on their website, OwlCrate.com, that an “owl delivers your OwlCrate,” but the “owl usually takes the form of a postal worker.” In February 2015, OwlCrate began taking one-month (US $29.99), three-month ($86.98), and six-month ($167.94) subscription orders for their first box, which would ship in March 2015. “It seemed like a great way to start a business,” Madden said. “Instead of having to find investors, your customer buys a six-month plan upfront and then that money acts as cash flow for you to buy inventory.” Madden and Ede used their retail knowledge and small business skills to secure well-known suppliers and independent artisans on Etsy.com to supply products for the OwlCrate boxes. “In some of our early boxes, we actually used suppliers that we were familiar with from the toy store. For example, we had already communicated with Funko and knew the arrangements,” Madden said. “Korrina had a few Etsy shops in the past, so she was using her Etsy expertise to contact those people. Our small business past really helped.” Ede also used her connections in the YA literary community to discover what upcoming books subscribers would be interested in. Since OwlCrate began, she has personally read and selected each month's book. She typically chooses from about 5 advanced reader copies of upcoming YA novels that are scheduled to be published within 45 days of OwlCrate’s shipping date. She has also curated each month’s box with a theme that relates to the book. The March 2015 box had a Fantasy theme and featured V. E. Schwab's A Darker Shade of Magic. Along with the hardcover book, the box also included a Game of Thrones Mystery Mini figure by Funko, a package of Enchanted Unicorn Bandages by Archie McPhee, a promotional poster and pin for A Darker Shade of Magic from Macmillan Publishers, and a three-pack of mini magnetic bookmarks by Vancouver-based Etsy shop Craftedvan. “OwlCrate reached out to us on Etsy and introduced themselves to us prior to launching their subscription box,” said Diana Luong and Erica Carreras of Craftedvan, which opened in October 2013. “They expressed that they’d love to have our bookmarks in one of their boxes. It turned out we were both from Vancouver and our bookish focuses made it a perfect fit.” When OwlCrate began, Ede and Madden planned to sell 150 subscriptions for the Fantasy box, but they quickly sold out. They decided to add another 100 boxes, which also sold out exceptionally fast. They shipped a total of 250 boxes for their first month of business. For months, OwlCrate had long waitlists of customers wanting to subscribe. Since each month has a different theme, some months were more popular than others, and sometimes the subscription period would end early because they had reached the maximum number of subscriptions and couldn't add any more. OwlCrate now has thousands of subscribers each month, with about 80 per cent of them located in the USA and 20 per cent located in Canada and internationally. “We have customers in Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Dubai,” Madden said. “It’s great to see how many people are part of this community around the world.” At first, Ede and Madden used Canada Post to ship the boxes, but they soon became more cost-effective, using a fulfillment centre in Portland, Oregon. Shipping costs are US $6.99 for American subscribers, $10.59 for Canadian subscribers, and $19.99 for international subscribers. Although international shipping is expensive, subscribers find OwlCrate to be a great way to get North American exclusives. “For some people, it’s worth it because different countries produce different editions of books and a lot of people in Europe want the North American edition of the book,” Madden said. “They want the edition that represents the original, especially with the American authors.” Since OwlCrate works with an American fulfillment centre, Canadian Etsy artisans who want their products in the boxes have to figure out customs for shipping their product to the USA. Craftedvan decided to work out the customs requirements in order to continue having their products in OwlCrate. Along with being featured in the Fantasy box, their mini magnetic bookmarks have also been featured in the Spooky box in October 2015 and the Royalty box in June 2016. “They let us be as creative as we'd like, which makes it so much fun,” Luong and Carreras said. “But since we make our bookmarks by hand, it took us two whole