How We Shipped 50,000 Online Orders Last Year [Update]

Matti Lehtonen

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Published: April 16th, 2022

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Matti Lehtonen

Founder, Backstage Rock Shop

$185K

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Backstage Rock Shop

backstagerockshop.com

from Tampere, Finland

started September 2011

$185,000

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

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Want more updates on Backstage Rock Shop? Check out these stories:

1. How I Started A $150K/Month Business Selling Rock Bands Official Merchandise (2020) ➜

This is a follow up story for Backstage Rock Shop. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published over 4 years ago, check it out here.

Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.

Hey! I am Matti Lehtonen, MD of Backstage Rock Shop Ltd. We do merchandise for music acts, mainly in the rock and metal scene and we are based in Tampere, Finland.

We handle the official webshops for around 50 bands and e-commerce is our core business but we do also sell items live in concerts, tours, and festivals. In normal situations, we do 200 - 300 live shows annually, now in covid time unfortunately a lot less.

Tell us about what you’ve been up to! Has the business been growing?

It’s been quite an interesting year due to all covid related things. E-commerce has been growing and last year (2020) we shipped well over 50,000 online store orders, this year we’ve been sending pretty much the same amount of packages as last year. We’ve done more marketing and many new marketing co-operations are starting this fall so looking good in that sector.

Learn what others in your business are doing, always be on top of things so that you know what is going on in your industry.

Live business, on the other hand, selling band merchandise at festivals, tours, and concerts have been pretty quiet. I mean we had some kind of festival summer here in Finland this year but all the major festivals were canceled as well as all happenings earlier this year so for us, it has meant that in the live sector we’ve lost quite a lot of revenue. But next year will be the biggest so far for sure.

What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?

Things might take more time. Production times with some items and factories are growing because of covid, also delivery costs globally. Even though merchandise and especially textiles are our core items, we also release music. With the vinyl boom during the past few years, the production times have been ridiculous.

In early 2021 we were talking about 6-7 weeks of production, in August 2021 we are talking about 5-6 months so you need to plan things well ahead. Also, one thing that has changed this year is that things do change with really short notice so you need to react faster than before.

What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?

This fall we are celebrating our 10th anniversary and we are also moving to bigger premises in late September. Our current premises are 475m2 and the new one will be over 800m2 of just renovated space which we have planned ourselves so we are looking forward to this. The new premises will make operations a lot more efficient. We also have a lot of new cool releases and launches coming later this year and during the next year so 2022 will be our best year so far for sure.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?

Learn what others in your business are doing, and always be on top of things so that you know what is going on in your industry. Talk with other companies in your industry. At least here in Finland in our business, we do a lot of cooperation with other companies in our industry. Even though they are our competitors, there are always win-win situations that you can get with other companies. Do not be afraid of failure, try new things. If you don’t try, you won’t achieve anything.