Important Atelier Sakura Update: Imports, Pre-Orders & What’s Next
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Atelier Sakura Update: Import Costs, Pre-Orders, Tariffs & What’s Ahead
Hello everyone,
This is Tiffany Gieng, owner of Atelier Sakura. 🌸
First, I want to sincerely thank everyone who has supported us. Whether you've visited our store, ordered online, stopped by one of our convention booths, shared our posts, or recommended us to a friend, your support has allowed Atelier Sakura to continue growing.
It has been a long and incredibly busy first year, and I wanted to take some time to be transparent about a few important updates that may affect our store, our website, our pre-orders, and the way we import products going forward.
1. Import Costs, Tariffs & Why This Matters to Us
You may have seen a lot of news recently regarding tariffs and changing trade relations between Canada and the United States.
Because Atelier Sakura specializes in Japanese stationery and goods and primarily imports directly from Japan and other parts of Asia, this does not mean that our Japanese products are suddenly being charged a 50% U.S. tariff.
However, major changes in international trade can still indirectly affect small importing businesses like ours.
As companies adjust where they manufacture, source, export, and ship their products, international trade can shift toward other markets, including Europe and Asia. This can place additional pressure on freight networks, shipping routes, customs processing, and port capacity.
For Atelier Sakura, this is important because almost everything we sell travels a very long distance before reaching our shelves in Montréal.
We are also a small business importing in relatively small quantities. Unlike major retailers, we cannot purchase thousands of units at once or negotiate the same shipping and freight rates.
Changes in supplier pricing, the Japanese yen and Canadian dollar exchange rate, international freight costs, customs and brokerage fees, and transportation costs can therefore have a much bigger impact on us.
This doesn't mean that everything in our store will suddenly become much more expensive. We will continue doing everything we can to keep our prices fair and accessible. However, you may occasionally notice that a restocked product costs slightly more than an older shipment.
We would rather be transparent about these changes than have our customers wonder why a product's price has changed.
2. Pre-Orders May Take Longer
One of the biggest changes customers may notice is with pre-orders and restocks.
Our products travel from Japan and other parts of Asia before reaching Canada, and there are many steps involved before a shipment finally arrives at Atelier Sakura.
Because of the changing international shipping environment, we want customers to understand that some future shipments may take longer than they previously did.
For this reason, pre-order arrival dates should be considered estimates rather than guaranteed dates.
A shipment can be delayed by the supplier, international carrier, customs processing, port congestion, domestic transportation, weather, or other circumstances outside of our control.
Once a shipment reaches us, we will always do our best to process your orders as quickly as possible.
We sincerely appreciate everyone who has been patient with our pre-orders and restocks.
3. A Little Transparency About Our Website
I also want to share something that isn't always obvious when you're shopping online:
I am currently the only person updating Atelier Sakura's website and product listings.
We carry hundreds of products, including different pen colours, tip sizes, notebooks, art supplies, refills, accessories, kitchenware, fashion items, and many other products. Each one has its own supplier information, pricing, variations, inventory, and import costs.
With new products arriving and costs changing, there is a lot of information for one person to keep updated.
If you ever notice a pricing mistake, an incorrect variation, outdated information, or something unusual with a pre-order product, please bear with me and feel free to let us know.
I genuinely appreciate customers who kindly point these things out. It allows me to correct them as quickly as possible.
4. Our First Year Hasn't Always Been Easy
This first year of running Atelier Sakura has brought challenges I never expected.
We have dealt with major water leaks at our shop, building and lease-related problems, Canada Post disruptions, STM strikes, international shipping delays, rising business expenses, and many other unexpected situations.
The water damage in particular has taken a lot of our time and energy behind the scenes. Unfortunately, these situations sometimes take time away from updating products, answering messages, preparing new releases, and working on the website.
I am only 23 years old, and I am still learning so much about operating and growing a business.
Atelier Sakura started because I wanted to create a place where people could discover Japanese stationery, art supplies, fashion, accessories, and products that can otherwise be difficult to find locally.
Even after everything that has happened during our first year, I still want to continue building that little place for our community.
5. Thank You for an Incredible Otakuthon! 🌸
We also want to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone who visited Atelier Sakura during Otakuthon.
The amount of support we received was incredible. We saw so many familiar faces and met so many new people, and we sold out of a large amount of our inventory throughout the event.
We genuinely did not expect that level of support.
We are now working on restocking many of your favourites while also preparing a lot of new Japanese stationery and products for the upcoming seasons.
If something you're looking for is currently sold out, please continue checking our website and store as we gradually rebuild our inventory.
6. It's Been a Very Busy Summer
Otakuthon was also only one part of an extremely busy summer for us.
The week immediately after Otakuthon, I went to the Japan Canada Festival, where I also performed with my band. Shortly afterward, I had another smaller performance to prepare for as well.
Between running Atelier Sakura, conventions, travelling, performing, processing orders, updating the website, managing inventory, dealing with our building issues, and preparing for Back-to-School, it has been a lot.
Our team has been working incredibly hard throughout the summer.
7. Our Team Will Be Taking a Little Break
With summer and our Back-to-School season coming to an end, our team is very tired and will be taking some much-needed time to rest shortly.
We aren't disappearing!
We'll still be working behind the scenes on restocks, inventory, website updates, upcoming products, and everything we're preparing for the next season.
However, you may notice that certain updates, messages, or website changes take a little longer than usual during this period.
If you would still like to support Atelier Sakura while we're reorganizing and recovering from such a busy summer, shopping online or visiting us in-store means more to us than you may realize.
Every purchase helps us restock the products that sold out during Otakuthon and continue bringing new stationery and products from Japan.
8. Atelier Sakura's Next Chapter 🌸
There are also some exciting things happening behind the scenes.
We are currently working toward a new partnership with another company, which we hope to officially announce next year.
We're also planning for the possibility of moving Atelier Sakura to a new location next spring.
The move is not guaranteed yet, so I don't want to promise anything until everything is finalized. However, it is something we are actively planning and working toward.
After everything we have experienced with our current location, we're excited about the possibility of giving Atelier Sakura a fresh start and creating an even better space for everyone.
There are still many things we cannot announce yet, but we're very excited about what the next chapter could look like.
Most Importantly, Thank You
If you've made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read this.
Atelier Sakura is a small business. Behind every package, product listing, price update, email, Instagram post, convention booth, pre-order, and restock are real people trying their best to keep everything running.
I know we aren't perfect.
Sometimes a website listing may need correcting. Sometimes a shipment will arrive later than expected. Sometimes we may take a little longer to answer a message.
But we will always try to be transparent with you when something happens.
At 23 years old, keeping a business going through everything that has happened during our first year has been one of the biggest challenges of my life, but it has also been incredibly rewarding.
Through the water leaks, strikes, shipping problems, conventions, long nights, sold-out products, and everything else, you are the reason Atelier Sakura is still here.
I truly hope that, despite all the uncertainty happening around us, we can continue growing Atelier Sakura for many more years.
Thank you for supporting our store.
Thank you for supporting small businesses.
Thank you for being patient with me and our team.
And most importantly, thank you for allowing us to continue bringing a little piece of Japan to Montréal. 🌸
We have a lot more coming, and I can't wait to share it with you.
Have a wonderful and beautiful day!
With love and appreciation,
Tiffany Gieng
Owner, Atelier Sakura 🌸