Shop Critique

[#1]

If you would like some advice don't be afraid to ask!

[Former_Member]

I am a bit behind just keep checking back I havnt forgotten you guys just have a ton going on and I want to be as thorough as possible!

[Former_Member]

Sorry for the long wait Leah,

First I love your critters and your banner. Shipping Worldwide is also a great plus! I like your tags as well!

Now for the critique!

Photos You need for your photos to POP for that you need a neutral (White normally) and you need to increase the lighting or the exposure on your camera to brighten em up. Detail is key!

Titles You should put in your title what is most likely to be searched for first in your titles....

Pink Butterfly Crochet Amigurumi Octopus Doll

Handmade Doll Crochet Pink Butterfly Octopus Amigurumi

Crochet Pink Rose White Baby Beanie / Crystal Jewels / Photo Props / Girls hat / Size 0-3 Months old / Baby Shower Holiday gifts

Handmade Crochet White Baby Beanie Pink Rose - Size 0-3 Months old

You don't want your titles too busy. Whatever you chose for your title make sure it is included in your first line of your description to increase your Google and Etsy search visibility.


Inventory..100 is the number to make your customers feel confient in buying your products!


I hope that helps! Let me know how it goes!

[Former_Member]

Ok Your Turn Stacie...

I love your crayons,titles,banner the fact you ship worldwide and your tags!

Now for the things you could work on..

Photos... Your backgrounds are good when you are using white but you need to add more lighting or increase your exposure to make them pop!

Inventory..100 items is your goal

Pricing..I think you should INCREASE your prices. Add 2 dollars an item n give it a couple months if people still buy regularly go ahead and raise em again. Test your market to see what it will allow.

I hope that helps!..Let me know how it goes!

[Former_Member]

Hi Chris, I'd love a critique of my shop :)

The direction I'm planning to go in is to add more items (obviously) but focus more on copper gifts, wirework jewellery, and the smaller beaded items, and less on the one of a kind items. I want to remove the glass pendants all together, as they aren't selling well online, but do well in person.

Is this the right thing to do, and what else should I be working on urgently? Any thoughts at all from anyone who has time to chip in will be very welcome :)

[Former_Member]

Hi Zoe,

Sorry this thread got kinda buried on me...

There is a lot I like your photos are spot on,your banner is cool,worldwide shipping is perfect!.

Now for the critique.

Inventory...You are SOOOO close add the final 15 pieces to get to 100...it helps!

You are doing ALMOST everything perfectly. Unfortunately the ones you are missing drive traffic to your shop.

Titles Your first two words should be the most important as far as search..If you have red and white beaded earrings what search finds is (red and white) and not the most important thing about your product (Handmade Earrings) also the shorter the title the better. You also should repeat your title in the first line of your description.

Tags singular tags are ok (earrings,handmade etc..) but you get more mileage out of compound search terms. Go to googleadwords.com and use their keyword tool. but here are some examples (red and white,handmade earrings,earrings handmade,red earrings,white earring,custom earrings,etc....)

Overall great shop! I hope this helped!
Chris

[Former_Member]

That is so helpful Chris, you're a star!

Just a small note, I think that if you repeat your item title as the first line of your listing then it can damage your google listings, because google thinks you're spamming. Better to have the title 'red and white earrings' and the first line 'handmade earrings with red and white crystal' so that you have the keywords there but jiggled around and expanded upon a bit. That's what I've heard anyway, correct me if I'm wrong!

Thanks again for taking the time to look at my shop, it really helps to have a fresh pair of eyes. I'll be putting your advice into practice over the next few days, and few years :)

[Doodlebump]

Hi Chris,
I was wondering, if you still have a moment, would you mind critiquing my shop please?

I am new to Etsy and (over the next few months) am going to add to the inventory and try and reach that illusive 100 items. I am also in the process of changing the tags to more compound ones. However I have changed the title of 'A is for Aeroplane to be different from the others and was wondering if all my titles are too similar? Cause my products are quite similar I am not too sure what to do about this one :)

Many thanks
Chrissy

[Former_Member]

Hi Chrissy let me take a look,

I love your banner,you are a worldwide merchant which is very smart..

Now for the critique..

Photos...I'm conflicted as far as your photos. They are crisp and clear and the backgrounds do go with them well..I am conflicted because I normally advise a White background to help your photos pop AND to help encourage people to add you to treasuries.

Titles.... I think yours are great but you need to put the keywords in order of importance. Think of yourself as a customer looking for your product and place the two most important search terms first.


http://www.etsy.com/listing/117719325/o-is-for-owl-personalised-nursery-art

For this one I would put
Personalized Art - O Is for Owl Nursery

Tags...Similarly think of what your target customer would search for to come across your product..singular terms are ok (personalized,art,print) you get more mileage out of compound terms (personalized art,custom art,nursery print,handmade art print,handmade art,etc..)

Inventory...Obviously you need to hit that 100 mark to really get people buzzing about you so you will have to expand upon the alphabet concept and add numbers or perhaps sentence structure (school house rock anyone?..conjunction junction what's your function..eh humm sorry got carried away :))

I hope this helps! Let me know how it goes :)

[Doodlebump]

Thank you so much Chris that was great loads to look at . Thank you for taking the time to look over my shop, it's really great to have another perspective on things. Sometimes you get a bit stuck and wonder what the next step is. I will be putting your advice into action. :)

[Former_Member]

You are very welcome! Glad I could help! Check out the daily chat threads sometimes and take some time to help promote fellow teammates when time allows. This goes for everyone on the team..can you imagine if 86 people help promote 86 shops! We will all gain amazing exposure and a 10 fold repayment on the little time it took to do so :)

[SilverFoxDesigns6]

Hi Chris,

I too would love a critique of my shop. I've been getting a fair number of views, but no sales as yet. I have been wondering what I am doing wrong or what needs to be tweaked and how. I am working on that magic 100 number and have a number of items that I will be adding to the shop as soon as I get them photographed.

Many thanks for any help you can give me.

[Former_Member]

Hi Silver,

Until the second week or so of January sales will be slow for most shops so I wouldn't be to concerned if I were you. That being said I'll gladly take a peek at your shop to see what I see.

I love your nice clean banner design,items,tags are not bad but be sure to use them all!

Now for the critique.

Photos..Most of your photos are clear and bright. Those that are not you should retake and check before you post them. The major issue I see is your backgrounds...You have a couple different backgrounds. The best photos are on a plain white background with nice close up product shots and nice bright lighting. Also use all 5 photos, shoot from different angles or shoot your packaging. Whatever you have to do to get 5 quality shots!

Shipping...You are SEVERELY limiting your potential only shipping to Canada. If you want to make yourself truly successful you MUST open yourself up to the world!

Titles should have your most important info listed first to be found in search. Also in your first line of your description include your most important terms "handmade earrings"

http://www.etsy.com/listing/118672743/silver-aventurine-drop-earrings

Handmade Earrings Silver Drop Style Adventurine

Inventory..You already know 100 is the magic number!

Also I'm going to start suggesting to everyone who asks for a critique favorite others items,treasuries and participating in the threads. Most people will say they don't have time but I cant stress how a little effort helping others does end up helping you make sales. Think of it like a snowball at first it's small and doesn't make much noise but as you add more snow (contacts) as it rolls down the hill it then grows in size and power.

I hope that helps!

[SilverFoxDesigns6]

Hi Chris,

Many thanks for your critique of my shop. You've given me a lot of very helpful tips. It's hard to be objective with your own work, especially when you're a newbie. Now I can lay out a plan for developing my shop.

One thing I'm going to do is check into shipping to countries other than Canada to see what I need to do with respect to taxes, etc. and what restrictions exist. (I'm kind of paranoid about dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's when it comes to dealing with government agencies.)

Once again thank you very much for your help.

[Former_Member]

anyone else?

[CushionsandMore]

Hi I have an Etsy pillow shop that I opened up in October. I am adding listings as I go along and try to tag all items as well as describe them effectively. Whilst my viewings are increasing with each passing day thanks to my treasury lists, favoritism of others shops etc, and involvement in several promotional teams in Etsy, I have had no sales yet. Maybe some advise down my way would enlighten me ?

[Former_Member]

Emiliana,

I will gladly give you a critique shortly after the Packers game in a couple hours. Please check back often and it wont be long.

[CushionsandMore]

Thanks Chris ,

no problem take your time, as due to the time zone difference I'l be seeing your feedback by tomorrow morning our time! (+ 2 GMT)

[Former_Member]

Christina- I wanted to say that while I have 0 children, I had so much fun looking at your prints today. :) So cute!

[DoorCountyVintage]

Emiliana,

I love your shop, banner,the fact you ship worldwide and your tags

Now for the critique

Photos... I like them for the most part but you need to brighten them up. They are all kinda dreary and dark. Perhaps turning up your exposure on your camera would help. Also I would get a white piece of construction paper to use underneath your pillows. Overall not bad.

Titles..Remember to put the most important information first!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/119076397/grey-circle-on-orange-throw-pillow

I would write Throw Pillow,Geometric Modern Home Accents, Grey Circle on Orange Design

Inventory..100 is were the magic is. You need to get busy creating and listing and get to 100 plus listings and try to stay in that area. The more you have the more you are seen.


I hope that helps! Let me know how it goes!

[Former_Member]

@CushionsandMore

Hello, your pillows are adorable and you have gotten some great advice so far.

I agree with the photos and photos can be so hard to get right, I find myself never liking the photos I take but here are some tips for taking photos.

You can purchase a roll of white paper in most office supply stores in the teacher/kids area. It's a large roll and is not very expensive. Find in our home where you get the most light and at what time of the day. For example the front of my house faces East and the sun is the strongest in the front in the morning and early afternoon where the back of the house is brightest in the evening. I find a great window with lots of nature light and pull the roll of white paper up onto the window and tape it and the bring it down onto to a table top. So that I have a completely white background. This helps alot with lighting.

The other thing I would suggest is your Titles for your listing, although the pattern names make since to you they may not to someone else so for the floral patterns I would keep it simple and state Floral instead of the name and you can always add colors in the tags. Make sure the same title information is also in the first paragraph of your description as well.

Hope that helps,
Angie

[Former_Member]

I actually use just 2 white pieces of posterboard. They hold up better than paper, are much bigger but still move very easily when I need to. Obviously, I need to update some old photos, but all the pictures I've taken since I bought them are soooo much better. That and daylight bulbs in my studio have drastically reduced the photo editing I have to do.

[Former_Member]

Other than the fact I have 92 items to go to reach the magic number, and at least 1 listing has a dark/dreary overcast look, I also would like a critique.
Oh, and I am looking into even how to ship world wide as I have absolutely no idea how or how much it cost, but I would love to be able to open up to that extra market (especially since some of my very favorite things actually come from the UK, so I know it works both ways :p )

[Former_Member]

Carolyn,
I will critique your shop in the morning when I am more awake so I can give you
my 100% attention.

[Former_Member]

Ok, looking forward to seeing it.

[CushionsandMore]

Chris,

thanks a lot for your time and advice, this is really helpful. I was aware that the photos are dreary and thank you for the tips (also thanks to AModernStyle for photography tips and to other members too!)

I will do my best to fix this by brightening up the whole background as well as foreground. Thanks also for the advice regarding the titles. I have noticed that specific titles I have used are coming up even in Google which is great, whilst others might not, so that needs reviewing too. Just a question, though, I have used the colours of the items first rather than last as I noticed that most people search their pillows by colour. Isn't writing "throw pillow" first, too general and diverse a term, so the item does get lost in the thousands out there so to say? I was just wondering about that.

As for the 100 inventory, yes I have noticed that very successful shops have 100 + items even near to 250. I guess this is easier for already existing shops that have the stock to show, as in our case we make the pillows as we go along. But yes you are right there too!

Thanks again!