♦♦♦♦ Alberta Street Team CHAT THREAD for JUNE-SEPTEMBER, 2019 ♦♦♦♦

[#1]

Welcome to the Alberta Team Chat Thread for June 1 through August 31, 2019. Feel free to use the formatting options available for you as you post! We're going to try something a little different and leave the chat thread open for the summer. Enjoy the sun when we are able to see it through the smoke and share your favourite Alberta get away vacation!

Posting in this thread counts towards your team participation and is the main place to get up to date on what we are doing as a team! 

Post your New Listings in our promo thread (public & sharable): https://community.etsy.com/t5/Alberta-Street-Team/June-December-2019-New-Listings/gpm-p/126563177#M48597

WHERE TO FIND OUR TEAM & PARTICIPATE:
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/AlbertaStreetTeam
PINTEREST: www.pinterest.com/ABStreetTeam/
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/etsyalbertateam/ #etsyalbertateam

If you have any questions about the team or how to get more involved please contact Kalen, the Team Captain, at www.etsy.com/shop/minibytes

Previous chat thread here: https://community.etsy.com/t5/Alberta-Street-Team/Alberta-Street-Team-CHAT-THREAD-for-MAY-2019/gpm-p/126181030#M48564

[lampworkbyjulie]

My senior moment for me today - I cannot think of your name snowman collector. Sorry! Joan? Sharon? Shannon? So sorry! lol

Anyway, if you have 'paint' on your computer, find your picture and see if you can click - edit it paint. It has a resizing tool where you can edit the size by percentages. I found it easiest to use. I'm certainly not computer wiz but sometimes I find things that work for me. If you don't have paint, I will try for you if you email me the pic? Not sure I can guarantee success, but willing to try.

Still waiting to see if anyone knows about relisting fees if I have 5 separate items in the vairations and one sells....Why can I not figure this out!

[SnowmanCollector]

Thanks Julie, my name is Sheila. You were close with Sharon and Shannon. lol. I will try paint when I get home tonight. I had sized it in photoshop to the correct pixels but that was not the answer. 

I thought that you only paid for one listing regardless of how many variations you had and then when one sells you again paid for one listing, but I could be mistaken. I really, really need to pay more attention to the fees that Etsy charges. I just find it so confusing. 

[lampworkbyjulie]

Sheila! Of course! Thank you. I hope  you’re right on the fees of listings with variations. For some reason, I could not get my head around it! I’m starting to change things up by adding several similar items to one listing. It will certainly save on general listing fees if we are correct. 

Did cindy leave the team. Haven’t seen her here in a long time. I hope she’s not ill. 

[hopnflop]

New Etsy policy updates https://view.e.etsy.com/?qs=1457fccb330d4b535e37baecae622a5253f8a47a1151790c04ef0f35446228fc70a3656e...

Including an important one: After July 25th, when you create a new listing , it will auto-renew by default, but you should be able to still go in and remove the auto-renewal.

[MagpieQuilts]

I don't know how many of you use Etsy local for your in-person events for your Etsy shop, but we've noticed that people are beginning to use it for places they may have consigned their items to or for local pick up locations.

Etsy.com/local is where you can go to add your in-person events. Enter the city where your event is happening and choose from the drop down menu. If your event organizer hasn't input their event, ask them if you can add it to Etsy local. The location needs to be on Foursquare, but it's not too difficult to add the location if you can't find your venue location.

Those who are adding the pick up location, try searching for events in Toronto to see some examples of how others have done it. 

When you've added your participation in a market or storefront through Etsy local, your on-line customers will see these events on your Etsy shop home page. 

If you want someone to check out how things look from a customer's perspective, let us know here and we'll check it out for you.

[SnowmanCollector]

After a super productive weekend it is back to the real world grind today. Groan...is there anyone on this team that actually makes a living off of their creative enterprise?

[myCorabella]

I've been at this full time since 2010 (wirework jewellery)... not all on Etsy of course. I sure don't miss working for "the man"!

[WireExpressions]

Happy Summer! July is starting off with two lost packages (both higher value ones to replace too). USPS has lost one and Canada Post has lost one. The Canada Post one is a lost cause without tracking, but the USPS one...you'd think they could help me find it with a tracking number. NO! Apparently someone filed a missing mail request ,so I can't file one. It wasn't me, it wasn't my customer. So who on earth would do it? The many people I've spoken with at USPS are just as confused. It hasn't moved in a month from the sorting depot in Great Falls, so they tell me it was probably damaged. Thankfully I have understanding, patient customers. I didn't lose a single package last year, and now two in one month. Oiy! 

I saw the note about the Alberta Team and our thoughts about moving it to facebook. As much as I HATE this new forum format. I won't use facebook. I do not have my own personal account, so I wouldn't be able to access it. (I know! how do I survive?!) Since I find this format so hard to use. I am not on here as much I used to be. And I notice others are not as well. I have not gotten used to it and I'm not sure I ever will. There's my two cents.

[lampworkbyjulie]

In my 600 plus sales, I’ve only had one customer complain that it hadn’t arrived. I was far too hasty with a refund because I’d  bet my bottom dollar that she did get it a week or so later. So I guess I’ve been pretty lucky, touch wood. Since it’s been introduced, I print my shipping labels right from Etsy. Even to Africa, Australia and Europe. No hitches so far. No once have I used tracking. Except in Canada where it’s not an option. 

Yes, I hate this format too. I think there’s less than 6 of us that still chat. I’d be up for moving to fb though as I’m in there often. Wish you were on fb wiredexpressions. 

[myCorabella]

I'm a reluctant Facebook user as well. Myself, I would not likely join on Facebook.

[MagpieQuilts]

Facebook is only one option. We’ve been using the Slack phone app as leaders and it’s working good for us. A little more private than FB and easier than here. And we’re open to suggestions if there’s another forum that might work.

But we can keep hanging out here too. We are all volunteers though and busy with both day jobs and our own shops. Is there value in promoting team members who never check in? Do team members appreciate the tips and hints that are posted on social media? Do they like, share or comment on team posts or posts with team hashtags? 

If we’ve only got an audience of a dozen out of 240 members, how much volunteer time do you expect from team leaders? 

[lampworkbyjulie]

I hadn’t heard of slack. I’d sure  try that out if y’all wished to leave here. But otherwise, I’ll keep checking in here too. 

[SnowmanCollector]

I am a regular Facebook user and would likely find it easier to engage with folks on there. However, I realize that not everyone is on Facebook. 

[MagpieQuilts]

Re: Josh Silverman’s email on offering free US shipping on orders more than $35 US

We’ve already seen in Canada the impacts of offering free domestic shipping and how it affects Canadian shops in Canadian searches. (In my experience, my Canadian sales have gone up and are now the majority of my sales on Etsy since I began to offer free shipping to my Canadian customers.)

This is the same thing coming through for US searches. I’m hearing a couple different ways shops are approaching this and maybe you are hearing others or have a plan for your own shop. 

One idea is to only increase your price to include Canadian shipping. For some items, that might mean it’s enough to offer the same to your US customers and that may be enough to entice them to your shop and purchase something with or without free shipping attached. 

Another is to increase prices to include shipping to most US destinations and then offer Canadian customers a discount via coupon. 

Another option is to fairly state your items value somewhere in the listing either via one of the photos or description plus what you’ve added for shipping costs.

What are you thinking about this most recent announcement? Will you be changing things up in your shop? We want to hear what you think! 

[lampworkbyjulie]

When I see free shipping on anything, I automatically think that it is worked into the price. Personally, I’m still more  inclined to purchase if I don’t have to take those extra steps to figure out what my shipping is. 

I changed my whole shop over  to  free (worldwide) shipping a couple months ago. I have seen an increase in sales. I increased the cost of the item to include what I charged for shipping before. I do not say anything about it in the listing. I feel that common sense should tell most that at least some shipping is in the total cost.

My shipping costs are always over $14 in Canada and $7.32 to the US. My Canadian friends have always received a couple dollars off and on US sales, I make about a $1. My items go small packet air to the states and air worldwide. People can pay extra for tracking if they want. I have never charged for packing supplies or the fold out brochure & wee thank you gift I include in every order  

This announcement doesn’t bother me but I saw that others on fb were really upset about it. There’s alway rants and threats to leave Etsy every time any changes are introduced. That’s their choice, but I’m a die hard. This is home. 

[cindylouwho2]

I did a blog post on all of the things we know about the free shipping announcement at this point: https://www.cindylouwho2.com/blog/2019/7/13/etsys-free-shipping-announcement-what-we-know-so-far

It's likely going to be somewhat different than what we are seeing in Canada, & since we as Canadian sellers don't have the advantage of localization in US search as we do in Canada, do not expect much out of this for your shop unless you already have lots of listings with great quality scores. Before this announcement, 30% of items shipping to the US already had free shipping, so the competition for top search standing is already much more stiff than we experience in Canadian searches. 

[WireExpressions]

I’m waiting to see how this shakes out. One question that was never answered was if the free shipping tool is turned off, will all the prices revert back to their original prices? I’m not about to give it a try until I know it’s simple to change the prices again if I want to. They say it’s rolling out in August, but I have had a price changing tool on my site for about a month now. So I wonder if I’m part of a test. I took a look, but didn’t go to far with the tool last month, bc I just wasn’t ready to do free shipping. 

My sales have been steadily climbing since this free shipping push began and I’ve only offered free shipping for two short periods to see how things would go? It was ‘alright’. the Canadian one certainly didn’t generate the sales I’d hoped, the US one didn’t generate more sales, but the order values were MUCH higher. 

Another thing also that needs to be answered for me is how they will handle currency fluctuations. Since I list everything in Canadian dollars, a free shipping sale is closer to $45 Canadian (which by the way is an easier threshold to offer free shipping on for me than $35 CAD). The other day Etsy said it was $44.15 and two days later my exchange app says it $47.52. Those look like a ridiculous number for Canadian buyers. How will they market this to Canadian shoppers... hey today buy $46.73 and get free shipping! Just make it an even $45... but then it will be under $35USD. I feel like they are really alienating their international sellers with this. 

But we’ll see how it shakes out. It’s not going anywhere, so we need to determine where we each fit in all of this. 

[cindylouwho2]

@WireExpressions  Canadians won't see the $35 & over free shipping guarantee. All of this is only for Americans. The free shipping on $35 and over orders tool only affects US buyers, & the smart pricing tool apparently only works for items over $35 (and it is not out for non-US sellers til August.) There was beta testing, but usually you would know if you were part of it; it's not random. 

There was also a free shipping pricing tool released back in April, but they have removed it already. See discussion here: https://community.etsy.com/t5/All-About-Shipping/FREE-shipping-tool/td-p/126133324  but Etsy has removed the Help page, announcement etc. People couldn't remove it once they used it, so that was a bit of an issue LOL

(I've updated the blog post since you read it, to clarify things that were confusing people, and add a few extra bits)

[WireExpressions]

 @I didn’t realize it would only be visible in the US. That’s a bummer. If I need to adjust prices for USA free shipping it only makes sense to offer it to Canadians too. I’d be pocketing a little extra offering it to Canadians, but considering 36% of my current Etsy sales are from Canada, I wouldn’t be about to alienate that market hoping for a better chance to get found amongst the us market of free shippers. 

I am a need all the information first kind of gal, so definitely waiting to see this new tool they are rolling out for us and see what it’s all about first. 

[cindylouwho2]

While I am posting links, here is my latest ecommerce & social media news update: Here is my latest news update: https://cindylouwho-2.tumblr.com/post/186274398296/recent-news-resources-studies-late-june

I am still working on opening a new business forum, but have put that off until September now due to the workload created by the search changes. 

[hopnflop]

Yeah, I'm just waiting til the tool comes out to really see what's it's all about as well see what other's feedback is like once some shops start using it. 

[SnowmanCollector]

Am I understanding this correctly that in order to have the priority placement in US search your whole shop has to have the free shipping on orders over $35 guarantee? If that is the case, it isn't happening in my shop. There are some items that I would be able to manipulate pricing and offer free shipping but certainly not all of them. 

[cindylouwho2]

No, that is incorrect. From the email they sent yesterday with your US sales stats: "we’ll give priority placement in US search results to items that ship free and to shops that offer a free shipping guarantee to US buyers on orders of $35 or more."

They keep pushing the "guarantee" because they want everything to ship free, but that's not the only way search will prioritize.

I updated my blog post again: https://www.cindylouwho2.com/blog/2019/7/13/etsys-free-shipping-announcement-what-we-know-so-far

and did a short post on a test they did in May which may (or may not) have been a trial run: https://www.cindylouwho2.com/blog/2019/7/15/etsys-push-for-free-shipping-for-us-buyers-an-example-fr...

[SnowmanCollector]

Thank you Cindy! As always you are an encyclopedia of information. I found your blog post very helpful.

[cindylouwho2]

If anyone here got the email offering to talk to Etsy on the phone about the free shipping push, I very strongly suggest you do it. I did mine earlier. They are collecting feedback, and the woman was very nice & understanding; she did not really push me to offer free shipping, as she could understand I had done the cost-benefit analysis for my own shop for the present time. I did learn a few things, and got other benefit$ out of it too. 

(hope I wasn't too subtle there LOL)