Business Chat

[#1]

If you have any questions or pointers to give relating to the business of running your Etsy shops, please post those here.

[CSavelsCollectibles]

@Ganev, I would try and find a solutiona asap because I think if you could find a way around the shipping issue, you probably would make more sales. Unfortunately it's a bit of a viscious circle for you. I wish there was something else I could suggest.

[ReTainReMakeReNew]

Thanks for your concern Eureka. I have been looking for other Etsy mosaic sellers from here in Spain and have come up with hardly any! The few that are selling via Etsy are in a way higher price bracket than I am - yet their shipping prices seem pretty normal - not excessive. My feeling is that they are charging high to cover the shipping cost - however - they sell very little!

As well as this, non of them are doing the type of thing that I am - part functional, part art, as in my items (mirrors, tableware, frames etc) can be used for something other than pure adornment. I think this may be the crucial difference, I need to work out, are my pieces art with a function, in which case I can charge higher rates, or are they functional objects with an arty twist?

Irrelevant of all this though, is actually getting on the ladder and selling a few things to start the ball rolling! Probably the rest will find it's own way with time.

After I check out with the PO, if what I am seeing online is the accurate price, it may give me a better idea which way I need to be heading.

My views have gone up a small amount recently, since implementing some of your critique suggestions, however they are still very low. I have also purchased your Stumble Upon guide and am going to start implementing that. I see you said to other sellers that some things take years before they actually start working! Oh my! I just have to learn to be more patient!

Thanks again for your support.

[CSavelsCollectibles]

@Ganev, Your SU account will start working within a few days, not years, if used properly. Please read over my Guide again to be sure you're doing it right and use it every day for a few minutes. The ratio of other sites stumbles to your own is important. Only stumble yours around 20%. SU have a tipping point so if you stumble your own site too much, there is no going back and it will never work. I get literally thousands of hits on some of my blogs.

Going high end would be one way for you to go. I know for a fact that the luxury market is doing really well right now and with my own art, I'm no longer doing small paintings, only large expensive works for that reason. When you do high end work, shipping doesn't really come in to it as buyers are not worried over an extra $50 or so.

If you call your items 'functional art', they will fetch more money. Anything with an arty twist commands higher prices. You cannot just call a mosaic table 'functional art', it needs to be a really creative, one-off piece that really does look like a work of art and involves much work and detail and great design.

[PaisleyandParadise]

I have question regarding low views. I've worked hard on tags and titles, even tried search ad but my views are very low. I have another shop on Etsy "parsi", it also got recently very low view. I really don't know what else I can do. My views dropped to one third comparing last year. I renew 5 items from each shop every day, yet no change.

[ReTainReMakeReNew]

Hi Eureka

I have been going through the SU guide but stupidly only just realised it would work best for people with blogs and a personal website, neither of which I do right now! I think I may also try your Twitter guide, I've not been into Twitter much but have an account and have been using the button on Etsy for new listings recently. Do you think this may work better for me?

I am thinking that I will move towards going higher end as suggested with more detailed and designed work.

Also some better news on the postal costs. There is a small service running for expats from the UK here, which has recently gone international. They fly everything to London first. The same 500 gram parcel with them is €17 as opposed to 24 or 30 with the national correos service. This will at least leave me a little earnings on some of the stock I have right now, without hiking up the prices too much.

Any further suggestions to increase views (as in PaisleyandParadise) question above would also be gratefully received. I am about half way through rewriting tags and titles as per your suggestions.

[CSavelsCollectibles]

@Ganev, I don't know why you feel it would work better for blogs. It also works equally for listings. It is true that certain blogs get a huge amount of traffic but that's not to say that you cannot get a decent amount for your listings. My paintings get the largest amount of traffic here on Etsy from SU.

@Ganev and Paisly, the most important thing is that you have the most important keywords relating to your items, ie what someone would search for to find your product, must be at the beginning of your title, the first 160 characters of your descriptions and in your tags. All three areas must match up with the best keywords for that item. This is what will get you better search results on Etsy and for search engines.

@Paisly, you do not have a lot of products, only 29 so this is not an awful lot for a search engine to reference from. If it's quiet, use that time to make more products, the more the better. It will also offer your customers more choice.

Generally, the summer can be very quiet so please bear with things. I'm also getting fewer views than before but it's like this every year so I don't worry. In fact, I often take the whole month of August off because I know it will be like that.

[CSavelsCollectibles]

@PaisleyandParadise Having just done your views to sales conversion rate, it is clear that you do not have enough products. You're needing 715 views to make a sale and this could mean that your visitors are not finding what they're looking for. (That's just one reason). High pricing could be another or selling items that no one wants. I don't believe it's your products or your pricing.

Low views could also be due to the fact you do not offer international shipping rates.
If you do not list international shipping rates, you will be missing out on views. For example, I live in France and when I search for items to purchase, I stipulate that items must ship to France. Your items will never show up in my search results.

[ReTainReMakeReNew]

Eureka, thanks for that, I obviously got the wrong end of the stick - it's just the impression I got reading through the guide.

I do have a query too. You say 'when you stumble a site, a username will appear in your toolbar' - I have not seen this - perhaps I'm looking in the wrong place? Could you clarify?

[PaisleyandParadise]

Thank Eureka! That helps a lot to understand the situation. I have avoided international shipping due to high cost. as most of my items had to be shipped as package. I did not have a good experience in my other shop "parsi" for international shipping (high cost, custom fee, damage). But now I'm thinking of adding it for this shop and try once more. Thanks for your help!

[EarthChildArt]

I need some help!
I think my pictures are good, I think I have a USP, and I've been working on improving my titles, tags, descriptions, and about page.
I also have a fb page for my shop as well as Twitter and Pinterest.
I've also been working with commenting on blogs which relate to my work. A few people have even contacted me about doing blog features about my shop.
However, my conversion rate is so low, it's discouraging. (it takes over 900 views for me to get 1 sale.)
What am I doing wrong? I know my niche market is quite specific (ecofriendly, boho chic,) but I think I should be getting more sales than I am.
I don't even know specifically what to ask help for, I just know I need help!
Please help!

[parsi]

@Eureka, the number of items raised another questions in my mind. How about shops that don't have so many items but many sales? I know some that even have to put their shops on vacation mode because of high number of requests.

[CSavelsCollectibles]

@Shelly, the composition of your images is too cluttered and this is not going to help you draw people to click on your items. You really need them to 'pop' from the screen so you need to simplify the backgrounds. You also do not renew so by now, your items will have sunk right down to the bottom of the list.

When marketing, it is important to target your niche market. Tweet about the environment, being eco friendly etc. The same on FB. This will attract the people that would potentially buy your items.

@Parsi, this can occasionally be the case. In fact, it is for me and I've had to remove my critiques and product descriptions because I could not cope with demand. I'm still busy doing those just from special requests I get. However, you have to have a product that people really want or need. (Sellers need my services/guides). That's not the case for all Sellers of course.

Having lots of choice, increases your sales potential enormously. Not only because someone is more likely to buy but because you simply have more keywordssearch engines can reference from. Some say the golden number is 100.

[StudioVitezArt]

I need some help too. I have over 1170 views but no sales. I thing that my pictures are good, price are not to high... (maybe I am wrong). I have facebook but I prefer pinterest .
Have you any idea what can I do?

[CSavelsCollectibles]

@Sani, without doing a full critique and spending some time looking around your store, I cannot exactly determine what the issue is.

At first glance, there are issues with your titles and that will affect your search results. Also, you do not have enough products, that will also give you better search results but also more sales potential when your visitors do land in your shop.

You are also not renewing so your items will have slipped to the bottom of the list. It also does not look like you do much promotion. You only have 85 followers on FB which is not likely to produce sales. Just for example, I have 435000 followers on twitter and when I tweet one of my products, I get around 20 views on average. You can see the percentage. You need a lot of followers to ensure that you get some views and then hopefully sales.

[EarthChildArt]

Thanks a lot for your suggestions Eureka,
I know I should be engaging more with people on Facebook and Twitter and not just posting my items.
As for the pictures, I like colour! (as you can see in my shop) but I haven't been having much luck with my shop lately, so I will try using a white background and see if that makes a difference. It will have to be a gradual change though. Re-taking photos of all my items will take time.

[StudioVitezArt]

Thank you so much for your suggestions. I will try to follow it.

[CSavelsCollectibles]

@Shelly, you can have lots of color, your items have that anyway, but the compositions cannot be fussy. This detracts from the products and stops people clicking. Product photographers almost always use very plain backgrounds for that reason.

@Sani, you're welcome.

[tjCervantesArt]

I have read some the posts here, and they are quite helpful. I consider my shop a work in progress. @EurekaGuides, just want to say, you are so helpful in getting shops going. THANKS!!!

Now I do have a question, I was offering free shipping for a couple of months just to see what would happen, and my sales picked up it seemed. Now, I have taken off free shipping and sales aren't going as good, so it seems. Is it good to offer different incentives to people visiting and to return customers? Or should I stick with what works? Also, I have never done a newsletter, and I found Monkey Chimp, will a newsletter be a good way to offer different incentives to return customer. And is their anybody that uses Monkey Chimp here?

[CSavelsCollectibles]

@Terry, thanks for your kind words. I know how hard it is from my own experience so I'm happy to help.

Things are generally always quiet in August as many people are on holiday and out of their usual routine. Try and offer free shipping again and see what happens. Much of this is trial and error.

Newsletters can really work but you need a lot of subscribers and you can't do it too often. Be careful too when using a tool like mail chimp that you don't send too many emails at once time or you may be blocked by your service provider.

[tjCervantesArt]

@EurekaGuides thanks! I will try that, I am going to let it ride for about another week or two, then do it again if the sales don't pick up.

How about if I do a survey in a newsletter for repeat customers, has anybody done that, is the feedback good?

[tjCervantesArt]

I meant Mail Chimp, lol and thanks for the tip! It's free, and i wanted to send out to about 100 clients, would I have to send that in spurts, or is that okay?

[CathySavelsArt]

@terry, it really depends on your ISP as to how many emails you can send at one time. It's best to just do it in batches, say 25 just to be on the safe side. 100 is probably OK but I would not advise it.

I've never asked for feedback so can't comment on that. One thing about newsletters is that you must make them interesting, not just get people to buy your stuff. Write something you feel your target market would like to know about.

[tjCervantesArt]

@cathysavelspainting thanks, I will definitely try that.

[PortraitPainting17]

Hi,

Any ideas out there to promote my portrait painting business?

[CSavelsCollectibles]

@Geoffrey, there a blog here that gives tips on how to promote yourself as an artist. It's very helpful. :-)

http://www.totalartsoul.com/blog/2576-creative-ways-for-selling-your-paintings.html