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.

[parsi]

I have another question. My conversion rate comparing to my other shop Paisley was almost the same while I have two times more items at Parsi. Is it because I offer products in different subcategories at Parsi? What I mean is that perhaps shops who offer one type of product and use mostly one category and one subcategory can be more successful than shops who offer different products in one category but different subcategories?

[CathySavelsArt]

@parsi, no, the more categories you have, the more pages for a search engine to reference from so it's the opposite in fact. There are many reasons why a shop may or may not be making sales.

I'm not surprised that your conversion rates are similar since you'll probably have set up your shops in a similar manner but presumably you do the same amount of promotion for both too.

If you have a low conversion rate, then it could be that you need a lot of views simply because of the type of product you sell. If it is decorative and not something people need, then it will be harder to sell, especially in this economic climate. That means that you have to promote a lot to make those sales, there is no way around this. You also have to make it attractive for people to buy, so have great descriptions that entice people and ensure you have good policies and that your shipping rates are reasonable.

[parsi]

Thanks Cathy!

[GadegaardDesign]

Hi:-)
Just found out my conversion rate is over 350.
Does anyone have a bit of time, to afvise me if i should or could make any changes? If you have a moment to look at the shop.
Recently shifted to free shipping, should i tag all my items with that as well?

xx, Susanne:-)

[CSavelsCollectibles]

@Susanne Be careful that when you have a quiet period, you do not have a kneejerk reaction and start offering discounts and free shipping, it can be detrimental.

The words 'free shipping' are what is termed boilerplate text and this is a big no-no for search engines. I notice that you have placed it at the beginning of your shop announcement and this will now affect your search results. You haven't put it in your listings descriptions or titles which is good.

Without doing a full critique and going through your store with a fine toothcomb, I cannot tell you what other issues there could be with your store. Sorry, but it is very time-consuming.

[GadegaardDesign]

Thank you so much:-) really helpful and i will change the free shipping at once:-)

[GadegaardDesign]

just one more question.
will it be totally unproffesional to change the shipping back into the shop, and taking off the same amount for the shipping in the listing price, so that the overall price will be about the same?
I just recently changed it because i had few emails from customers, stating that the shipping is very high.
Was i jumping the gun?

[NakedPlanetJewelry]

I have been a jewelry designer for several years, but only recently got an Etsy store. Now I feel lost in a sea of jewelry and don't know how to market my shop. I have attached links to pinterest and facebook and send out a constant contact to about 300 subscribers once a month. I think I need to differentiate my shop from other jewelry shops, but there is so much competition and I see that so many people are doing the same things I am. Any suggestions would be ever so helpful. Thank you.

[GadegaardDesign]

if i was looking for a full shop critique, is there anyone you will recommend?
I really (just like everyone else;-)) want to succeed:-)

[CSavelsCollectibles]

@Susanne, yes, I do shop critiques. Currenly I only do them by special request because I was inundated with them when I had them listed. They cost $48 and you get 12-15 pages. Check my sold items for more information.

It is common practice to make shipping rates more 'palatable' for sellers to increase the item price by an amount and reduce the shipping rate by the same amount so you would be fine doing that. It is a psychological thing, but people do prefer to put value into something tangible.

@Karen, you have already discovered what is needed and this is to have your very own USP (Unique Selling Point). This is the only way that you can stand out in the crowd. Find a material that you love or design items in a particular way so that your jewelry is different to that of most jewelry sellers.

[Former_Member]

I'm curious to know how the rest of you analyze popularity of items in your shop. I'd like to know which items are the most popular and then sell items similar to those in the future. Possible popularity factors I've considered include:

1. # of days it takes an item to sell
2. # of favorites
3. # of favorites divided by # of views
4. Average views/day

Is time it takes to sell always the most valid measure of popularity? There are some items that get a lot of views and favorites but take a while to sell. Is it possible that those items are popular, but something it wrong with the listing such as photos, price, description, etc?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[LilyMoonSigns]

I have found - I had close to 300 items in my jewelry store www.lilyb444.com that if you post the items you like or things you make, you would be surprised what and who likes which items. its hard to tell - when i realized unusual interesting odd or any item would gain popularity I post most items i make. All else is donated or given to family/friends.

[Former_Member]

Hey everyone - new to the team.

My problem is that I'm not being found. Or no one wants my stuff. Either way, I have very low views and I jump for joy if I have a day over 100 combined views. I'd like to increase that, but really don't know how. As it is right now, I only have time to work on the Etsy shop when I am on my lunch break at work because at night I'm busy creating. If my hands get too tired from creating, though, I do take a break and look at Etsy and respond to correspondence.

[CathySavelsArt]

I would not count views or how quickly something sells as a measure of what's popular to sell in the future. The reason is that views depend on too many other factors, ie how recent the listing is, do you renew it often, are your titles, descriptions, tags set up correctly etc.

I do think that favorites is a good one to go by, even if an item is being favorited by team members, they still tend to favorite items that they like.

@Jen, if you're not being found, you need to look at your titles, tags & descriptions but you should also renew. If you do not renew and you're not making sales, your items will simply slip back to the bottom of the list. Another way to get more views is to list more items, that way you have more for a search engine to reference from and you'll also be giving any customer that comes to your store, more choice.

[Former_Member]

Thanks @Cathy, great insight! You mentioned renewing items. Is it a common practice to renew items before they expire? What is the typical time frame to wait to renew an item after it has been first listed?

[CathySavelsArt]

@Michelle, some of my customers to my EurekaGuides store renew as often as every hour. This is something you should experiment with but I would suggest that you renew at least one item each day.

[Former_Member]

Maybe I will try that experiment. I don't have a large budget for things like this. But if it means a sale, it means a sale.

[CathySavelsArt]

@Jen, that's an issue many sellers have but generally, if you have good products that are well presented, it does lead to sales so you kind of have to be brave. If you renew just once a day, that's just $6 per month. That's not a huge amount and you will probably see a difference.

[Former_Member]

Okay - here's a question. For some odd reason I can't figure out, I keep getting hits with the keyword Ruffle Scarf. When I search ruffle scarf, my scarves are nowhere near the 1st 10 pages. Not that I"m complaining, but how far down are people looking? And how can I get more hits with the ruffle scarves?

[DixSterling]

Here's one. Has anyone figured out the best time of day and/or day of week to list or re-list? Let's say New York time as that is sort of "etsy time".

Back when re-listing usually resulted in a view or two quite quickly, I watched Google Analyticas real-time and felt evening (8 pm and beyond Eastern time) was best. With all the growth and changes, I'm not as sure as I was. Just know I do not see views pick up as I used to.

[CSavelsCollectibles]

@Jen, the word 'ruffle' is very popular as anything with ruffles is right on trend. If your items are being found, despite being at the bottom of the list, then it could be that perhaps they're not search by relevancy but by price or maybe even country. There are lots of ways to search for items on Etsy. You do need to set up your listings to come up in the relevancy searches as this is how people search for the majority of the time on Etsy.

@Dix, I found that around 8-9am and 5-9pm New York time is best for me. This seems to be when our websites get busy too. I think this is also when people have a little more time, say before and after their day job.

Do ensure that your listings are set up to keep up with current trends and/or seasons. Keywords right now would be things like 'summer', 'back to school' etc. Ensure that you constantly change your titles, descriptions and tags to stay current.

[Former_Member]

Okay - then how do I set up my listings to come up in the relevancy searches? I have ruffle in the title, scattered in the description and in my tags. What else can I do?

[CSavelsCollectibles]

@Jen, that's fine. It must be in the first 3 words of your title, then in the first 160 characters of your description and again in your tags. You must do that for all relevant keywords for all of your products.

[Former_Member]

Okay, if I'm doing everything correctly, why am I not showing up higher in searches or relevancy? What is the "extra" step I need to take to push me up higher in the list.

[Former_Member]

Okay - here's a good question. Is it hurting me to only offer Priority Flat rate shipping on my products? Should I really take the time to weigh every item and figure out all the different shipping options and prices?