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.

[CathySavelsArt]

@Jen, there could be another issue then, it could be your images. If your products do not look enticing to people searching on Etsy, then they're not likely to click on the image to land in your store. There are lighting issues in many of your images.

I personally think it is absolutely necessary to weigh each item with its packaging and list a precise shipping rate. Because there is so much competition, I really think you need to be as competitive as possible. It also makes for a very fair system where no one gets overcharged.

[CathySavelsArt]

@Jen, this item:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/122600279/two-tone-mens-watchcap-skullcap-beanie?ref=shop_home_active

The title starts with the words :

two tone mens

This does not state what the item is which is 'men's beanie hat'. If you do not use the most important keywords relating to that product within the first 2 or 3 words, you will not get good search results.

You should also be using words that people would actually search for and ensure that there is not too much competition, ie do not be too vague.

[SimplyMadJewelry]

hi! wow a lot of great info on here...I have pick up a few tips...
I have had my shop for over two years and it is only this year that I feel I am running a business and not a frustrating hobby..

Things I have done that have helped:

1- improved my pictures A LOT! little by little I am retaking picts of the old items
2 - have become more active in social media, I was always active on my faceboook page now I am pinning every day as well
3 - have a few small adds on blogs and not only am I getting traffic, I have met some nice people

Things I struggle with...

1 - I don't have a cohesive image...I like working with EVERY material out there, so I go from large fashion jewelry to daitny sterling silve pieces in one second...it has been the hardest thing to find that "it" to be recognized for - and every new technique I see I want to try!!!
2 - I have significantly improved my understanding of search words and description writing to be found (thanks to Cathy/Eureka) but I am still not confident I am doing as well as I can in that area

Any tips? Thanks...

[EurekaGuides]

@Madeline, The first thing I notice is that you have hearts in your shop announcement and shop title take those out. THIS IS IMPORTANT. Search engines do not like non-standard characters like this. Ensure that the most important keywords relating to your products are in the first 160 characters of your announcement. You also mention your sale at the beginning which is also a big no-no.

You still do not have your titles set up correctly for some of your listings. The most important keywords, ie what the item is, should be within the first 2 or 3 words, they have the most value. Your titles will make no sense to a search engine. Note what I said in the above post to @Jen.

Having a USP (Unique Selling Point) is not really anything to do with the materials you use. It is about the style of your products and how you present them. You need to think carefully about the compositions of your images and I see that those are now much improved. I can begin to see somewhat of a brand coming through but this could be much stronger still. Keep all your primary images the same. Also really bring home the travel inspiration since this is your USP but make sure that it is cohesive throughout.

[SimplyMadJewelry]

thank you again Cathy...I have tried applied what I learned from your review in the new listings and have not taken the time to improve all listings :(

will try to do a little bit more every day...

you said this:
You also mention your sale at the beginning which is also a big no-no.

you mean if I have an item on sale to NOT put the word sale first on the title?

if you mean something else, can you copy a link of one of my listing where I can see what you mean...I want to understand

i feel i am going in the right direction as sales have improved...but have much work to do...thanks for your help!

[Former_Member]

I try to price my pieces competitivley but I still have very few sales... Only one of my sales coming from Etsy. I advertise on Facebook, Twitter and other avenues, too. I do get comments about my prices but I think I will be sticking to my guns, and only lower my prices at craft fairs (no shipping).
Our pieces are all special to us and we would rather keep them than have them go to someone that does not respect the value of the product. :)

[CathySavelsArt]

@Madeline, words like 'sale', 'free', 'free shipping', 'on sale' is called 'boilerplate text and you should not be using these in your titles. This is what Etsy says:

“Google Product Search does not permit the following:
• Mature content, as defined by Etsy. Mature item listings will not be submitted to Google Product Search.
• Listing titles or descriptions with special characters like stars or hearts. When creating a bulleted list in a listing description, we recommend using hyphens or asterisks.
• Listings with promotional or boilerplate text in the description, such as "free shipping." We recommend keeping information about shipping in your Shipping Profiles and your shop policies on your Shop Policies page.
• Listings with "repeated and unnecessary use of punctuation, capitalization or symbols."
• Duplicate listings. This includes listings from accounts on other marketplaces that submit items to Google Product Search.”


Some of this is explained at the bottom of the product descriptions we did for you. :-)

[CathySavelsArt]

@Lorin, your prices are not expensive and if people are saying otherwise, then they're not your target market anyway and they should be buying mass-produced stuff from China.

It is not a good idea to lower your prices at craft fairs however. Your prices should be consistent, no matter where you sell. If someone was to go online and then find your item at a different price, this could cause them to be upset or they may then want you to lower your price to match what they previously paid. It's not a good situation to get into.

[DaydreamingDayz]

cathy,

Loving the info on boilerplate text. Going to pop back and have another read at lunch.

[SimplyMadJewelry]

great thanks!!! I will take a look for those titles and will keep working on everything else...thanks!

[ReTainReMakeReNew]

Hi everyone,

Badly need some help here - if anyone has any answers to this I would be super grateful.

I live both in Spain and in London at times (I have elderly parents there). At the moment I am in Spain and have been since opening my Etsy shop in June. However, I have quite a bit of stock in London too which was on a different platform. It hasn't really worked for me and I have started to add those items to Etsy recently. I will be closing the other shop soon. My sister has said she will post out any items that should happen to sell while I am in Spain.

I watched a video yesterday about someone who had their shop closed down for selling stuff from a different country than they were in - is this correct, can it happen?

I have at the moment hidden the items that would ship from the UK. Can anyone suggest a way round this? Should I open another shop so that I can close the Spainish one when I am in London and the london one while in Spain? I don't really want to do this as i was planning on another shop for vintage items instead. The items in London fit in with my current Etsy shop and I am trying to build a brand around my shop name - presumably I can't have 2 shops with the same name on Etsy!

Anyone with any ideas - I would be very happy to hear them.

Thanks in advance, Ganev

[CathySavelsArt]

@Ganev, the issue would have been that it would have been classed as 'drop shipping'. This means that items are shipped without the seller seeing them and Etsy have an issue with this. If you are shipping things from the UK when you are in the UK, then there is no issue. If you get someone else to ship them when you're not there, then there could be an issue.

No, you cannot have 2 shops with the same name but you could perhaps have a word that is common to both.

[ReTainReMakeReNew]

Thank you Eureka, someone has suggested that if I include my sister as a collective member, it may be ok.

Alternatively, I will just have the one shop and hide items accordingly!

Thanks again for your reply.

[CathySavelsArt]

@Ganev, that could work. If you're listed as having more than one collaborator, I think you should be fine. I think the issue is just that of quality control.

[MmeBsBoutique]

Do you think it's better to do one thing really well, or to keep a range of lots of different things? The businesses that I see have become successful tend to have a very strong visual identity and stick to one particular type of product or a particular theme.

At the moment my shop is more or less divided down the middle between mid-price origami jewellery and more wedding-themed millinery pieces and fabric flowers with vintage and Japanese influences.

I feel like I've given the jewellery a good go (over 2 years now) but it just hasn't proved to be a consistent seller at markets or online. The hats are a newer addition to the shop so it's hard to tell yet, but the fascinators have started to sell better this year and could potentially net me better profits.

Do you think I'd be better off just focusing on breaking into the wedding market with a smaller but more stylistically consistent product range, or should I keep trying to make the jewellery work too? I'd really appreciate any advice you can offer as I'm getting to my wits' end!

[Former_Member]

So, I'm going to be completely re-doing my listings. New shipping profiles, product descriptions, pictures. Here's the question - should I deactivate all my listings and just re-activate them when they are finished? Or keep them up in the hopes of getting a sale? Also, I will also be adding listings to 3 other sites and trying to keep these straight. Any ideas?

Also, any good (hopefully free) software that can help me keep track of supplies, inventory, costs going out and sales coming in?

[EurekaGuides]

@Beth, niche and strongly branded shops do best online. Having a very focussed product line is essential. You can have a variety of items, but you must show the same style and feel throughout your store. This helps people to identify with you.

There's no problem with having jewelry and millinery in your store but perhaps focus it all on the wedding market. If you're fascinators are pulling people in, then they may also possibly purchase a piece of jewelry at the same time.

[EurekaGuides]

@Jen, definitely don't take your listings off whilst you work on them, you may still get a sale. If you add listings for sale to other selling venues, then ensure that your descriptions and titles are different to those on Etsy. Search engines will give weight to the highest visited store and this will probably be Etsy if the listing is set up in exactly the same way. That's why you should vary them to get better results.

Sorry but I don't know of any software, I just write mine in a book the old-fashioned way.

[DaydreamingDayz]

I want to start using variations so I can let people choose from different designs in the same listing or a mix of them all. With the way the photo layout is now I am not sure if customers new to etsy will miss some of the other pics and not understand what the listing is for.

Do you think as long as I show all the designs in the first pic that people will understand?

[EurekaGuides]

@Dayz, I would use a simple composition of just one product. I don't think people will miss other images once they're interested enough in looking around. When they see the different options, they'll be looking for the images. If you have too many items showing in one image, it can stop people clicking in the first place. You need to keep things simple.

[DaydreamingDayz]

Thanks cathy, I currently have 3 options so wasn't sure what kind of photos to take. I want them to look good but be informative too. :)

[EurekaGuides]

@Dayz, well you should show them in secondary images but use your best image as the primary one showing just one option.

[DaydreamingDayz]

Thanks cathy, that makes sense.

So am I right in thinking that I could also offer different sizes at the same quantity even though they would be different prices? So if the listing was for 50 - 1 inch labels would cost less than 2 inch labels so could I offer the 2 sizes in the same quantity with different prices?

[DaydreamingDayz]

I thought I had seen a second option for price but I think I got a bit confused.

So if I did different sizes would it be best to mention in the listing that the price is for:

x amount of size 1
x amount of size 2

[CathySavelsArt]

@Dayz, yes you can do different size, colors but not prices. What I have seen sellers do is list different priced variations with a link within the item description but you will have to list them separately.