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.

[Former_Member]

Hello, I am wondering what your opinion is on " renewing" any tips and comments would be helpful.

[Former_Member]

Anyone?

[Former_Member]

I try to list a new item or renew an item each day.... hoping to get into a better system where I rotate the types of items I list/renew but for now I am still building up stock in my shop.
I definitely get views when I list a new item.... but never as many as I wish :)

[Former_Member]

Amanda Sagarin from eclecticnesting says

**I hope this "allowed" --but I'm trying to think outside the box here. If you have a shop with high traffic and would be willing to list my shop link on your shop page recommending folks check it out for a month or so I would be very happy to gift you something from my shop. Convo me if interested and thanks for reading this. **

Posted at 10:38 am Apr 16, 2012 EDT - Report this post
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[Former_Member]

Question about EtsyLush.com---hope I'm posting in the right place--

Some of my accepted posts seem to have disappeared. Is there a time limit on them? Did I screw something up? Should I resubmit for items that are still available?

Thank you!

[Former_Member]

Jess - the items on EtsyLush do expire. You can resubmit them again or just submit new ones, up to you what you want on the site.
I want to say they stay up for two months, but not sure on that time frame.

[Former_Member]

Thank you, Dawn!

[CSavelsCollectibles]

@Jess, Dawn is correct, all items in the free categories expire after 2 months. This is so that we don't have loads of items going to uh-oh pages when they are deleted or de-activated.

[CSavelsCollectibles]

Bringing this back up.

[CSavelsCollectibles]

bringing this back up

[Former_Member]

I finally had a chance to come back and read more, thank you all so much. Now that my semester is over, I will try to work on my pricing formula, inventory and the like.

Marketing can be hard to do, I've struggled myself. I find that it's good to have Facebook and twitter, but I can't say I've made a ton of sales from it, but it's a nice way to advertise yourself for free to a target audience that likes your page. The great thing about Facebook, if you use it properly, it can be a wonderful tool, especially if you have fans on there that are seeing you post a sale or promotion. I haven't quite gotten a hold on FB but others have had a lot of success with generating not just business but repeat business.

And twitter is great because I've noticed that when I post a sale, this will be retweeted by people unknown to me, so it gets the word out.

One thing I did to get more fans on Facebook, I participated once in a while for the Freebies and Giveaways page:

https://www.facebook.com/FreebiesandGiveaways?ref=ts

Every time I do their freebie friday, I get about a hundred new fans to my FB page. All I have to do is give away one item once in a while, usually a wine charm set, or something not OOAK and expensive. It's a great way to build up your fan base in the beginning.

[CSavelsCollectibles]

Giveaways are great for that. It can also take a while to establish relationships. I've known people online for some 2 or 3 years even before they have committed to purchase from me so the results are not always immediate.

[Former_Member]

This is such a great, informative thread. Thanks for posting this, I had no idea it was here....

[Former_Member]

How do we submit items for Etsy Lush to be displayed for free? Or is that a possibility?

[CSavelsCollectibles]

@Lesley, just go to the site and click on 'submit' (to main categories). The upload form will take you through the information you need to fill in there. Your item will then go in a queue awaiting moderation. If the item fits the site criteria, it will be displayed, usually within 24 hours but if jewelry, then it can take a little longer.

It is only submitting to the gift guides that we make a small charge for and these items appear on the front page.

[Former_Member]

This is a great thread - very helpful. And I like Sandy's advice to make things we like if we are part of our own target market. I've been struggling to find my "style" and I think this will help.

[CSavelsCollectibles]

bringing this back up

[CSavelsCollectibles]

Any business related questions or topics, please post them here.

[Former_Member]

So here is my recent problem with Etsy. It is about Feedback. I had a buyer a few months ago lie and say she did not get her package and file a complaint with Etsy. I provided my proof of mailing and the customs form to Etsy but they did not respond to me except to say work it out with her.

I finally sent the entire order again, and sent Etsy a letter with the second receipt also because the buyer would not stop saying she did not get her package and this was an order out of my Country so it would take a bit of time. Etsy closed the case and I thought I was at least safe from negative feedback.

This horrid person had really just not picked up her first order because of the customs fee of $1. My post master contacted her post office but it took about two weeks to here back. In the meantime, she left me Negative feedback and in one comment states she never got her package and in the other states she got it and claims that her custom fee was what I paid to ship to her.

I asked Etsy to remove it as it was not only untrue, which I had proved to them but she was now admitting to getting the FIRST package since it was 5 days after I re-sent it but she had lied and I had lost money sending yet another package. I felt Etsy would do this because I had provided proof.

Etsy will not remove it and over 50 more positive feedbacks since and I still have 99% feedback rating over this so obviously a negative counts for way more than a positive.

Etsy needs to let sellers leave a response that is visible to buyers. I had several customers freak out after seeing the negative.

[CSavelsCollectibles]

I have had several issues regarding the feedback system on Etsy. I have written numerous times and Etsy conceded that 'their feedback system had its limitations and they were addressing it'.

Even though they conceded their system's limitations, I am also left with a negative feedback from a customer who blatently blackmailed me into giving a refund. I forwarded the email to Etsy in which she says that she will remove the negative feedback only if I give a full refund.

Because I had spent 16 hours of work in this shop and she was using all of my wording, I refused to do this and therefore the negative feedback still remains.

She put in a dispute with Paypal and they refused to give the money back since she was using my services.

This is not the only situation like this and it has also happened from my other shops but still Etsy have done nothing to improve their feedback system. They work tirelessly in adding other functions but they do not address this really important issue which not only encourages criminality, but also puts Etsy sellers out of business.

A far better system would be an ebay type feedback system where all of the feedback is public and the response appears immediately below the initial feedback. That way, it would be quick at a glance to see both sides of the story.

Keeping the feedback private means that all of the power is with the Buyer and this leads to abuse of the system. I do hope that Etsy can address this situation sooner rather than later before more Sellers' livelihoods are affected.

[CSavelsCollectibles]

MOVED POST:

Crystal Laird from crystalandtaylor says:

I currently own a shop where I've been getting a lot more orders lately. What do you do when you have given a customer a tracking number and it says it was delivered but the customer says they never received it? I've had 2 customers so far say they never received the item but the tracking number says differently. Do you take their word and resend the item or do you not resend and risk getting bad feedback? What does everyone think the proper thing to do in these situations would be? I get quite a few orders but I can't imagine how many problems a shop would have that gets a lot of orders all the time. Any feedback would help.

[CSavelsCollectibles]

bringing this back up

[CSavelsCollectibles]

bringing this back up

[CSavelsCollectibles]

bringing this back up

[eclecticnesting]

I was sick of running coupon codes and deals and not having them used, so I am trying the "Etsy on Sale" tool..which I am making automatically make my llistings 30% off and state it in the title (so I didn't have to do that manually for 200 items). But you can pick the %, certain items only, etc.

I think it's def worth folks checking out. Wish me luck! Best to all :)