I am really happy to have this thread. I've been so worried about the slow summer buying and thought it was just my store. Reading this thread has helped me to calm down a bit.
I'd like some feedback on vacation mode. I am getting ready to take a trip...celebration for my recent retirement...and I am wondering what direction to go. I have seen shops on vacation mode as suggested by Etsy and I have seen people who keep their shops open but leave a message that they are on vaca until a certain time. Anyone have any suggestions for that. I am away for 8 days and my shipping time is 3-5 days. I was thinking of shutting down (going vacation mode) for the first 3-4 days and then reopening so I could ship out as soon as I arrive home.
I have a hundred questions now that I am on this team but for now that is my biggest concern. Thanks for any response.
@MountainShine, I do not think vacation modes are a good idea because you lose the momentum of your traffic. It also means that any potential customers that may land in your store who find you are away may simply go and buy a similar product elsewhere.
If you are only going away for 8 days, I would simply state that shipping will take place after such and such a date. This is perfectly acceptable practice. :-)
I wanted to get some guidance on pricing for custom made orders.
1) Usually you do end up spending some exclusive design time to design as per the customer's request and then it may not necessarily convert into an order.
2) Also when we list a new product we are making a certain minimum quantity to get the prices right BUT in custom made product , we will be making 1 pc for that 1 customer...this may raise the cost.
3) Should i charge for the design time ? And is charging additional cost for making just 1 piece is an acceptable practice on Etsy ?
@MountainShine, yes, post it at the top of your shop announcement (not normally recommended as keywords should appear in first 160 characters). You could also place it in the Shipping section of your Policies page.
I see that you do not in fact have policies and this is a big oversight. You really should fill these in as it not only protects you, but gives Buyer confidence.
With the new listings set-up, all shipping information shows if people click on shipping policies, your holiday message should be at the top.
@VLiving, I understand your point of view. Personally, I do not charge extra but then for one-off paintings the design time is about the same anyway. I do think that it is perfectly acceptable to charge more for a one-off item and most customers accept that if they get something custom made which is unique and there will not be another one like it, that this brings about a higher price.
First time to post on this team... I am SO discouraged this weekend. I had a great August, my best month of sales, good beginning to Sept. But now a major drop in views & sales for the last 2 weeks.
I've worked on my tags & added a few more countries for shipping options.
@Kathy, dips in sales/views are common and you have to expect this. No business increases all of the time at the same rate, that is not possible.
I did notice that the last time you renewed or uploaded an item was on 8th Sept. This means that your items are now slipping down to the relevancy search results. If you have not made any sales for a few days, you must renew some items to get the ball rolling again.
Not sure what page you looked at, but I've listed & renewed almost every day in the last week. 17th - 20th. Also went back & worked on my tags.
I had a few sales last night but overall just seemed like my sales dropped unusually quickly.
One other question- Just wanted to make sure I'm doing the tags correctly now...Am I correct in not using a tag for "ships to Canada" and should I be repeating the title in the tags or is that a wasted tag?
@Kathy, I'm sorry, I looked at the top of your page but I see that further down there are more recently listed items, I do apologize.
Tags are quite complicated in that they must tie in with other keywords which must be present in all the right places of your store. That includes your shop announcement, shop title, sections, titles and the first 160 characters of your descriptions.
I don't normally give this information for free and without doing a full critique, I'm not really able to properly advise you. I would have to look over all of your listings carefully.
@Lang, Craftori has a Wanelo account. It's not so difficult to use but you do have to keep at it for a while before traffic starts to come in. The key is to mix up the items between your own and that of others. It's a bad idea to only have your own, I notice that people don't get many followers that way.
The Craftori account on Wanelo is great. I had tried Wanelo previously and had some problems with it. Now it seems to be working fine. I'll definitely use it to present some of my more unique items.
Posted one item on the Craftori Wanelo account last evening. This morning Wanelo is back to not allowing me access, indicating that my email account is invalid. This may be why I quit using it earlier.
How are you all dealing with low page views? I had 10 views today, and actually the whole week was like that. I feel like I might know all the tips about getting attention to my shop, but next to normal live and making items for my shop there does not seem to be enough time to get it all done.
Now it is even to the point where I start to feel a little overworked.
I have low page views periodically. This week was certainly a good example. To get traffic, I normally have to be active for a couple days in the various teams. I wish Etsy would let nonmembers purchase with paypal.com
Promoting online is relentless and you have to do it every day. I work in at least 1 hour every day into my routine for marketing. This is necessary to keep momentum going.
So I assume you do the likes games, treasury's, pinning, tweeting, facebook updates?
But do you actually feel that you get sales out of it? Because a lot of people like my items because of these things, but I don't feel that it actually gets to people that might want to buy from my shop. Or is that feeling wrong?
Aisha, the T's help becuase people fave and then someone sees someone else favoriteing your item and buys it. so the T's and online stuff helps get the word out so to speak. My advice is for custom orders, ask for money up front and give pics of your work in progress. I have been burned by having the person not buy in the last min due to a small tweak.
i am a self taught photographer for like 3 years now, i don't truly know everything about etsy yet but i do have a facebook page. i would love for some help to get in the right direction and getting my name out there with more views. help is very appreciated!
