A question on - Quantity -

[Former_Member]

Hello.
For my shop, I make the item once it is ordered to avoid having to store a lot of finished product. So in the "in stock' area of the listing I have a quantity of 1 or 2. I read in a post -somewhere in my teams- that it is better not to put a lot of quantity in the in stock area of the listing to create an "aura" of limited quantity - better get yours before it's gone - idea. What is the thought on this? Is it better to have a quantity of one or two or have larger quantities of items?

Thank you.

Sarah

[Former_Member]

I do the same thing you do - a lot of my items are made to order so that our itsy bitsy apartment doesn't have crochet animals crammed into every nook and cranny!
I always only put that there's one in stock, not necessarily to pretend it's a limited quantity, but because once it's sold, I can always go back in and hit renew. And I sometimes don't right away for various reasons: I'm overwhelmed already and need a couple days, I want to put a new batch of better photos there, etc.
I'd say go with just one at a time, but it's really up to you!

[Former_Member]

Thanks Amanda,
I have - since Etsy allowed it and because I make them as ordered - just put one or two in the quantity but was thinking of putting more in there until I read it was better not to -for the "limited" thing. I was wondering if it makes any difference with customers and sales to have a quantity of 1 or 20 or +++ . I don't want to miss out on sales because something sold and I was unable to renew it right away but I also don't want people to pass up my shop because it looks like a have a lot of items so there isn't any hurry to buy. maybe you can't win either way. ;)

[Former_Member]

The rings I make are done on computer and printer (mostly, some I do hand drawn) so in theory, I can do an entire sheet (15-18 rings) at one time of the same ring. But I don't. When I figured out how to do these, I made the decision that I didn't want 18 of my Celtic ring out there and listed like that. I might do a sheet of a popular ring (like my Medusa ring) but I sure wouldn't put on the listing that I might have 18 of them.

I do agree with you Sarah H. In a lot of ways, you really can't win either way. Some might ignore me because I don't seem to be "making" anything with quantities like that, (my burned off fingertips argue otherwise) or someone else might skip over a ring because they wanted 10 of them for wedding favors or something. Its a tough call.

[Former_Member]

Jacqueline,
Thanks for the input -by the way, I like your designs. Well at this point... I guess I'll keep my listing quantities as they are.

[Former_Member]

I'm also not sure how it is for knitting or crochet, I can do neither, but you need to think about your turn around time to make it when you list a quantity of something. I can feasibly list 18 Medusa rings, not because I actually have them made, but because the rings are already on a sheet saved on my computer and I can just print it out, bake, and roll within half of an hour. So I don't really have storage issues (rings are also small) but I'd think making something knitted would take far longer, which means saying in the listing that there is a two week production time or something.

But yes, I'd stick to smaller numbers, that way you also just aren't obligated to keep that much on hand.

[Former_Member]

I basically have qty 1 on almost everything and I keep 1 instock. In theory, I'm hoping this will keep me having decent leads time and prevent me from ending up with multiple orders at once that all need made.

In theory. Since I'm a newbie. :)

[MyHobbyShop]

I picked a quantity I could live with :-) Meaning if someone ordered 5 hats I won't completely freak out about filling that order. Anything more than that will require planning! So most of my items are listed as quantity of 5 and all of my made to order items clearly say so in the title.

[Former_Member]

Yes...that is true Lily. Although I would be thrilled with a big yet manageable order It would be awful to have an order that is beyond what I can do.