Am I doing something wrong?

[Former_Member]

Hi guys,

Firstly, I love the idea of sellers coming together and exchanging ideas. When you're a lonely business owner, having the support of others who have "been there and done that" can make all the difference.

I've been on Etsy on a on/off basis and as recently as last week, I generated my first sale from the UK to the United States. It was a custom order and I was over the moon!

That feeling of achieving a sale is a real buzz and quite naturally, I like to repeat the process again.

My business is a bespoke graphical art business for children. It caters largely to a Muslim audience offering custom names in Arabic calligraphy and child protection illustrations to keep witchcraft away.

My concern is that I'm not receiving enough traffic through my Etsy shop and I just know that the more of my target-audience (Muslim mums) visit the store, the more chances I have in generating more sales. I'm just getting 1-3 per day, which makes me feel extremely sad!

I like to know from you guys, what key steps you have taken in expanding your business organically? And most importantly of all, how to improve the shop's ranking on google. Is there a connection between Etsy and Google search engine results.

As you can tell, I'm very new to all this and if anyone is kind enough in pointing me in the right direction, I would be forever grateful.

Many thanks and I look forward in engaging with you all

Hashim.

[BrushStrokeOrnaments]

I think you are going to have a VERY VERY hard time with such a focused product.

First, as I tell any new etsy seller, you need to have a large numbers of items in your shop. This helps you be found in the large etsy ocean. And by this I mean well over 50 listings...probably over 100...

While I'm sure you feel very passionate and caring about your targeted Muslim audience, would you consider opening up your business for a general graphic arts business for children? Of course you can continue to sell your Arabic-related merchandise. If you have general merchandise, you will appeal to a much larger audience...which will translate into more views and sales. Just something to think about.

Are there other sellers on etsy that have a similar narrow a focus as you? If there are, scan through their shops and learn from them (what type of merchandise are they selling...price points...etc.).


Good luck.
Kelly

[Former_Member]

Hi Kelly,

Thank you for your advice.

I agree to the points you have made. Over the next few weeks, I will continue to offer more products which will help me to establish my brand in a tough global market.

To answer your question, yes, I will definitely consider widening my target audience to a non-Muslim audience. Before I do, I will carefully do my research so that I'm respecting all faiths and cultures.

There are plenty of similar targeted boutiques on Etsy; very few from the UK and depending on which shop you visit, there is a distinct difference in quality

Thank you in finding the time to ready my post and I'll take your advice on-board :)

[maydaylabels]

There are a lot of Muslims in the world. There are successful Christian art for kids shops, so I'm sure a Muslim art for kids shop would work.

Here is your difficulty, imo: the natural audience of Etsy - the general user base - is a lot more Christian than it is Muslim. This is largely just because it's an English-language website started in the US, where the percentage of Muslims is not high.

So you can't rely on just Etsy's search function to find your target market - they aren't here, they're somewhere else on the internet.

Go find them. Figure out what blogs they read or what forums they participate in or what social media outlets they use or what websites they love. Advertise to them there and interact with them there; create awareness within that community that you offer this (relatively unique) awesome product.


Your second problem is that you have 5 items; a successful print-on-demand graphic shop like yours often has 100+ options.

Your third problem is that your photography is not share-worthy; it has a watermark, there are no examples in your shop of more close-up photos as the main image.

Some other suggestions for improvement: use the second variation to have people choose color schemes if possible. Mostly people don't want to think: they want you to do that for them, since graphic design is your specialty. Instead of saying here are 36 colors, choose three, you might try a listing where you give 10 color scheme options from a drop down menu (with examples in one of the photos so they can see what the scheme looks like).

[Former_Member]

Thanks Matthew / Sara.

I'll take your advice on board

[michellemach]

You've received some good advice from the other team members.

You might consider working on your "About" page to tell your story. How did you get started with this niche? Why is it special to you? Bloggers and others who might write about your store will want to know this kind of information.

[Former_Member]

Hi Michelle,

that's an easy fix so I'll get on that right away.

Thank you for making the time to read my pos and to offer me with constructive feedback :)

[Former_Member]

I echo what other sellers have said specifically adding more items and expanding your demographic a bit. I will also suggest you make your email address and notification that the image is a sample over your photos a little more transparent/less obvious. I understand and respect not wanting people to just copy your work, print it, and sell it as their own, but as it stands right now, I find it very distracting. Upon a quick glance, it kind of just looks like a slash through the image like a "no smoking" sign. : / Maybe use some photo software to make it look more like a watermark? They're such lovely prints and having them obscured by a address definitely detracts.

[Former_Member]

Thanks Annie :)

[RomaMiaTradingCo]

While I echo what everyone else has said here, here's one point I think that will help a lot: ship to a lot more countries than just the US and UK. From doing a quick google search, about 1% of the american population is muslim and the uk is at about 5%.

Do a quick google search and see where there are a lot of Muslims, and if you feel comfortable shipping to those countries, you can ship there. This way, you have a greater chance of actually selling.

Its like another poster said, you have to take your shop to where your buyers are. So market where they are, whether they're on social media, blogs, etc.

[maydaylabels]

Great point, Nikki, I didn't even think of that.

We get consistent sales from the middle east (the gulf states esp.) and some from malaysia, etc. Shipping there from the US doesn't cost any more or take any longer than it does to the UK.

[Former_Member]

Hi Nikki,

It makes sense and many thanks to your response :)

[Former_Member]

Hi Matthew, I'll factor in all of the above advice on board.

Since our last chat this week, I've been tweaking my tags and becoming more conscious of my titles and I've definitely seen an increase in traffic into my site.

The bounce rate has gone down which is good thing as it means that people who visit my shop are actually having a good sniff around rather than running to the exits.

So, I've introduced 15% off promo code to encourage people and I've increased my product listings from 5 to 11.

11 isn't much but its an improvement.

I've associated my shop with Twitter and Facebook so now, it looks more presentable, more creditable.

As you know with running your own business, there's always 101 things to do so I'll definitely factor in more countries as I feel Etsy does an excellent in extending its reach to other countries all around the world.

Let's see what happens now :)