Help! Shop Critique Please!

[Former_Member]

If you have a little time, please help me out with a shop critique!

I opened my photography/vintage finds shop about 4 months ago, and got all excited when a month in I began selling a little, but sales stopped and I haven't sold anything in a couple months, so I wanted to see if I could get some feedback on what I might be missing/doing wrong!

My shop link is:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ZoiShop?ref=pr_shop_more

Thank you!

Best,

Sandra

[Former_Member]

I personally love some of your photos!!! I favourited a couple too :) I am rather new to Etsy myself, so probably not best giver of advice. My suggestion is get into a lot of circles and favourite a lot of shops, great way to advertise for free! Also, I believe photography is a tough area...lots of competition. Look at other shops, see what they are doing and what they are selling, that can help too. Good luck and nice work!!!

[Former_Member]

Thanks for the suggestions! I really appreciate it :]

[Former_Member]

Yes~ i love your photo too~Keep on the good work!
be patient and it would be better

[cortayloo]

Love love love your featured items,,,,,, they look fantastic the way you have it laid out.... Great shop!

[Former_Member]

Thanks everyone! your kind words are definitely going to keep me going! :]

[Former_Member]

Hi Sandra,

I love your photos too!!! I'm not great at explaining what I'm about to explain but it might help; when you list or 'renew' a new item it appears at the top of someone's search results and thereby increases the likely hood of someone purchasing your item.

If you're listing items less frequently now than you did when you first started that sort of explains why your sales have declined.

You can bring your items to the top of the search results again by 'Renewing' your existing listings. This costs .20 cents for each item but most people (Etsy shop owners) consider it necessary advertising which you can write off for tax purposes.

I have a feeling you likely listed a lot of items when you first opened your shop and therefore when people performed searches with keywords you included in your listings your items appeared at the top of their searches and therefore were more likely to be purchased before someone who listed their items prior to you.

Perhaps you already knew this?? Not sure if it makes sense or not as it is late and I'm not great at explaining this!

But cheers and best of luck!

Laura

[ReleaseMeCreations]

Oh how I love your photography! It is absolutely gorgeous! I have found that there do tend to be some ebbs and flows, at least there have for me. I'll hit a spot when people are buying like crazy, and then I'll go for a dry spell.
Everyone else's advice was great, and definitely worth following.
Beyond that, just know that you have incredible pieces, and you are so talented. Sometimes it's easy to question yourself/your pieces/your shop when people aren't buying and it's easy to begin doubting yourself/talent/art etc. But hang in there. Your work is amazing!

[Former_Member]

Sandra, You've got the beginnings of what can be a very profitable shop.

If I were you, I would start with your shop title and announcement. Both are seen in a google search and should contain keywords related to what you are selling.
Your title is coming up as
""ZoiShop - SPRING SALE - 20% OFF ALL PRINTS TILL JUNE by ZoiShop""

The only word in that title that is really relevant is 'prints', as that's what you are selling.
If you take a look at my shop title you will see what I mean.

Also, the opening lines of your shop announcement should also contain keywords related to what you are selling.

Shop section titles also are a key method of bringing buyers to your shop so the section names should state exactly what is being sold. If one section is for necklaces, then call it necklaces. Again, think like a buyer.

When it comes to writing item titles and descriptions, the first few words of the title should describe the item being sold. So if you are selling a photography print, then begin your title with 'photography print'. Beginning your titles with '20% off sale' is really hurting you, as is 'Japanese tsunami earthquake'. Its not often that a buyer will be looking for either.

The same thing goes with the description. Start the description with a brief outline of what is for sale and include keywords.
Use the 'see how this will appear in google' when you are editing.

In your shop polices, I would strongly advise against promising any sort of delivery date. A domestic package can easily take more than 1-3 days to arrive even if it is shipped priority mail, and I've had international packages take 8 - 10 weeks to arrive at their destination. You are setting yourself up for failure if you are expecting packages to arrive in 3 - 15 days for international mail.

Etsy provides you with the storefront but its up to you to do your own marketing to bring in the buyers.

Since you started off quite well, what have you changed in your marketing strategy since then? You may want to take a look to see what you were doing that was working for you.

[Former_Member]

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for your advice and kind words!!! :]

Laura - I did know about renewing, and I think that that is one thing I'm going to start doing more often. Currently, I was only renewing around once a week, or if I remembered to do it, a couple of items. I have started adding new items to my shop almost every day recently too, that way it's almost like renewing.

Zen - thanks so much for being so sweet! your encouragement is definitely going to keep me trudging along!

Crochetgal - Thanks so much for your advice, I had been thinking about that the last couple of days, that i need to re-organize my shopfront's words for key optimization and add more information to my listings. I'm definitely going to work on that this week! Thanks so much!

Honestly, I didn't really do anything differently. I've actually added more networking elements etc since then. I've got a facebook, and twitter, and I'm writing on my blog every day now, I've made a treasury team, I'm being a lot more active in forums. When I sold my first few items, I was just tweeting a lot, but that's about it. Maybe I should focus on tweeting more?

Thanks again everyone for taking the time to help me out!

Best,

Sandra

[Former_Member]

Networking. Blogging. Just go around to all the blogs you can and follow them. You will get a lot of followers in return. Try listing on different days and different times of day. Network on Etsy---add everyone to your circle, make conversation with people. etc.. Making friends and connections is key!
Love your stuff, btw.

[Former_Member]

Thanks aluaces!!!

mmhmmm, I think i'm definitely going to start double-timing on everything.

I'm starting to feel like I just need to increase the viewage on my shop....

Thanks again everyone! :]

[Former_Member]

Sassy Critiques team; they helped me alot . They give your own personalized critique. A week after being critiqued by them,( my problem was SEO), I was "found" and featured by Etsy Finds.

[Former_Member]

Hi Simone!

Thanks for the tip! I think I'll give it a go at asking them for a critique!

:]

[WyldeMagnolia]

Off to read about SEO right now! This is all good advice, it's tough running your own business, especially when you hardly come face to face with anyone. Keep up the good work Zoi! I think your shop looks great, I would change your some of your shop descriptions, I agree with think like a buyer! Best of luck to you and hang in there.

[Former_Member]

Thanks, yeah I'm going to work on wording, descriptions, titled this week and see if anything changes! Hopefully it'll help! :]

Best,

Sandra