Help! Should I open a new shop?

[Former_Member]

I currently have two shops. One is Julie Marie Shop which I sell handmade purses, scarves, aprons, and other stuff. My other shop is Julie Marie Kids where I sell handmade kids clothing, aprons, burp cloths, and other goodies. I now would like to add repurposed home decor, for example chalkboards and memo boards. My question is should I home another shop which strictly sells home decor like my handmade pillows, fabric buntings, table runners, and the chalkboards or could I add the chalkboards to my existing Julie Marie Shop? Please let me know what you think would be best.
Thanks
Julei

[ForeverSweethearts]

I think you should add them to your current Julie Marie shop, for two reasons:

1. The more shops you open, the less efficiently (in my opinion) you can run any one of them.

2. I think the items you mention will go well with the "feel" you already have going on.

I'm working on opening a 2nd shop as well, for baby/kid items. I'm looking forward to fun new things! Very cool that you're expanding your business; best wishes to you!

[Former_Member]

I agree with Stephanie, all of the items seem like they would go well together in one shop as they are not drastically different from each other.

I used to have two shops but it is hard to market for both effectively. I'd add the items to your shop to see if they sell, first.

[kickglassenamels]

I had three for a short time. There was no way to fold the confections into the other two, but I merged the jewelry and the home decor site. I'm working in the same medium, and that's enough to hold it together. Three was too much to keep up with. Also, I was losing the people who came to the site for one thing but might be interested in some of my other work.

I'd go with folding the home decor into the first shop.

[PIXELGRINphotography]

I have asked a few times, after thinking i wanted to open a separate shop and the advice always given, has been don't do it! Like Stephanie said, it will be hard to run all of them (unless you are doing fine now with the 2) to their full potential. That's like triple the promoting, so unless you are kinda just sitting back and waiting for people to find you, I guess it would' be a problem. I've seen some shops that are very eclectic and have no problems getting sales.. Sometimes I am confused or think it is tacky, but after all the more you have the more chance you have to strike someone's fancy!

[Former_Member]

The more shops you have the more 'time consuming' it is to promote them. It adds more work for sure since Etsy is all about self promotion. You have to get on teams, fav a lot, create your own teams, get involved in threads, and etc....for each shop. I have two shops....classynvintage for clothing, and cottageshabbyshack for my shabby chic decor (but I have other items in there too). Its a lot of work but is worth it if you have the time. If not, keep it to one or 2 shops max in my opinion.