Help - new sellers

[Former_Member]

I have some questions about selling on Etsy. I have had only one sale in January and I closed my shop until a week ago. I still consider myself a new seller on here since I never used it much. I have understood SEO, but that is about it with the important things.

1. I'm going to be retaking many of my pictures. What is the best way to take them?

2. I'm also going to be adding more items. What amount of items is usually considered good to bring more sales?

3. Why do so many people favorite items, but none of my favorited items are turning into sales?

[Former_Member]

Hi Schuylar,

1) for pics I've found that the best way is so that you can show off the item being sold. A good closeup and the shots from all angles work well. Just remember that the photos are the buyer's only visual.


2) How many items is a 'good number'? That all depends on how you are marketing. There are many shops on Etsy that have well over 1000 items yet rarely sell anything while there are quite a few who sell out regularly with only 20 - 30 items.

3) people mark items as favourites for many reasons. It could be simply because they like the item, or they want to remember it, or they want to include it in a treasury. I've probably got thousands of items marked as favourites but I've never purchased any of them.

[LydiasWeb]

Schuylar,
I, too, am fairly new to Etsy and I'm also an Iowan. A suggestion I'd like to make is that you visit some other vintage shops here on Etsy and look at how they're doing things. I think that you need to provide more descriptions for your items. The two I looked at barely had a sentence. I'd like to know a little more. Perhaps you might add where you found the vintage item. Be sure to fully describe each item. Remember your customer only has what you say about it and the picture you provide - they can't touch it, pick it up, smell it. All those things you got to do when you hunted for it. Also, you don't say much in your about section. Tell us about why you got into vintage. Why is it a passion of yours. Why should we buy from you. Your tags and title (SEO) should reflect one another, and should be every phrase you can come up with that you think a customer would search for your item with but don't repeat words if you can possibly avoid it. I would be willing to show you what I mean by critiquing one of your items if you would like. Just convo me. Hope I was helpful.
Laura