How Many Items Should I list In My Shop?

[Former_Member]

I've recently created several new pieces and am in the process of making more. When I'm looking in a shop if there are too few items I don't spend a lot of time looking at them but if there are 26 pages I get a little overwhelmed and only look at the first couple pages. So my question is how many items are too many and how many are too few? Or am I just weird in this? lol!

I sell on Tophatter too so not all of my products are on here and I'm wondering what I should put on here.

I'm on medical leave from work and school and there seems to be no end in sight so I'm trying to make some money while I find myself bedridden, otherwise I'd go completely crazy! =)

Any advice or constructive criticism is welcome! Thanks so much for your help!

[Former_Member]

I think 100-200 is a good place to be. however, i am kind of like you. although my shop is very small, i can get annoyed with rather small or large shops. keep your less fancy items for tophatter.com. that way if you sell at the stating price it's not so bad. you're not losing on such a fancy item that could sell here.

[Former_Member]

Personally, when I'm shopping I like to see at least a full page in each section. That gives me the impression (right or wrong) that the seller is serious about running a shop.

When I see a shop with only a few items I'll check back once again about a week later and if there's nothing new added I'll take that shop off my list of 'potential shops' for the simple reason that there are too many who list a few items and abandon their shop after a month or so.

I've never yet seen a shop with too many items at all.

Even if you have only 5 pages in each section you can still easily have 500 items in your shop without overwhelming anyone.

[Former_Member]

I just celebrated my 100th listing today! Super exciting, but there doesn't seem to be a limit, or a magic number to get to. If it's well organized, and you use all 10 sections, it really shouldn't matter how many listings you have. Yes, 500 listings may seem a bit much, but it should only be overwhelming if you don't look at the individual sections.

[Former_Member]

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the input! And Congrats Megan!

[Former_Member]

This posting was helpful. I was thinking the same thing Courtney

[LeafLee]

I have wondered this many times! I have about 350 items listed. The more the better is a mantra that seems to work for me. My Customers like varieties of styles and colors, and even though I have so many varieties I still get custom work requests.

[PICFiberArts]

I also think it depends on the shop. I have 83 items and everytime I add a couple a get a sale which is great for me. If what I do didn't take so long I might have over 100 by now. But like everyone else if the shop has a lot I go to the section I am looking at so I say keep on listing!

[Former_Member]

Courtney - I share your sense of being overwhelmed! If it says there is fifteen pages of items I don't look, unless it is a supplies store. That many pages is too many items to deal with as a shopper >.<

I like to shop in stores between 3 and 7 pages. Anything over ten is basically a no-go for me!

[Former_Member]

I only get annoyed with shops that have over 20 pages of items in their categories; one shop that I love has about 30-40 pages per category.... it gets pretty annoying afatre a while flipping through all those postings per category, to the point that they would be better off having a second shop. As long as you have 20 pages or less per cetgory I think it's fine, although I would rearrange your shop occassionally to rotate the items that pull up on your home page; the few times I've done this I've gotten a few different viewers looking at products that have kind of languished in my shop.