Moving forward, making changes, and just not sure!

[PurelyChicDesigns]

I used to be the ONLY seller on Etsy that sold laminated magnetic bookmarks. Then, just as I figured I would, I have had copy-cats and now have direct competition. I currently have 200 (give or take) styles/designs of magnetic bookmarks in my shop, but I am very curious: is there such a thing as TOO many options for customers? I have another 20 or so new designs I have nearly ready to add, and I want to make my presence as strong as possible, but once I thought "maybe this is toooooo many" I cannot get the thought out of my head. I would love your thoughts on this!

Also, I am nearly to the point of raising my prices. I have not raised the prices of my bookmarks in 3 years. I never thought I needed to. But, I hesitate, because my direct competition is priced the same as I am. Will raising my prices from $4/bookmark to $5/bookmark say to customers "PCD has better quality and charges more because of it" or will it say "they are overpriced"?! The last time I raised my prices my number of sales increased, but again, I had no direct competition. Thoughts?

I would really like to take my shop to the level of (hopefully) paying a car payment or even the mortgage, and I feel like increasing products and raising prices is the way to go, but I would love to know others' thoughts!

Thank you all!

[Former_Member]

Ok, your stuff is really cute!! If a shop has too many items, it can be overwhelming looking through pages and pages trying to find exactly what you want. But you have your items divided into enough categories that I think you're good! I will say that $4 feels like a lot less than $5 to me, especially if I'm buying stocking stuffers or something, which is what i immediately think of when I go to your shop. Maybe try $4.50 or $4.75, or offer a discount on multiples. Which maybe you already do, I didn't check.

Good luck!

[Former_Member]

I would think that the more items you have in your shop, the more likely it is for your items to show up in search.

As far as pricing, I always stick to a calculation to determine my prices. Yes, I sell nursing necklaces and toddler necklaces, but (currently) my designs are unique. I use more material, and my time is more valuable! I have three (soon to be four) small children, which means I have little time to work on my Etsy shop. I calculate my prices such that my materials are covered, my time is covered, and that I will make a profit as well. If I lower my prices too much, I would be struggling to fill orders, and not making as much per necklace as I like.

[HildaLea]

I don't think that adding more is a problem at this point -- if you had 500 different bookmarks, I might say yea, settle down. As one other person mentioned, you have enough categories to break it down. I noticed one section is called 'Awesome Bookmarks,' and while I love awesome things (Lego movie, anyone??), that doesn't tell me much about what might be in that category.

I looked in that group and what if you split it into two -- Pattern Bookmarks and Quote Bookmarks. That would make for smaller categories that were more descriptive.

As for bumping the prize up, you definitely know your buyers better than I do, but I think there is probably a draw to the "under $5" aspect. I noticed that your shipping is only $.75. What if you made the bookmarks $4.50 and bumped shipping up to $1.00? That gives you a $.75 increase per bookmark.

As someone who buys a lot of stuff online, I would still think $1 for shipping was awesome. And if I were a past buyer or someone who had seen your items at $4 previously, noticing a $.50 increase is not going to be enough to deter me from buying again/now.

[PaperBoundLove]

Your bookmarks are so adorable.

I think you should add more designs like you were planning to.
Don't worry about giving customers too many choices. They will most like find you through the searches anyway. And when they are in your shop, they can browse through quickly enough.

And raising the prices sound good too. $5 is still very reasonable for the bookmarks.

Best of lucks to you.

- Khin J

[PurelyChicDesigns]

Thank you all! I will look at my sections and try to reevaluate those. I do have the section "awesome bookmarks" because I thought "various bookmarks" sounded blah. And "bookmarks that don't really fit into another category" was too long ;)

I have considered raising my prices enough to offer free shipping, but shipping just keeps going up. I feel like offering free shipping now could potentially kill me later if prices go up any higher. My prices give me a healthy profit per item, but given the fact that they are a lower dollar amount item, I of course have to sell that many more to make a tidy monthly profit.

It is always so difficult to know where the breaking point is!

[StitchMarkersUSA]

I think more items is a good thing for customers - they can just keep looking until they find just the right one that "speaks to" them! I think you can raise your prices & then think about how you are different from the competitors - maybe you can say you focus on "excellent customer service" &/or "highest quality materials" or just something that accurately describes who you are & focuses on what you want customers to think about. Even a small difference can help a customer justify why one is better & worth the extra dollar. I have brought things at a slightly higher price just because i don't want to buy the "cheapest" one. makes no sense but there it is! Just my 2 cents. love your bookmarks!!

[michellemach]

Your shipping seems very low. It's really unusual to see U.S. shipping under $2 (or maybe I just don't buy the right things!). I'd raise that a little bit to give yourself an extra cushion.

Could any of your new bookmarks be sold in thematic sets? I'm thinking for birthday parties or other occasions I might just want to buy a set of 6 (or whatever) at one go rather than choose individual bookmarks. As someone suggested, you could raise the price of the individual bookmarks and give a little discount if they buy in quantity. Not only does that give the customer a deal, but it also saves wear and tear on you having to package so many individual small orders.

Best of luck!

[Former_Member]

$5 is not unreasonable for a bookmark. And just because someone else sells it for that price doesn't mean you need to match them. How much do they pay for supplies? What is their profit margin? You need to charge what is appropriate for you and your business. I agree with the others about raising your shipping charges. Does that cover the cost of shipping materials and postage?

I noticed a bible verse in you Nature section. Maybe a section for quotes and scripture passages?

Do you have too many bookmarks? Well, you know better than anyone else which ones are selling and which ones are not. If you have low performers then maybe put those ones in your sale section and focus on the ones that consistently do well.

[BlackCatStudio98]

Definitely the more choices the better! Since you have them broken up into categories it isn't overwhelming, and people love to choose.

I agree with the suggestion of raising your shipping prices and either leaving the bookmarks at $4 or raising them to $4.50.

I think your bookmarks are awesome, I just placed an order. :)

By the way your 2Free coupon is expired.

[Former_Member]

You already got many great answers about the price.
I can only give my answer to your number of listings:
if I come to a shop with too many pages of items, I search by color in the shop. So I searched for pink, yellow, blue and red in your shop. Only blue had 3 pages coming up, all others only 2.
That always works for me. I am very color oriented and narrow my searches inside a shop down like that.
So to me it does not matter whether you have 100 or 300 listings. I usually find what I like on the first 3 pages of a color.
(in case you are curious, I search a lot for pencil cases and cosmetic cases. There are many listings in those shops and I then narrow it down by color)

[PurelyChicDesigns]

I do try to keep my shipping low, and this does cover my shipping materials and postage, but just barely.

Amy, I just had time to reply...and have already shipped your order! Thank you for pointing out that coupon issue to me; resolved now!