New and Existing Seller Questions & Advice

[#1]

The holiday season is fast approaching and with that comes a slew of questions about running a successful business during this busy time.

We will be hosting a live Q&A session in the Online Labs on September 24th at 12:00pm (ET) with a special guest, Claire Comfort.

Claire, who works on the Seller Education team here at Etsy, spends most of her time working with veteran Etsy sellers. She will be with us live to answer some questions from those of you who have a little more experience with selling online.

Whether you're a new or established seller, this is the place to share your questions as we enter the holiday season on Etsy. Some of your questions and advice could be featured in this upcoming Online Labs Q&A session on the 24th! - www.etsy.com/community/online-labs

[maydaylabels]

Ah, cool, most of mine too.

So there are a few price tiers, but what we do is just separate out Canada (which is significantly cheaper) and then Everywhere Else.

Shipping 2 oz and under to Canada is $6.16; 3 to 4 oz is $6.91, 5-8 oz is $7.70, 9 oz- 12oz is $8.24.

To Australia/Europe (which covers most of the rest of everything, including the highest prices) it's $6.16 for 2 oz, then $8.88 for 3-4 oz. and $11.28 for 5oz to 8oz. 9oz - 13oz goes to $13.41 or something like that.

So we tend to charge $6 for single item to Canada/ $7 everywhere else (a single item is generally 2-4 oz for us). Then we do added shipping as $1.40.

[Former_Member]

Nice, I will certainly be listening to it. Hope the holidays will bring me some first sales! :)

[Former_Member]

Thanks, Matthew&Sara! This was a huge help. :) Do you include the cost of your packaging in the shipping category, or in the price of the item itself? I don't expect it to be much, but I know I need to account for it somewhere.

[maydaylabels]

We include it in the item price; it's really not much (25 cents a package, maybe 30). It's just part of overhead.

We used to not charge for shipping at all! Those were crazy days. People like reasonable shipping, and I think charging more or less what it costs works well.

[AuntMaymesAttic]

Well, I consider myself to be a veteran seller, however, I don't have many sales. Although I've done alot with trying to change that (SEO teams, changing titles and tags, searching the forums, shop critique, changing photos), I still can't seem to be "at the party". LOL

Maybe there could be some pointers specifically for those of us veteran sellers (as you indicated in the OP) who have yet to reach 100 sales. And yes, I understand the participation in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.,(I'm on Pinterest) but maybe there is something more than the obvious? I mean how can people get 2,000 to 3,000 sales in a shop that's been open less than a year? Don't they sleep? LOL It's interesting because these same shops have the same types of photographs that I do, and similar tags.

My views used to be really high before this past September, and now they seem to have tanked, making Promoted Listings not economically advantageous. I'd like to have some concrete idea as to why this happened.

Looking forward to watching!~

[Former_Member]

Thank you so much! I was debating on how to price it out, since I don't need an actual "package." It was really helpful to hear what you do. :)

[Former_Member]

My first question as a new Etsy Success team member:
Is there any way to remove an order that has been fully refunded from the "Open Orders" list ?

[Former_Member]

When I try to list tags, etsy app won't let me put more than 2 or 3. Why is this? Very frustrating!

[1NerdCreations]

Hello. I am having an issue when uploading photos all of a sudden. I rotate my photos before uploading them and when they upload, they are back to the way they were before rotating. I tried not rotating them and it still uploads the same way. I have no idea why this is happening. Its never happened before. I have one listing up now that has sideways photos because I had no idea how to get them to rotate. I just tried doing a new listing and its happening again. It looks horrible and unprofessional. Why is there no way to rotate photos within etsy itself? This is a simple edit that could be added. How do I get this to stop? What is going on?

[Former_Member]

My views are ok but sales have tanked immediately following the new ad promotion platform.

I am ready to search for a new forum for sales or return to eBay. The new promotion tool program is not functional for sellers but rather a revenue stream building tool for Etsy.

[jewelersparadise]

Hi
I have a question about the shop search features. We love how we can search active listings and even quickly edit price and quantity from the listing manager. Our shop has come quite a way in the past year, and is very difficult to restock items. We have to search sold out items or inactive items through sold orders. Will changes to the listing manager be made where we can search the sold out items and inactive items like we do the active items? This would be a tremendous time saver and allow us to actually work on more shop improvements. Thank you etsy team for your time and hard work.

[maydaylabels]

Doris, you have to cancel the transaction.

[maydaylabels]

Mark, were you using Search Ads before the Promoted Listings started? And you've lost your Search Ad revenue because Promoted Listings isn't working as well? What proportion of your views/sales were from Search Ads?

Part of the problem might be that your SEO is terrible. You haven't used all of your tags (or even very many of them, sometimes), and the ones you have may or may not be phrases people looking for your items actually search.

SEO work takes longer than advertising but it brings in a lot more sales.

[maydaylabels]

SImona,
Holy Christ you have a lot of sales! I imagine that is an absolute bear to manage.

They are working on improvements to the listings manager through a private team; I'm not sure if they'll improve that function or not but I would definitely email Etsy directly and suggest it, explaining why it would help you (usually an example works).

[KisforCalligraphy]

In order for the new front page feed to work successfully it needs to refresh much more frequently. It needs to be in real time. New items from my favorite shops have been the same items just a different order for a few days now. It is not fun nor interactive for anyone to stare at the same items day in day out. I have over 7,000 favorite shops (guessing 70% are actively selling) yet my new items from them section is at a standstill. Why not just make this section for "new" content only?

Secondly, the repetitive content on the front page activity feed needs to be addressed immediately. The most simple fix would be to get rid of our personal activity. I do not need to see content I have favorited; I have my own favorites for this. I thought the purpose of the new front page was to interact. Not interact with ourselves. Maybe the front page should be renamed something like, "my Etsy Community feed" or "my Etsy community" or "my Etsy people". People follow me to see my my favorite items and shops and treasury collections but I do not need to follow me. :)

So my question is, is there anything being done and quick to address the inactivity of the front page activity feed? Without using a flash based program is it even possible to have it be more of a real time live feed?

Thank you inviting us to ask questions. It is nice to know we have a platform where we can voice our opinions, concerns and questions whether they matter or not. Even if you pretend to hear us is enough reassurance for me.

xoxo

ps. I am posting this here because it really concerns me as a seller that without the views and hearts I used to get from treasuries (meaning any treasury) that my items are going to never get found by buyers. Having the activity feed move along faster will help more sellers items get discovered. This is why I am posting this question here in the Etsy Seller Success forum. :)

[Former_Member]

Katie --

Go to USPS.com and use their price calculator. It gives you the option for large 1st class envelope prices.

[Former_Member]

Hi... I am pretty new to Etsy as you can see my establish date. But I have a question regarding some status I have notice for the pass couple of weeks. I do a search on the keyword "Bridal Garter" occasionally, and at one point my items would show up in pages 20 or so. But after last week where the Promotion Ads started; all my items were down to page 50 +... I am gettin less and less from generic searches. anyone know why it would drop down like that?

[BarbBrownsFineArt]

I am getting a lot more views with the new promotion system, but they do not seem to be from serious buyers. I appreciate all of the support and favorites from all of the other shops but would like to get some people from outside.

Questions:
1. Is Etsy continuing to do google adds. If not do you advise that I try this?
2. When adjusting the promotions listings to pause, I cannot tell if they are being adjusted on only the first page that I change or the second page, too.
3. I am not confused about how to set my budget. I just have it on automatic and last month $40 was spent?

Please give me some understandable and clear advice. Confused!

[BarbBrownsFineArt]

That was I am now confused........definitely confused. Please help!

[Former_Member]

Some background to my shop: I began posting to my shop at the end of 2012 and initially had quite a few views of my products but no sales. I renewed my listings for a while and then stopped renewing as I still did not have any sales. I originally used the strategy of free shipping within the contiguous United States, so I did have to mark up my prices a bit higher, but that didn't seem to work at all. I just re-listed my expired items in my shop last week and decided to use a different strategy: lower prices and charge a flat rate of $5 per item for shipping and handling (seems to be a common rate for my type of handmade items). I also changed my items to be ".99" i.e., 19.99 instead of 20.00. I know that makes an impact on me when I am purchasing items. When I originally posted my items in 2012, I would have a lot more views on the days items were posted. (No where near other sellers, but maybe 15 per day.) This time, I have not experienced that. I've been averaging three views per day.

My questions as a new seller:

1) When I view my shop in the list view, it shows the number of views per item which is more views than my shop has had since I reopened. I am assuming these totals are since the item was originally listed back in 2012. Is there a way to show only the views since I renewed my expired listings so I can see a summary of views per item in the past week?

2) What is a good strategy for arranging my shop? Is it best to have all of my items randomly placed in my shop, or all similar items grouped together? I am thinking my most unique items or most valuable items should be placed first?

3) There is an article that shows up in my dashboard about "Shop Suggestions". In the article it says it will show in the dashboard above the stats or something, but I can't seem to find anywhere in my dashboard or anywhere else in my shop where they have given me suggestions. How long does it take to start receiving suggestions? I would really like to have suggestions geared specifically to my shop!!! :)

4) Is there a way to change the date my shop opened? I think it looks bad that my shop says it opened May 2012 and have no sales - it took me a few months to get anything posted in the first place, then I didn't have anything posted for over a year. So, I just "reopened" (though I never actually closed it) on September 17, 2014.

5) I sometimes sell items on Ebay. Ebay started a Global Shipping Program which "simplifies selling items to international buyers. Simply ship items to a US shipping center. They'll manage the shipping and customs process and send the item to the international buyer...The Global Shipping Program also makes it easier for international buyers to purchase items. Buyers can see the shipping and import charges before purchasing, and can also track their item globally." Do you see this happening with Etsy in the near future? For those of us who are too "scared" to try international selling on our own, it would open so many doors for us!

6) Is there a way to search/view top selling Etsy shops or items? I would like to be able to see the strategies of successful shops to help me improve mine.

Any help would be appreciated!

[upthewazzucreations]

Good Morning,

I'm hoping someone can advise me on how to UNfollow people...not that I want to but since etsy only allows us so many I like to "rotate" my followings...but since this new format it's beyond me where I find the UNfollow area I've tried everywhere I can think of....so I MUST be misssing a NEW action to be taken.

Can someone PLEASE help me?

Confused...:0)
Teri @ UTWC

[Former_Member]

How does a customer use her Paypal account when I only use Direct Buy in my shop?
Thanks!!

[maydaylabels]

nlbgrammy she doesn't, you have to set up paypal for someone to pay with paypal. (unless maybe she gets a paypal debit card or something?)

[BeadtheWaybySC]

I am just here looking for the Q and A session, but when I click on the link under this original post, which takes me to the "online labs". There the page says "no events" currently scheduled.
I am in eastern standard time. It's now 12:02pm and I've been here watching a video of a Q and A session since 11:39am. What time zone are you in?

[Former_Member]

Hi there! I just opened my shop a few days ago and plan to add more items this weekend. Any advice to make my shop better would be greatly appreciated!