Not making sales... Critique please?!?!

[Innov8iveKnits]

I was expecting to have a really good weekend with black Friday and cyber Monday. I've been struggling for over a year to get a decent flow of sales. This weekend was seriously dissapointing as far as sales go and I don't know what else to do.

Can anyone please critique my shop and see if they know why sales are just so so low. I'm not doing any advertising outside of etsy and FB which may be a traffic problem but I know several sellers who don't outside of etsy and sold over 50 things yesterday. Is it a product thing? Or pricing? Or other? I'm considering going outside of etsy and getting into hi end boutiques instead where there is already a high end clientelle that appreciate hand made and high quality. Maybe etsy just isn't the place for me?

[Former_Member]

I think your work is really beautiful and professional, and it seemed very reasonably priced to me. Actually, your post was almost identical to one I have been writing in my head for a while now! I'm also having trouble getting sales, even though I have gotten alot of favorites lately, and I do pretty well at live events. So no actual advice I guess, just, sympathy!

[Former_Member]

Your dinosaur hat is adorable! You should drop some of the one-word tags and use instead:

Kids knit hat
kids dinosaur hat
childs hat
chjilds knit hat
baby boy shower
boy shower gift
photo prop hat

There's a real lack of baby boy gift items out there....

50 sales yesterday!! Could you knit 50 items to sell this week? Some of the people who got lots of sales this week sell MUCH simpler items than you, that can be mass-produced and sold fairly inexpensively....cards, hair-bows, stickers...(PS: I had one sale this weekend so I can relate)

Definitely branch out to boutiques if you can, but complement that with Etsy, your stuff is great.

[Former_Member]

im largely in the same boat.

but i will say that there is a lot more competition on etsy than ever. and with etsy running ads that target people to come sell (compare ebay ads that focus on ebay as a place to BUY) means more and more competition for the less buyers.

so i think people either have to run outside marketing, work to be on the FP lots and lots.

[Former_Member]

What CoutureCrochet said:

but i will say that there is a lot more competition on etsy than ever. and with etsy running ads that target people to come sell (compare ebay ads that focus on ebay as a place to BUY) means more and more competition for the less buyers.

Very interesting...a bit shortsighted of Etsy...yes they make $$ from each seller with every listing, every re-listing, every sale, every ad....but long-term they would make more money with more shoppers. Each single Etsy seller needs MANY shoppers to be successful.

I hear family, friends, acquaintances say all the time that they've NEVER HEARD of Etsy These are people who have no interest in selling anything, but they are consumers. Maybe Etsy should refocus....

[hooknsaw]

We started getting more sales when we had over 100 items in our shop. Sales became steady when we reached 200+ items in our shop(at the end of August). There is a lot of competition on etsy, but having more variety seems to make us more "visible" and it works for us!

[SnowOdyty]

I'm in the same boat I got so much traffic and favorites these pass few days BUT NO SALES I was so disappointed but your shop is so cute and your pictures are perfect and prices are extremely reasonable for being handmade I dont understand I think it's just that there are so many shops out there and some I dont even know how they do it I have a friend who just does advertising on Facebook and she still makes sales here on Etsy I wish I new the secret to find that target market cause I know it has to be out there somewhere :(

[SharonOrellaDesigns]

I am kinda in the same boat but have had an uptick in sales this past week. The only thing I can recommend is increase your visibility. Facebook, Twitter, Treasuries, check and make sure your items are showing in Google shopping. Etsy does a feed to Google shopping, and sometimes people don't show up there. Create backlinks to your Etsy shop by always using your Etsy Shop link under your name whenever you comment on a blog or respond to a comment. Use your favorites and follow people that have a lot of followers. The more you keep showing up places, the more people that click, the more they click, the more visibility you get. Find a team that has a good strategy, fits your style and has members with a lot of sales. (I am looking for that team now)... Keep making the great things you are making and do physical shows where you can hand out business cards (mine has a discount code on the card)...

[Former_Member]

I haven't had many views or sales either, but I do understand why.

I think for you - your shop and branding are lovely, and your products look really well made. I think you're in a very saturated category for what you are selling - a lot of competition, and that you may need more items. Also, work more on your marketing and SEO. Maybe join an SEO team too.

You may notice that a lot of the shops that sell 50 items on a Cyber Monday, have actually way more in their shop, usually around 300 or more. That would be extremely hard for what you do, but maybe you can a little more at a time than you normally would.

Also, who came up with that hat with the beard? That's turned out to be a real hit. Maybe you can create something really unique like that and be at the beginning of a new trend?

[Former_Member]

you only have 34 items
you need a lot more
sales only work well with stores that have a following.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/97526829/knitted-baby-boy-hat-dinosaur-hat-mohawk

the only tags that will get you found are:

dinosaur hat
mohawk hat

they each have under 2000 returns when you search on them.
the others are over 30000.
you are buried there

you need more specific tags and titles.

there are good suggestions at the bottom of the search page when you type in search words.

infant knit hat
etc

for your listings, click on the tags. It will take you to the search page and tell you how many results there are for that tag.

you will get the most traffic in those searches with the fewest results.

that is more true for you, since you have few items.

my biggest draws are in searches with less than 50 items

I cant be missed there.

[Former_Member]

http://www.etsy.com/listing/105012050/crochet-owl-hat-for-baby-boys-in-soft

This is seriously too cute for words!!

[KittyBallistic]

Tiffany Doten from Innov8iveKnits says
I'm not doing any advertising outside of etsy and FB which may be a traffic problem but I know several sellers who don't outside of etsy and sold over 50 things yesterday.
------------------------
It's only really useful to compare shops that are similar to yours - a supplies shop, for example, could easily sell 50 things without doing much promotion. How long have these shops been open, how many admirers do they have, how many items in their shops, how many treasuries have they been in/created? These aspects all make a huge difference.

I think most sellers have to promote outside of Etsy. Unless you have a really unique product which is wildly popular, you need to work at promoting, whether that's on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, Pinterest, or Wanelo.

[Innov8iveKnits]

Thank you all for the kind words AND the great advice/critiques! As much as I would like 50 sales in a day, when I look at it in another light it would be terribly hard to keep my little fingers working hard enough to keep up with that and shouldn't compare my store to ones like that. Alex thank you for the specific SEO advice, that is really helpful and I will incorporate that system in my listings for sure! Improved SEO, more items, and outside advertising are definitely my new goals this year.

[Former_Member]

I love the hair clips and love the pictures
http://www.etsy.com/listing/89492387/crochet-flower-hair-clip-with-rhinestone


List
-keywords and tags need to be more precise
-you need to have a hair clip section and not a children section
-focus on one target market

[CutenCraftyDesigns]

Help Please?

[Former_Member]

let me continue my critique as I was interrupted.

-there are so many different items here and who is your target?
-it seems like you are trying to sell and putting up all kinds of items. This does not show confidence and customers need to have confidence in you.
- I love your name and log picture- get rid of the percent off sale.
-keywords should be small
-you could narrow your market to make accessories for women. and girls and some ideas are clutch bags and bags to hold you pads, or scarfs, and who knows what else to match the hair pins and the bling bling. oh how about a smaller doll size hair clip that matches the girls hair clip.
- i love your pictures.
-do you get the idea on concentrating on a theme target market. the above are all similar in that they are accessories.


My final advice is that you can' t let yourself be discouraged because this is not going to get you closer to your goal. I have nit had any sales either and I have to be honest and work on the very same I suggest to you.
let me know id you need more advice.

[Innov8iveKnits]

Mireya thanks for the input. I realized your point about a month ago that my offerings were all over the place and have decided to get away from the children stuff because the market is so heavily saturated. I'm trying to get to a point where all of my items are adult accessories - most of them in the "high fashion" area but I still have a good bit of stock of the old stuff which is why I kinda consolidated it all to a "children's" section. Do you think that it would be better if I just made a "sale" section instead and put all of those things there?

[Former_Member]

that would be a good idea. Yes the market is saturated but you have unique items. I don't I suggested the doll matching bows and womens stuff becasue I see this kind of stuff popping up at target. They have unique eye popping colors and the doll trend I have seen a bit but not sure how successful it is. I really like these and have you done craft fairs.

[Former_Member]

http://www.etsy.com/listing/89216117/hand-crochet-ear-warmer-headband-with I love this item and would love it with a matching clutch size purse.

[CopperSunStudio]

I am also considering going on my own, Etsy is so saturated with what I do it's not even funny.
I have no time to work on making it better. I known I need to work on tags and titles, I have such a hard time coming up with words. I am an artist, not a talker :-)
I have a full time job and I mean "full time". I would rather make my jewelry when I have a minute to spare, it's what I love to do.
Example: I just listed a bracelet, I did a search and it's not even showing-up after 10 pages.
I feel your pain really.

[Innov8iveKnits]

I have done craft fairs but have so far been unsuccessful with them. Part of it was probably the weather (it wasn't quite cold enough to be purchasing knitted goods), also in my little bit of experience I've noticed people aren't really willing to spend a lot of money at these things, and my items are on the higher end of price for them. Maybe I just haven't been to the right one yet though. Maybe I will try a few out of town or something next time.