October Slump? Anyone else?

[lewisandbucky]

So, this will be the first month this year when I haven't sold anything. Is this true for anyone else? Someone suggested to me that perhaps people are just waiting to see what the election will hold before they feel confident enough to shop. Am I the only one experiencing a major slump or is this pretty typical--a slow month before the busy shopping season sets in?

[Former_Member]

Lots of views, only one sale this month....so I guess it's the same for me too!. Hoping things start to pick up soon!

[TheSalvagedEdge]

Hate to be a downer, but I have sold twice as much this week as I did the entire month of October last year. I have been adding new products and getting more stuff out there, keeping things fresh.

[WithLoveFromLucille]

Marie - you're not a downer, you're moving forward. Me too, October has been crazy busy!


Christmas shopping has started.

Check titles & tags.
And very important to continuously be promoting wherever you can.

Here's a thread with a long list of places to promote for FREE!:
www.etsy.com/teams/7722/business-topics/discuss/11003336/

Remember it only takes 1 view to lead to a sale and it's up to us shop owners to lead the people to our listings.

Hope sales pick up!

:)

[lewisandbucky]

I'm glad things have been going well for y'all. I've tried to do lots of promoting: I do it daily on wanelo, facebook, tumblr and craftori. I'm also on a pinterest team and do team pinning. I'm kind of at a loss about what more I can do. But I'll just be patient and keep it up, I guess.

[Former_Member]

It's strange last week I had like 3 sales in one day, 1 the next day and nothing since. I hadn't had any sales prior for like 2 weeks. It doesn't matter how much I promote, it just seems random.

[lewisandbucky]

Well, maybe there's really nothing to my promoting either. I used to get into lots of Etsy Lush treasuries, but none of those ever made me a sale. Maybe I'm just not reaching my target buyers. Maybe I'm promoting in all the wrong places.

[Former_Member]

You are not alone, Lewis... we have very few sales in all three of our shops... 1 jewelry shop and 2 supply shops... I was pulling my hair out trying to find out why...we got decent views and hearts, just no sales...

[philosophias]

I was having a slump for a long time - on and off since the beginning of August. But now my sales are really starting to pick back up again! I think this must just be the transition period before christmas.

[PiecesofMeCardsnMore]

The views in my jewelry shop have been horrible lately. I can't blame my lack of promoting because my sales were great (for me) in Sept. and I did next to nothing as far as promoting.

I just (re)opened this paper crafts shop last week and my views are higher than my jewelry shop. I'm at 41 for today, which I think is pretty darn good for having my shop open for only 10 days. Half those views are from search and direct traffic and of those, most are for Christmas items. I'm concentrating on adding mainly Christmas items right now and putting my other ideas on the back burner. I'm pretty happy that my items are being found in search.

[Former_Member]

i full on agree. slow slow slow. using my time wisely to do much needed editing. i still feel slumpy tho:( hoping for a hoppin sale-filled november!

[Former_Member]

OK, so there was another thread here on the same topic and I too was complaining that my sales have slumped for the past few weeks as well.

I've invested so much in materials in anticipation of the holiday season, so I was slightly panicking about sales going way down.

Anyway, for what it is worth-I decided to take one item and do a one day sale at a really low price. I promoted it on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all day.
The result was great! I sold 25 bracelets and a few extra items to those customers who were drawn into the shop for the specially priced bracelet. My views and sales were up today as well.

Thought I would share. Might be worth a try to drive traffic to your shop.

[ABeadedStory]

October has been awful for me as well. I actually am promoting way more this month then previous months and sales still way down. Views are good but no sales.

[Former_Member]

My views have been terrible this month but the sales keep coming.

I've not used wanelo, facebook, tumblr, craftori or pinterest at all. Is that where your target market is?

I'll make three or four treasuries during a week when I get a minute to relax just so I can explore other Etsy shops.

I've been trying to follow the 'Holiday boot Camp' series this year but have managed to get behind again.

[Former_Member]

I've had a couple sales, but yes it has definitely been one of the slowest months in awhile for me. I'm hoping that November will have a major upswing!

[Former_Member]

I haven't sold anything for the past 40 days. My views are alright, but I've been paying to renew all my listings since they've all come up to expire around the same time.

No sales in the past month + lots of renew fees = me rethinking whether or not I want to sell here.

[WhistlingFishPottery]

I've been waiting on a kiln repair (DONE, as of today) so I haven't had anything new to list most of this month. I can't say if its the lack of new listings or the lower number of views, but my sales this month are half of last month. But then, last month was the first month I've sold anything... so....
*shrug*

[Former_Member]

I haven't made a single sale in October, but I'm going to be positive, there are still a few days left :)) I also made only 1 sale in September and also only 1 in August. But that's just Etsy statistics.
I sell more off Etsy. Craft Fair brought me a lot of new buyers. I get contacted via fb or mail almost on a weekly base. Maybe Etsy just isn't the right place for me??

[Former_Member]

I sold two items the first week in october then nothing for just over two weeks, but I have had a sale every day for the past three days, so fingers crossed, my dry spell is over. Just be patient, something will give. Stay positive and just work on tags, listings, phots and production. It will get better

[marissaLboutique]

I have noticed very low views the past 3 days. i think people are generally avoiding the internet (ie: Facebook) until the election.
I started a discussion about this yesterday and a few people said the exact same thing - low views and not a lot of business.
Hang in there everyone! :)

[marissaLboutique]

Also..i was wondering if maybe there was something up with the views. like a glitch of some sort.
my pages viewed was only at a 6, but yet i had 9 favorited items and multiple keywords that had nothing to do with the favorited items and pages viewed categories. (if that makes sense)

interesting..

[Former_Member]

No sales for me in the last couple of months! Hoping things will pick up as the holiday shopping season begins.

[lewisandbucky]

From Crochetgal: "I've not used wanelo, facebook, tumblr, craftori or pinterest at all. Is that where your target market is? "
_____________________________________
That's a great question Crochetgal! I suppose, based on lack of sales, that those places don't have my target market. How am I supposed to find them? Does anyone have some advice for how to locate your target buyers????

[Former_Member]

What is wanelo? I've never heard of it.

[celineandkate]

Oct. sales picked up for me a bit. This week was horrible though.
My views have been so inconsistent though. I am not sure what is happening. Could it be the change in Etsy's categories?
I use to average about 300 views begining of this year. Now one day it's in the 100's, next day can be 300 then down to 100's, 200's.