One Shop or One Shop for Each Category

[Former_Member]

The items I make & sell fall into three distinctly different categories; art/photography, handmade/bags and vintage/jewelry. And some day I may sell some supplies when it's time to thin my stash.

I've noticed some sellers have more then one shop featuring different categories of items. What are your ideas on the advantages of having a number of shops?

Thanks for your input!

[Former_Member]

I'd be interested in this too, as I have thought about using my existing shop for vintage only, and a separate one for handmade items.

[Former_Member]

When you look at the Etsy dos and dont's it's strongly discouraged to have more than one shop.

I have two e-mail addresses and opened up another shop for my jewelry and hair accessories, I found it hard to keep up with two shops and I only sold 3 necklaces before I closed the shop and listed them all under Pete & Paul.

I think at the end of the day, I make better purses and pillows than jewelry and hair accessories so I'm learning to focus my product. Lesson learned.

[EviesToolEmporium]

I would say one shop. Your sections are clear and concise!
One thing you can always do is "Rearrange Your Shop" so your like items are pulled all together!
Best of luck!
Michelle-

[Former_Member]

I was thinking of opening another shop as I also make Soaps and Knitted items! but I have heard more than once people say they have trouble keeping up and I have my hands full with one shop I can't imagine 2 or more! So I will be keeping it all in one but my focus will be on my Chainmaille!

[Former_Member]

@PeteandPaul - Now that you mention it, I vaguely recall something about discouraging more than one shop. Thanks!

@EviesToolEmporium - That is an idea, I may do that

[Former_Member]

I would recommend putting everything in one shop and separating your items into three different categories. Someone may go to your shop looking for supplies and see your photography and add it on to their purchase, whereas if you have two different shops the person shopping for supplies will not know or see your photography.

Good luck to you!

[Former_Member]

Great tip EviesTool, one I am heading over to work on.

Thanks
blessings, jilly

[threesistersharvest]

Were new! Read somewhere on Etsy that it's good to try different items in your shop and then see which one gets the most attention and sales and go that direction.

[Former_Member]

I think they heard me! Etsy is going to make it possible to manage more than one shop, from one account.
www.etsy.com/teams/7716/announcements/discuss/6811925/

[Former_Member]

It's fine to have just one shop, but make sure that you're clearly categorized by type. I've gone to some mixed shops that separate by price and it's difficult to weed through to get to what I want. My own shop is a mix of jewelry and knitted items and I haven't had any problems so far.

[RutledgeJewelers]

Admin just announced that we will soon be able to manage multiple shops from one account:

http://www.etsy.com/teams/7716/announcements/discuss/6811925/page/1/

This will make it much easier, should you decide to go with multiple shops.

[PorterandHazel]

I am so glad to see this thread. I run a leather jewelry shop and am working on a line of ceramics - some of it jewelry and some of it vases. I know the jewelry will fit in but i was concerned about adding in vases, mugs and other porcelain pieces we are working on - so this topic has been on my mind a lot.

I've been leaning towards just putting it all in one shop, and you guys definitely helped me feel confident that this is the right decision.

thanks.

[Former_Member]

I am glad to have found this thread. I was thinking about separating into 2 shops. One for knitting and one for upcycling but I think, for now, I will look at reorganizing instead.

[christmaskeepsakes]

I have a shop obviously related to Christmas items, but now I have added felt supplies. I will be adding felt dolls and childrens felt toys. Do you think people will find them in a shop with Christmas in the name?

[CowsandUdderThings]

This is good to know I had been thinking about more than one shop too but can't seem to keep up with one.. how do you rearrange your shop?

[Former_Member]

Cows - there is a setting under options where you can pick custom. That will allow you to rearrange your items rather than just having the most recent listing always at the top.

[Former_Member]

Also, if you go to your items for sale page, on the right hand side there is a setting for featured items. If you click an items star it will go to the top of your home page. You can have up to 4 items that stay up there.

[RowanOliviaJewelry]

I would recommend against selling your supplies and finished objects in one shop, unless you have very few items listed (empty shops = few customers). Someone looking for a finished piece of jewelry, for example, won't want to see supplies. Plus, if they see you are selling bead X for $1 and are charging $25 for a necklace made with that bead hung on a chain, they may feel like you are asking too much for the finished piece because now they are "aware" of the price of the bead... Now, this might not hold true for shops where you sell supplies that you make yourself (e.g. hand crafted claps, or something), or are the very basic ingredients used in finished projects that take a lot of time - e.g. yarn in a knitted wear shop seems more palatable because I know that an incredible amount of work goes into making the object.

[RowanOliviaJewelry]

Oh, and thanks for that link to the article on being able to manage multiple shops.. That will be awesome when its unveiled. I run multiple shops and it is a hassle to have to log in and out all the time. But, I do feel running multiple shops is good, if you want to have a cohesive style to your shops. My stuff is very diverse - one shop is just silly cute stuff, another is modern sort of minimalist stuff, and this one is more romantic and spiritual. They are all jewelry. I suppose I could sell them all in one shop but I feel that someone buying bookmarks and necklaces with glass chickens on them would not also be in the market for a high end garnet and gold necklace. Maybe I'm wrong about that.. I don't know. :-) The other issue is if you have only one shop, and you are very prolific, you will soon end up with a shop with 400 items... Again, maybe thats good, or maybe thats bad because people will be put off from looking at all your pages if you have so many. I'd love to get feedback on this. Maybe I'm off base.

[Former_Member]

I am waiting on the possibility of running two shops from one account! Will be great!! :)

[Former_Member]

I would say one shop. Especially with all the hard work that you put into getting traffic to your store....to have to rebuild all of that seems like an added pain...

[Former_Member]

When I looked into SEO two shops actually makes bringing traffic easier. On the other hand, some webinars recommend just focusing your energy on one item and really concentrating your advertising and creative energy on one item and not spreading it out. Also, when determining your niche it can be exceedingly difficult to direct your shop at a large variety of people. Just my input but I think either narrowing your items down or opening an additional shop is the way to go.

[CowsandUdderThings]

Thanks for the info on arranging the shop Karen.. appreciate it..
I had been wondering if it was a good idea to put my altered art in the same shop as my painting.