Upping Sales!

[Former_Member]

Hi all;

I'm a new seller (opened up on 24th of July) and was just wondering if y'all have any tips on how to increase traffic - and sales! :)

What brings the buyers in for you...and most importantly, what makes them buy?

[Former_Member]

Truth is it is different for every one. The basics are talked about here all the time. Pictures, titles, key words, SEO, tags. The do FB, Twitter, ect. It is all experimantation. Try and try again. You will figure out what works for you.

My shop did not come together until I figured out the format and "look". I needed to find my voice and that gave me confidence. I wish you luck. You can do it.

[Former_Member]

Thanks for the encouragement! And I love your shop. I really want to knit something now...what gorgeous yarn. :)

[Former_Member]

You and I are in the same boat. I added my first item in July. A lot of people suggest social media sites. I just opened a Twitter account as well as a Pinterest account. Pinterest is a lot of fun and a great way to find inspiration!

[Former_Member]

I love your shop, Emily! :)

Pinterest does look good; only trouble is you have to be on Twitter or Facebook to join 'em! (Which I am not nuts about doing, really, unless I can have business accounts without having a personal one too.)

But thanks for the idea!

[Former_Member]

I don't think you can promote your shop effectively unless you are on all the major promoting sites, twitter, facebook. delicious, pinterest, stumbleupon, and google + seem to generate the most views.

[Former_Member]

I hadn't even heard of some of those - will check them out! Thanks! :)

[Former_Member]

Hi Jasmine and welcome to etsy! I've had a shop open for a while but have only been active for about 4 months now so I still consider myself a little new here.. I'm still trying to find a true "niche" but I want to include as much diversity as possible.

Anyway, the things that have helped me generate way more views are my photos and constantly working on SEO (tags, titles, description, section names, shop description). I changed most of my photos last week since I started having access to a real camera and since then my views have gone up from on average 30/day to more like 80-100/day. It's incredible how important photographs are. I haven't seen an increase in sales yet, but I know if I keep working at it - adding more items, update the rest of my photos, and work on my niche - success will follow.

I use facebook and twitter, but don't see too many views from it. I also use pinterest for fun, which also does not generate many views for me. I see some views from stumbleupon and a few from wanelo, also a few from etsylush. I know of a few people who gets tons of sales through their blog following so I'm working on becoming more active with my blog. I also think it's important to promote off the internet so I'll be doing a craft show soon and putting up flyers in a few places.. we'll see how that goes. :) I think the main thing is to work hard. It's true that different things work for different people so it's trial and error! Best of luck to you.

[Former_Member]

I do agree, it's so so necessary to be active on social networking sites. I have a facebook fanpage, twitter accounts (both personal and business), pinterest, tumblr, wanelo.. I'm still a new seller so my views are still fairly low on a daily basis, but i'm hoping with time they'll begin steadily increasing (and stay up). I am sponsoring two giveaways so I've noticed a steady increase in the number of people following me, which I think is a good thing to have set up for future postings and such. Best of luck, most definitely!

[ArtistiKat]

Hi Jasmine.

My shop started seeing more traffic after I hit the 50 listings mark.
You have wonderful items in your shop - definitely add more of them.
;)

[Former_Member]

Love your store! Cute items! The pictures are great, however, they might take away the focus from your items (but I really like them). More prominent in Etsy seem to be the white pictures backgrounds....

More items will also help. I do get more traffic when I'm active in discussions. I always post my new items/renewed items in the teams and it does gather more views.

Start your own discussion like this and it'll bring traffic, too. Maybe not buyers. But some may like your items/store and that will expose you to new clientele...

Good luck!

[Former_Member]

Can I make another suggestion? Your prices are very low. I am sure that I can not get the materials for what you are selling your bracelets for. I think around $12 would be a better price. Just a suggestion. Your shop is great looking. By the way.

[Former_Member]

Welcome, Jasmine! I'd have to say pictures are very very important, then promoting and networking. Try not to let your shop sit one day without doing something for it or being active on Etsy. The sales will come - patience is key, also! Best of luck - you've got a great shop!

[ForgedMettleJewelry]

More items and great tags, that's all i got. Trust me, if I was making more sales I'd share my secret...

[Babiease]

I totally agree with the first post by "eweandmeyarns". Do alot of searching etsy learning what other shops are doing that are selling well. It takes time to learn what works but the more you put into it the more likely you'll get sales!

[Babiease]

Oh, and list alot! The more items in your shop the more likely you'll be "found"!

[Former_Member]

I opened an etsy account back in 2010 ... but I didn't start selling until June of this year. I sold a few things in July and then August has been just wonderful!

I started joining teams in July. I also opened accounts for twitter, facebook, wanelo, pinterest .... added backlinks, worked on pictures, descriptions and SEO.

I promote like crazy! I try to do a little everyday and since I've been doing it steady I've had 25 sales just in August. I believe it's because I am promoting like crazy. Just one line a day is all it takes .... one tweet, one pin. It really does work. Hard work but it does work.

[Former_Member]

Thank you all so much for your tips!

I know I do need to list more items; workin' on that!

And the idea of starting a blog is a good one.

Eweandmeyarns; I can make a good profit with the item prices I have (good suppliers!), but do you think my items will have more value in the eyes of buyers if they are a little more expensive? Pricing is hard for me; I'm stingy (!) so always end up dropping my prices quite low as I know that is all I would want to pay! :-P Not a good idea, perhaps?

Again, a big thank you to everyone!

[bellazahn]

Yes Jasmine, I agree about the pricing - us crafters are shockers for not valuing our product enough but we need to remember our customers are looking for something special and not mass produced in China etc. We are allowed to make a profit and shouldn't feel guilty for doing so . I would say the $12-$15 mark would be great :)

[PICFiberArts]

Jasmine,
I agree on the pricing. If you sit down and put in the time it took to make plus materials then add it up. Say if you were cleaning homes they get at leat $20 hr now or more, so you have to think of your worth.

Love you shop.

Also join some teams that you like and some help promote yours and their craft. Great way to share information. Good luck here on Etsy!

[Former_Member]

Thanks you, Patricia and Sarah! Maybe I should up my prices a little. Anyone else have an opinion on that? Thinking as a buyer, what price would fall into the right place between; "Wow! A bargain!" and "That item must be REALLY special!"

Maybe I'll start a new post on this topic - somehow I think lots of us would like with feedback on that issue!

[Former_Member]

I just took a peek at your store and you definitely NEED to raise your prices! Your jewelry is so pretty but priced way to low.

[Former_Member]

Jasmine, I'm not crazy about social media sites either, but even with the bare minimum of time spent on them, I do get noticeable traffic. So it doesn't take much, and it doesn't require you to share truly personal information if you're not comfortable with that (I'm certainly not).

I tinker with my photos and tags and descriptions, which helps me get more views. I get more sales from just wearing my designs and giving out business cards to those who inquire of where I got what I'm wearing. Never forget the power of good ol' fashioned word of mouth. :)

I hated to raise my prices too, but I was just contacted about possibly doing wholesale, which made me very glad I raised them! If I hadn't, there would be no way I could consider wholesaling without eating a lot of cost. It's also nice to be able to make as much profit off 1 sale as I used to make off 3. And price really does color the buyer's opinion of quality here. It took me realizing that just because I make what I like to wear doesn't necessarily make me my own target market. I live too frugally.

Good luck to you!

Edited for typos

[Former_Member]

Great shop! I agree on raising your prices. Something I remember that was said during one of the online labs about pricing was: "You are not your customer. You are probably not even a member of your target market." And it's so true. We need to stop thinking about what WE would and would not buy. Personally I would not think about buying my own products - simply because I (obviously) know how to make them, or I know someone who would be able to make them for me if I couldn't. I even cringed a bit when I calculated the price I should be charging for my wet bags. But we are providing a product for people who don't know how or don't have the tools needed to make it themselves, and so the price isn't really as much of an issue that we crafters make it out to be.

I would most definitely charge at least $12 for your cheapest item!

[Former_Member]

Thanks, ladies!

Jen - thank you for the compliment! :)

Raven - I do think I need to look into social networking, but (as you say) want to keep personal info OUT of the picture, and merely use it for my shop. It seems you need a Facebook (or twitter) account to be on Pinterest, and you need a personal FB account to get a business one - arg! Do you know if you can get a business Twitter account without having a personal one? As a fellow don't-wanna-put-my-info-on-the-big-web person (!), what networking sites would you recommend?

Melissa - That's a very good point. I AM NOT MY BUYER - if you're looking for handmade pearl jewellery, I guess you won't be expecting to pay £5 for an item! That said, I did hope being 'the cheapest' might ,make my work appeal amongst the plethora of pearl jewellery out there - but perhaps that's counter-productive. Cheap = rubbish to many a buyer!

I appreciate all your advice so much!