What am I doing wrong.

[Former_Member]

I have had alot of traffiic through my store also no sales. I actually started my store about a month ago. I have had many promotion sales but no body is buying my items. I am just bummed. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. Are my items over priced or is there just to many stores with wreaths. I have been doing alot of promoting. Does anyone have any suggetions? I would truely appreciate it.
Sonya

[Former_Member]

Hi Sonya,

I'd advise a few things:
- Your pictures, as they are now, don't really show the wreath, but rather a close up, so I'm not sure what I'm looking at at first, so I probably wouldn't click on them in a search. Also, you need to take MUCH clearer pictures--if I'm paying that much for a wreath, I want the shop to look professional.

- Don't start your title with 40% off--not the best way to utilize SEO.

- Add more items! The more you have, the more you can be found!

- I'd work on your tags, as well.

Try checking this out for some help: http://amandajocrafts.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/on-helpful-tips-for-etsy-sellers/

[Former_Member]

Excellent advice. Thank you so much!!!
I truely appreciate it.

[Former_Member]

Your wreaths are lovely but I did not see any dimensions listed in the one I looked at. If I am paying that much for a custom holiday decoration I want to know how big it is.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/117779468/sale-40-off-lariat-rope-happy-holiday

[PiecesofMeCardsnMore]

I see a few things that need work but I'll focus on this one listing.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/117778022/sale-40-off-an-elf-of-a-christmas-wreath

What you're item is needs to be in the first three words of your title. Right now when a buyer sees your item in search in gallery mode (if they see your item, but that's another point I'll get to) they see this as a title "Sale 40% OFF An elf of a chr." It doesn't tell me it's a wreath because wreath is the 9th word of your title, not the 1st, 2nd or 3rd. A better title would be "Christmas wreath, holiday elf wreath, red & green wreath." I used keyword phrases and also included the colors of the wreath.

Your tags for this item are:
Holidays
Christmas Wreath
deco mesh elf
elf wreath
christmas wreath
festive wreath
top 10 gifts
christmas gifts
door wreath
sale
sale on wreaths
deco mesh
stripped wreath
sparkle
santas helper

You've got Christmas wreath in there twice, which is a waste of a tag. I don't know what "top 10 gifts" is. Maybe you saw that mentioned on another team so if it's helping you get into treasuries you might need to leave it there. "Stripped wreath" - I assume you mean striped. You might not get found with a misspelling in your tags, although a lot of sellers including myself add common misspellings to our tags. You also have no colors listed in your tags or title. Someone who's looking for a wreath will eventually narrow their search down to color. Without that info anywhere in your title or tags they won't see your item. You have the word sale twice in your tags. Once would be enough.

Some tags I'd suggest are:
holiday wreath
red & green wreath
elf wreath
wreath sale
handmade wreath


Your description doesn't say how big this wreath is. That alone would be a deal breaker for me. I need to know if it's going to be the right size for my door. I'm not one to contact a seller and wait for a reply to find out how big it is. I would simply move on.

Is this wreath an indoor or outdoor wreath? How is the elf made? What is the rest of the wreath made of? How will it be packed for shipping?

My last question is why are you offering such a deep discount so soon?

I hope I don't come across as harsh because I don't mean to be. This team has helped me tremendously since I opened my other shop back in January. I used everything I learned from this team when I re-opened my paper crafts shop in October. I've sold around 30 items in the past 2 months and it's 100% because of all the good advice given here.

[Former_Member]

Sonya,

I'd suggest that you take a good look at your photos. Many don't show a good view of the wreath at all but a cropped close up.

Take a good look at other wreath photos on Etsy and see which ones catch your eye and compare them to yours.
http://www.etsy.com/search?q=holiday%20wreaths&view_type=list&ship_to=ZZ

You may also want to review your descriptions as well. I'm not sure what you mean by ""This christmas wreath is made with jute window pane cream color. ""

Take a good look at the titles and tags that you are using. Do the titles contain phrases that a buyer would use when searching for what you are selling? Do you use the key words and phrases from your titles in your tags?

I'd suggest that you read the 'critique your own shop' post at
etsymentors.blogspot.com/p/critique-your-own-shop.html


You also opened your shop very late into the holiday buying season. What are you doing to attract your customers to your shop in the way of marketing?

Marketing requires year round effort and not just a quick shot during the holiday season.

Right now your entire stock is Christmas based. Where are your listings for Valentines and Spring? Those wreaths should be listed right now as well.

Now is the time to be planning your marketing strategy for Valentines as its only 2 months away., and spring is right around the corner after that!

[FabulouslyHomemade]

Looks like you're getting good advise! It takes time to start up an Etsy business. Most of us didn't get sales right away, so keep up the good work and best of luck to you in your future!

[Former_Member]

I agree with Amanda and Don't worry most shops are always working on improving and inventory. Sometimes it's hard if you have a day time job and a lot of things going on but don't give up! All of it, is a learning process.

[Former_Member]

I'm sort of in a similar dilemma. 95% of my sales have been to friends. I get found in searches what I think is a decent amount of times and will now get maybe 30-50 view a day from etsy plus a number of item and shop favorites. But very few sales to non friends. Could I get any feedback as well on why that might be? Do people just favorite a ton and not follow through? Mor is something in my listings putting people off? Thanks!

[CharleneSevier]

Sonya,

I suggest a white or lighter background, your wreaths are blending into the brown background too much. I also suggest not cropping in so tight and leaving a little bit of space around the wreathes. Looking at the first page of your shop is visually cluttered in my opinion.

The wreathes themselves are gorgeous; it just takes knowledge, experimentation, and work to become successful. Crochetgal's advice about getting product up for V Day and spring is good advice.

[Former_Member]

Don't forget the Christmas Etsy tag

[Former_Member]

Your wreaths are Beautiful! Glad you got so much great advice and I learned alot, too.

[LovgrenandDaughter]

You've gotten soe excellent advise. The 40% discount is way too much. It implys that you are going out of business.

And the cropping is really too tight. Let people see the whole wreath so they can picture in their mind's eye what it would look like at their house.

And try to get more stock in for generic pretty wreaths and different holidays like easter.

3 sales in a month for a brand new shop is not bad.

Keep up the good work!

[Former_Member]

Oh my gosh, I don't know how to thank all of you!!!!!! All of your post were so helpful and I am already using them. Tomorrow I am going to finish up getting much better pictures and improving my tags, tiltles and descriptions. I was getting awfully discouraged but now I understand everything that I did wrong. None of the posts were harsh. I just call that good honest criticisim and I truely appreciate it. For a while there I was ready to throw in the towel and close shop. I have a more positive outlook and am looking forward to a great year. As far as starting my buisness so late in the season.....I have been wanting to open an etsy store for over a year but never really had the courage. One day I thought to myself well I'll never know how I'll do if I don't try. I never really thought about it being late in the season.

I am going reduce my discount tonight. I hope that doesn't hurt me. But if so well I have a whole year or more to make more improvements to my buisness.

For marketing I have been using google adsense, bing ad-Microsoft, Twitter, facebook and pintrest. I probably expected things to happen quickly. Now I realize it takes time for marketing.

All of you on this team are greatly appreciated. The best thing I ever did was join this team. Thank you each and everyone of you so much!!!!!!!!!!!

[Former_Member]

Need measurements....many people can't visualize it even with measurements, so maybe take a photo of you holding it so they can get a great perspective on size. It helps a lot. Make sure your prices are competitive with sellers selling similar products. Good luck!
You have beautiful items.

[Former_Member]

Sonya,

Your listings do have very few views by Internet standards. It take many, many more views to make a sales from any Web site than it does in person.

New shops have a hard time and have to make sales through promotion and marketing so that they can be seen more and more in Etsy searches.

Based on my testing on Relevancy searches, most of the listings shown on the first few pages are
1. from shops with a lot of sales
2. listings of items that have many sales (sold and relisted)
3. listings with many hearts/favorites
4. listings included in many treasuries

In other words, popular listings.

As a business, Etsy wants to know that your shop can be trusted to ship the items ordered and receive positive feedback from your buyers. The best thing you can do for better visibility on Etsy is to market and promote your shop everywhere to make those first sales and prove that your shop can be depended on.

[Former_Member]

Thanks!