different shops for different items?

[artnida]

Hi everyone,

I was thinking what is your opinion of organising your shop if you start selling items in very different categories? I am selling knitted accessories at the moment, that do quite well in the winter, but not so much in the summer. I would like to start selling photography prints as well, that are rather unrelated. Do you think it is a better idea to start a whole new shop for that, or to have section in my current shop, given that it already has an audience, shares and likes etc? Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

Nida

[AntsyArtist]

That was discussed in an online lab a while back. Their advice was to stay with one shop. It had to do with having as many items listed in your shop, as possible and time spent managing another shop. But a lot of sellers have more than one shop, so I would like to hear from them, as well.

[Former_Member]

I've got three shops - I sell jewelry, bags and purses, and soaps and lotions. That's a lot to put in one shop, because there aren't enough sections to separate all that out properly. I've had no problems with running three shops, unless you count the Crafter's ADD I've developed. :D But I think we all suffer from that.

It isn't easy, by any stretch, but somehow, it all works out for me. It's really up to you - for me, branding the stuff right was more important than number of listings in a shop. Etsy does not encourage more than one shop, and that's their business. What I do is my business, and I chose to separate everything out for MY sanity.

I mean, I've got over 100 listings in this shop, nearly 100 listings in the purse shop, and 335 listings in the jewelry shop. Can you imagine how awful that would look, all in one place? *shudder*

[Former_Member]

I would start by having it all in one shop. If you, at any point feel like the sales of each category warrant having another shop, then try two.
I tried doing two shops but it was just too much for me. I already run around like a crazy lady. Adding the admin and the advertising time of a second shop just did not work for me. So, for now, I have a hodge podge of items, but it's working. Maybe, when my youngest is in school, I'll consider it again, but for me, it was like adding another full time job!

[Former_Member]

I started offering my knitting on etsy and decided to do a separate shop. I want to keep my artist persona separate from that because (to me) it feels more professional. Sometimes when I see shops offering 10 very different types of items...I get the "jack of all trades, master of none" sort of feeling from it. But, that's just me.

[artnida]

Thanks for all the advice. I will mull it over. Will probably be easiest to use the same shop at least to start with, given that's it's summer now, and my knitting shop is a bit dormant at the moment, anyway..

[Former_Member]

I've been going back and forth with this for a while. I've decided to open a second shop (now I'm trying to decide what to name it!)
One thing that was pointed out to me when I was asking for advice, was the shop sections- you can only have 10. Which makes sense and is fine. But I currently have 7 sections listed in my shop, with 3 more on their way. My other shop has entirely different items directed at an entirely different target audience and just as many sections. I would have to re-section my entire shop, in a much less organized way which would bother me because I personally tend to search a shop using the sections, rather than clicking through every page. My other problem was the target markets. They are so different from each other that I can actually see the other side of the shop turning off the other customer. Having one shop may potentially bring in more customers, but I can see it also turning more customers away. So [for ME] having two shops will be a much smarter choice! Just take a few days to thing it over and weigh the pros and cons related to your items, and maybe even list an item in your shop and see how people respond to it/how YOU feel about it. If you don't like it, take it out and get a new shop!