Newbie Tips?

[Former_Member]

Hi!

I have only had my shop opened for 3 weeks but I have put a lot of time into it. I continue to add items and also work on tweaking my tags and pictures whenever I find a new tip. I advertise through pinterest also and with family and friendsI also just recently created a blog to help be found better in google searches but I am not sure it has been really making a difference! I just recently decided to add international shipping so that maybe I could gain some sales. If anyone has any other tips for newbies it would be greatly appreciated!

[Former_Member]

You have already had two sales so you must be doing something right! It wouldn't let me see your tags so I can't help you there. I would just keep adding more items a little at a time. I learned that you don't want to add them all in one day because I added 60 in a day and had that many or more views and then almost none the next day. If that makes any sense...

[Former_Member]

My first 2 sales were my mom so I wouldn't really count those lol! But thanks for the tips, I'll remember that for next time to spread them out!

[Pizzelwaddels]

It took me over a month to get my first sale. It still feels slow to me after almost a year, but others tell me it's "Taken Off". So, I think it just takes time, getting your shop name out there & tweak things as you learn more.
I actually started to get introduced to some others thru BNS/BNR sales. After that I started to have some sales. Now it gets slow for a few days, them I sell several things a day & then back to slow. Circles help get your shop seen & favoriting items & other shops can get them to do the same for you.
Don't know if it helps, but that's been my experience. Good Luck!!

[TheHeatherWells]

Okay.... So, I have lots of newbie advice. I am still looking at your shop, but have already noticed some things.
I am trying to decide how to tackle advising you, because I want to give you specific help while giving advice that can help others too.

**** Researching what etsy offers in terms of reference is critical!!!
All newbies should run a search for the types of items they sell for many reasons.. I will do a search for flip flops and report back with your results, and explain how it can help guide your next steps

[TheHeatherWells]

The geek in me says

When searching for flip flops when writing this post there are 15,574 listings.
You have 11 flip flop listings
First thing to be aware of is your saturation rate. Yours is 0.07%
This means basically there are 1,415 flip flop listings for every one of yours.

If all things were equal you can expect to show up once in every 1415 listings, that isn't how it works though it is based off of relevancy and other factors I will touch on. My saturation rate is a little over 1% in my category, so I use the guidelines on showing up at least 1 out of every 100 listings as me doing a fair job as far as relevancy goes.

** there are 40 listing results per search page (without the search ads)
To get see 1415 listing images in the search pages, you would have to go through 35 pages.
Obviously in order to make sales you need to be seen more than an average of 1 time for every 35 pages.

I am not saying this to be bleak, but to give you knowledge.. The next post will be about making yourself more relevant in the searches, and what you can do to increase your chances of being seen.

I will try to adress it in a way that will help all newbies

[TheHeatherWells]

Determining your saturation rate:

First what I would look at is the first page of results searching your listing genre. in the case of the OP it is flip flops.. when I searched flip flops the amount of results were 15,574.. the OP had 11 listings in her store at the time. To determine here market saturation I used a nifty "free" online percentage calculator
http://www.math.com/students/calculators/source/3percent.htm
another more simple way to look at it, is dividing the search results by your listings.
For example say I look up blue shoes, and 400 listings show up in the search results show up.. if I had 2 pair, I would have 1 blue shoe listing for every 200 blue shoe listings on the site when I performed the search.

I know learning your saturation rate is very sobering, I really am not trying to discourage you, but make you a bit wiser about the way you tag and title.. which is what I will address next

[TheHeatherWells]

Relevancy:

So so all see what I mean, if you run a search for flip flops under handmade, you will notice that every title in the listings that come up in the first several pages have flip flops written in the title and tags.

So the most important thing to do is make sure that you have the most important words searched to find your items are in the tile and tags. I would even go as far as having the "most relevant" words in at least one of the first three tags.
Now look at the bottom of the page.. etsy supplies suggestions at the bottom of the page of other popular searches related to the search you performed. if any of your product fit those suggestions use those exact phases in your title and tags.

for example she has swarovski crystals on some.. at the bottom of the search result "flip flops beaded" is one of the suggestions.. so in the title I would include flip flops beaded (in that order) then also in the tags that way too. That will place her higher in relevancy of that search, or if someone clicks on that suggestion on the bottom.

Don't be afraid of using the color to describe too.. see what ranks higher in searches on google between say "leopard flip flops beaded"
or "leopard crystal flip flops" The word order does count in relevancy on etsy.

[TheHeatherWells]

Compare and contrast:

Know your competitors.. You will notice "after the first page" in search results the certain sellers show up a lot more than others.. try to determine why, do they have a lot more items? Are they using terms in their titles and tags that are different from what you are doing?

P.S. when you get bigger and have a follwing tag with your store name (but never tag with other store names, that is just yucky)

Offer international shipping "you will be included in international searches"

Offer a range of prices in your store. you can search by lowest or highest in the searches.. I never aim to be the highest or lowest, but I am mentioning it here because it is a search option here.

I do think offering some items at a lower price is valuable however

*** often times it is hard for first time buyers to take that leap of faith on a new shop "or shop they haven't purchased from before". Feedback will help with those buyers that are indecisive if they see lots of good feed back.

*** Buyers remorse: An important thing to keep in mind is that the more expensive an item is the higher the expectation is from the buyer.. this is not a bad thing but in a tough economy it is hard to part with your money.

To increase the chance that someone will take a chance to make that first purchase form you, think about having a product line or two of something you can produce more quickly and less expensive just to get people to take that first chance on you. Once someone makes that first purchase you can try to win them over by your customer service and quality.

P.S. having a lower priced item doesn't mean cheap or poor quality...

I have had many buyers buy a single low price item, only to return or multiple larger item orders later.

[Former_Member]

Thank you soooo much! That was great advice and very helpful. I am going to work on all of these things to better my shop! I really appreciate your help!

[TheHeatherWells]

Yeah... sorry about the book.. There is just so much that can help :)

Personally I didn't get regular sales until I had 75 items in my shop, then itgot steadier as I added more items.

Heather

[Former_Member]

Thank you so much for putting that much effort into your advice! It was very helpful!

[TheHeatherWells]

kristin cruz from CreateShop says

Thank you so much for putting that much effort into your advice! It was very helpful!
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Your welcome, I always hope to help.

I know we all hope for a simple answer.. and that our products will start flying off our virtual shelves. I have only managed to find very time consuming solutions...

Heather

P.S. I do like the search ads too. You need to tailor them to your products, but at least you will be on the top of the result pages that your ads show in