How can I test out the buyer experience on my Pattern site?

[Thumbwick]

After 2 1/2 months, I still have no luck getting orders in my new Pattern shop. I get orders in my Etsy shop, but nothing on my Pattern site. I have traffic, but no orders. I'd like to find out how the process works for customers. I tried to place a small order but got through the whole process and received a message that I can't place an order on my own site. If I need an Etsy account to order, and can't use my own, how can I test it? I'm sure most people would tell me to just ask a friend to do it, but unfortunately, I'm a major introvert, so I don't have a ton of friends, and the ones I have, I'd rather not annoy by asking them. My husband doesn't have an Etsy account and won't set one up (he doesn't trust computers or online shopping, and that is a whole other story). So, what do others do? Should I set up another Etsy account under another name/email? Thanks much for any ideas!

-Margie

[AtMemoryLane]

Margie @Thumbwick  -

I, too, am an introvert.  So I understand the predicament you are in.  Here are a couple of things that I do to bolster traffic to my pattern site.  Feel free to use any or all of them.

1.  Mention your pattern site everywhere you can on your marketplace shop...like in your marketplace banner, list it under your sites (which you have already done), Mention it in your faq's, and mention it in your descriptions.

2.  Give a discount to those that purchase from your pattern site (as opposed to the marketplace site).  You can mention this all over your marketplace site, like in every description.

3.  When you have a sale, place some of your pattern only items included in this sale and then feature them on your pattern site.

4.  Feature DIFFERENT items on your pattern site than you have featured in your marketplace site.  If possible, these featured items might be items that you have only in your pattern site.  People look at the featured items on the pattern site, far more often than they look at the featured items in your marketplace site.

5.  When you have a sale, be sure to mention that if the buyer were to purchase an item on the pattern site that they would not only get the sale discount, but also, the discount that you have on all purchases made on the pattern site.

Good Luck.

Hopefully, incorporating a few of these things will shake things up.

ETA:  Do not be discouraged.  I did not get my first sale on pattern until the 91st day.

Oh yes, Use your material list as you would a keyword list.  Google does go thru the material list, it does NOT scan the keyword list.

[Thumbwick]

First off - THANK YOU for all the ideas! I didn't think about using materials as a keyword list. I'll try that. I also didn't know you could highlight different items on pattern. Is that specific to certain themes? I'll look into that, as it is also a great idea.

I'm a little hesitant to list special deals on my marketplace site, as I don't want to violate any terms of service. I worry about getting both my sites closed down. I do have an image in all my marketplace listings which mentions my new pattern site. I also have been including marketing material with a discount in all my marketplace orders.

How do you offer a discount on your pattern site, and also a sale price on top of that? Is that only for items exclusive to pattern? My understanding is that the larger will override the smaller discount, so that only one will be applied.

[AtMemoryLane]

@Thumbwick.  What I do with the discounts for the pattern site is refund them after they have purchased.  You, as a store owner, can refund any amount you want to for any reason to your buyer.  There is nothing illegal about it.

I do not do anything to violate any terms of service either.  Everything I mentioned is etsy legal.  I would not propose to suggest anything that was illegal here in the forums.  After all, I do not want to go to the forum jail.

You can rummage through my faq's and check out my sale that I currently have in the marketplace.  Maybe you will get the gist of it from that.

[funkydreamsmosaics · Accepted solution]

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@Thumbwick wrote:

If I need an Etsy account to order, and can't use my own, how can I test it? 

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You do NOT need an Etsy account to order.  The orders do go through Etsy's back end, but even on Etsy, you don't need an account.  You can check out as a guest.  

Have you tried checking out on a browser where you aren't checked into your Etsy account?

@AtMemoryLane - those are some great tips!  

[Thumbwick]

@Funkydreamsmosaics - I will try logging off and checking out as a guest. Thanks for the suggestion. 

@AtMemoryLane - I hope you didn't think I was suggesting you violate the marketplace TOS. I'm sorry if it sounded that way. I only meant that I am always worried that I will do that without even knowing. When I try to read the TOS, they seem so ambiguous, like they can be interpreted so many different ways. I am going to check out your shop right now. Thank you for all the great tips!