Critique please?

[suemako]

I'm hoping fresh eyes can make suggestions to see what I am missing.

Thanks!

[customhemptreasures]

Hey Sue! Welcome to the team, Give me a little time to take a peek, i'll be back soon :)

[customhemptreasures · Accepted solution]

Ok you have a ton of sales and seems like you have an awesome handle on things, so these things i'm gonna critique might seem nit picky, but can't hurt! So first off, how about for the shop section "aprons" why not put "handmade aprons" or "sewn aprons" or "stitched aprons" whatever fits your item best and is more descriptive.

Your pictures are pretty amazing i must admit, very white and uniform, but the rest of your pictures are pretty much the same, why not do a picture of two of someone holding it, someone using it, someone wiping down their table or stove with it? really give the customer the sight of them possibly using the towel in their own home.
Ok nit picky again, i did a tag war search on tools4etsy.com and this is what i found http://www.tools4etsy.com/TagWars/fruit%20dish%20towel/vs/dish%20towel/1?StatsMode=0
you come up last for the search of "fruit dish towel" of results of only 17 items. And i don't see you for the first handfull of listings of "dish towel" which is far more popular with 15,000 listings using this keyword.
Now i'm doing a relevancy search for you with the keyword "dish towel" and you came up relevant on every page it seems. Now i looked at your listings description and the very top is just filled with keywords, NO! Bad Sue! what customer is going to want to read all those keywords crammed together when they want to read about your beautiful towels, how they are handmade, what they can be used for, what material they are made of. Of course you can use great keywords but not a copy paste of the title.
One more thing that can help your relevancy is copying your title directly into your tags, so Dish towel in titles, put dish towel in tags, fruit towel in title, fruit towel in tags, this helps your etsy relevancy.
Use tools4etsy.com to help you find popular and relevant keywords, and help show you where you come in search results compared to your competition. And as always if you need any clarity extra help or anything don't hesitate to convo me. I am a full time etsy seller and am always sitting at my desk :)
Hope i was able to help and sorry that it was so nit picky!

[JesseBlauwhof]

Hey Sue :)

You have so many great items, but I will try to give you a few ideas that you maybe interested in.
- change up the tags maybe a bit:
https://www.etsy.com/se-en/listing/163135963/prim-cherish-pillow-primitive-pillow?ref=shop_home_acti...
When I saw this pillow you used the word 'pillow' in your tags 6 times. You only have to use it once and it will show up when people look for pillows. Maybe try adding different words to widen your chances of being found. Here are some examples of tags you could use:
- interior design
- gifts for her
- hand sewn present
- brown cushion

Maybe you could make some towels for new couples, anniversary gifts, new home owners, babyshowers etc. Maybe people can add a name and date on a towel for example. If you have a few design to show them, you may be able to widen your target audience. You could also write stuff like 'best mom' or 'love you grandma'.

But I have to say, your shop is doing incredible well and I think you are a wonderful and kind person, which also helps a lot with selling! Well done.

[customhemptreasures]

Great points Jesse, why are you only charging $10 for that pillow Sue? It is hand stitched! I would bet you could get like $30 for that!

[suemako]

Jesse,
I started doing customs towels and there are examples with a letter "R" and one with a "K". I also have one that I stitch like "The Settlement: towel looks like. A custom order was done with someone's name, but the listing only shows it one way, but in the description it says it can be a custom order.

I raised the price on the pillow to $15. :-) I appreciate your help with tags. Tags and tiles always elude me- well so does the description. LOL

You have some great ideas, so thank you!!

[suemako]

Rachel,
Thanks for taking the time to peek at my shop.

I know Google uses sections too and I checked to see what others called their apron sections and a lot of them called them 'aprons" . I wasn't sure if I should do it that way or another way., so thank you.

I don't understand how tag wars work.

Are you saying dish towel should be used in the title and tags because that's what the lowest search number is, so there would be a better chance of getting the item viewed?

You are also suggesting I use other words in the title and tags such as the materials, what occasions they can be used for etc?

[customhemptreasures]

Put in 2 relevant keywords that describe your items, and tag wars will spit out other relevant keywords similar to what you put in. It tells you how popular they are, how many searches the keywords get and how relevant they are. It will also show you how many items each keyword has, that are listed in etsy. all that info is so helpful when finding what will work best when writing titles and tags. And yes, Cotton Towel, i think would be good, I'm not sure about ocassions though, i can't think of anything of the top of my head. I don't know much about towels, sorry!

[customhemptreasures]

well i'm kind of dissapointed now, tools4etsy.com says their are only 17 items that are labeled "fruit dish towel' but doing a search on etsy shows over 15 pages of items, and one of your items comes up first, so ugh. But your doing something right cause you are coming up as the first result for fruit dish towel, so congrats!

[Former_Member]

Hi Sue, your shop looks great! You're doing so well, keep it up! I'm not sure if this is good critique material, but I think you could raise your prices, esp on the bigger stuff like aprons. A full apron is $14, but a towel is $10. I'm going to get picky too, because you're doing so well it's hard to find things to critique! In some of your pillow photos, the lighting isn't the best to highlight the product, and also I think the pillows could use good detail photos: close-ups to show the fabric and detail better. You have those for other types of items, and I think it works! Hope this helps, and carry on your awesome shop!

[suemako]

Thanks Rachel.

Stephanie, so I am picking your brain- what do you think is good for an apron price? Mine aren't fancy like a lot of peoples- they are more simple which is why I wasn't charging a lot.

Thanks for the help everyone :-)

[Former_Member]

Hmm...I'm not sure. I didn't really have one in mind, but about $15 just seemed kind of low to me! Do you calculate prices based on material cost, and then time for labor? I sell hand-made stuff, and my husband is an artist so I tend to me more ok paying more for quality, hand made things. But I would say for a full apron I'd pay at least $20. Have you tried price scouting what others charge for similar items?

[suemako]

Yes Stephanie. Most of the others charge a lot more, but they are a lot more fancy than mine are. :-)