I need a critique....pretty please

[Former_Member]

I have been putting this off for a while now, but views have been very low (30's - 40's /day) and sales are not as regular as I'd like them. I received some advice about two weeks or so ago in the forums telling me to spruce up my seo, I did that and within the next few days my views went up at high as 80 or 90 a day, but only for a few days. Then it was back to my usual low views and my sales never increased. I'm worried because I add an item everyday and right now have 130 listings. Most of my sales were in December and I sold only 7 lower priced items in January. As far as promoting goes I use pinterest and wanelo. So I need some advice, what can I do to get more views and hopefully more sales?

[Former_Member]

(I'm a newbie so take my critiques for what they're worth)

One thing that struck me about your shop was that there was a lot of stuff and not a lot of cohesion among the items, other than them all being vintage. As much as I would imagine that this would be a colossal PITA, part of me feels like you might be better off having 2 shops - rather than having one catch-all vintage shop, having two more specifically themed shops. Something like Farrah's Vintage Clothes Closet and Farrah's Vintage Toy Chest. I'm still learning SEO, but I feel like narrowing your shop's scope a bit may help out.
The pictures are great (I really like with pictures of accessories when there are other items in the picture that give a sense of scale). Also, have tried advertising through Facebook? I've read quite a bit about people having great success through that and I've had some moderate success myself.

[Former_Member]

Hi Jessica,

My shop is a mix of vintage and handmade, is that not clear in my shop? I've used my sections to help with this....or so I thought. I've thought about having two separate shops before and I might do that in the future, one for vintage, one for handmade, but I think if I split them up now my stores would be too empty.
I haven't tried advertising through facebook, the people I know aren't interested in vintage or handmade...sigh and I have no clue how I would attract other people I don't know to my facebook page.

[Former_Member]

To me, your shop is so diverse that it kind of throws me for a loop. It reminds me of those old "mom and pop" shops that have some of everything in it. I understand that all I have to do is click on a section and it will give me only particular items, but it's not the first thing that comes to mind when looking at the shop. It's just a lot to filter through it's almost as if you should have kept it as two shops.

[Former_Member]

I like the diversity of your shop actually. I'd like the option to buy a skirt and a book to go with it as a gift. I agree that it needs organization. It took me a long time to figure out that you can organize the pictures on the store's front page instead of them being in the order they were listed. I think that would help a lot, especially if you don't want to manage multiple stores. Put skirts together, books, etc on the front page.

Hope that helps!

[Former_Member]

Jessica that is a good idea! How do you move around items so that it's more organized? I looked under listings and info and appearance and couldn't find a way to change anything

[Former_Member]

Jana
If you go to your shop name... one the bottom of the left column there should be a section that says "Your Shop"... then an option "Rearrange Your Shop"

[Former_Member]

Great! Thanks Charles.

[KaydonCreatives]

Jana,

Jana

I love your shop items. I too think it is a bit confusing or cluttered. I think Jessica's idea of grouping your items is a wonderful idea, and that way you wouldn't have to manage more than one shop. But that option of multiple shops is always there if you need it.

I think other than a little reorganization everything is good. I like the pictures and that you get multiple angles, and your pricing structure and descriptions are good.

Dana

[Former_Member]

Thanks Dana

[Former_Member]

Hi, Jana! Such cute items! And I agree that your photos are well done.

Your banner is cute but the font is hard to read on the background. You could also add a tag line under your shop title in the banner explaining exactly what you sell so buyers know right off what to expect.

Best,
C

[LaDonnaVerde]

"Seller will not be responsible for returned or lost items.All purchases are shipped by air using either small packet, light packet or sent as a document in a bubble wrap envelope."

I think that we are responsible for lost goods from I have read in the forums. This aside, I really can't say much that hasn't already been said. Some of your items are pretty awesome!

[Former_Member]

I think the variety in your shop is fine for now. If you get many more handmade items, then you may want to go ahead and think about splitting your shop, but for now, I think your'e good. I personally feel like your shop sections do a great job of organizing the shop.

OK, just a few things I noticed-

Some of your clothing items are photographed on a bush. It doesn't fit in with the clean look of the rest of your photography, and it doesn't compliment the items you are selling.

With the exception of a few clothing items that are on models, most of your photography is on a clean white background. You have a few exceptions, and I don't think you really should. While it's not the most interesting background in the world, it's a neutral pallate that works with the very wide variety of stuff you have. Off the top of my head, the only time that you break away from the plain white background where I visually liked the effect as much was for (I think) pins with hearts on them- they were on a bright blue back ground, stuck in foam letters that spell out "hi". It's a fun image that really captures your attention- but it's distracting in your shop and doesn't fit in with everything else. It detracts from the overall "harmony", I guess.

The lighting in the pictures of some of the vintage jewelry doesn't look as good as the lighting for most of your other items. Makes it look drab.

I think it's great that you have inside pictures of the books you are selling. I'm tempted like you wouldn't believe buy that candy cook book!

You have your measurements in centimeters and inches. Awesome.

You need dimensions on everything. Your listing "Beutiful vintage enamelware casserole dish..." doesn't have any, just lists how much it holds by volume. I can't picture size based on that- maybe other people can, but I don't know what a 2 quart (or whatever size it is...) pan looks like. Needs physical dimensions.

That being said, I think that listing may have been the exception. For the most part you seem to be really good about putting sizes on stuff, but I wonder about also making one of your extra photographs be a picture with a ruler, just to give visual scale to the items.

Also, did I see that you just opened in October,and you already have 42 sales? That's awesome! Congratulations! Clearly you are doing something right!

Good luck!