Looking to make more improvements, please

[CMooreSoapandCrafts]

I could use some brutal honesty. I don't think my pictures are good enough still. What could I do different?
I'm wanting to offer free shipping when 4 soaps are purchased for $20, or I could just offer a 15% to 20% discount on orders over $20.
Right now my shop just shows soaps, but my intentions are to sell crafts that I make too, hence why I am calling the shop, "Moore Soaps and Crafts".
I just got my first sale last week, after I changed my shipping cost. ( I didn't do my shipping homework good enough and I definitely had my shipping too high)

Any critiques would be welcome, thanks.

[Former_Member]

This team will help you with search engine optimization (seo). They're not a critique team but they have a ton of useful information.
https://www.etsy.com/teams/10713/etsy-relevancy-seo-and-stats
Free shipping isn't great at the beginning of your listings. You want a searchable term that isn't used to death. There are 429 000 items under free shipping, your item is simply going to run through it too fast to be seen. I wouldn't waste my first three words (the most important searchable words in the title) on this. The seo team will help you with things like that.

I'm just going to be honest here, I am a big believer in white backgrounds. I know people can take beautiful pics on other colors but for treasuries and front pages and items in the first pages of searches, it's almost all white backgrounds (or very light grey). I had a lot of frustration with this advice when I started here (and honestly didn't believe it, I had beautiful pics on a black background) but the truth was my stats jumped a lot when I went to white.
There are directions on the internet for how to make a simple light box, between that and using a photo editor I was able to brighten up my pics a lot. Even if you disagree about the white background (totally your perogative) I would run them through a photo editor for color and get or make a light box to help you lighten them up and make the color more true.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/191964241/free-shipping-when-you-choose-4-soaps?ref=shop_home_active_2
This pic is a fabulous selection of your really pretty soap and I just wish the color was truer so I could see it more easily.

Policies:
You are completely responsible for packages after they leave your care if you take pp. PP says you are responsible until the person takes receipt. Whenever I see someone say they are not responsible I know two things:
1. If something goes wrong in shipping I will have to open a pp dispute to get it resolved b/c you don't know it's your responsibility.
2. You haven't read pp's policies. That makes me wonder what else you haven't read...
If you send to another address, and the person claims they did not receive it or their card was stolen you will have to issue a refund. People do this, I'm just letting you know it's at your own risk.

I like it that you include the bit about customs. Lets you off the hook if someone doesn't realize :)

If you say you will not accept refunds, their only options are to open a dispute or to leave you crappy feedback (something you are clear you don't want people doing), I would suggest removing this line. A: You have to accept refunds under certain circumsances and B, frankly the customer always has bad feedback to hold over your head. Especially when you don't have a lot of feedback built up, you would be much better to eat the loss and refund than to incur bad feedback.

Have you considered shipping internationally? I'm Canadian and if a shop says they don't ship internationally, I know they've never done it (not that big a worry to me as a seller b/c I know it's easy, but for someone who only buys the impression is different). I am likely to just move on without querying and you'll lose the sale.

I really like it that you talk about the advantages to vegetable glycerin (I'm not a soap person so I don't know things like that :)...hmm that's not coming out right...I use soap I just don't know a lot about it)

It may just be me, I wouldn't include the thing about selenium and skin cancer unless you can back it up with a study in a national medical journal.

More product:
More product is always helpful. I remember reading somewhere that for general searches (not jewelry) the ideal number of items was over 100 and I know that when I get a greater number of products in either of my shops views go up.

To get more feedback and more of a toehold, I would recommend the next time friends or family ask to purchase soap that you have them do it through e to allow you to build up feedback etc.

As for the free shipping, I would remind you that e takes a percentage of everything you sell...but not on the shipping. I think for that reason I would be inclined to offer the discount but not free shipping.

I hope this information is helpful. Congrats on the sale, good luck and happy selling!

[Former_Member]

Holy tamale! That's a lot of writing, sorry about that.

[JudisLamps]

Remember the first 3-4 words in the title represent you....not free shipping. Your item is not free shipping.

The photos need help...sorry they are drab. They have to be alive! They have to stand out! ...not blend in with the background. Users use free FotoFuze for Etsy which really seems to help a lot.
Hope this helps,

[Former_Member]

I agree with the others that your photos need to be brighter. (Photos are a challenge for many of us!) You have some beautiful soaps. They just need to be shown off a little more.
Also, if I were a buyer on your site I would wonder why you say it's your responsibility to get products safely to wholesale customers but not to retail customers (who pay full price).
You might complete an "about" page. Some buyers like to know a little about the person who makes their items.

[sallysbeadsnc]

You have beautiful products and a lot of knowledge about your product. Please make more photos available. The towel background is appropriate, how about soap dishes too. I think the word "staging" comes to mind..you want to promote your item by helping customers envision themselves using it. Adding more products will help too, remember that listing new items and renewing items often is important. One last thing to mention is when a seller says he's not responsible for getting my purchase to me safely makes me think that it won't get to me safely. Customer service is all important, especially when selling something as lovely as the items in your shop.