In Need of a Critique :)

[sarahbellumdesign]

Hello there! I could really use some objective feedback on my shop. My friends and family are not the most reliable source when it comes to honest feedback, they think everything is great ;)

I'll take feedback on anything and everything! I've been getting a little lazy with my descriptions because I've been adding so much inventory so I'm going to slowly work my way through updating that. It has taken me awhile to really get things rolling so now its time for me to bring in some sales!

Thank you in advance for your help :)

Sarah

[ContempoCranes]

I like your wedding props. Those are fairly new so hopefully those will get a lot more views soon.

Have you tried searching for your items and seeing where you end up? I think your titles could be changed to putting the item first. As in "Red Heather Rose Bobby Pin Hair Accessory" can be 'Bobby Pin Hair Accessory in Red Heather Rose.' And the other ones, trying putting magnet or turtle first in the title.

And if i'm not mistaken, shop sections are also seen as tags. While "h.a.i.r." looks cool, I think it won't be recognized in search and of course the regular spelling of 'hair' will. Good luck.

[sarahbellumdesign]

Wonderful advice! I never would have though about switching the words around in my titles. I also reluctantly changed my shop section names, I was unreasonably fond of the periods :) Gotta do what it takes to get those page views though!

I know this is a tough question to answer, but how are my prices? I have flip flopped so much on them. The materials I use are not particularly expensive so I'm basically putting a value on my time and skill used to make them and that is super hard for me to wrap my brain around. I was told that I could sell my dahlia hair clips in a California boutique for $40 (which I think is a bit of an exaggeration) but I find myself wondering if $8 is even too much. Is it bad business to start my prices lower and then raise them as more orders come in? Or is it better to price them higher even if it means building my customer base up slower? I feel like I have a quality product to sell and I don't want to sell myself short, but I also don't want to stunt my growth by asking for too much too soon.

[ContempoCranes]

Ahh the dreaded price question. This is exactly what I ask myself! For me, my items are more expensive than similar shops. This is because I use expensive material and for shipping. If I were to lower my prices by even a couple of dollars, I wouldn't be making a profit and not only do we want to sell, we want to make a little profit, right?

Maybe you can sell some of your similar items at different prices and see how that works.

[CreativeMoxieStudio]

Price is always tricky. I would go see what other Etsy sellers are selling similar products for and adjust accordingly. Sometimes when you just want sales, you may want to lower your prices just enough to cover your materials and make a small profit just to get exposure and then when your items become more in demand raise prices accordingly.

But im learning too so those are just some suggestions.

[sarahbellumdesign]

Thank you both for your thoughts!

[NicoleKuhaJewelry]

I would put something in your policies regarding the following...

International shipments: May take several weeks due to customs and border crossing, Customer is responsible for duty fees, import taxes, customs

Shipping materials - describe what you ship your items in or post pictures in your listings of the shipping materials - some customers are picky about this

Do you offer expedited shipping upon request?

Damaged/lost shipment: It is the seller's responsibility to get the package to the customer. Even if the DC says "scanned and delivered", it may not have been delivered to the right place or even delivered at all on the rare occasion. You may want to include insurance in your shipping charge if you don't already so you don't end up with an unhappy customer and you don't loose money. I use Ship Saver.

Custom/reserved orders: Maybe set a certain amount of time that a reserved or custom order will be held after you send notification that the item is ready to purchase?


These are all issues that I've been trying to figure out recently. I do like how short and to the point your policies page is, I just recommend beefing it up a bit so you have everything covered in case there is that one customer that decides to be a pain in the butt.

[TheSilverForge]

Hi Sarah,

I just love your shop.. I love your banner, it really drew me in and made me happy. I think you have a great mix of quirky things - I felt less for the adjustable bracelets and pendants, they didn't really do it for me so much, but definitely LOVED the polymer and the felt items... yay! I liked them so much I just bought some paperclips from you!

Pricing: price remembering to cover materials, overheads, labour (as if you had to pay someone else to make it) AND your profit margin. Don't forget, nobody knows you are new at this but you.. people will stumble across your shop in whatever way they do, and as long as they love your stuff and your pricing is within reason, there's no reason why they won't buy it. Price them in a way that is creating a good viable business for you!

Now, don't let that description editing get too far behind... you'll live to regret it! :) Good luck!!

[sarahbellumdesign]

@Nicole: this is why these teams are so awesome, because I haven't thought about my policies page in a long while. Thank you for the tips, I am definitely going to give it some attention and make sure I can appease the PITBs :-)

@Ruthie: What a delightful surprise to wake up to! Completely made my day :-) my roommate thinks its hilarious that out of all the new stuff I've been making the paper clips sold, but I knew there had to be someone else out there who understood the importance of fancy paper clips ;-) thank you for your advice on pricing, it has been my greatest struggle so far! It's a good reminder that nobody knows I'm just getting started, I think I need to sit down and crunch some numbers to make sure I'm making this worth my time. Again, thank you so much :-) ill get your paper clips out first thing in the morning!

[FoxandWit]

You have "free shipping" in your listing title.

that throws your SEO off for search engines, especially google. you may want to reconsider removing them from your title and description. google won't pick up anything with free in it (and if it does it ranks it really low for SEO).

[NicoleKuhaJewelry]

Hi Sarah, I noticed on your policies page that you say you charge extra for customs fees. You don't need to! The government of whatever country the buyer lives in will charge the customs fees; customs fees/import taxes have nothing to do with you as the seller. Most of the time the delivery man or post office will hold the package until the buyer goes to their local post office and pays the fee.

All you have to do is fill out the customs form, and you're right that you will have to charge more for international shipping rates--just not the customs fee. :) Sorry if I was confusing in my above post!

[sarahbellumdesign]

Thank you for the clarification! I rewrote those in a hurry and didn't take the time to double check my facts. That never turns out well :-)

[sarahbellumdesign]

Hello again! I would love an updated critique. Now that I have over 100 items and have taken suggestions and tweaked here and there I'd like I get down to the real nitty gritty stuff. Constructive advice welcome! Please be picky :-)