BOOSTING SALES CONVERSATION

[MikeKrausArt]

NO PROMOTIONAL POSTINGS

Etsy is continually changing. What is "good" one day is "bad" the next. What are you doing? Is it helping or hurting your shop. The ART Team is about boosting sales for everyone. So, what advice are you looking for? What ideas do you have? THANKS AGAIN!

NO PROMOTIONAL POSTINGS

[MikeKrausArt]

FROM: http://www.businessinsider.com/etsy-ceo-stepping-down-earnings-layoffs-2017-5
Etsy tanks after announcing a new CEO, flat earnings, and job cuts

Etsy shares sank on Tuesday after the company announced a number of executive changes and signaled job cuts in its earnings report.

CEO Chad Dickerson steps down from the role on Wednesday, the online marketplace for hand-made goods said in a statement.

Josh Silverman, a board member, will replace Dickerson as chief executive.

"In the six months that Josh has been on our Board, we have gotten to know him well and he has gotten to know us well," said Fred Wilson, the incoming chair of the board succeeding Dickerson. "That will make for an easier transition and faster execution."

John Allspaw, the chief technology officer, is leaving the company.

These announcements came hours after hedge fund Black-and-White Capital, which owns a 2% stake in Etsy, urged the company to explore strategic alternatives including a possible sale, according to Bloomberg. The fund also urged Etsy to separate the roles of chairman and CEO, which Dickerson jointly held.

Etsy announced that it expects to eliminate about 80 jobs, or 8% of its workforce.

"Early in the second quarter of 2017, we also looked for opportunities to increase efficiency and streamline our cost structure," the company said. "As a result of this process, we have identified savings that will be realized through a combination of headcount reductions and a reduction in internal program expenses."

These personnel changes came with the first-quarter earnings statement. Revenues of $96.9 million missed analysts' forecast for $98.4 million, according to Bloomberg. First-quarter earnings per share was $0.

"Although a challenging February contributed to lower than anticipated first quarter results, I am confident that the fundamental strength of Etsy's business and its unique competitive position will drive long-term growth for all stakeholders," Dickerson said.

Etsy shares fell by as much as 17% in after-hours trading on Tuesday, and were down nearly 10% early on Wednesday.

[MikeKrausArt]

https://toughnickel.com/self-employment/10-Common-Etsy-Seller-Mistakes

10 Tips for Selling on Etsy: Avoid Common Seller Mistakes

Selling on Etsy: Avoid Common Mistakes

I spend a lot of time educating Etsy shop sellers what to do and how to start successful shops on Etsy. Here I will list the top ten seller mistakes I've seen. I hope that it will give others some helpful pointers on what to do to increase sales and commerce to their Etsy shop!

1. Jumping In Without Research

Many people open up a shop on Etsy and and wonder why their items aren't selling. It's almost certain that they haven't properly educated themselves.

Get one step ahead of the game and make it a point to spend a day learning the ins and outs of this ever-growing community. Do your homework and read up on the Etsy policies, the how-to's, and helpful strategic advice from other sellers if you so wish to be successful.

2. Posting Grainy or Fuzzy Photos Is a Huge No-No

This is a huge problem. Maybe you are in a hurry, or don't have enough time. The light may not be on your side today or your cell battery won't allow you to take pictures with a flash. Perhaps your camera is giving you grief—a viable excuse. But whatever the problem, please know that a picture really is worth a thousand words.

It's simple: Do not post ugly photos, or no one will want to buy what you're selling.

Etsy allows you to have five photos per item, which really lets you show every angle of your item. Upload as many great photos as you can. These photos should be clear, creative, and close-up!

3. Titles, Titles, Titles!

The first five words of the Etsy title of your item are very important, as chances are these are the first five words that will show up in a search or in the HTML address of the item.

For instance, let's say you have a vintage porcelain glove mold you are trying to sell. It would be ridiculous to call it "Great Shabby Antique Vintage White Porcelain Glove Mold" as the keywords would not make it in the HTML address. Put the most precise and descriptive words first.

Think of your titles very carefully.

4. Descriptions: Use Them

Some sellers write a one-line description and leave out the good stuff. The trick is figuring out what needs to be said about the item and saying it shortly and sweetly. In other words, don't digress and don't write a book! Your description should be as descriptive as possible. Think of how you would want to learn about something. If it's a necklace, what stone is it and how long is it? What kind of clasp does it have? If it's a blanket, what are the dimensions and materials and colors? If it's vintage, what condition is it in and what kinds of defects may it have? Always be descriptive yet concise. A story is nice, but not a ten page essay.

Some people tend to link their shop's other sections in the bottom of each description, which is helpful to get people to check out other items in your shop. Tip: Do not link to a specific item, only a shop section. Why? Items will expire and links will go "dead."

5. Keywords (Tags)

Keywords on Etsy are very important and will help get your item found. Many people don't take full advantage of them and this is a major mistake. Use them all.

If you can't think of descriptive words for your item, do a think-outside-the-box exercise. Let's say you have a blue vintage radio and it's made by Crosley. You have used the tags: radio, blue, crosley, vintage, but now what?

Is it plastic , melamine, melmac, bakelite, orcelluloid?
Is from the mid century modern period or art deco?
Is it an electronicitem?
Could it be searched by the words AM, FM, or shortwave?
Is it table-top or transistor?
Perhaps you should be describing the color of the item even more than generic hue of blue. Is it more of a turquoise blue or navy blue? Also you may wish to throw in the word music,because that's what it plays.
It takes a bit of getting used to, but sooner or later you will be thinking outside the box.

6. Shop Announcement Hello: Use It

The reason you have this feature is to make announcements, so use it wisely. Keep it fresh and update it often. if you have just added new earrings, say so! If you have a coupon code for the upcoming holiday, post it there. Believe it or not, the first few lines show in Google and so you should think of good words in the first sentence or so. SEO is always vital!

7. About: Use It or Lose It

The "About" section is really your public profile and should tell a story. This is where people love to read and see what makes you tick. This little part of your shop may be where shoppers go to get a sense of who you are, what your style is, and if they should buy from you. The artist's persona is part of their brand, so tell a great story.

8. Social Media

Social media is essential when you have an Etsy shop. In fact, Etsy now gives you easy access to connect your Facebook and Twitter to your shop so you can keep your fans in the loop! There are also share tools like a pin-it buttons for Pinterest users to quickly pin your items to their pinboards.

This is the most important thing I have learned about Etsy. Case in point, with million of items on the site and thousands of storefronts, Etsy has become the most popular place to sell for the home business. The site allows the mom and pops to make a living selling handmade, vintage, or art supplies affordably, with a list fee of only twenty cents.

So the only major barrier left between you and sales is visibility and getting people to focus on your items among all the other items for sale. Etsy gives you the storefront, but you must do your own marketing, and social media is the way to do this.

This includes:

Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
Pinterest
Blogging

You want to get your items out into cyberspace, get people to notice your shop and treat it like a real business. Real businesses promote themselves. So you really need to figure out how to go all-out and connect with people and promote your wares. You can figure this out in a variety of ways:

Etsy's blog has tons of great tips, hints, and information you'll need to guide you.

Search the web for as many tips, articles, and insider information you can find.

Join an Etsy team for free and network with others.

Ebooks: buy an ebook from an Etsy seller who knows and learn how to do this yourself.

Paper books: there are tons of books, online and at the library, to help you.

The bottom line: Etsy gives you a storefront and platform to showcase you wares. It is up to you to do the marketing!

Exposure goes hand-in-hand with social media. This means having your item or shop featured and mentioned on sites or platforms other than your own, via various channels such as blogs or websites.

Etsy offers something called promoted listings, where your item is featured on top of a keyword search.

Etsy offers Google Shopping integration for a small fee. I have had good success with my items showing in Google Shopping and since Google is a "mega giant" this would behoove you to consider!

Find a blog you love that features items like the ones you sell, and ask them to mention your Etsy shop.

Consider finding blogs that allow free submissions.

Trade Blog Posts! Many blogs trade! They are out there, just google blogs and Etsy and sooner or later you'll find something.

Need some blogs that feature Etsy? Some of these may accept trades, free submissions or paid submissions.

Etsyland - A Tumblr Blog featuring Etsy sellers (All Items Handmade, Supplies, Vintage)

Etsy Rainbows - Etsy by Color (All Items)

Everything Etsy (Pretty Self Explanatory)

EtsyArtisans - Etsy Handmade Features

Handmadeology - Handmade Blog for Crafting Business and Selling Advice

Vintage Chalet - Blog Pulls Vintage From Etsy

Design-Swag - Many Items Featured from Etsy

Melmac Central - Features Vintage Plastics , Many from Etsy.

You can find blog exchanges and people accepting submission in Etsy teams such as Etsy's Success Team.

Etsy's forums always offer threads on "promotion" and "Promoting Listings" where you can advertise your items. Many Etsy sellers are also buyers!

Tip: Teams are a great way to network with other like minded Etsians to help you!

[MikeKrausArt]

Do Favathons help, hurt, or have no impact on views, traffic, and sales? What's your experience?

[lynnefrenchdesigns]

I notice a distinct, positive difference when I participate in Favathons...thanks for providing it !.

[LilyMoonSigns]

I notice sales when I play in favathons and sotd shop of the day thread.

[MikeKrausArt]

Wonderful Lynne and Lily. Lots of rumors floating around about Etsy changing their promotional model. It can be difficult to separate fact from fiction sometimes.

[Former_Member]

Thanks Mike for this GREAT information.

I have noticed my views are FLAT since they have introduced SHOP MANAGER.

I'm testing today to see if the FAVES are showing impact.

[MikeKrausArt]

Interesting. I haven't heard anything about the new Shop Manager. I'll do a bit of research and share anything I may find. THANKS JIM & ROXANNE!

[MikeKrausArt]

ETSY STUDIO MAKES MATERIALS EASIER TO FIND, SHOP MANAGER MAKES THEM EASIER TO SELL

https://www.digitaltrends.com/web/etsy-studio-shop-manage/

Etsy has made a name for itself as the internet’s answer to Michaels. But the e-commerce giant wants to be more than just a one-stop shop for craft supplies and jewelry. That’s why at a press event at Etsy’s Brooklyn, New York headquarters on Tuesday morning, the company announced Etsy Studio, a new website for the craft-inclined.

It’s hardly a half-hearted effort. Etsy Studio will consolidate the roughly 8 million craft supply kits available on Etsy’s website in a single portal and launch a seller dashboard called Shop Manager. Etsy says the new products aim to eliminate longtime impediments to the creative process.

“One of the things that we kept hearing while interviewing different customers was, ‘there’s this gap. I see beautiful things that I want to be able to make, and I can’t find the things to make them,” Tim Holley, Etsy’s director of product management, told CNET.

To that end, Etsy Studio will launch with tutorials to make personalized gifts. New filters, meanwhile, will help professionals find artists and materials they need.

The filters are extremely specific. A category like “knitting” can easily have dozens of subcategories, Holley told TechCrunch. And the results pages include photos of the product, details about how it was made, its color and size, and more.

Shop Manager, the commercial element of Etsy’s relaunch, adds a new hub for sellers to run their businesses. “[It’s] one of the biggest, most significant improvements to the seller experience that we’ve ever launched,” Chief Operating Officer Findley Kozlowksi told TechCrunch, “because it means there’s ‘no more clicking from menu to menu’ to get all the data [you] need.'”


Shop Manager provides easy access to information about orders, active listings, shop stats, recent conversations with shoppers, and details about shop finances. And it sports new tools for inventory management that allow sellers to add quantity and price to each variation of a listing they offer.

Over the next few weeks, Etsy will invite select sellers to join Studio ahead of an April launch.

Etsy’s going after a lucrative market. The annual U.S. crafts supply industry is valued at about $44 billion, Etsy noted — a huge potential growth area. But CEO Chad Dickerson sees the launch of Etsy Studio and Shop Manager as a boost to what he called “the Etsy” economy: The 1.7 million sellers who use the craft site’s resources on a daily basis. He believes it’ll play an “important role” in a future where creative entrepreneurs “[can] make a living and a life built around human connection and creativity.”

[MikeKrausArt]

Etsy: Potential Buyout Scenarios
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4074528-etsy-potential-buyout-scenarios

Summary

Etsy's stock rallied after TPG and Dragoneer announced large positions.

Etsy is a market leader in the creativity e-commerce.

I look at the potential acquirers.

On Tuesday, Etsy’s (ETSY) stock price surged after news that two activist investors – TPG and Dragoneer – had taken positions in the company. The two investors own 8% of the company. They have initiated talks with the management seeking strategic alternatives. In this article, I will look at the situation and how it is likely to play out.

Etsy has not performed well since its IPO. Its stock has fallen from a high of $27.5 in 2015, to a low of $6.6 in 2016. It is currently trading at $13 per share giving it a market valuation of $1.6 billion. The decline is attributed to three factors. First, competition from Amazon (AMZN) has increased. Second, the number of active sellers has stalled. Third, there are concerns about its future growth.

If Etsy is acquired, the acquirer will get a market leader with $275 million in cash and short term investments, and no debt. It will also get a company with more than 28 million customers and 17 million sellers. It will also get a company with growing revenues as shown below.

Etsy is not cheap. It has an enterprise value of $1.32 billion and a market cap of $1.6 billion. The acquirer will be paying 45 times estimated earnings and 2.95 times estimated sales. This will be higher when you factor in the premium the acquirer will be required to pay. If the transaction happens, the acquirer will be focused on growth, and the value of the synergies the companies will create.

Potential Acquirers

Etsy is a market leader in the creative e-commerce industry. It has managed to grow its revenue and customers even with the increasing competition in the industry. It has an already established brand that some companies will be happy to own. Some of the companies that might be interested are: Amazon (AMZN), eBay (EBAY), Alibaba (BABA), Walmart (WMT), and Facebook (FB). In this part, I will rule out some of the potential acquirers.

[MikeKrausArt]

Etsy cuts 15% of its workforce
http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/21/technology/business/etsy-layoffs/index.html?iid=ob_homepage_tech_poo...

Etsy is acknowledging that it needs to be more "nimble."

On Wednesday, the company said it is cutting another 140 jobs, or 15% of its current workforce. That's in addition to trims it made in May, when it let go of another 90 people.

Etsy's business has been struggling. It reported $421,000 in losses during the first quarter of the year, down from more than $1 million the same quarter the year before.

Its CEO Chad Dickerson, who took the company public in 2015, resigned in May. Dickerson had led the company for six years. "The board decided that it was time for new leadership to take Etsy forward and I support that decision," he said at the time.

Josh Silverman, a board director, took over his duties as CEO, while investor Fred Wilson took over as chair of the board.

The company has a unique spotlight on it. When it went public, it was the largest certified socially-responsible company, or B Corporation, to do so in the U.S. At the time, it was worth over $3 billion. Priced at $16, its shares soared to $30 during its first day of trading.

B Corporation certifications are meant to allow companies to pursue social goals as well as financial ones. But in May, one of its investors -- Black-and-White Capital LP -- urged the company's board to consider its fiduciary duty to sell the company. It cited Etsy's declining share price since going public -- it's not trading at $14 a share.

In a statement Wednesday, Silverman said Etsy's layoffs are a bid to "drive focus" at the company. "We will be a more disciplined company that is better positioned to create the world's most compelling buying and selling experience," Silverman said in statement.

The new round of layoffs will cost the company between $6 and $8.8 million in severance and exit payments and will mostly hit its Brooklyn headquarters. Additionally, Etsy said it will be pausing its brand marketing efforts for the rest of the year.

[MikeKrausArt · Accepted solution]

Allegedly, Etsy gives "more weight to real, organic placed Faves from a searching buyer, as opposed to click click click faves from fellow team members/sellers." This is to prevent skewing relevancy rating that could come from hundreds of favourites. Even if most of us sellers are also buyers.

So, what can we do to help each other boost sales if viewing, faving, and other games don't help anymore? Please post your suggestions here and we'll try them out: https://www.etsy.com/teams/10723/art/discuss/18446990/

THANKS!!!