Basketball Bounce

June 18, 2011

400 sales!

Finally! 400 sales! Just wanted to stop by and talk about my journey with my Etsy shop and a couple of tips on running an online shop. While Etsy is a great venue with lots of traffic, there is lots of work to be done once you set up shop. I started my shop about 3 years ago with a different kind of product. I started selling my circle skirts in my other shop in Etsy while I was still experimenting with other products to be added to the line, I had lots of beautiful buttons, beads, trims and fabrics around the house. I decided to test a couple of listings of my vintage looking buttons and some beads that I had. Beads did not sell well, as the category was already saturated up to the point where I was not able to compete with the competitors prices. Therefore, I started to look into other supplies that I was able to sell the best and that would fit with my current situation. I did not have much space for large inventory items, so supplies fit the best in addition to the fact that I love buttons, perfect match!

The following are a couple of hints on ow to build a successful store and get best views and sales:

*Look for your nitch!  Research into many categories or merchandise of your interest.

*Research the market and category to see what your competitors are doing. Find your  competitiveness and differentiation against the others. This will be your strength.

*Test your product to see if it sells, make a couple and list them. Have in mind that your product may  have to be modified, tweaked or even changed into a different category. It all depends on the target market your customer is and what group you are aiming for.

*I can't stress this enough, invest a lot of time in your visual merchandise and display. How your product is presented is key to everything. Remember that people can't see the product in front of them so you will need to have great pictures in addition to creating a good mood that matches with your shop. Provide views of all sides and angles that make the composition interesting.

*Having accurate complete descriptions is key to a successful listing. Tell your story, what inspired you to make the item, people like to hear stories behind products. For jewelry makes, providing measurements in cm's along with inches is important, specially if you selling international.

*Never under-price your items. Price according to the time you invested and materials. Also check your competitors prices and where you stand compared to them. Consider that other shop may be almost giving away there items and me underbidding and underpricing the market they are in, and it you can compete with that and separate your shop and differentiation from those so that you have set your own pricing strategy.

*Customer Service! This is very important. Be consistent and follow up with your customers. Every time you send an order, so follow up sending shipping confirmations and convos or emails. This gives the customer a sense of security that they are dealing and an actual person being your operation and that they will have someone to contact in case of any issues. Do not feel bad about asking for feedback. Ask for your customers to kindly place feedback as soon as their order arrive. I know that some customers just dont do it, but this has worked for me over the years, and do get people sending convos letting me knwo they got the order and placed feedback.  

*For al Etsy sellers, dont fall into the "renewing trap", yes i call it a trap. Been there, done that! I have experimented renewing items in my most busy hours. It does not get me necesarrly more sales, yes, you can get more views, but folks, it will not guarantee sales. For me personally, it didn't works. The only thing that it did was giving me a bill of over $50 a month with very few sales. Not worth it! specailly if you are just strating out with little investement capital.

*Pack your items with LOVE. Customers like top know that you take care of your merchandise and you care about your customers getting there orders intact and safe. For instance, I always seal my fabrics with some plastic (so that if the envelope gets wet with rain the fabric wont get affected). My buttons and trims, I always pack them with a plastic baggy and seal them with a cute fun looking tape.

*Last but not least, Patience, Hard Work and lots Love into your work. I learned that only with time, you will get more customers, more views, and more sales. Of course if you apply all the ones above and mentioned. Participating in Etsy forums, cats and teams will keep your shop very exposed to many creators and people that like your stuff. Also there is a huge amount of resources that you can find in these places, you would be surprised what you will learn just from hearing other people's experience. Have patience, there could be times where frustration will take over, but stick to you shop and creations and believe in it. You will see tat 3 years later you will say, "I am glad that i didn't give up!"

June 11, 2011

Summer Treasuries!

This new summer treasury will feature lots of shops with items priced not higher than $70. I decided to create a price cap for considering how the economy how days. I was able to find some very interesting jewelry, buttons, editable and much more!

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Passage Necklace Custom Moss Ring Pillow 1 onz Sunset Rouge Tea
il_570xN.236557919 il_570xN.212874390 il_570xN.203319259
Sojourncuriosities $50 Braggingbags $60 Dreamweavershop $3.50
     
Heart
Chalkboard Tags
Victorian B&W Spats My Cariads Wrist Wrap Bracelet
il_570xN.237359618 il_570xN.230746357 il_570xN.230250989
Bradensgracewallart $8 Joelmasouza $69 MyCariads $45
     
Oxidized Upcycled Basket Brownie Sunday Charm Cherry Button Earrings
il_570xN.227738606 il_570xN.249651385 il_570xN.228060243
EatGreen $15 GodsLilTippy $2 Snailtreasures $6
     
Coffee Nights Art Print AlteredHeads Dolly Photo SLS Free Orange Vanilla Soap
il_570xN.247734470 il_570xN.207170735 il_570xN.143232216
Courtneyoquist$15 AlteredHead $9.95 Mbell34 $4.50
     
   
Cupcake Lollipop Cookies Yellow Sunshine Origami Earrings Noodle Stoneware Serving Bowl
il_570xN.249630338 il_570xN.241484840 il_570xN.215675576
CookiesLaCouture $15 FourthKingdom $14 OneClayBead $28
     
Pineapple Upsidedown Cake Soap Elephant Art-
Under The Stars
One Sweet
Day Print- Sale
il_570xN.197973020 il_570xN.248724011 il_570xN.183264053
Soapopotamus $6 HamjArt $10 Thepoppytree $11.90
     

 

I love the art found in Etsy! Many cute lovely stuff! Great prints, soaps, supplies, and accessories! Feel free to comment below and remember to follow the blog as I will be featuring more wonderful items from my followers! Thanks!

June 9, 2011

Heartsy?

I was browsing around Etsy as usual and noticed that in the forums people were talking about this Heartsy site. According to many sellers this is a great venue to get more sales in quickly manner. You post your shop, get at least 60 votes to see if people would like to buy from your shop and in 72 hours you will get approved or not whether your shop will be featured in the site. Now, the concept is actually that you as seller submit discounts of your items, I believe you give vouchers away and people get discounts. This is bringing many many sales to lots of Etsy shops.

Now, I sell supplies, and Heartsy only accepts people that make handmade items, therefore this does not apply to me. But I decided to help another shop from a lovely seller that I know in Etsy, CookiesLaCouture. By the way, she makes these amazing cookies in different shapes and colors great for many occasions and events.  Anyways, I thought that if would be great to feature her lovely work here for you guys to see. She just submitted her shop to Heartsy and she needs to collect those 60 votes.




Feel free to vote for her shop below, and if she gets approved, you can get a discount in her shop through Heartsy. Hope you guys enjoy this lovely feature! and please please vote in the link below!

http://heartsy.me/deals/3906/like

January 29, 2011

Valentine's Heart!

              Heart Cookie Cutter Ring                                  by CreaShines

For this Valentine's I am wishing all of you many sales and views plus lots of romance! Therefore I am starting a PROMO section below where you guys can keep adding your avatars, comment, and get to know other shops around here.

By the way, love that cute little Cookie Cutter Ring that I found from CreaShines. So unexpecetd to find these kind of things. Love the mini fork and knife LOL

US & International Shipping, How do I figure it out?

Ok guys, I know it can be a pain to send international but once you get a hold of it you will be find. Just wanted to post a link that always, but ALWAYS helped me, the zone and price chart from usps.com check out the linkable preview below.

So basically what it is, is that USPS categorizes countries by zones and the chart gives you the pricing by zone and weight. How do you know what zone you are sending to? easy, it provides you with a list of all countries and zones. I personally figured out which zones where the most expensive and basically based by prices from there. For instance if you check the list, you will notice that Australia is one of the most expensive place to ship no matter the size or weight. This I used as a standard and went from there. I really thin this chart helped me in many ways, hope it does for you guys! :D Oh, I posted the link right below the pictures just in case the pictures are not taking you to the link.







January 27, 2011

Ecrater.com?

The other night I was browsing around the Etsy forums and found out that the Ecrater has been working for many Etsy pips. check my shop so that you have an idea of the site, Vidals You can find the forum post at, Etsy. I knew about this site but was never sure what it exactly did. Anyways so here it goes, apparently you can set up a shop there with all your listings for FREE and all it does is that it features all kind of products, handmade and commercial and it makes your products for relevant and visible to the Google Search. There is traffic- 1.7m and growing. They're bigger than ArtFire and Fineartamerica. Up to what I know, there is no limit on the listings and I guess it does works to get more traffic to your shop.

I finally tried it and created my fabrics shop, haven't had any sales from there, but I must say that I did get many views right away. In my opinion, any thing that brings me more traffic to my Etsy shop works for me, plus it doesn't charge me anything. Just wanted to let you guys know about this site.

Comments are more than welcome, would love to hear your thoughts! :D

January 17, 2011

2011 Promo Bus!

Great News! the New Year's Free Promo Bus is still running! Check in and add your Shop's avatar and browse around these amazing shops from Etsy. Personally, my new resolution this year is to cross-promote everywhere and share some love and creativeness with others. I am planning to make some really cute stuff for my shop this year, clean and reinvent everything, time to wash away 2010!
Hop in and have fun! Don't forget to check my Etsy Photoshop Tutorials! :D


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This year will be filled with many amazing opportunities for all us shop owners, given that there have been some really positive new things added to Etsy and I feel that some new features will really help us go through sales a lot more easier and will give the buyers a better more fun experience in our shops. I feel that the new feature of Sales Stats has given me a great overview of the monthly and weekly sales and gives me a view of how my sales are going, who else thinks the same? Add your comments below, I will love to see what others think.




Visuals and Beautiful Calendar by TheNebulousKingdom

January 13, 2011

For 2011 I am shopping for...

 So I was wondering, what are people looking to buy for this new year. Are people looking for the same old stuff or there is a new flare in the air? I personally am looking to buy more personal stuff that reminds me of my childhood, and you?

New Years Shops Promo Party Bus!

             
 











         


London PinkBus by Lulisplanet

Hello Everyone & Happy New Years!
Hop in our fun New Years Promo Party Bus to promote each other and start the new years with many many sales! Just register below and add your avatar and then spread the work in Facebook, Twitter or Flickr! Simple and easy!
Also I wanted to keep everyone updated on the new upcoming awesome shops that just opened in Etsy. Many people are getting to know more about new ways to recycle and help our environment, and sell there creations online. I just found a couple of shops that I thought were really interesting and creative. For instance, LRLCreations makes beautiful rings out of unusual materials and many other interesting new upcoming items to come! I also found this new shop called EatGreen who also works with recyclable materials, like recycled crochet hats and really cool plastic recycled bag hearted shaped keychains. It makes me really glad every time I hear people making amazing stuff with our own resources that we use on a daily basis.