Wednesday 23 January 2013

Selling on Etsy

I opened my Etsy Shop  a year ago in January 2012. It took a while to get my first sale on there, but when I did I was very excited, slight understatement!! I think with Etsy the customers like to see you have had sales and this gives them confidence in your shop, but getting those first sales is hard - its a chicken and egg situation!!

When I first opened I set my postage to UK only, I soon realised that by doing this I was limiting myself to UK customers and soon changed it to International. I have now sent my Handmade Hearts to Australia, Canada, USA, France, Israel and all over the UK. This makes me so proud and excited that one of my Hearts is decorating a home in Australia!!

If you have an Etsy shop, I would definitely recommend spending time in the community, by commenting in forums or starting your own threads and asking any questions you have. Also, add other sellers into your circles and favourite shops, this all helps to get you seen. Its also worth creating some of your own Treasury Lists and commenting, favouriting other peoples. It generally pays to put a little time in and familiarise yourself with the site and other sellers.

To help promote your shop, you can set up coupon codes - these can either be a percentage off the sale or free P&P. I'm currently running a promotion of 15% off if you use the code NEWYEAR
 I think its a nice idea to give a code out to Customers to use if they return, but they can be used at any time and you choose the code.

You can run Search Ads in Etsy, where you set a weekly budget and its supposed to move your items up in the search results. I'm not convinced though, I've done it a few times and not noticed a big difference in views and definitely not in sales.

I'm no expert though, I'm almost at my 50 sales milestone which I'm really pleased with. I'm always looking for new ways of promoting my shop so if anybody has any tips of their own I would love to hear them.

Here are a few of my Handmade Hearts currently for sale in my Etsy Shop:


Red Tartan Handmade Wool Fabric Hanging Heart - Valentines Gift

With Love - Handmade Felt & Hessian Hanging Heart - Twine Hanging

Personalised Gift - Handmade Pink Felt Heart with Initial


Good luck with your Etsy Shop if you have one or are thinking of setting one up.

Thank you for reading xx

4 comments:

  1. Interesting article as I don't know much about etsy although I know alot of people use it. Your hearts are adorable!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you - I'm hoping it will encourage others to give it a go :)
      Very kind of you to say, thank you xx

      Delete
  2. I've just read your two recent posts with great interest. I too have taken the decision not to do any more markets - too cold and not enough sales for me. Although I did meet some lovely people (you included!) and enjoyed lots of compliments about my work which warmed me up no end.

    Wouldn't it be great if we could get a steady stream of sales online? I have only made 3 sales on Etsy so far, so you are doing really well. I too am going to try harder with the online sales and will maybe start up my Folksy shop again too. My other thought was to sell directly to shops but then this severely cuts into profits. The one thing that keeps me going is that I just adore making things. It is the selling I find hard!

    Good luck and thanks for the tips about Etsy.

    Penny x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Penny,
      You're welcome! Its such a tough decision to make isn't it?!! Your stall and handmade items are so beautiful that I'm surprised you didn't get more sales - maybe if you had been outside where it was busier? Your stall fits in perfectly with that market.

      I haven't tried Folksy yet - what do you think of it? I sell in a local shop too, it started on a 'sale or return' basis, but now she buys off me in bulk at a higher price, which works out much better as once I have delivered the items to the shop I can forget about them!

      I'm sure your passion for your items will bring in the sales :) I look forward to following your success on facebook!!

      Tracy xx

      Delete

I would love to hear from you xx

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...