Etsy business is picking up!

Just had to share.....sales in both of my Etsy stores are finally picking up.  I hadn't had a sale in my jewelry store since February, and since last week I have sold four pieces to two different buyers.

And for the longest time, just about the only person who was buying from my bead shop was BD member Cat.  I've had two new buyers since last week, one of them bought three bead sets just this morning.   

That makes 9 sales in about a week - the most I've had since I opened the jewelry store in December.  This is very encouraging to me.   I hope it keeps up!  But I have to admit, I don't promote my stores the way I should.   

Congrats! Maybe things are starting to look up for some people!

 congratulations!

That's great Sherri.  I'm wondering if Etsy sales have anything to do with the way they changed their search engine optimization (SEO).  I was just reading an article about it on Handmade News the other day.  Here's a link to the article, but I gather it's in the Etsy forums also.

Thanks, Jeni!  I didn't know anything about this.  I guess I'd better start following the Etsy forums.  You'd think if they made any changes to the site they'd email sellers.  I guess I'd better check my notification prefrences on the site. 

 Congratulations on the sales - it's good to hear that things are picking up for you!

I spend way too much time hanging out in the Etsy forums but they are a great source of information, especially on the 'Business Topics' board. I'm not sure the SEO issue had much of an effect on my own shop, although other sellers clearly found it a real problem. My sales this month were going very slowly too, but that was more to do with a lack of promotion and no new products, I think. At any rate, as soon as I got some new listings in there and went back to promoting more, the sales started to come in again. Fingers crossed that trend will continue!

 Hmmm. How much does it cost to put stuff on Etsy? Do you have to have your own online store on there?

Rose

Hi Rose!

There is no storefront fee to list things on Etsy.  All you pay is 20 cents per listing, and that 20 cents covers a 4-month period!   Then if an item sells, you pay a 3.5% commission to Etsy on that item.  This is really a cheap way to go in having an on-line presence to sell handmade products.

You do have to register and have your own page on Etsy to list your products - basically your own "store".  There is no cost for signing up.

You'll also have to have a 100x760 pixel banner and a 75x75 pixel logo to brand your store. 

In addition, you'll need to crop your pictures to certain specifications - basically square - so that your photos don't get cropped automatically by the site.  Every page on Etsy has to look uniform, so make your pictures square. 

Other folks here highly tout the site Artfire, but I don't like having to pay a storefront fee.  There are times I don't sell anything during a month, and I much prefer not having to pay anything at all during those slow months.  In addition, with my miserably slow internet connection, Artfire is impossible for me to use because the pages load so slowly it locks up my computer.  However, many people here just love the site, and I have to respect them for that.

Wow thanks Sherri! Etsy sounds awesome!

Rose

Good for you, yes! The whole world is in recession but you are selling!

Actually, it's slowed down again.  Sometimes sales come in spurts for some reason.

Sherri, thanks for the info on Etsy!  I haven't gotten my store loaded yet (working on my logo and banner first, plus concentrating on my shop downtown), so I didn't know that the photos need to be square.  Very useful info!

I have chosen Etsy over Artfire for the same 2 reasons you cited:  their fee schedule and reasonable response on my antediluvian dial-up connection.  The rent on my shop downtown is on a commission basis, too -- I just pay a (very reasonable) percentage of my sales to the Exchange here.  Works for me!  I know there are lots of diehard Artfire fans out there, though, and they have good reasons for their preference, so Rose, be sure to check them out, too.