Etsy
I have recently become more active in promoting my hand crafted products and am using the online shops of Etsy and Folksy.
I have had Etsy and Folksy shops for some time now, but didn’t have a lot of products displayed on them, partly because I have also been working at a ‘real job’ so haven’t had a lot of time to devote to crafting. And also I didn’t realize that the number of items listed in your shop affects how many visitors you get.
I thought I would do a bit of research on how to succeed with Etsy/Folksy so did some reading. The advice that most sellers tell you is that you need to have a full shop. When you think about it, no one likes to go to a store where the shelves are empty. You turn around and walk back out rather than staying to browse.
The same principle applies to online shopping. So how many items do you need to set up a successful Etsy shop? The magic number from what I have analyzed is about 100 items. Activity starts to pick up at around 50 items.
For some time I had around 20-30 items listed in my shops, and had steady trickles of sales. Once I realized that more product is needed, I got busy and bumped up my work to about 50. I quickly noticed that I was getting more visitors, more enquiries and more sales. I am working my way up to the 100 item goal now.
The other important point is to not spread your products over too many categories until you have enough of each type of item to do so. When you set up your listings and organize them into Sections (Etsy) or Collections (Folksy) try to have enough items to fill up the page. If you haven’t yet made enough products then combine items into related Sections until you create more products.
Take good quality photos and size them correctly. Take photos in natural light or near a window. Take more than one photo of your product from different angles so that visitors can get a good idea of what you are selling.
The recommended pixel size for images for Etsy is 800 – 1000 pixels wide. Try to make the first image in your listing square, so that it displays correctly in thumbnails and your product doesn’t get cropped. The recommended image size changes from time to time, so please check the current guidelines.
Craft Business Books
The Handmade Marketplace, 2nd Edition: How to Sell Your Crafts Locally, Globally, and Online
Grow Your Handmade Business: How to Envision, Develop, and Sustain a Successful Creative Business
Categories: Craft Biz Info
